Earthly Life and Ministry of Jesus

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Well, we're handing out the handouts for the lesson tonight.
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We're continuing in our study of Christology.
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If you look at the top of the handout, you'll notice what our outline has been.
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Under the major heading of Christology, we have been looking at various aspects of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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We've looked at his pre-existence and eternality.
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We've looked at the fact that he is truly God and truly man.
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That references the hypostatic union.
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We've looked at his peccability versus impeccability.
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That is the question not of if he did sin, but the question of if he could have sinned.
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And we answered that question last week.
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And as I said in that lesson, I believe Christ to be impeccable.
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So, tonight we are at the fourth part of this series, or fifth part really, is the earthly life and ministry of Christ.
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The earthly life and ministry of Christ.
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And it, to me, is a great joy to get to have this opportunity.
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In fact, I look out and know the weather has kept several folks away.
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And it's a little sad in my heart.
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I'm glad that those of you who are here, so please don't take that as to say I'm very happy that you're here.
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But any time I get to talk about the life of Jesus, I just want everybody to hear.
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And so I do hope that this message will go out and people will find it helpful.
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Because Jesus is our king.
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He is our savior.
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He is our joint heir.
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He is the God-man, and he is the Son of God.
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And so to talk about life and ministry, his earthly life and ministry, it's just an amazing thing.
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And it should cause us to really sit in awe.
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Could you imagine what it would be like to imagine eating with Jesus? Could you imagine walking with Jesus? Could you imagine hearing him preach? Jesus was the, you know, we often call Spurgeon the prince of preachers.
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Jesus was the king.
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Yes, sir? No, absolutely not.
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And, and, and, and, and no one is worthy, right? And that's the truth.
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What an amazing thing it would be, though, to be able to be with Jesus.
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And so tonight I want to talk about his life and ministry, because I think this is a vital part of Christology.
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In fact, I'm going to read to you a quote from our textbook.
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We're using the Moody Handbook of Theology.
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I want to read to you a quote from our textbook.
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It says this, The earthly life of Christ is important to the study of Christology inasmuch as it authenticates Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah.
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The Gospel writers demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies throughout his life.
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Matthew, for example, has 129 references to the Old Testament.
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Many of these are quoted with an introductory formula such as that it might be fulfilled.
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Jesus came not to abolish the law, but that through him the law would be fulfilled.
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The quote goes on to say, Each of the Gospel writers wrote for a different audience, but all wrote as an apologetic concerning Christ and his claims.
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All the Gospel writers emphasize the authenticity of his claims as Messiah.
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Jesus, the Messiah.
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And so that's what tonight is, in our part of our Christology.
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His life and ministry bears witness to the promise that he is the fulfillment of the Messiah.
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He is, in fact, the Christ.
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That's what Christ means.
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He is the Anointed One.
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He is the Messiah.
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And the Gospels focus on two major areas.
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If you have your handouts, we're going to look at two major areas in the life and ministry of Christ.
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Of course, if we were doing the life and ministry of Christ, we could do that for years.
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In fact, one of the things that I have wanted to do, and I have yet to do it, is I want to take the task of teaching a harmony of the Gospels.
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It's one of my life's goals.
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But I just can't ever start it, because I'm afraid it will just go for years and years and years.
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And my harmony of the Gospels will be longer than Jesus' three-year ministry.
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And I just look at it and I just can't pull the trigger, as it were, just because I don't think it's not just something I could do in a six-week series.
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Now, could I overview it in six weeks? Sure.
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But the life of Jesus.
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So tonight, looking at the life and ministry of Christ, we're going to break it down in two parts.
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Because I think this is all I could do in one lesson.
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We're going to look at the words of Christ and the works of Christ.
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The words of Christ and the works of Christ.
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So if you have your note, you'll notice under words, I didn't give you a lot, I just gave you a space.
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But under works, I actually outlined a six-fold working outline for us to go through.
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And we're going to try to get through both of these tonight, both sections.
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I think we will, because I'm not going to try to belabor every point.
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Let's look first at the words of Christ.
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The Gospel writers give considerable attention to the actual words of Jesus.
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A study of the amount of words used in the Gospel shows that if you take the Gospels themselves, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you compile all the words of Jesus and then all the words of those Gospels themselves, the words of Jesus make up more than half of the material in those books.
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So the words of Jesus are the focus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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The Gospel is the good news, the Evangelion or the Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ who came to save us from our sin.
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Our sin is the bad news.
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The Gospels, when we say four Gospels, that term is simply referencing the four Gospel writers telling the story or the message of Jesus in his life.
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Yes, and so those four books make up the four Gospels.
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And the first three Gospels are known as the Synoptic Gospels.
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That means they tell similar stories in a similar way.
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But John is different.
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John has written what we believe later than the first three Gospels and he's written to, in a sense, give us a broader picture of who Jesus is.
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And so John is called the Autopic Gospel.
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His is unique.
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Even though some of the stories, there's overlap, John tells a lot of stories that aren't in the other narratives.
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And so we see Matthew, Mark and Luke as being very similar, John being quite unique, but they're all telling the same story of the same person.
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Matthew is speaking to the Jewish community about Jesus as king of the Jews.
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Mark is expressing Jesus as the suffering servant.
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And so as he expresses that suffering servant motif, his text is written more toward that design.
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Still the same person, still the same story, just telling, focusing on those things.
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Luke presents Jesus as the son of man or to the Gentiles.
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And then you have John who speaks of Jesus as the son of God and in fact, God in the flesh.
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Yes, sir.
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Son of man does not reference the fact that he is simply a man, but it actually points back to a prophecy in the book of Daniel.
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In the book of Daniel, there is a figure who is like the son of man.
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And that figure represents the king.
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And the prophecy points forward to Jesus.
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That's why when Jesus referred to himself as son of man, he's saying, I'm the fulfillment of that prophecy from the book of Daniel.
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So that phrase actually is tied back to an older prophecy that he, Jesus is in fact the fulfillment of that prophecy.
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So it's not just a statement of humanity.
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It's a statement of his fulfillment of that particular promise.
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All right.
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So in all of his teachings, this is the thing that we need to recognize about Jesus.
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In all of his teachings, his words, he never cited outside authorities to receive the authority for his particular teaching.
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That's a very important part.
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We're talking about the words of Jesus, right? Why are they important? Because when Jesus pronounces truth, it is truth because he says it.
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You know, like when I preach, I'll say, well, Dr.
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MacArthur says this or or Dr.
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Sproul says this or I might quote another or two.
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I might quote a commentary.
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Jesus never quoted that.
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Now he quoted the Old Testament.
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But remember, the Old Testament is scripture.
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Jesus as the son of God and God, the son, Jesus is the second person of Trinity.
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He is, in fact, the author in that sense of that.
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So he's still quoting with the authority of himself.
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But notice what is said about Jesus's words by the people who hear them.
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Just write these verses down.
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Mark one twenty two.
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Mark one twenty two.
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Listen to this.
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This is after Jesus is preaching, it says, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes.
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Almost the exact same thing is said in Matthew seven, twenty eight and twenty nine.
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They were astonished.
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The word is astonished.
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And in Luke four twenty two, it says they marveled.
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OK, so you're asking for the verses.
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It's Mark one twenty two, Matthew seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, Luke four twenty two.
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Matthew and Mark both use the phrase astonished.
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Luke uses the phrase marveled.
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This is important.
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When Jesus spoke, people wanted to.
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They didn't understand.
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They've never heard anything like this.
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Who can say the things that he says? Who can make the announcements that he makes? He said to them, you have heard it said.
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But I say to you, you know what that's referring to? That's referring to his authority.
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In that in those statements in the Sermon on the Mount, he's talking about the law of God.
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And there are certain things in there that aren't necessarily references to specific laws such as the oaths and things like that.
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But but when he talks about murder, you have heard it said, do not murder.
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Where did they hear that? The law, the Ten Commandments, right? They know Jewish law said do not commit murder is the sixth commandment.
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He said, but I say, don't even.
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Hey, your brother, yeah, don't even think about it.
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But and in doing so, he's expressing authority.
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Jesus's words carried authority.
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You've heard it said, do not commit adultery, but I say to you, don't even lust.
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Don't even look with lust, right? He's some people say, well, he's exegeting the law.
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Well, he is exegeting the law.
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He's he's talking about the heart of the law.
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I don't disagree with that.
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But he's also expressing his own authority by saying, I'm telling you, this is what this means.
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I'm telling you, this is the heart of the law.
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And thus he expresses his own authority.
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Think of what he says about his own words.
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I want you to hear just a few verses again.
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We have so I have so many scriptures to get to tonight.
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I just have you write them if you want to.
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This is from John 12, 49 and 50.
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Jesus said this, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak.
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And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
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What I say, therefore, I say, as the father has told me.
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So what is Jesus saying? When I speak, I have the authority of the father.
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Right.
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Well, didn't you just say Jesus was speaking from his own authority? Yes.
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But what I'm referring to in that regard is his divine authority.
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He is divine.
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And thus when he speaks, he's speaking from that authority, which is his divine authority.
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Yes.
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I'm the father of one.
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Yeah, I was just fixing to go there.
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Yeah, because he he didn't have any will or whim or wish that would have been different than the father's.
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That's again, going back to the impeccability thing.
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I don't think Jesus could have sinned because I don't think he would ever have a desire in his heart to do anything other than the father's will, because he said, I've come to do that was my father told me to do.
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And he does it.
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So when he comes and he speaks, he's speaking on behalf of God.
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What I say to you is the words from the father.
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John 17, eight, for I have given them the words that you gave me.
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Remember, John 17 is Jesus praying.
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He's praying to the father and he says to the father, I've given them that's the disciples, the words that you have given me.
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John six, 63.
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It is the spirit who gives life.
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The flesh is no help, help at all.
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The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
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You know what? Sometimes we have trouble evangelizing with people.
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Sometimes we don't know what to say.
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Sometimes it's best just to say Jesus's words to them.
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Now, I'm not saying just sit there and read out into the air.
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But if you don't know what to say, say what Jesus said, he said, my words are spirit and life.
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If you can't think of anything else to say to the lost person, couldn't you say to them, unless you are born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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That's the word of Christ.
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Right.
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Couldn't you say, unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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That's spirit.
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And that's life.
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And that's the words of Christ.
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Right.
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So you see what I'm saying? The focus on the words.
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In fact, the power of Christ's words were so easily recognizable that his disciples, when he asked them, he says, are you going to go away? He said, what are you talking about? In John chapter six, Jesus said some things that offended some people and a lot of people left.
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And then he looked to the disciples, he says, are you going to go away, too? John 6, 68, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life.
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You have the words of life.
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Where else are we going to have this word? Your words.
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Now, I want to say something.
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The entire Bible is the word of God.
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And so I am not a big fan of red letter Bibles.
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Even there, I knew somebody said, I got one.
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It's okay.
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No, no, no, no, no.
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I'm not a big fan of red letter Bibles only because I think that it has created a somewhat of a mental idea, not necessarily in human states, but in some folks that the words that are in red are somehow more inspired than the words in black.
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And this is why you have people who say, well, I like Jesus, but I don't like Paul.
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Right.
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Because which is nonsense, because it's the same Holy Spirit.
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Right.
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Having said that, that was that was having said that, I do want to say this.
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I do think there's a uniqueness to Christ's words in the scripture, because while other men spoke on behalf of God, Christ spoke as God in the flesh.
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And so even though I would say I don't think that you should say they're more inspired, I would certainly say they are unique because this is Christ.
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This is the God man speaking and his authoritative speech did not go unnoticed.
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Of course, when Paul spoke, he spoke with the authority of God, but he didn't speak as God.
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Christ spoke as God.
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And like I said, so if you have a red letter Bible, like I said, not a bad thing, but the whole Bible's inspired.
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Don't let the red letters make you think that what Paul said is not from God or what Moses said is not from God or any of the prophets.
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That's the point I was trying to make.
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The words of Christ and the whole word of God, but the words of Christ uniquely are spirit and life.
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And Jesus tells us that they are spirit and life.
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So, so that's the first part.
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The next part is going to be much longer.
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That's why I want to kind of get through that relatively quickly.
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Yes, sir.
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Yeah, all scriptures is given by the inspiration of God or is breathed out by God.
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That's why I say it is foolish of us to say Christ's words and Paul's words are not equally authoritative because in that sense, they are, they're both from God.
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They have an equal authority.
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I just, like I said, I think there's a uniqueness to hearing the word of Christ as the word of Christ.
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It is so powerful.
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In fact, what is it? What is the Romans chapter 10? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
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Right? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ.
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And so there's, there's something about Christ words, I think are unique.
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Again, I would not ever take away anything from the authority or inspiration of the rest of the Bible.
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But the whole Bible is about Jesus, by the way.
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You understand that, right? This is, this is something that I think people miss.
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From the very, from the very creation, we are seeing Christ being pointed to.
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In the garden, man fell.
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Genesis 315, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.
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You will bruise his head, but he will bruise your, you'll bruise his heel, but he'll crush your head.
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Right? That's the picture of what we call the Proto-Evangelium or the first gospel promise is right there in Genesis 315.
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Then God clothes Adam and Eve with skins.
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What is the skins? Sacrifice.
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You don't, you don't get skins from nothing.
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Now God could create skins from nothing, but, but he takes skins.
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He makes a sacrifice.
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He makes an atonement.
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He covers them.
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That pictures Christ.
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Later on, the ark comes.
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Noah in the ark and the ark pictures Christ.
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Right? Everyone who's in the ark is saved from judgment.
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Everybody on the outside of the ark is crushed under judgment.
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It's pointing to Christ.
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Because now if you're in Christ, God's judgment will not hit you.
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If you're outside of Christ, God's judgment will crush you.
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That's the picture of the ark.
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And it goes all the way down through the Old Testament.
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One after the other, after the other, after the other, pointing to Jesus.
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The sacrifices, the tabernacle, the priesthood, every animal that ever had its life taken was a picture of Christ.
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Hebrews tells us what? The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
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All they are is a picture of Christ.
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And they point to the master.
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So when he comes, he's a fulfillment.
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He is the, he is the promise.
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All of these things are promises.
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Book of Matthew says the law prophesied.
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Even the law points to Christ because the law is a schoolmaster that shows us the necessity of Christ.
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There's so much that just says Christ is the focus.
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Christ is the focus.
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All right.
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So that was, that was not in my notes.
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That was just, that's just because when I think about the word of God, he's the center.
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He is it.
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I'm a Christian because Christ is the center.
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All right.
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So we have the words of Christ.
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Now let's look at the works of Christ.
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I've outlined six works of Christ that for our time here, I think are necessary for us to at least note.
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When we go to the section on soteriology, which is the study of salvation, there will be a further bringing down of what these things mean.
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So just understand that we're overviewing them tonight.
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But when we get to, when we get to soteriology, we're going to look at the doctrine of the atonement.
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We're going to look at the doctrine of justification.
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So all of those things will be further broken down later.
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Tonight is just to say, how do we see this in Christ's work? First, we say the works of Christ begins with his birth.
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What does his birth do? His birth fulfills prophecy.
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Micah 5, 2.
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O Bethlehem, Ephratah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me the one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
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He is Jesus.
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That's the promise that the king who is from ancient of days, the king who is from everlasting, the king is going to be born in Bethlehem, a little no nothing town.
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And, you know, the only thing it had to claim to fame was it was David's town, right? Bethlehem.
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What does Bethlehem mean? House of bread.
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Beth is house.
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I think Bethel is house of God.
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Lachim is bread.
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So the house of bread.
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What is Jesus called? The bread of life.
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And he's born in the house of bread.
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It's an interesting little connection there.
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So Jesus is born in Bethlehem and it's a promise fulfilled.
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Micah 5 and 2.
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Isaiah 9 6.
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For to us, a child is born in us, to us, a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
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His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
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This is a promise from Isaiah or promise through Isaiah from God about the character of the coming Messiah.
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He will be a child.
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And I love the fact that he says a child is born and a child is given.
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Because the born and again, I don't I don't want to allegorize anything, but I do think that there's an he says born.
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I think that refers to his human nature.
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Given is referring to his divine nature.
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Why would I say that? Because he's born and that's the introduction of the human nature.
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But he's given because he already existed in his divine nature.
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And so a child is born, a child is given, and this is what he'll be called.
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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, El Gabor is the Hebrew there.
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Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
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You say, wait, he's not the father, he's the son.
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Yes, but he's the father of eternity.
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That's another way to translate that phrase.
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The father of eternity.
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And the prince of peace.
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Isaiah 714, we talked about this when we looked at the virgin birth.
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Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
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The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Emmanuel.
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So the birth of Christ fulfills prophecy.
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It fulfills prophecy.
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And by the way, these are prophecies that you could not.
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That Jesus could not have created a fulfillment himself.
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Some people argue, unbelievers who go to Scripture will argue that Jesus only fulfilled prophecy because he forced himself into situations where he would naturally have fulfilled.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy, you know, you make it happen.
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Right? If I say I'm sick all the time, if I say I'm sick all the time, and then I go go hang out with sick people.
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Yeah, I'm going to get sick because I fulfill that.
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Self-fulfilling prophecy.
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I said I was going to get sick.
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It's like the guy who's the hypochondriac who finally dies.
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He said, I want my tombstone.
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I told you so.
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Yeah, that's that's a self-fulfilling prophecy, you know.
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And with Jesus, they'll say he he he fulfilled things that he made happen.
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And very little, few things you could argue coming to Israel on a donkey and things like that.
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You say, well, he may have orchestrated.
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I'm not saying he did.
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I'm saying you could follow the logic of orchestrating that event.
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But he cannot orchestrate his birth.
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He cannot orchestrate the timing and the place of his birth.
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Neither could he really have orchestrated the events surrounding his death.
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The fact that they cast lots for his clothing and they all of the things that they did that were prophetic and that were talked about in the Old Testament.
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So so much of it that's ridiculous even to assume that he would have or could have.
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But certainly his birth, it's a fulfillment of prophecy that he would have in the sense of in a human nature, would have had no control over where you're born.
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But God did.
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The father assured it would.
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In fact, I preach a sermon a few years ago called Two Decrees.
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I did it on Christmas Eve.
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You know, the Bible, the book of Luke, it says a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all that of Israel should be numbered.
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Right.
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They should all be counted.
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And I said Caesar made a decree because God made a decree.
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God decreed that his son would be born in Israel.
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And the method for getting or rather born in Bethlehem, the method for getting his son to Bethlehem was God decreeing that Caesar would decree that all would be counted and have to go back to their own hometown.
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So that all this is part of God's sovereign hand.
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So I said there's two decrees.
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There's God's decree and Caesar's decree.
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He unbeknownst to him is being used of God to bring about his will.
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So we see the birth is very important.
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All right.
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Number two or the next letter be his miracles.
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While his birth is a fulfillment of prophecy, so too are his miracles.
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But his miracles are also an act attesting to his deity.
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His miracles attest to his deity.
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He demonstrated things, powers only God can manifest.
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One, he demonstrated power over the elements.
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Think about that.
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He calmed the storm.
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He walked on water.
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He demonstrated the power to create out of nothing.
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The Latin phrase ex nihilo, he created out of nothing.
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Because think about water into wine.
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You say, well, no, no, he's not creating out of nothing.
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He's got the water.
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Yeah, but where did the elements for the wine come from? Out of nothing.
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He creates the necessary parts to make the wine.
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You understand that's hearkening back to creation, right? In fact, if you look at that story a little closer, I think I remember there being six water pots and there were six creation days.
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God brings the world out of nothing.
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Again, I'm not into allegories, but I see things.
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And you see the idea that God created the world in six days.
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What's Jesus's first miracle? Creating something out of nothing in six water pots.
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Something out of nothing.
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He creates the wine.
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All of the elements that go into making wine.
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There in an instant.
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All right.
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So you got the water and wine.
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Think about the 5,000 people were fed with five loaves and two fish.
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He had to create something out of nothing or everybody got a really small bite.
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And that ain't what happened because it says they went home full and they had 12 baskets filled.
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Absolutely.
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Christ made an abundance out of nothing.
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This is testimony to his deity.
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He demonstrated power over sickness.
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Remember, he gave sight to the blind.
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He touched the lepers.
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Jesus.
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He loved the broken.
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And he healed them.
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The woman with the issue of blood.
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If I could just touch the hem of his garment.
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And the moment she touched his garment.
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Power went out of him, it says, and she was healed.
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And if I remember this correctly, and I hope I'm I think I'm right.
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Because I think she had had that issue for 12 years.
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Isn't that right, brother? And there was a 12-year-old girl who just died.
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Both of those miracles started at the same time.
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A lot of connections here you don't really notice until you go back and look.
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That girl's birth.
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She had birthed and lived to 12 years and died.
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That woman's issue of blood had started for 12 years.
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And here she is.
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They're both at the feet of Jesus.
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Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood at the same moment.
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With an issue that started 12 years ago.
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Yeah.
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So here we have the issue of blood, blindness.
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All the, you know, the lame walk, the blind see.
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What did Jesus say when John the Baptist asked, Are you him or are we to expect someone else? And he says, go and tell him the blind see and the lame walk.
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He'll know.
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He demonstrated power over sin.
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He would forgive people of their sin.
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Isn't that amazing? I know that in certain, what I would say incorrect church understanding, Roman Catholic understanding, the priest has the power to give exceptions for sin, or not exceptions, but give absolution for sin.
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Give forgiveness, right? That's not my power.
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Don't come to me and ask me for forgiveness of sin.
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Jesus forgives sin.
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And that's because that's his prerogative.
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That's part of that divinity.
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And he demonstrated power over death.
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How many people did Jesus raise from the dead? We don't know.
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How many people does scripture say he rose from the dead? Well, I was going to trick you.
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You kind of already got me.
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Because I was going to say there's three that are mentioned.
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The widow's son at Nain.
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The daughter of Jairus and Lazarus, his friend.
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But also it says when he died on the cross, it said the tombs were opened and many were raised.
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So we don't know how many it was.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So we don't know.
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And there could have been, you know, John tells us there's things that he did that weren't written about.
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Because there was so much.
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I think the widow's son at Nain, the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus are typical, but not necessarily unique.
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Because the thing about the widow's son at Nain, he's just going by.
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He's just dead.
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Get up.
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Go back home to your mom.
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I mean, what a just a miraculous thing to imagine.
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So Jesus demonstrated power over all these things.
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Death, the elements, sickness, sin.
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These are all attestations to his divinity.
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Number three, his obedience.
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Jesus demonstrated righteousness by being obedient to the law.
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The Bible says in Galatians 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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Galatians 4, 4 and 5.
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Theologians talk about the active and passive obedience of Christ.
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Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this because I could really get out into the weeds here.
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But we talk about the active and passive.
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The active obedience typically refers to the fact that he was actively keeping the law of God.
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And then the passive obedience is that he was submitted to the judgment that was due us for sin.
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All right.
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So he's actively keeping God's law, whereby he is demonstrating his righteousness.
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And then he submits passively to the judgment that we deserve.
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And we get the benefit of both.
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Because in the judgment, he takes away our sins, and in his righteousness, he gives it to us.
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Right? So there's that reason for that, what we call, double imputation.
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Remember what imputation means.
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It means to charge to someone's account.
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So my account is full of sin.
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Jesus' account is full of righteousness.
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All my sin is charged to him.
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All his righteousness is given to me.
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And there's a double imputation, a double charging.
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My sin charged to him.
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His righteousness charged to me.
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And that's the blessing of his obedience.
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Because were he not obedient, which he certainly could not have not been.
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We talked about that last week.
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But his obedience demonstrated his righteousness, his perfect righteousness.
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When we are clothed in his righteousness alone, we are faultless to stand before the throne, as the hymn writer says.
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Alright, continuing on.
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I think I'm making good time, by the way.
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Because each one of these could be its own lesson.
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But I have a reason why I'm trying to get finished.
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I'll explain that later.
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Alright, so letter D, his death.
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His death.
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Now under letter D, there's actually seven sub points.
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I should have had these printed for you.
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I'll give them to you quickly.
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If you want to write them down, you can.
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In the death of Christ, there is substitution.
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There is redemption.
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There is reconciliation.
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There is propitiation.
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There is forgiveness.
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And there is justification.
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Yes.
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I'm going to go through them all real quick.
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I'm just giving you, if you're trying to write them down.
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Did I give them too fast? I'm sorry.
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Very quickly.
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Number one, substitution.
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Christ substitutes for us on the cross.
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And he substitutes for us in obedience.
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Right? That's the active and passive thing.
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He's substituting in two ways.
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Isaiah 53 is the classic passage talking about substitution.
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Because it says that he bore our griefs.
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And on him our stripes.
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By his stripes we're healed.
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Upon him was our chastisement.
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The Isaiah 53 passage is all about what he did.
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By the way, written 400 years before he did it.
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But a promise that he would fulfill.
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So substitution is one.
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Two, redemption.
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The Bible talks about redemption in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20.
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And in several other passages.
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But if you just want a passage to go with it, 1 Corinthians 6, 20.
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It talks about how we were purchased, bought, redeemed.
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The idea here is agorazo.
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It comes from the word the agora.
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Which was the marketplace where slaves were sold.
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Christ purchased us out of the slave market of sin.
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We were sold under sin, Paul says.
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And Christ paid the penalty.
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He paid to redeem us.
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That's redemption.
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Reconciliation.
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What does reconciliation mean? It means to bring two people back together who were apart.
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Right? And that's Romans 5, 10.
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It talks about the fact that we were reconciled to God through Christ.
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Reconciled.
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Our relationship with God.
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Have you ever heard somebody say this? Your sin separates you from God.
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You know that's biblical, right? The Bible actually uses the term.
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Sin separates.
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It causes a rift in the relationship.
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It divides.
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Christ reconciles.
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He brings the two back together.
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That's what Christ does.
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He reconciles the relationship.
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I don't want to spend too much time on this.
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When we talk about He can't see us.
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What you're referring to is Habakkuk.
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Habakkuk says that the Lord cannot look upon sin.
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Some people say then God can't see us because we're sinners.
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What I believe it means is that God cannot look upon it with approval.
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Because God sees everything.
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In that regard, nothing is hidden from His eyes.
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The Bible says if I go into heaven, you're there.
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If I go down to Sheol, you're there.
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Nothing is hidden.
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Now that is true.
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Yes, we can't see Him.
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Yes, there's a divide between us and God.
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Yes, thank you.
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I didn't pick up what you were saying.
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No, you're right.
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Okay.
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I thought I saw a hand up.
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The next one is propitiation.
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This is the one you asked about, brother.
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Propitiation.
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If you want a verse for it, Romans 3.25.
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Propitiation means to satisfy something or someone.
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To satisfy.
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God had justice and wrath that was prepared for the sins that I committed.
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Christ satisfies God by drinking the cup of my wrath.
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So that now the cup is empty.
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Christ drank it all.
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That's the picture the Bible gives us.
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That's why when Jesus is in the garden on the night before the crucifixion, what does Jesus say? Father, if there be another way, take this cup from me.
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It's not the punishment of the Romans or the Jews.
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It's the cup of God's wrath that's going to be poured out on Christ.
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And Christ said, if there be another way.
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And you know how we know there's no other way to heaven but Jesus? Because when Jesus said, if there be another way, take this cup.
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If there would have been another way, God would have given him another way.
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But there wasn't another way because he went to the cross.
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If there is another way, there's not.
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The answer from heaven was silence.
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There's not another way.
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By the way, that's the passage I point to when people say, is Jesus the only way to heaven? A lot of people go to John 14, 6.
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You know, I am the way, the truth, and life.
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No one comes to the Father but through me.
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And that's a good one.
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I'm not saying I wouldn't use that one.
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But if somebody says, how do you know Jesus is the only way to heaven? Because he asked.
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Because he said, if there's another way.
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And the answer was silence.
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It's in John.
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It's the garden narrative in John.
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I'll have to look it up, brother.
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I don't remember exactly.
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But it's in John where he's in the garden and he's crying in the tears or his drops of blood.
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Yeah, so we'll look it up when we're done.
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I don't know it right off the top of my head, brother.
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I'll have to look it up.
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But that's where he asked that question.
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Alright.
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So we said substitution, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, forgiveness.
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There's forgiveness in his death.
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1 John 1, 9.
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If we repent of our sin, he is faithful and just to what? Forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
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1 John 1, 9.
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1 John 1, 9.
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And the word forgiveness, if you want just a little...
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Again, time is never my friend.
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Yes, sir.
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If we repent of our sin, Christ is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
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1 John, or 1 John 1, 9.
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1 John 1, 9.
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The word forgiveness means to send away.
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It means to send away.
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And where do we get this idea of being sent away? Psalm 103, verse 12.
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Your sins I have separated you as far as the east is from the west.
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It's taking what you were due.
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The punishment is taking it away from you.
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Sending it away.
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That's what forgiveness is.
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Psalm 103, verse 12.
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I like to talk about Jesus, can you tell? I mean, this is it.
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This is the subject.
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This is my life.
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Last one, under death.
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Like I said, we can talk about many things other than these things, but I think these things are important.
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Justification came through his death.
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Romans 5, 1.
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Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Justification.
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Justification.
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And now, as I said before, when we get to the study of soteriology, how we're saved and what salvation means, all of these are going to come back up.
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So forgive me for going so fast.
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We'll probably do a week on one or two of these each time because it's just so much, right? But for tonight, the life and ministry of Christ, his death, that's what we see.
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Now, his resurrection.
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Romans 5, 1.
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His resurrection, right? This is letter E.
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We're getting close to the end.
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His resurrection.
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What does the resurrection do? It validates the claims that he made.
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1 Corinthians 15, 17 says what? If Christ is not raised.
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Well, let's look it up real quick because this is important.
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I want to make sure you hear this correct.
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1 Corinthians 15, 17.
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I'll try to get there quickly.
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Got my big Bible here.
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1 Corinthians 15, 17 says this.
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If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
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That's why we celebrate the resurrection every week.
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You thought I was going to say every year.
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Because we do.
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We have a big Resurrection Sunday celebration every year, right? We celebrate Resurrection Sunday.
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Some people call it Easter.
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We celebrate it on the week of Holy Week.
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And it's coming.
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And we look forward to Holy Week because we do a few special things.
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We do a Palm Sunday celebration, which was the week before.
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We do a celebration of the Jewish Passover meal, which we do that every other year.
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And this just happens to be the year we're doing it.
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So everybody's invited to come.
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And so that's the Thursday night prior to the...
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And we show how everything in that meal pointed to Christ.
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So that's that Thursday night pointing to Christ.
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And then we have Sunday morning.
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We have a sunrise service outside with a big speaker.
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And we try to reach the whole community.
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And we preach outside about the resurrection of Jesus.
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Every year we do that.
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Open air preaching on the Resurrection Sunday morning.
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But like I said though, we celebrate the resurrection every week.
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Why do Christians worship on Sunday? Because Jesus rose on Sunday.
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What? You look like you wanted to ask a question.
46:52
No, I have no question.
46:53
Okay.
46:54
Sunday? Really? He rose on the first day of the week.
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That's Sunday.
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Sunday is.
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Yeah.
46:58
And here's the thing about that.
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In a week from Saturday, I'm going to be in a debate.
47:05
We're having a debate here at the church.
47:06
Every one of you are invited.
47:09
There's a debate that's going to be here on February the 9th.
47:14
And the subject is the Sabbath.
47:15
The question is, we worship on Sunday.
47:19
But does that make Sunday the new Sabbath? I say no.
47:23
My partner or my debate opponent, if you will, says yes.
47:27
Because that's the Puritan position.
47:28
The Puritan position was Sunday is the Sabbath.
47:31
And I disagree.
47:32
But we're going to have a lively and I hope encouraging exchange.
47:36
But you will hear me say in the debate.
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Sunday is an important day.
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But not because it's Sabbath.
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Because it's the day my Savior rose from the dead.
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And so I have every reason to worship on Sunday.
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I have every reason to set apart Sunday to worship.
47:52
But not because it's Sabbath.
47:53
Because I believe my rest, my Sabbath, is in my Savior.
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Not in a day.
47:59
And that's going to be my position.
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So, anyway, I encourage you to come.
48:03
But that's the validation of the claims.
48:06
Jesus rose from the dead and validated his claims.
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Number two, under resurrection.
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His post-resurrection appearances indicate.
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Let me back up because I'm saying this wrong.
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Much is made of his post-resurrection appearances.
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When I say much is made, 1 Corinthians 15, 5-8 talks about the fact that he appeared to the women.
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That he appeared to the disciples.
48:38
That he appeared to Peter.
48:39
Then he appeared to over 500 people.
48:42
Right? This is one of the reasons why we know this wasn't just a small group of Jewish people.
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Producing a hoax in the first century Palestine.
48:52
But this was something that could not have been anything but a legitimate historical event.
48:57
Because it was seen by many, many people.
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And those people were willing to give their lives.
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Not for something they believed.
49:03
But for something they had seen.
49:05
Jesus is risen from the dead.
49:10
1 Corinthians 15, 5-8.
49:12
That's when he talks about the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
49:17
And the resurrection is attested to by all these witnesses.
49:21
Over 500 people having seen him alive.
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Alright, third thing under resurrection.
49:26
It marks the first instance of the final resurrected humanity.
49:32
Let me say that again.
49:33
It marks the first instance of the final resurrected humanity.
49:38
So what are you talking about? 1 Corinthians 15, I'm here so I'll read it.
49:43
Verse 20.
49:44
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.
49:46
The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
49:50
Jesus is called the first fruits of the resurrection.
49:52
Why? Because he was the first person to raise from the dead.
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Never to die again.
49:58
Lazarus rose from the dead.
49:59
He died again.
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Jairus' daughter.
50:02
She rose from the dead.
50:03
She died again.
50:05
The widow's son.
50:06
He rose from the dead.
50:07
He died again.
50:07
Jesus is the first truly resurrected human never to die again.
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And thus he is called the first fruits of the resurrection.
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His resurrection is the promise of our resurrection.
50:22
So that's again what his resurrection does.
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Now last thing.
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His ascension.
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His ascension ended his earthly ministry and his humiliation.
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Remember what his humiliation was? Coming to earth as a slave, as a servant.
50:43
Taking the form of a man.
50:44
Dying on a cross.
50:46
But then he ascended into heaven.
50:47
For what reason? That every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus is the Lord.
50:51
He said all authority in heaven and earth is given to me.
50:56
Didn't Jesus say that? All authority in heaven and earth is given to me.
50:59
Yes sir.
51:06
Every knee shall bow.
51:08
Yeah, every knee will bow.
51:10
Well, I'll have to look at the...
51:12
Well, I'll have to look.
51:14
The shall bow, I think, is the proper way to understand it.
51:17
But I have to look up the original word.
51:19
Every knee will bow.
51:21
Yeah, I think Revelation certainly shows that.
51:26
But not every knee will bow in obedience.
51:30
Every knee will bow either broken or in obedience.
51:35
Absolutely.
51:35
But also, one last thing on the ascension.
51:39
This is drawing to a close.
51:41
The ascension is necessary because it made the descent of the Spirit possible.
51:47
Jesus said in John 16, 7, I must go away, for if I don't go away the Spirit cannot come.
51:54
His ascension gives way to the descention of the Spirit.
51:59
And when did the Spirit descend? Pentecost.
52:04
50 days after the resurrection.
52:07
So you have 40 days of Jesus in ministry after the resurrection.
52:11
He ascends on the 40th day.
52:13
There's 10 days where the disciples are gathered in the upper room, praying and waiting.
52:20
And on the 50th day, Pentecost, the Spirit descends.
52:26
And that's when the church, I would argue in a sense, is born.
52:31
Because the Spirit now does what the Old Testament prophesied He would do.
52:36
He would fill the believers.
52:39
No longer would He be held in the temple, but now the Spirit is going to fill every believer.
52:46
And no man will have to tell another, know the Lord.
52:49
But every man who is filled with the Spirit will know the Lord.
52:53
And every person that's really a part of that new covenant will know the Lord.
52:59
Yes, sir.
52:59
Yeah.
53:05
No, 50 days after the resurrection.
53:08
Because Jesus was 40 days.
53:10
He resurrected, then for 40 days He ministered.
53:12
He ascended 10 days later, which 40 plus 10 is 50, obviously.
53:16
So that's the Pentecost.
53:18
That's what Penta means.
53:19
Penta is 5 or 50.
53:21
Pentecost is the 50th day after the resurrection.
53:26
Alright.
53:26
So my conclusion is this.
53:28
It's on the bottom of your sheet.
53:29
From conception to ascension, the life and ministry of Christ is significant.
53:37
Not one moment is insignificant.
53:40
Yet, there is a lot that we don't know.
53:43
Why? John tells us why.
53:47
If all the things that He said and did were written, there would not be enough books to contain all that was done.
53:53
So we are given snapshots in the life of Christ.
53:56
Even the three years of ministry, we're only given snapshots.
54:01
Only given snapshots.
54:02
We're given a snapshot of His birth in Matthew and Luke.
54:06
We're given a snapshot of His 12-year-old ministry there in the Gospel writers.
54:11
We're given a snapshot of various places in His life.
54:16
Did you know that some of the Gospels, like Mark, spend so much time just on the last week of His life? Just the last week of His life.
54:22
Not even the three years, just the last week.
54:26
Because the focus is what He came to do.
54:30
He came to do that thing that He did on the cross.
54:33
And He did it.
54:34
And He did it perfectly.
54:37
Fulfilling all the law of God.
54:39
Fulfilling all the promises of God.
54:41
Fulfilling everything God had demanded of Him.
54:44
And He became, in that instance, He became the one who took our sin and gave us His righteousness.
54:55
And we are now rightly called followers of Him.
55:00
So let's pray.
55:01
Father, I thank You.
55:03
I thank You for Your Word.
55:04
I thank You that we can follow Christ and be confident in Him.
55:08
Because His whole life is a testimony from conception to ascension.
55:12
His life is testimony of who He is.
55:16
He is our Savior.
55:18
He is our Lord.
55:20
He is the one that amazes and awes our heart.
55:30
He's the Lily of the Valley.
55:31
He's the Rose of Sharon.
55:32
He is also the Lion of Judah.
55:38
He is amazing.
55:39
He is Lord.
55:40
He has name after name after name.
55:45
Name above all names.
55:47
Worthy to be praised.
55:49
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His name we pray.
55:53
Amen.