Why We Believe - Jesus is the Messiah, Pt. 2

Luke 24 and the Messiah in the Whole Story of Scripture

If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24. You'll recognize that. We were here last week, but I'm going to read a little bit more this week of that same chapter. Luke, chapter 24, Luke 24.

This is after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, as promised. The Lord Jesus meets these disciples who are confused and having a conversation. Luke 24, 19, hear now the word of the living and the true God.

And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all of this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets.

Have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly saying, stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it.

To them.

And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us? While he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures and they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.

And they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together saying, the Lord has risen indeed and he has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking.

Of the bread.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,.

Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must.

Be fulfilled.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we give you glory. We thank you that you fulfilled all these promises. Lord, we do stand in awe of who you are. Lord, I know that I have so many limitations and I know that I'm not in myself worthy to be standing before your people delivering your word, but I ask that by your spirit, God, you would teach, that you would open our eyes to these truths.

Help us to get a sense, to have an understanding as they did. You open their minds to understand the scriptures. Lord, allow us to feel that, understand that, that Lord, this is a story that is divine, told by God long before it happened.

Help me, Lord, to communicate your truth in a way that opens the eyes of the blind, gives hearing to deaf people, and Lord, blesses and emboldens your church. We give you praise and we ask that you would allow us to forget the preacher and remember your word and what you've taught us.

Let that abide, in Jesus' name, amen. So it's, man, it's powerful, isn't it? Luke 24, whew, it is a powerful section of scripture. I mean, there's two parts to that. Really, last week you did one part, this week another part.

There are two parts of the end of this chapter that talk to us about this emphasis that this is God's story long before it actually took place, and then it's fulfilled, and then their mind is opened to understand, oh my goodness, it was there all along.

You see, that's really the powerful thing about the Old Testament. It really is. I mean, there are things that happen in the Old Testament that, be honest, if the New Testament revelation wasn't there, you would look at the Old Testament a little squinty-eyed,.

Like, well, why?

This is some strange ritual going on here. There are strange things happening. There are odd things that just seem out of place in the text. We talked about it last week, right? I mean, we've got this monotheistic religion.

There is only one God, and by the way, that's unique in history to have monotheism. There is only one eternal God, self-existent, self-attesting, the only God. Nothing above Him, nothing below Him. He is not dependent upon anybody or anything.

He is the transcendent, immaterial, all-powerful, all-knowing God. That is unique in the history of religion amongst mankind.

What do you have?

Human beings creating gods that look a lot like them. Mommy gods, daddy gods, baby gods, gods fighting with each other, killing one another, and then resurrecting as some other thing later. You've got all kinds of gods dependent upon the creation itself.

Truly, it is one-ism versus two-ism. You've got all other religions, one-ist. In other words, they are part of this created order. They're all somehow one with the created order. They're a part of it somehow.

They've come out of it somehow, dependent upon it somehow. And then you've got the two-ist worldview of the biblical revelation that says there is an eternal God creator dependent upon nothing and nobody.

And you've got creatures and creation, right? And you've got this unique revelation in history of monotheism. There is only one God. And you think about it. Judaism is monotheistic. Christianity is monotheistic strictly.

There is only one eternal God. And then you have, of course, Islam, which is also monotheistic, but it's a different kind of monotheism. And it's only monotheistic because it borrowed from Christianity and Judaism.

So you see, it is completely unique to have only one God. And this story seems so strange because God gives this revelation. It's spanning hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of composition, different authors, different geographical locations, a unified thread, message, a single master storyteller, and one God.

And this is weird, Isaiah 9. A son is coming. A child is coming. Messiah is coming. The one to come on David's throne is coming. And yet, he is El Gabor, the mighty God, the father of eternity. Strange because Yahweh is called the mighty God.

Yet, there is only one God. God's coming as a man, very peculiar things happening in even the fourth telling and foretelling of Messiah and his kingdom. It had to be strange to have instances in the Old Testament revelation where you've got the angel of the Lord, the messenger of the Lord showing up.

Now, there's only one God, but the messenger of the Lord is showing up, and they're giving worship to the messenger of the Lord. That's odd. Or the messenger of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, shows up with Abraham and Isaac on that mountain.

And he says, you have not withheld your only son from me. Wait, I thought Abraham was offering Isaac to Yahweh. Here's the angel of the Lord. You haven't withheld him from me. So, you have these instances where Jesus is showing up in the Old Testament.

There's only one God. And yet, with Sodom and Gomorrah, Yahweh on earth rains down fire on Sodom from Yahweh in heaven.

What?

Only one God. Only one God, and yet we have Jesus showing up in the Old Testament. And it must have been something where the Jews have this revelation, they're receiving this revelation, they're doing these things God says to do, and there had to be moments, be honest, let's be real, there had to be moments where they were probably like, yeah, this is weird, but okay.

Strange, right? I mean, even, we're going to talk about this today, even the instance of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac, you're going to have a son. He's the son of the promise. The Messiah is going to come through this unique son, your only son, the son of your love.

All right, now go and offer him as a sacrifice on this mountain I'm going to go tell you about. It's a three-day journey by foot. Go there and offer him as a sacrifice.

Atheists love that story.

They love it. It's one of my very favorite stories. It shows that Jesus is the Messiah, and atheists latch onto it like, hey, I got a chestnut argument here for you. Does God say you should not kill?

Yes, he does.

Did God tell him to kill Isaac, his son?

Yes.

Boom.

Like, it's over.

Swish.

Right?

No, no, no. That story actually is glorious, and it's mine. It shows that Jesus is the Messiah, and I'm going to show you in a minute. Here's the point. You have Jesus, and this is the emphasis I want you all to understand on this.

At the end of the gospel according to Luke, this is really throughout the New Testament, of course, but at the end of the gospel according to Luke, the emphasis here is on the fact that Jesus is explaining to them that this has been a story that has been about me the whole time.

It was about me. Here's the thing. Jesus doesn't drop into history as a novelty, and they go, well, this is weird, this is strange, totally unexpected, and none of this really is connected to the old thing.

It's all new. It's all novelty.

No.

This is a story that God has been telling as the master storyteller the entire time, and Jesus emphasizes that Old Testament revelation is about me. And did you ever even consider this unique part? We go, okay, yeah, the prophets.

We've got direct prophecy right to Jesus. We've got the when, the where, the who, the why, the what. It's all there. We've got the law of Moses. We've got the dress rehearsals, the temple, the priesthood.

We've got that, and yeah, that points to Jesus. But did you ever think that he says the Psalms? The Psalms. Like, this is crazy. It's their hymnal, right? I mean, they're in synagogue, and they're singing these things.

Like, this is the hymnal of the Jewish church. This is what they sang, right? They sang together in church together. That was their songbook, Amazing Grace. You know, we've got all kinds of songs today.

People, you know, like, what's that song Hillsong sings about the waters? Oceans, sinners. You're not supposed to know that. Now I know who's going. We've got discipline next Sunday. What's that like a 30-minute song?

It's got, like, one line the whole time. But you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, if that song kicked on the radio right now, every single one of you, bunch of sinners would be like, you'd be singing it because you know the song.

Like, the music starts, and you're like, I know this song. It's not hard. It's got one, like, one line to it. But, like, the Jews, like, they're singing these songs. And the crazy thing is that Jesus comes in now after the resurrection, and he's explaining to them everything you've been singing about, you've been singing about me, all your songs.

They're about me. We talked last week about the crucifixion itself. I mean, that is portrayed in Psalm 22 in such a bewildering way, down to they pierced my hands and my feet. Dogs encompass me. They wag their heads.

They say, he trusts in the Lord. Let him rescue him if he delights in him. And then they cast lots for his garments, and you've got his heart like wax melted within him. He can count all of his bones.

His bones aren't broken. I mean, it's incredible. It's all there. And Jesus saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And if they had just kept singing, they would have literally sang the song about the events right in front of them.

And they were singing it their whole lives. A message like today, Gabe did Psalm 72 today. Did you hear it, by the way? Did you hear Psalm 72? Did you think about what that means, Psalm 72? Watch, they were singing before Christ Psalm 72.

Like this one who's coming, he's going to have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. All these tribes are going to bow down and worship this coming king. We sing it after the cross 2 ,000 years later as a present reality.

He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. And you have a room full of Christians today with all these different tribal backgrounds worshiping Yahweh as king of the world in the desert today.

We sing it as something that is actively moving through history now because the king is already on his throne. The Psalms are about Jesus. The emphasis for the Lord Jesus about his messianic character is not that it's novelty, just believe me.

It's that this entire story is about me. When you're reading the law of Moses, when you're reading the prophets, when you're reading the Psalms, you're reading God's story in history that's leading up to Jesus.

He's the sum and substance about what it was all about. When you're looking at very peculiar things in the law of Moses, things about the temple and the priests and the way they were to do rituals, all the things they were supposed to do in terms of dietary restrictions and not combining different fibers.

It was supposed to be something that taught them through ritual, truly spiritual things. They were supposed to learn about Jesus through these rituals. All of it was a line coming to Jesus. And that's the emphasis in the New Testament.

This was to fulfill what was written in the prophets. This was to fulfill what was written in the prophets. Oh, remember that verse? That was about Jesus the whole time.

It was about Jesus.

That's the emphasis. And what I said last week about this particular study, why do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Listen, this is so important. You can't don't lose this. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me. That makes him absolutely unique. And it's a bold claim. There are no other religious expressions that will get you to God. There are no other mediators that will get you to God.

No other prophets that will get you to God. Jesus is the only way to God. That's a bold claim. It's a bold claim because there are a lot of religions in the world, a lot of religious rituals in the world, a lot of divine books of origin that are revered by human beings.

And yet Jesus says, I'm the only way. You will not have peace with God. You will die in your sins apart from me. You will die in your sins apart from me. That's a bold claim. And I mentioned last week that if you're going to come to Jesus and you trust in Jesus Christ, you've got to come to grips with the exclusive nature of Jesus' claims and the Christian message that Jesus is the only way to God.

That's it.

If you don't have Christ, you're going to die in your sins. If you don't have Christ, the wrath of God abides in you. That is the consistent message of this revelation. And we need to know why we believe that.

It is not enough. Brothers and sisters, please raise our standards as the people of God. It is not enough to simply say, I believe in Jesus because I've had a really good experience. Line yourself up with the 50 different people who will make exactly the same claim who have a different religious text, a different prophet they revere, and a different God.

They'll all say they've had an amazing experience. So Christians can't enter into this arena of the defense of the gospel making claims like, I just believe, or I believe because my parents are Christian, or I believe because I've had this wonderful, amazing Christian experience.

I mentioned that you can go down with us as we do evangelism in the temple. And when you challenge the Latter-day Saints, why do you believe they're going to say, I prayed about it and I have a burning in my what?

Bosom.

That's what they're going to say. So we can't do that. It won't do. And that, by the way, is not how Christians have defended the faith historically, and it is not how Jesus presented to us the truth of his messianic character and his ministry.

So I challenged you with, why do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah? I'm not going to rehash what we did last week, but I want to remind you that I created something a long time ago to help us remember this and communicate.

These truths.

The question comes, is Jesus the Messiah? My answer is, most definitely, M-O-S-T. It's an easy way to remember at least some of these truths. Number one, messianic prophecy. I would consider this direct prophecy.

In other words, nobody else can fulfill that. It is just, line it up. Here's the truth. It goes straight to Jesus. And we talk about, say, Isaiah 9. Let's stick on that one, 6 through 7. Well, there is only one God.

So this one who is coming as a son and as a child to rule on David's throne is God himself. That's very specific. It can't be anybody else. It's only God. That's a direct prophecy in terms of, who is the Messiah?

What's his identity? We talked about the where of the Messiah. Where would he be coming from? The text in Micah 5, 2 says, from Bethlehem. His goings forth are from old, yea, even from everlasting. We talked about the unique providence of God that Joseph and Mary aren't in Bethlehem, but God wields history and all things.

And so a census needs to be taken. And so he has to go back to his original hometown and they go back to Bethlehem where she gives birth to the Messiah, which was, of course, something that God had promised long before it actually took place.

The what of the Messiah? We talked about a few things. This is not exhaustive. If you want to do an exhaustive study, we can do that, okay? But this is not exhaustive. I talked about Isaiah 53 last week.

There is no way to read Isaiah 53 other than Jesus. It's Jesus through and through. It's Christ. It's him dying for the sins of God's people. Yahweh laying on him the sins of God's people. The Lord being pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

You've got the death of the Messiah, him being cut off in Isaiah 53. And yet then somehow his life goes on. You have Isaiah 53 saying he will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. Israel cannot bear your sins.

Israel is full of sin and injustice and rebellion. They can't take the sins of anybody. Isaiah 53, you have Psalm 22 that has this portrayal of the passion of the Messiah long before it happens. You have the promise of Messiah that all the nations would return to worship the Lord, all the families of the earth, the nations streaming to God's mountain, Isaiah 2, to come and be saved, to receive salvation.

The promise of the Messiah, here it is, final word on this point, was that he would have the obedience of the nations. Genesis 49 .10, that this one who's coming would have the obedience of the nations.

And by the way, that's exactly how Paul started and ended his systematic explanation of the gospel, exactly remembering what that promise of Messiah was.

What is it?

To bring about the obedience of faith among the nations for the sake of his name. Now, I told you the who is there, the where is there, the what is there, and the when is there. Let's just do it quickly today.

I cannot even begin to unpack this, but go to Daniel chapter nine so you at least have a finger there and you remember this particular promise. Now, as you get to Daniel chapter nine, just know this is a very, very powerful and yet complicated section of scripture.

There are so many aspects to it that can be unpacked. It really is a powerful thing. I did do a sermon on this many years ago, I think two weeks we spent on Daniel chapter nine. I'm just gonna give you the highlights today, the important elements of Daniel nine.

But in order to do that, I need to not assume that you understand when Daniel was written, what was going on, just I'll give you the punch for now. The people of God are in exile in Babylon because of their sin.

They've sinned against God. You had prophets before the exile into Babylon who were telling them they were going into exile to Babylon, who were telling them they were gonna be destroyed, they needed to repent.

You have some serious denunciations happening long before it happened, and then it happens. And now they're in Babylon. You know the story about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You know that story from VeggieTales, right?

That's Daniel. They're in Babylon, there's paganism, they're now under the boot of the Babylonian king, and they're there because of their sin.

As the people of God.

And it was told to them, this is gonna happen to you, and it was told to them how long it would happen to them. But now Daniel here is in a position where he is praying to God. He's praying to God about this exile.

He's praying to God because now they've lost everything. Now I want you to consider this, please, here's the highlight, you wanna know the highlights, here it is, there is no temple. Get it? It's gone, it's destroyed.

They're in exile, they've lost it now. God sent people, armies against them to disperse them, to destroy them, and they lost their temple. So the first temple now, get this, it's gone. There is no temple, it doesn't exist.

It's not there anymore, and they're in exile. So Daniel is pleading and he's praying. And I want you to see this. Man, I love this. Daniel chapter nine, verse 20. While I was speaking, this is Daniel, and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people of Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision of the first came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, oh Daniel, I have come out to give you insight and understanding at the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you for you are greatly loved, therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

Now pause, this is awesome. Who shows up to Daniel?

Gabriel.

Anyone remember who shows up to Mary?

Gabriel.

How crazy is that? That Gabriel comes to give this promise of the coming Messiah, he's gonna tell him like what's gonna happen, and he's gonna tell them how long it's gonna take. So Gabriel is the one that tells Daniel the timeline to Messiah, like how long it's gonna take for him to get here.

And he tells him what's gonna happen with the Messiah's coming, it is really powerful, but Gabriel's the one that comes to Daniel all right, it's gonna be this long, and here's what's gonna happen, and then we know now from the New Testament that Gabriel is the one that shows up to Mary and like has this announcement, like yeah, right?

Why?

Like he's been waiting too. He's the one that told Daniel how long it's gonna be, what's gonna happen, and can you imagine, like Gabriel's like on standby like wait, I can't wait for the moment, I can't wait for the moment, I can't wait for the moment, and then when he sees Mary he's like woo, and she's like ah, like you know, if you know the story, she gets a little freaked out.

He couldn't help himself, he's been waiting a long time. But Gabriel is the one that tells Mary, but in the text here,.

Here's what he says,.

Again, this is just highlights now, I can't unpack all this, but he says, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, here it is, ready? To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity.

To bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place, I think some translators say to anoint the most holy, I actually think it's in reference to Jesus, but be that as it may.

He says this,.

Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks, then for 62 weeks it should be built again with squares and moat, but in troubled time, and after the 62 weeks, an anointed one, there's only one mentioned there, an anointed one, the prince, shall be cut off, die a violent death, and shall have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war, desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate.

Now, here's a quick punch now, the promises here in this prophecy from Gabriel to Daniel come at a time where there is exile, there is Babylon, and ready, there is no what? There is no temple, temple's gone, and the promises is that this messiah is coming, this anointed one is coming, and he'll be cut off and have nothing, and it says the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, but wait a minute, there is no city and sanctuary, so this promise about all these things are gonna take place includes the promise that this anointed one is cut off, and then the second temple is gonna be destroyed, so just consider that for the moment in the terms of timing, first, what's gonna happen according to Gabriel and his promise to Daniel?

Finish the transgression, make an end of sin, atone for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy place, that's a lot of stuff that's gonna happen, but here's the emphasis I wanna make, making an end of sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness, brothers and sisters, did Jesus accomplish that?

Yes, and it says that this anointed one, the prince who is coming, he's gonna be cut off and have nothing, and then it says the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so think about a timeline in your minds now for a moment in terms of Jesus the Messiah, it says that he must bring in everlasting righteousness, make an end of sin, atone for iniquity, he would be cut off, and then it says that the second temple is gonna be destroyed, well brothers and sisters, did Jesus die, make an end of sin, bring in everlasting righteousness, was he cut off before the destruction of the second Jewish temple?

Yes, now here's my question, where's the second Jewish temple?

Where is it?

It's gone, if you were here for the 10 years of Matthew 24, you know that Jesus, when he was going to Jerusalem, to be cut off, he tells them, with the temple, you see all these things, there shall not be left one stone upstanding upon another, all these things will happen in this generation, he promised the destruction of the Jewish temple before they all died, and that of course, is compatible with Daniel's prophecy, so here's my story I tell often, if you didn't hear it, I want you to hear it, if you have heard it, just enjoy it, I went to a Jewish synagogue many many years ago with a bunch of brothers, because we saw a Jewish, Scottsdale Jewish news, at a Scottsdale grocery store, and inside this newspaper,.

I picked it up of course,.

Because I'm a true Jew,.

So shalom,.

It's my newspaper, so I open it up, and it says this thing, Jews against Jesus, I think is what it was, and they were gonna hold a seminar, and how we know that Jesus isn't the Messiah, so I thought, well I'd love to go to that, so we showed up, went to the synagogue, we got to wear the yarmulke,.

It was awesome,.

But unusual, we were the only people in this entire synagogue with a Bible, nobody had a Bible with them, and the whole entire time, everybody is looking back at us, like looking at our Bibles,.

Like this, it was awkward,.

I'm like it's the Torah, so everyone's looking back at us, and this guy, who looked like Mahdesh Yahu, that's for the younger crowd, he went on for a long time, about how we know Jesus isn't the Messiah, and the amazing thing was, he didn't touch any of these texts, that Christians have used historically, to prove Jesus is the Messiah, so when it was all finished,.

Everybody there who was Jewish,.

Was looking back at us, sort of like,.

You get that?

Did you hear that?

And so I thought, well I'm gonna go talk to him, so I took a beeline, right for the Rabbi, and of course, everybody there knew we were the Christians, so they were just like waiting for this moment, so I walk up to him, and the whole place just seized on us, I mean there was barely breathing room, and everybody was just waiting for this Rabbi, to take down this punk kid, I think I was probably 21 years old, or something like that, that's what I think about 21, just kidding,.