Messiah (Part 2)
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We’re into our New Testament flyover series called Casket Empty, the second part of our fly over of the entire Bible. Last week I gave you, what I hope was a bit of encouragement in reminding you of three things to keep in mind as we go through this series:
Don’t get frustrated by the pace.
Try and see the connections.
Enjoy your flight.
That remains true today as we fly over the Gospels from the beginning of Jesus ministry to his resurrection in one sermon!
Is the church praying for me? AMEN! Thank you!
So here we go...
Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)
Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Just hearing this would have caused the hearts of those who heard him to burst with joy if they remembered the prophecies about the Messiah - Isaiah 66:14; Zeph 3:14.
He calls his disciples to follow him, and how many disciples did he call? Twelve. and by doing so he signifies the restoration of the twelve ancestral tribes. Later he would send out 70 disciples, 70 is often the number used in Scripture to signify all the nations.
Sermon on the Mount
Sermon on the Mount
When we think of mountains in Scripture, we can’t help but think of Mount Sinai in the Old Testament where God spoke to Moses. Here the disciples come to Jesus on the Mount and he teaches them with divine authority. He describes them as “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”. These expressions are used to describe Israel in the Old Testament: Leviticus 2:13, Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5, Isaiah 60:1-3.
Jesus continues with this statement of his purpose: Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
warning his disciples against weakening the commandment of God and teaching others to do the same. Jesus actually raises the bar by expounding the meaning of six passages dealing with murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, punishment and love for one’s enemies.
Jesus teaching contrasts the way the Pharisees taught. The Pharisees sought “To build a fence around the Torah,” which means drawing the line of obedience further back from the commandment in order to guard against potential disobedience. Jesus doesn’t move the line back, but moves his disciples further in toward the intention of the commandments. He takes his disciples and through them he takes us, to the roots of the issues.
He teaches murder begins with anger, adultery begins with lust, he permits divorce only on the grounds of marital unfaithfulness and urges his disciples to be know for their devoted love for one another.
Beyond Jesus’ teaching, there were other ways in which he demonstrated the reality of the Kingdom of God. Such signs were his healings. John the Baptist had been arrested and he sends his disciples to confirm that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
How does this answer John’s question?
Isaiah 35:5–6 (ESV)
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah was commissioned as a prophet to the people who had become blind, deaf, and lame through their idolatry (Isaiah 6).
You will see on your timeline a picture of a blind man who has recovered his sight.
The healings of Jesus confirm the reality that the kingdom of God has arrived and that Jesus is the King of the kingdom of God.
So we have healings,
Power Over Demons
Power Over Demons
and then we have his power over demons. The Gospels often include Jesus casting out demons. Mark 1:39
And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Matthew reports, Matthew 8:16
That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
Many of the demons themselves profess to the reality of who Jesus is, Luke 4:41
And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
And we remember that Christ is the term for Messiah. Of course the religious leaders have their own theory on how he does this, they say he’s doing it by the power of Beezebul, and so Jesus quotes Abraham Lincoln:
Matthew 12:25 (ESV)
“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
Oh wait, Abraham Lincoln comes later. Isn’t it ironic how often people quoting the Bible are given the credit for the quote. Jesus said this first! Perhaps it demonstrates our cultures aversion to the power of God’s Word.
Jesus goes on to explain:
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
So far we’ve seen much of how Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the Messiah - where he was born, how he was born, etc.
His teaching - he teaches as one with authority.
His authority over demons - they are compelled to obey and they recognize who he is!
Prophetic Signs
Prophetic Signs
There are a slew of signs Jesus fulfills:
Jesus turns the water into wine in John 2, fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 25:6
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
He calms the storm, His disciples marvel, “even the winds and sea obey him,” (recorded in Matthew 8; Mark 4; Luke 8; and John 6).
Jesus signals the temple will be destroyed and that he will rebuild it himself.
He will be the dwelling of God.
He feeds a vast multitude in the wilderness around the time of the Passover. (All four gospels record this event). Jesus deliberately chooses this moment in the calendar that marks the Exodus from Egypt through Moses.
On your timeline you will see the picture of the loaves and fish, this represents Jesus’ prophetic signs.
Throughout the gospels, Jesus announces the Kingdom of God with parables. The gospels record over 40 parables of Jesus. Parables are not stories about morals, but instead are metaphors to illustrate spiritual truths.
Parables
Parables
A parable invites the hearer inside the story and requires a response of faith. At the end of every parable we should ask two questions:
• Who is Jesus Christ revealed to be in this parable?
• What is required of us in response?
Matthew, Mark and Luke, all include Jesus’ parable of the sower. This is represented on your timelines as the open hand of Jesus sowing seed.
Fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 55:10-11
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Throughout the Gospels there is a sense of great urgency to respond in faith to the parables of Jesus. And throughout the gospels we see rising opposition to Jesus’ teaching, primarily because of his claim to divine authority, his disregard of the Sabbath and his apparent penchant for welcoming sinners .
With that I want to jump ahead in our timeline a bit, because we cannot preach on the gospels without talking about Jesus teaching on the Messiah, that the Messiah must suffer, die and be raised.
Jesus asked his disciples, “who do people say that I am?” There were a variety of responses:
Who do people say that I am?
Elijah
John the Baptist
One of the prophets
Then he asks, Who do you say that I am, and Peter confesses:
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
It is then that Jesus begins to teach about how the Messiah must suffer, die and be raised. He strictly charges his disciples not to ell anyone. They are not yet ready for global mission. They do not yet understand the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ crucified.
Jesus turns many of the ideas on the Messiah on their head.
The Last Shall be first, and the first shall be last.
Jesus will be glorified by the crucifixion.
Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey
This recalls Zechariah’s prophecy, Zech 9:9-10
Zechariah 9:9–10 (ESV)
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey...he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
During his time in Jerusalem, Jesus teaches in the temple courts, and he teaches about the end of the age and his glorious return. He tells his disciples They must not bind themselves to any national cause but live in the world as citizens of his everlasting kingdom. They must not become distracted with the political upheavals of this world and the relentless human quest for power.
Passover
Passover
And then he celebrates the Passover with his disciples. Perhaps this is the poignant message for us in the gospels.
In John 13 we read of Jesus as the meal being served, Jesus takes off his outer garment and washes the disciples’ feet.
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
As the meal progresses Jesus and his disciples recount God’s great act of salvation in the Exodus. They rehears the plight of the Israelites during their 400 years of slavery, the birth of Moses as God’s agent of redemption. They recalled the climactic final judgment of the firstborn. They remember the moment when God’s people were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and led into a covenant relationship with the living God.
It’s at this point, the climax of the meal that Jesus reinterprets the central symbols of the Passover meal around himself. He takes the bread and says, “This is my body...”, he takes the cup and says “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
The covenant was made with the blood of an animal, now Jesus will inaugurate the new covenant through his own blood. The disciples perhaps recognized the message of the prophet Jeremiah that a new covenant would be made between God and his people, when God would remember their sins no more.
We know later that evening,Jesus is betrayed and the final passion begins. During his trial before the Sanhedrin, where all kinds of false testimony is given about him, the high priest confronts Jesus directly.
Matthew 26:63 (ESV)
The high priest said to him, “Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
Jesus doesn’t speak of his own, but quotes the Old Testament, the very Scriptures these men have studied most of their lives. Matt 26:64
Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus answers in the clearest of ways, he is the promised Son of Man. He is the one who has been given dominion and glory and an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.
Jesus is sentenced to death. He is brought to a rocky outcrop called Golgatha, which in Aramaic means “the place of the Skull.” The Latin word for skull is calvaria from which we derive the English word Calvary. Jewish tradition held that the skull of Adam was buried underneath this rocky hill Jesus, the last Adam, now approaches this place to be crucified.
He’s buried and rises again, fulfilling God’s promise to David, 2 Sam 7:12
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
Jesus death and resurrection are THE decisive events in God’s plan of redemption.
Jesus is our Moses, leading us to the promised land. Jesus is the savior leading us through our Exodus from this world and our enslavement to sin to a place of true freedom.
The period of MESSIAH ends with the Great Commission recorded in various ways in all the gospels. The great commission issues directly from Jesus own authority and his cross. His death and resurrection form the substance of the gospel. It is through Jesus Christ that the blessing of Abraham now includes all nations. All who believe are identified by the new covenant sign of baptism, as they confess their sins and faith in Christ.
Truly the gospel brings the Old Testament into a much deeper understanding and into a new light.
And so the question,
“What is required of us in response?”
“What is required of us in response?”
How will you respond? Remember all authority in Heaven and on earth is with you always.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
To God be the glory. AMEN!