The Musts of Christ's Career — Ian Paisley

Christ’s Dedication to His Father’s Will

The word must was constantly upon the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ when He walked on this earth. I was amazed during these past few days in the many musts that came from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The great necessities which dominated Christ's life on earth and their urgency and fulfilment are staggering indeed. Christ came to do His Father's will and He delighted to do the Father's will with all His heart and with all His strength and with all His soul and with all His mind.

The many times He used the word must indicates the immense urgency which dominated Him even to the smallest of all His acts. Christ's personality, both His deity and humanity were on the altar of total dedication and consecration in every move and every action of His life on earth.

The will of God was His great aim, His great objective and it controlled Him and what a wonder that glory was manifested as Christ gave Himself to His Father. For He had enslaved Himself to be His Father's servant.

Jesus’ First Recorded Must: His Father’s Business

The first must recorded of Christ in the Bible is found in this second chapter of Luke's Gospel. When Christ was twelve years of age and the first words that are ever recorded of anything He said after His birth has been recorded is in verse 49.

And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? Wist ye not that I must, mark it carefully, I must be about My Father's business? These are the first recorded words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible.

This is a reference to an Old Testament scripture. Turn with me to the 40th Psalm, to the Psalm numbered 40. And there you have the basis for this emphasis and affirmation that our Lord Jesus Christ made when He was a child of twelve.

Now what does it tell us here? Psalm chapter 40 verses 5 to verse 11. And it says these words, Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts are to us worth. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.

If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips.

O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. The first words of Christ recorded are those of this scripture. Of course, Christ was the Word of God.

And Christ, who was the Word of God in this person, spoke the Word of God from his lips. The Word incarnate spake the Word of God inspired. If you turn to John chapter 4 and verse 34, you will read that he said, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

Here was the divine necessity for Christ coming into this world and commencing to do the Father's business. The first recorded words of Christ was reference to the written Word of God. But after his baptism and after he went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, you have again his first recorded words as a minister of Christ.

What were they? He said three times, It is written. It is written. It is written. So, the Lord Jesus Christ in his first recorded words as a child and his first recorded words as a minister of Christ was reference to the Word of God.

He must be about his Father's business. What were his last words? It is finished. He finished the business that God gave him to do. This study of the musts of Christ is a wonderful study. There are eighteen of them in the Gospels.

Eighteen musts from the lips of the Lord Jesus. I intend in the will of God on Sunday morning to continue this message. But I want you to notice something. That there are three things in this first statement of Christ that must be carefully noted.

He said, Wist ye not that I must, I must, I must be about my Father's business. What was the Father's business? I asked myself that question with an open heart and open lips in prayer and open Bible before my eyes.

Christ’s Achievement: The Example of Righteousness

And suddenly I saw that the Father's business was first of all an achievement. Christ came to achieve something. Secondly, the Father's business was an atonement. An atonement. And Christ became that atonement.

And last of all, his business was an accomplishment. And thank God Christ accomplished that which the Father had set out as his business. Let's look at these three things. The achievement. I said to myself, what did Christ come to achieve?

What was the great goal that was set before him? What was he going to do? And I immediately remembered a word that's over in 1 Peter. The epistle of 1 Peter at chapter 2 and at verse 21. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow.

So, his Christ came to achieve the setting forth of a great example. And you'll please notice that this example refers to his steps. Sometime you have time, take a concordance and look up the word steps.

And discover how many times that word refers to Christ. And of course, in the book of Psalms you read, the steps of a good man are from the Lord. And thank God, the Lord Jesus Christ was the God incarnate.

But he also was the great righteous man. He was Christ, our righteousness. You know, you read in James' epistle, the prayer of a righteous man. The Lord is our righteousness. I often think of that when I pray over the sick.

That they're not depending on Ian Paisley's righteousness. Thank God they're depending on the righteousness of the blessed Son of God. So get this, that the business of the Lord Jesus Christ was an achievement.

I was listening to a couple of old, I would say probably apostates, you would call them. And they were having a discussion on the BBC. The BBC seems to give a platform to every old reprobate of the devil they can find.

And they don't need to search for, for there's plenty of them around today. But what I noticed was that one man said this. He said, there's only one thing I can say. There never was a perfect man like Jesus.

When an atheist has to confess the perfection of Christ. What a testimony that is. You know this verse tells us something. Look at verse 22 of 1 Peter chapter 2. Who did no sin. Hallelujah. Not another man that could be said of.

Even Adam, made without sin, became a sinner. But Jesus Christ did no sin. Neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. But committed himself to him that judgeth rightly.

The achievement of Christ. The achievement of Christ was an example that we should follow his steps. The Bible never asks you to do anything that you can't do. So when the Bible says we are to follow his steps, it's possible.

Hallelujah. That I, a poor wretch of sin, lifted from the dunghill of my iniquity, can be so changed that I can walk in the steps of the Savior. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior. How beautiful to walk in his.

Christ’s Atonement and Ransom at Calvary

So we have his achievement. But we have something more. We have his atonement. For the business of the Father was not only achievement. The business of the Father was atonement. And if you turn over in your Bible to the Gospel according to Matthew, Lord Jesus Christ himself speaks.

And he tells us something there. He tells us, Behold, we go to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, to crucify him.

And the third day he shall rise again. The atonement. And if you look over in Mark's Gospel. Mark's Gospel, chapter 10. You read there in verse 45. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

A ransom for many. Jesus Christ said, wished you not, I must be about my Father's business. I must be about the achievement that God wants me to make. He wants me to leave an example. That man and woman redeemed by the blood of Christ.

I can walk like Christ and be kept pure in heart. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That's the first part of the Lord's business. But the second part of the business of the Father was atonement.

And as you see from that verse. In Mark chapter 10 and verse 45. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. What did he do at Calvary?

He gave his life a ransom. And how many? Mr. Spurgeon said, you can measure the efficacy of the cross by what it achieved. And what did it achieve? A great multitude that no man can number. Of every kindred and people and nation and tongue.

A number that cannot be reckoned of. I heard people arguing about that text. How foolish. It says what it means. And it means what it says. A great number which no man can number. And even if they give him a little computer and tell him start knocking it out.

His fingers will fall out and he'll never get to the place when he has found the number. There's only one person who knows the number. And that's God. It doesn't say a great number which even God cannot number.

No. God knows all things. But it's a great number which no man. Oh I'm glad I'm among that number. Washed in the Redeemer's blood. That's what Christ came to do. Wishing not that I must be about my Father's business.

Oh the agony of Gethsemane. Oh the bitterness of Pilate's judgment hall. Oh the darkness of Golgotha's tree. Oh the sorrow and the shame and the suffering. But what did He do? He gave His life a ransom.

All the way to Calvary He went for me and He died. That is the Father's business. The Son not only made the achievement but He made the atonement. But there's something else I would have you to know. And that is the accomplishment.

Accomplishment Through the Gospel Message

How did the Lord Jesus accomplish this achievement? And accomplish this? Well first of all He had a message. The Lord Jesus Christ had a message. You'll find it if you turn with me to the third chapter of John's Gospel.

And there came the representative of Judaism. A man called Sadducee. Mr. Nicholson used to say no wonder he was called Sadducee for he was sad. He was a poor sinner with great scholarship. But he couldn't understand how he could be born again.

Couldn't understand. But Christ taught him that night as he came to Jesus by night. And what was the message? And the message is very simple and very clear. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

How did the Lord Jesus accomplish His Father's business? He accomplished it by preaching. And here we have the Gospel. In a nutshell, God so loved that God gave that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Do you remember the day that God made that true to you? Why? Because Jesus Christ was about His Father's business and He accomplished it. That's what Christ did on the cross. God gave His Son. His Son went to the cross and died for you and me.

And whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Oh, the joy of receiving the Savior's message. Now, if you read the Gospels, you'll find that the Gospels repeat over and over and over again that Jesus Christ was a preacher, an announcer, a proclaimer.

I don't understand it. How people as dark as hell's midnight can come into a Gospel service and the minister puts out a Gospel text and he preaches the Gospel and something happens. That person who came in blinded goes out singing.

That person who comes in bounded by chains goes out free. That person who comes in a child of the devil and sin goes out a child of God. Why? Because he has heard the message. What did Paul say? I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

What a mighty thing is God's everlasting Gospel. You know what it does for you? It gives you everlasting life. This everlasting. Secondly, what is the momentum that causes this Gospel to have power? If you turn to the first chapter of Acts, you'll find that the Lord said to his apostles, Ye shall receive.

The Holy Spirit as the Gospel’s Power

Jesus died on the cross and he purchased something for you. He purchased the blessings. When he died on the cross, he not only achieved something, he not only made atonement, but he had a great accomplishment.

And that was that as a result of Christ dying and being buried and rising again and going to heaven, the Holy Spirit came. The Spirit of the day of Pentecost. 120 people sitting in an upper room, men and women, and outside a world of darkness and sin and wickedness.

And then suddenly the Spirit came. And every one of them was transformed. Every one of them got the power of the Spirit of God, the Word of God. And that's what we need today. We need this. And that's what Christ got for us.

That was the business he did. He did it through his message, through a mighty momentum of the Spirit. And then he gave us a motivation. And what should be the motivation of every child of God? Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 14.

And what does it tell us there? It tells us the wonderful truth of the Lord. And it says, Every man's work shall be manifested, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work what sort it is.

And then if you go up to verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay, and that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be manifested.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. What's the motivation of our working for Christ? It's the reward. God has a reward for His people. And what a reward Jesus purchased by the blood of His cross.

Christian Service, Reward, and the Crown

Remember what Paul said, I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of life.

That was the sons cutting out the father's business to get you. And how happy the blessed Lord will be when He takes a crown in heaven and puts it on your head. All that love the Lord's appearing, they're going to get a crown of life that feedeth not away.

It was William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, that used to say, when you give your testimony, the angel takes your crown out of the cupboard in heaven and polishes it up brightly and puts it back again.

But of course that is not good theology because the Bible tells me that this crown of glory feedeth not away. So we don't need the duster of the angel to keep it bright. It has a brightness of itself purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

The Threefold Business of Christ

So that Christ God's business was achievement. God's business was atonement. And God's business was accomplishment. May God bless these words to our heart. We'll come back on Sunday morning and look at another of these musts.

There's 18 of them. I don't know whether I'll ever be able to preach 18 times on this subject, but you could go on preaching. But one thing I will do that I make you a promise, I'll finish it in heaven.

So if you meet me in the four square corner in heaven, I'll finish this message of what a message it is. Aren't you glad that the child Jesus said, Whist ye not? I must. I must. I must be about my Father's business.

I hope that every one of us will say, I must be about the Lord's business. He has saved me to do it. And may God help us to do it for Jesus' sake.