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

If you would, open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24.

You 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 opened 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? 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, 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? 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.

Then 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 Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity.

Completely 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 Let's 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 us, 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. This is crazy.

It's their hymnal. I mean, they're in synagogue and they're singing these things.

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, they 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, 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 encompassed me, they wag their heads.

They say, he trusts in our 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's did Psalm 72 today.

Did you hear it by the way? Did you hear Psalm 72? Did you did you think about what that means? Psalm 72.

They 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 2000 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 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. When 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's 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 in 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 chapter 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 9 so you at least have a finger there and you remember this particular promise.

Now as you get to Daniel chapter 9, 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. But 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 9.

I'm just going to give you the highlights today, the important elements of Daniel 9. 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 going to 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, like you know that story from Veggie Tales, right?

That's Daniel. They're in Babylon. 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 going to 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 want to 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 9, 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 going to tell him like what's going to happen, and he's going to tell them how long it's going to take.

So Gabriel is the one that tells Daniel the timeline to Messiah, like how long it's going to take for him to get here.

And he tells him what's going to happen with the Messiah's coming. It is really powerful, but Gabriel's the one that comes to tell

Daniel, all right, it's going to be this long, and here's what's going to 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 going to be, what's going to 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 shall 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 going to take place includes the promise that this anointed one is cut off and then the second temple is going to be destroyed.

So just consider that for a moment in terms of timing. First, what's going to happen according to Gabriel and his promise to Daniel?

Finish the transgression, make an end of sin, atone for iniquity, bring an everlasting righteousness, seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy place.

That's a lot of stuff that's going to happen. But here's the emphasis I want to make. Making an end of sin and bringing an everlasting righteousness.

Brothers and sisters, did Jesus accomplish that? Yes. And it says that this anointed one, the prince who is coming, he's going to 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 an everlasting righteousness, make an end of sin, atone for iniquity, he would be cut off, and then it says that the second temple is going to be destroyed.

Well, brothers and sisters, did Jesus die, make an end of sin, bring an 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

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 opened it up and it says this thing, Jews against Jesus, I think is what it was.

And they were going to hold a seminar on 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, you know? So everyone's looking back at us, 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 isn't 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 going to 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.

Sorry. Okay. So I'm before this rabbi and I said, rabbi,

I want to thank you for letting us be here today. I really appreciate it. I said, I just want to know, how come you didn't talk about any of the verses that Christians historically, both

Jewish and Gentile Christians have used to show Jesus is Mashiach? He said, no,

I touched on all of them, young man. I said, you didn't touch on one that I would use. He said, well, like what?

I said, well, how about Daniel 9? He said, what about Daniel 9? I said, well,

Daniel 9 promises an end of sin, atonement for iniquity, everlasting righteousness. The Messiah is cut off and then the second

Jewish temple is destroyed. And he just sort of looks at me and I said, rabbi, when was the temple destroyed?

He said, well, everybody knows it was destroyed in 70 AD. I said, right. So if Jesus isn't the

Messiah, who is? And so I had my Bible, he had it in his hand.

He looks down at Daniel 9, he starts going through, he starts flipping pages, and everybody around was just waiting, just like breathing, waiting, just waiting, he's going to crush this kid, he's going to crush him.

And then he finally looks up at me and he says, do me a favor, give me your email address, I'll get back to you. Because there is not a coherent answer from the text, it says

Messiah is going to be cut off and then the second Jewish temple is going to be destroyed. Brothers and sisters, if Jesus isn't the

Messiah, there is no Messiah. There is no Messiah. That temple is gone. The time is up.

It's over. And by the way, let me just make an announcement here too. I believe that any

Christians who are trying to help rebuild another Jewish temple are ignoring a lot of texts in scripture about how much of an abomination that would be.

Remember this, if the Jewish people today rebuild another temple, if they build a temple today and offer animal sacrifices, they are spitting in the face of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

No Christian should be supporting another Jewish temple. So that is the who, the where, the what, the when, and of course the why.

We can do more, but I'll leave it there. Just read Isaiah 53 as the why. Next point, is

Jesus the Messiah? Most definitely he is. Messianic prophecy, the next is the original life of Jesus.

I want you to consider in the life of Jesus, what do we know about Jesus and his life and his character?

There are messianic prophecies about the character of the Messiah. I mean him taking upon himself the sins of God's people means he has to be the sinless one.

He has to be unique. He has to be the righteous one. What do we know about the original life of Jesus?

Again, not exhaustive. Jesus is sinless. In John 8 46, there is this scene where Jesus says the famous, which of you accuses me of sin?

And of course, there's silence. Now I want you to consider this for a moment in terms of thinking about your own life and the life of Jesus.

By contrast, I dare you to stand in front of your friends and your family and your enemies and say, which of you accuses me of sin?

Do it. How long is it going to take? The first person in line is your wife.

Oh, I got this. I got this. Right? Let me, let me help with this one. Right? And then followed by your kids.

And then of course the enemies are there, but Jesus can stand up in front of his friends and his family and his enemies and he can say, which of you accuses me of sin?

And there is no legitimate response. I want you to consider this for a moment.

You've got friends and family of Jesus that walked with him, ate with him, knew his life, that died to seal their testimony that this is our great

God and savior, Jesus Christ. You've got apostles who died gruesome, gruesome martyrs deaths and would not deny the faith to say that this is the sinless son of God and he's worthy of my whole life and my worship.

Now what would it take for a person to go to their death in a gruesome way and believe that this person is worthy to take away my sin?

They knew his life. I can promise you this. You walk around me long enough for a couple of months, you're going to go, he's not so great.

Right? I see his flaws. I see his weaknesses. I see he's just a man and that's good.

But these people lived with Jesus for years. They knew his life and they said, he's worthy of all your worship.

This is God in the flesh. They knew the law of God. These are Jews. They know God's law and they said, this is the righteous one.

He is the law keeper. I want his righteousness before God's throne, not my own.

Jesus is sinless. Jesus controls the creation itself. In Matthew 8, 23 through 27, the bewildering aspect of what

Jesus does there when he calms the sea, the disciples are saying like, who is this?

That even the wind and the sea obey him. Jesus walks on water and he invites

Peter to walk out on the water with him. Jesus is unique in that Jesus controls the very creation itself.

He is the God man. And so yes, Jesus sweat. Yes, Jesus had blood pouring out of his body.

Yes, Jesus got tired. Yes, Jesus had pimples. Yes, Jesus was hungry. Yes, Jesus used the bathroom, but he is the

God man. Jesus commands the sea and the wind and the waves themselves.

Jesus, this was probably, I think probably one of the most interesting aspects of like walking with Jesus in his ministry.

To my mind, these are the things I think about, like that would be kind of weird at times. Jesus knew their thoughts.

Like in Matthew 9, 4, it says Jesus knowing their thoughts and he would answer them knowing their thoughts.

And so Jesus is the God man. And so Jesus, of course, his divinity is veiled as a man.

He lays aside certain prerogatives, but you see throughout the New Testament, there are these divine attributes that are there and it says

Jesus knows their thoughts. Well, Yahweh is the God who knows our thoughts and searches the thoughts.

Yahweh is that one who can do that, but it says Jesus knowing their thoughts, which would have probably been awkward at times around the campfire.

Like you're sitting there at the campfire, you look over at Jesus looking at you. I think about things like this, like that would have probably been like, what am

I thinking about? Okay. Jesus gave sight to the blind. Jesus gave hearing to deaf people.

He raised the dead. Jesus shows his command over creation itself.

Now, this is the unique aspect of this. Think about this. And this is obviously a hard thing to grapple with. It says in the

Old Testament that God is the sovereign God. He's the one that makes people blind, deaf, and dumb. And here you have

Jesus in the New Testament actually giving people sight and their hearing and he's raising the dead.

It shows that he is in fact Yahweh. He is God himself. And even when you have the apostles themselves doing these amazing signs and these miracles, they're only able to do them because he by his own authority gave them the ability to do it.

Right? They're doing amazing things themselves, but it's because he imparted to them the ability to do those things.

He was the source of it all. And here's something unique, by the way, when I say original life of Jesus.

This is original. This is unique. This is something that nobody else can do. Here's the question. I'll lead with this.

Who can forgive sins? God alone. God alone.

And by the way, that's also one of the struggles the Jews had with Jesus and his original life is that Jesus says in Matthew chapter nine, your sins are forgiven you.

Brothers and sisters, the day I ever say that to you, throw me out of this building.

No mere man has the right, the authority, the ability to say to you, your sins are forgiven you as though I have the authority to forgive them.

Only God does. And the Jews knew that. And so when Jesus says to them, your sins are forgiven you, they were like, wait, who can forgive sins except God?

And Jesus even has ways to communicate that he has the power over the physical creation and the ability to forgive sins because he asks questions like, well, what's easier to do?

Say, take her bed and walk or your sins are, which was easier? I can do both. Take up your bed and walk. So Jesus shows he has the full authority and the power to forgive sins.

Jesus forgives people their sins. Jesus here it is. Jesus had the ability to raise a little girl from the dead.

Jesus had the ability to raise Lazarus from the dead. So he is the one that has the power of life within himself.

And yet Jesus does something powerful. It says that Jesus said that nobody has power over him, that he lays his life down of his own accord and he takes it up again.

Jesus raised himself from the dead. Think about it. When he's talking to the Jews, he says, destroy this temple, speaking of the temple of his body.

And he says it in three days, I will raise it up again. So of course, you know from scripture that it says

God raised Jesus from the dead. It says the father raised Jesus from the dead. It says the spirit raised Jesus from the dead, but it says that Jesus says,

I will raise it up again. Jesus was dead and he raised himself from the dead.

That is a unique person. It is a unique life in history. Nobody has that ability to raise themselves from the dead except Jesus, who is

God in the flesh. Jesus says something that you and I can't say. We can't really say it in terms of human relationships.

Nobody has power over me. Now you think about it in terms of as a

Christian, you could say, no, God is in full control. He's in full control. He does what he wants with the world. But in terms of like human relationships, to say nobody has the power over me,

I do what I want, I'll lay my life down of my own accord, you can't say that. You can't say that.

I cannot say that. That's unique. Somebody could come in here right now. Don't freak out.

We have security everywhere. There are more guns in this room right now than you know, okay? Amen, amen, okay.

But if somebody came into this room, and we think about it all the time in terms of the fallen worlds you live in, people can go into any place, come in here, go in anywhere, and you don't really have control.

You don't. You can't make the claim, nobody has power over me.

No, in terms of human relationship, yeah, I mean, not everything is in our control on a human level, and some people might be able to exert power over you.

But when Jesus says it, he means it, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.

I'm in control of all this, the unique original claims of the Lord Jesus, the fact that Jesus is

God himself. He says that he is the I am. Unless you believe, egoimi, you'll die in your sins.

Jesus said that he was, before Abraham was, egoimi, I am. Here's the thing about that particular section of scripture.

When Jesus says that, they knew instantly what he was saying. Proof is they picked up stones to stone him.

They knew what he was saying, that he is the preexistent one, he is God himself.

And here's the unique thing about Jesus and his life, Jesus is the judge. This is powerful because you know what you don't see in scripture?

Prophets elevated to the status of the judge of all the earth. In Matthew 25, after Jesus promises the destruction of Jerusalem and all the things that are going to happen in the great tribulation in their day, by the way,

Matthew 25, Jesus tells them that he will be on the throne judging, and I want you to see it from his own words.

Go to Matthew 25, and we'll end on that point. Matthew 25, look what it says about Jesus and his uniqueness.

In verse 31, it says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will place the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

So Jesus says, he is the one who judges. He separates people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He is the one that invites. He is the one who judges. He is the one that says, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

That is unique. Jesus has an original life. He is the judge of all the earth. So is

Jesus the Messiah? Messianic prophecy, the original life of Jesus. The next is the symbols fulfilled.

Okay, here we go. I had to be selective in terms of like, what do we talk about?

Like, I want to give you guys the ones that just give me goosebumps and are just incomprehensible and powerful and amazing.

But there are so many, it's like you could spend just weeks and months on this. And we will, obviously, over time, as you go through the

New Testament, you're going to talk about these things. But in terms of the symbols fulfilled, these are the ones that get me.

They are. When I think about Jesus as the Messiah, of course, those direct prophecies are powerful.

It's amazing. People have done statistical, you know, reads of this saying, what are the chances of one person fulfilling eight prophecies, you know, that they have no control over?

It's astronomical. It's impossible. In Jesus, we've got dozens and dozens and all these different ways people have tried to do this.

But for me, it's the symbolism. It's the dress rehearsals. It's the thing that they were doing long before Jesus came, that they weren't like a word, like 70 weeks.

When this decree goes out, start counting down, get the clock down, and all these ways. This is stuff they're just told to do, right?

Do this thing. Okay, all right. You know, I don't really know why, but God says do, and so I do.

So I picked a couple. Passover, Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur, yes, the Day of Atonement. Abraham, and then last one

I'll save and I'll tell you when we get there. So Passover, I want you to consider this.

Passover is historic narrative. It's not fanciful. It's not mythology.

The people of God were there. They were in bondage. They were under the boot of the

Egyptians. It was difficult to be in that kind of slavery. I mean, you have a tyrant ruling over your people, and you're the people of God, and like, why is this happening to us?

And there had to be so many questions. And then enter in Moses, and Moses, you know the story.

He says to Pharaoh, let my people go, but God, of course, hardens his heart. Why? To display his glory in this wicked tyrant.

And this is interesting, because you think about the Passover story, I have to admit, I wasn't raised in a

Christian home. And so I had no understanding of any of this stuff until I was a teenager. I had never understood

Jesus and his work. Only thing I had was I saw The Ten Commandments, and I saw the movie with Jesus.

Like, that was my understanding of like this book. And I remember distinctly, you know you have like few memories of when you were a kid?

Like, some are vivid, and some you just lost it. Well, I remember the first time that I learned that you're going to die was watching

The Ten Commandments. I was watching The Ten Commandments, and it was the scene with the plagues.

It was one of the scenes of the plagues, and it's where people were dying. And I remember asking my mom, what's happening to them?

And she said, they're dying. And I said, why? And she's like, well, everybody dies.

And I said, what? What? And so I remember bawling my eyes out.

I'm going to die? And it was through The Ten Commandments movie. So it was learning about the

Passover. And so it's a vivid memory I have of like people are going to die. But I remember how scared I was at these plagues.

And I remember thinking throughout my life about like, it's kind of weird, like frogs, water turning to blood, all these crazy things that are happening, these plagues.

Like, why? Why? Is it just sort of like a puff of chest and just send crazy things into Egypt?

No, when you understand the historical narrative and the fact that this took place in history, you understand that the

Egyptians worshipped the gods over those things. And so when

God is sending those plagues into Egypt, he's sending plagues into Egypt that represent the things that the

Egyptian gods are supposed to have power over. So when frogs are filling

Egypt, the Egyptians are praying to the frog god, please get the frogs out, please get the frogs out. And he's not answering.

So what is God doing? He's displaying that he's the god over the waters. He's the god over these creatures.

And all of their gods could do nothing because the God of Israel is the true

God. So the plagues that are entering into Egypt are not just these sort of just random things throwing into Egypt just to make them say, like, what is happening?

It was supposed to show them your gods are fake. They're not real. And now we have the final one.

What was it? The firstborn. Now watch this. This took place long before the time of Jesus, over 1 ,000 years before the time of Jesus.

All they know is they're in Egypt. Here's the final plague. God says this. I'm going to take the firstborn.

And so he tells them to take a lamb. Now here's what's interesting about this story. He tells them to take a lamb.

And he says, don't break its bones. OK. Don't break its bones.

Passover. Don't break the bones of the lamb. And then he says, you're to take the blood of the lamb.

And you put it over your door. And when I come,

I'm going to pass over that house on account of the blood of the lamb. And then

God, of course, is telling them that they're going to be freed from their bondage, their slavery to enter into that promised land with God.

And so on Passover, they have a lamb. No spot, no blemish, right? No spot, no blemish. Don't break the bones of the

Passover lamb. OK, I got it. So no spot, no blemish. Don't break its bones. Put the blood over the doorpost.

And God's judgment passes over. I'm freed from my slavery. And then I enter into the promised land with God. Now this is all taking place long before the time of Jesus.

And what does John the Baptist say when he sees Jesus? He says, behold, what?

The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And the amazing thing about Jesus, that they could not possibly have known, they had no control over, is that he is the lamb with no spot and blemish.

So people say, like, why the lamb, no spot, no blemish, don't break its bones? Because it meant something.

God was putting flesh on a story long before it happened. It was dress rehearsals for the big day.

People look at the text of the Bible, and say, it's some weird stuff. It's some weird ritual. Well, that's because it hadn't happened yet.

And so God was giving them a way to prepare for the big day. But it was happening in history.

And they could not have possibly understood. Why don't we break its bones? Well, it needs to be without spot and blemish, because that needs to symbolize a sinless sacrifice.

But did you know that Jesus came at a time in the time of the

Last Supper? When was that, by the way? Do you know when it was? Passover.

So when does all this take place in terms of the ministry of Jesus? Passover, because he's our true

Passover lamb. He's the one that has no spot and no blemish. And beyond that, do you remember that at the crucifixion, we've got criminals with Jesus?

And you have the sinless, spotless lamb of God, that lamb of God that was promised,

Jesus, Passover, our true Passover, shedding his blood. And isn't it interesting that these

Gentile soldiers they come and they break the legs of the criminals.

They broke their legs so they would suffocate. But they come to Jesus and, oh, he's already dead. Don't break his legs. So his bones were not broken.

And Jesus sheds his blood as the spotless lamb of God. Passover, and what's it all mean?

What was God telling us? That when the true lamb who has no spot and blemish, whose bones aren't broken, when his blood is shed for you, that blood covers your house.

The judgment of God passes over you. You are released from your bondage to enter into that relationship of God, the promised land, to enter into his presence.

You see, this happened in history, but it was telling a story the whole time. The Passover was about Jesus.

He's our true Passover. The Day of Atonement, again, weird stuff, right?

You look at this and you're like, why do I want to read this? People go, why am I reading Leviticus? Why does it matter? Because it was about Jesus. Some of the stuff seems strange.

You've got, of course, the Day of Atonement. You've got the priest gets up, and what's he do? He's a sinful priest.

So the first thing he's got to do is he's got to set up a sacrifice for himself, and you've got to sacrifice for the priest.

Why? Because he's not a perfect priest because he's a sinner himself. And then you, of course, have these other two animals.

They count as sacrifices and symbols. And what's the priest have to do? One of those has to die and have its blood shed because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.

And so one of those has to die, and the other one is the scapegoat, where the priest goes and he confesses the sins of the people onto the animal, indicating a transfer of their sin and shame and guilt onto the scapegoat.

And then they would lead that goat away from the people of God, and you would watch that thing go off into the distance as far as the east is from the west.

You would watch it disappear from you, symbolizing your sins transferred to the substitute and those sins departing from you as far as the east is from the west.

And of course, you've got all the symbolism of the priest going into the holiest place, but yet there's a veil there that separates the people of God from God's presence, and he would bring the blood of the animal into the holiest place, but even the priest himself had to have bells on.

He couldn't stop working. He was never sitting down because the work was never finished. The sacrifice wasn't perfect.

They were waiting for a perfect sacrifice. So he's constantly moving, and there's bells going off, and if the bells stopped, uh -oh.

They have a rope tied around his ankle to do what? To drag his body out because something went wrong.

And of course, you know the story of Jesus. When he dies, what happened that day? When he died and he cries out, it is finished.

It is finished. No more sacrifice is necessary. It's over.

What happened to the veil that day? What happened as a matter of record? It was ripped in two.

He went before us, and when he offered himself, he offered a once -for -all sacrifice.

It's over. It's done. No more. All of that stuff was supposed to speak to them about a deeper spiritual reality between us and God.

All of this there was there the whole time. Now go to Genesis 22. Genesis 22. This is one of my very favorite things in the whole

Bible. Genesis 22. I think it's one of my favorite because when

I was, you have to excuse my allergies here, guys, when I was a young believer,

I remember having a debate with an atheist sort of on the street kind of a thing, and I remember that this atheist brought this particular passage up as a challenge, and I didn't really have a coherent answer.

That's good. It's a good challenge. Actually, really good. Are you ready for it? I'll give it to you right now. Does God say, you shall not murder?

Yes. What did God tell Abraham to do with Isaac? Kill him.

Solve that problem. That's a tough one, isn't it? You go, oh, man, I don't know.

Is God's God? I guess he can violate his own law. What? No, what? Bad answer, right?

That's inconsistent. What's happening? And then I remember when I finally started reading

Genesis 22 and discovering what's there, I thought, this is the most amazing thing ever. Atheism is so stupid.

It's so stupid. This is so powerful. I want you to remember the background quickly. Abraham, Sarah, you know the story.

When God tells her, you're gonna have a son, it's the son of the promise. The world's gonna be blessed through this one, like all the nations.

You're gonna have descendants as numerous as stars. It's gonna come through Isaac. You've got Sarah going, ha, right? Like, she laughs, and God promises

Isaac. Now, remember this now. They are expecting that Isaac is gonna be the one that brings about descendants as numerous as the stars.

Isaac, see through him. Now, remember that. This is the son of the promise. It's the one you promised me,

God. It's the one you said you're gonna do all these things through. And here's what happens. Genesis 22, after these things,

God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son,

Isaac, whom you love. Take your son, your only son,

Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son

Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose, and went to the place of which

God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy, listen to this, will go over there and worship, and come again to you.

So quick thing in terms of Abraham and what he's being told here. God says, go offer Isaac a three -day journey.

It wasn't like, Abraham, I want you to offer your son right over there, do it now. It was a three -day journey, long time.

That's a lot of walking, that's a lot of distance. Go to this very specific place to offer your only son, the son of your love, there.

And of course, Abraham gathers the wood. But what does Abraham say to his companions? He said, me and my son are gonna go worship, and we are coming back.

So what we know as insight from the New Testament is that Abraham knew that God was even able to raise the dead.

Whatever he was doing, this is the son of the promise, it's coming through him. He must be ready to raise him from the dead.

Because God said it's through him. And so he expected fully with his companions to return with the boy.

Now when I say boy, he was actually a young adult at the time, so this is not a little boy. It's actually, he was older.

So here's what the text says. Verse six, and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

So what do you have now in the story? Long before Jesus, Isaac, Abraham's only son, the son of his love, carrying the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father,

I skipped a piece there, laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, so they both went off, both of them went together, and Isaac said to his father,

Abraham, my father, and he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went, both of them, together. So what do you have? Abraham's son, his only son, the son of his love, carrying the wood to the place of this very specific place of sacrifice.

And the question of Isaac, his son, the son of his love, carrying the wood to the place of the sacrifice, he says, where's the lamb?

And what does Abraham say? God will provide for himself the lamb.

And it says this, verse nine, when they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound

Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here

I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a, what?

Ram, not a lamb. A ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the

Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

So the angel of the Lord calls from heaven and says, you've not withheld your only son from me.

And then there's a ram caught in the thickets, but what are they waiting for? A lamb. And so what does Abraham name that place?

This is the place the Lord will provide it. The what? The lamb.

Do you know where they were? That three -day journey was taking them to the place of Jesus' sacrifice.

That was the place where the lamb of God was provided. That's where God's son, his only son, the son of his love, carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

That's where the lamb of God died for the sins of God's people. That is the mount that the

Lord did provide it. Do you see? All of this the whole time took place with real flesh and blood, real breathing people.

It took place as dress rehearsals for the big day. All of this is about Jesus, the whole story.

But there's something unique here that is so powerful when you think about the overarching story of what

God was gonna do. Where does the story begin? This is the last thought. Where does the story of Jesus begin?

Where? Some people say, well, maybe it begins in the prophets, like when the Messianic prophecy begins.

No, no, no, no, no. The whole story of Jesus begins in the book of Genesis in the first three chapters.

The first three chapters. I want you to think about the scene. I'll set it for you a moment. God creates from nothing, and then bang, you have creatures and things in the sea and water and mountains and stars.

You have glorious creation. And then God puts his image in the garden.

And he tells Adam that he is to keep the garden. He is to tend it.

He's called to cultivate God's garden and to spread that garden throughout the world by taking dominion.

Adam, the image of God, was supposed to honor God, love God, keep his garden, cultivate it, and grow it and take dominion over the earth.

Subdue it. And then sin enters into the world. And what happens?

Sin, death, enters into creation. And so God says something that day.

Genesis three, he says that the seed of the woman, the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. But then

God says there's gonna be something that is symbolic in creation in terms of the very sign of the fall.

It says that there is gonna be thorns as a sign, a visible sign of the curse and the fall itself.

And so Adam was supposed to keep God's garden, take dominion, subdue the earth, grow

God's garden across the world. And he sinned against God. And there was sin and there was death.

And there was gonna be a crushing of the head of the serpent. And there was the sign of thorns.

And then we think about the crucifixion of Jesus. Who is Jesus according to the New Testament? He is what

Adam was supposed to be. He is the perfect Adam. There is one

Adam, the fallen one. And what Adam? The perfect one. And Jesus goes to Golgotha.

The text says Golgotha. It is the place of the skull. You can see pictures of it today.

Go online and find it, not now, later. Go look at pictures of Golgotha. It looks like a skull.

So from the distance where you saw Jesus crucified, you saw him crucified with his crucifix going through a skull.

And John says that there was a garden there at Golgotha. So where did sin enter into the world?

A garden. Where was sin defeated? A garden. And Jesus, the perfect Adam, is dying at the place of the skull.

You were watching from a distance, death being conquered with a visible representation of a skull.

But there's more. One of the signs of the fall itself was thorns.

And isn't it amazing? It wasn't the disciples of Jesus who fixed a crown of thorns.

It was Roman soldiers who did it to mock the king. They fastened together a crown of thorns to mock this would -be

Messiah. And Jesus died for the sins of his people wearing the very sign of the fall itself.

Do you see? But I think it goes further, though, because where death is defeated at Golgotha, where he wears the very sign itself of the fall with thorns, when

Jesus rose again from the dead, where did he rise? He rose in a garden tomb.

And you know the story because you know I love it. When Jesus was raised and the women come and they're freaking out, where's

Jesus? Jesus is first mistaken as what? A gardener.

He was doing what Adam was supposed to do with God's garden. Cultivate God's garden so he can take dominion and spread it around the world.

What did we read today in our psalm? Psalm 72, what's it say? He shall have what?

Dominion. From sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. We could go on forever, but I'm already over time.

So I'll just leave with this, the T. The transformation of his people in the world.

We did some of this already. First the apostles, they died gruesome martyr's deaths to seal their testimony that he is who he claimed to be.

They were totally transformed by the Savior. What would it take for you to be flayed? That's where they cut the skin off your body while you're alive and not deny

Jesus. What would it take for you to be speared to death and not deny Jesus? What would it take for you to be burned in an oven alive and not deny

Jesus? They knew Jesus and they said, you can take my life, it's okay. Because I have no fear of death because I know the one who has power over death.

But also the promise of the Messiah and his kingdom was that he was going to, God was going to remove a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh.

He was gonna put his law within people and by his spirit cause them to observe his statutes.

There are a lot of Christians in this room today and many more thousands that are gonna watch this. And so many different stories that we can share about how

God saved us in Jesus. He changed our hearts. He changed our minds.

All of a sudden now you've got somebody who was once an addict or evil or an abuser, whatever the case may be, wherever you came from.

And now all of a sudden you love the God of Israel. You wanna obey his law.

You wanna establish his standards of justice all around you. What happens in a person that all of a sudden they go from loving this false

God or their old life and these false pursuits of pleasure to loving Jesus and loving

God's law? One of my favorite things about being a chaplain many years ago is when I saw these people who were drug addicts and two days before had a needle in their arms.

They were found ODing in a Circle K bathroom was when they came to Jesus, they'd be in my office a week later or two days later crying.

What's wrong? Pastor Jeff, I just don't know what's wrong with me. Like I've turned to Jesus.

I trust him now. I love him. And I just, I hate the thoughts that are in my mind now. I hate my old life and I have a thought come in and I'm like, why am

I thinking that? I don't want that anymore. And I'm like, yay, yay. That's the presence of God.

You see what God does? He indwells people and he causes them to hate the old life, to love

Jesus. Now there's a new war that happens. If there was no war, I'm suspicious.

But God creates now a war within his people where they love his law and they long for him.

They want to pursue him and they hate the old life and the old pursuits. The transformation of the people of God and the world itself.

God promises to establish justice and peace and his law in the world.

And that is happening today. It is happening all over the world today as Christians go into communities and people are converted and they believe in Jesus.

All of a sudden they go, yeah, we want God's standards here. We love God's law. And it starts to happen. So is

Jesus the Messiah? Yes. No. Most definitely.

What am I doing here? Is Jesus the Messiah? Most definitely.

Most definitely, amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Lord Jesus, we trust you.

We thank you, Lord, for your keeping of all your promises. We believe you're the Messiah. We confess you as Lord and we trust you as Savior as the way, the truth, and the life.