Garage Sermon: Proof of Jesus

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The call is to turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus. Okay, Christophany is an appearance of Christ in the

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Old Testament. Yeah, that's where Jesus actually appears. Just real fast, can anybody name a moment where Christ appeared in the

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Old Testament, where Jesus actually appears? Okay, Daniel in the lion's den, angel of the

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Lord, right? Okay. Another one? There you go, wrestling with Jacob, right?

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That's Christophany, right? So he actually does appear, actually, in the Old Testament. But last week I gave us some texts from the

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Old Testament that told us about Jesus long before he came, right? What are some of those verses?

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Who knows? We'll make sure that you guys are getting this and I'm not just talking over or being too fast.

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Micah, Isaiah, Psalms. Good, good, excellent. Okay, so let's start with prayer. Let's start with prayer.

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Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for our fellowship, our salvation. We thank you,

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Lord, most of all for Jesus, who is the anchor of our souls, who is the source of all of our hope and salvation, who is our righteousness.

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Lord, thank you that you save sinners like us, broken people like us who don't deserve you.

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We thank you, Lord, for the gift of eternal life through faith. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you lived a perfect life in the place of people who don't deserve you, who sin against you.

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We thank you that you died for our sins and that you were buried and you rose again so that we could have life through faith in you.

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We pray tonight, God, that you get me out of the way, that, Lord, that you would allow your people to hear your voice from your word.

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We pray that whatever, Lord, is from me would be forgotten and whatever is from you, Lord, would be rooted into our souls.

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In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so there is a text that is actually one of my favorite texts and ask the question, what's the name of the church?

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The name of our church is Apologia Church. It's in Arizona and the word

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Apologia is a Greek word that Peter, the Apostle Peter, uses. And it's one of my favorite texts about Peter because what is

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Peter famous for? Let's try this. The Apostle Peter, what is he famous for? How would you like to go down in history as that guy?

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2 ,000 years later, on an island in the middle of the ocean, you ask about Peter and everyone says, oh, he's the one who denied

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Jesus, right? Like we forget all the other really great stuff. We remember he denied Jesus, right, three times.

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Well, something happened with Peter that completely and absolutely transformed him for good.

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He went from being a person who was fearful of men, who was fearful of his testimony, who was fearful of his

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Savior and representing his Savior, to a man who not very long after the resurrection, he was actually standing before people who were in government positions and they threatened

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Peter. They said to him, they said, we told you not to speak in this name anymore. You're intending to bring this man's blood upon us.

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So not long after he denies Jesus, he gets an opportunity to deny Jesus again, right?

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So in Acts chapters 5 and 6, you can read through here, you'll see the Apostle Peter is warned to shut up, to stop speaking in Jesus' name.

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They throw him into jail and then an angel lets him out. Then he goes back in and starts preaching the gospel again.

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And so they get him again and they say, basically, we told you to stop preaching in his name. And so what

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Peter says is, we must obey God, what's that? Rather than men, obey

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God rather than men. So something happened with Peter after the resurrection of Jesus that completely transformed him from a coward who was afraid to actually speak for Christ to a person who was willing to take a beating.

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In that same text, it says that they beat the apostles and they sent them on their way.

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And this is what it says about Peter and the apostle. It says this, it says that they went away from the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's name.

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So something happens with Peter that changes him completely after Jesus dies and rises from the dead.

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And what's amazing is near the end of his life, we know that Peter was ultimately killed for his faith in Jesus.

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Now there's two conflicting traditions coming up from history. We don't know which one is exactly true, but we know that the fact that he was martyred is true.

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Anybody know what Peter is known for in terms of his death? Have you ever heard how Peter died? So that's one of the traditions is that Peter was crucified upside down because he didn't think he was worthy to be killed in the same way as his

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Lord. Now that's possible, that really is. We know that he was killed under Nero's reign. Nero was an emperor in Rome.

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Nero tried to wipe out the Christian church. And we know that Paul was killed, he was beheaded.

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We know that the apostles were killed. Many Christians were killed under Nero. He tried to destroy the entire church.

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But Peter was crucified. Now whether he was crucified upside down or normally, we're not actually sure because there's two traditions that come up that talk about Peter.

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But this is one of my favorite things about Peter. He was so changed by Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension that near the end of his life, this is a guy that goes from saying,

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I'm not with Jesus, I don't know who you're talking about, to now this is what he says to Christians near the end of his life.

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He says this. In 1 Peter 3 .15, he says, But in your hearts, honor

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Christ the Lord as holy. Set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts.

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And he says this, Always being prepared to make a defense. That's the word apologia.

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The Greek word apologia is reasoned defense. Peter says, Set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts.

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Always being ready to make a reasoned defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you.

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Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Gentleness and respect.

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Excuse me, my allergy is going crazy. All this rain is kicking it all up. So what's powerful about this particular text is the apostle

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Peter now goes from being a coward to being a giant for his faith. And what he tells us as Christians is this.

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First, you set Jesus apart as Lord in your hearts. That's the first step. He doesn't just say, hey guys, be ready to give a defense of your faith in Jesus.

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Always being ready to give a reason for everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is within you. He doesn't just say that.

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He says first set Jesus apart as Lord. As kurios. In your hearts.

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Essentially Peter is saying this. First set Jesus apart as your Lord, your Master, your God, in your hearts, always being ready to give a reasoned defense to anybody who asks you for a reason for the hope that is within you.

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Yet do it with gentleness and with respect. So here's the amazing thing about that text that's kind of scary.

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Peter says this. For everyone who asks you, be ready with a reason for the hope that is within you.

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So actually the word apologia, a reasoned defense, is the word that we get a Christian apologetics from.

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And it's the defense of the Christian faith. And what Peter says is that as Christians we need to have Christ set apart as Lord in our hearts, but we need to be ready to give a defense of our faith to everyone who asks of us.

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So that means when you run into the Latter Day Saints, do you have an answer to the

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Latter Day Saints? In terms of why you believe these things about Jesus and you believe this about the

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Gospel? Are you able to interact with your Jehovah's Witness friends who tell you that in the 19th century

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Charles Taze Russell came about with this new revelation and this is the revelation and here's the word you should be reading.

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Oh, and by the way, Jesus isn't the eternal God. He's just Michael the Archangel. He is the first and greatest creation of Jehovah God.

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When they tell you that story about their Jesus, do you have a reasoned defense for them? Or when the

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New Age hippie comes over from the mainland and they try to tell you about all this strange spiritism and weird spirituality, right?

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And they tell you that you're just one with the universe, baby, and you should just enter into that experience, right?

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And they almost look like they're hovering, right? Off the airplane throughout town. Like, do you have an answer for them?

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Because what Peter says is be ready with an answer for everyone who asks you for a reason for the whole...

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Now here's the thing, watch. Don't be afraid of that. Don't be afraid to think, well, now I need to be this massive intellectual and buy new bookshelves and order books that will take six weeks to get here or however long it takes you guys to get books.

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Like, this is not about you knowing everything about everything. It's really a question of this. Do you have

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Jesus first set apart as Lord in your hearts, and are you ready with a reasoned defense for everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's within you?

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Are you ready to talk about why you believe Jesus is who He claimed to be? See, as Christians, we're called by God to actually do that.

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Listen, here's what's really important. The Christian faith is an intellectual, rigorous faith.

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It's not just spiritual. It's not just joyful. It's not just energized by God.

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It's also a faith of the mind. It's also a faith that says, this is the truth, right?

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Now, we live in a time where we are so impacted by people that say, well, your truth is your truth.

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My truth is my truth, right? Let everybody live their truth. We have people today trying to make popular the idea that there are not two genders, male and female.

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Things that are as obvious as maleness and femaleness, people say, well, that's not my truth, baby.

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That's not what I believe, right? Well, what do you believe? Well, I believe that I'm a woman, right?

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With male body parts, right? That's what we say today. We have actual people that will say, there's no such thing as absolute truth.

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But see, listen, Jesus says I am the way and the what? Truth and the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. You have to understand that our God comes into this world saying that He is the embodiment of truth.

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He is the foundation of truth. And if you have something that's true, then that means by necessity there's something that is what?

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False. The idea of truth necessitates the idea of something that's false. So listen, as Christians we cannot walk into the world with the gospel saying this, my

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God's just one God among many gods. You can have whatever God you want. We can't say the message of Jesus is, well,

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He's a way to salvation because what Jesus says is I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. Amen? So as Christians it's important for us to know what we believe, why we believe it, and be willing to actually give somebody a reason to defend.

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So here's the question I asked you last week. I said to you last week, I said, brothers and sisters, do you have an answer to somebody who asks you why do you believe

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Jesus is the Messiah? Why do you believe that He's the one that was promised? And we talked a bit about why that is.

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Some people said, well, the resurrection, Jesus is raised from the dead, that's an historical event, it's a historical truth, it can be demonstrated, and by the way, it can.

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Some people said, well, because I've experienced Him, I know Him, right? But after last week, let me ask you this now.

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Why do you believe Jesus is the Messiah? How do you know that to be true? We talked a bit at the beginning, so go ahead and throw those out.

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Let's make sure that everybody who wasn't here last week can hear it. Why do you believe Jesus is the Messiah? Give me some reasons.

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And do this. Do this for me. Open your Bibles. Open your Bibles. Show me from your Bibles how you know

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Jesus is the Messiah. That's excellent.

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Let's hang on to the prophecy one. What prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus? Okay, it was prophesied that He was going to rise from the dead, yes.

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But last week I gave you a few prophecies, right? Anybody have one that they really loved from last week?

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Any prophecies that really... Isaiah, anybody remember what it was?

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Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, right? Let's do this real fast.

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Let's go there. Everyone go to Isaiah 53. Isaiah is Old Testament prophet, and he's from about 600 some odd years before the time of Christ.

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We have a scroll from Isaiah that's in the Dead Sea Scrolls that was buried about 200 years before Jesus.

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And the Dead Sea Scroll version of Isaiah is the same as our version. Differences are spelling and style and those sorts of things, but Isaiah 53 is there.

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So Isaiah 53 is a text written long before Jesus comes. And in this text we see a beautiful picture that God laid down of the

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Messiah long before He came to us, right? And in Isaiah 53, we're going to review this in a second here just to talk about this particular text.

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But here's what I want to do tonight, okay? I'm going to give you guys something to memorize that will help you to think through how we know

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Jesus is the Messiah and to do it in a way where you can communicate it because you can remember it, okay?

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So here's the question, ready? Is Jesus the Messiah? My answer is this, most definitely.

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Most definitely. And the way that we can remember this is this, ready? M -O -S -T

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Most definitely. So if you can remember the letters M -O -S -T, you can remember what

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I'm teaching you tonight, okay? Is He the Messiah? Most definitely He is the Messiah. M -O -S -T

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The M in the cross sticker acronym is Messianic prophecies fulfilled.

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Messianic prophecy from the Old Testament that's fulfilled in Jesus. The O is the original life of Jesus.

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The S is the symbols fulfilled in Jesus. And the T is the transformation of the lives of the apostles and people today.

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So M -O -S -T, M is what? Messianic prophecy.

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The O is what? Original life of Jesus. The S is what? Symbols fulfilled.

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And the T is what? Transformation of the lives of the apostles and people today, okay?

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You guys ready to do it? So I'm going to do my best today to blitz you with stuff. Please raise your hand and stop me and let me know if you want me to try to explain more or slow down.

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I have that problem. The sin of going too fast, okay? So let's try this. Let's start with the M. Messianic prophecies fulfilled in Jesus.

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Help me with this. Help me explain so that it's not just me instructing. Help me with this. If you were to talk to somebody about Messianic prophecies of Jesus, what would you say to them?

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Why is that unique or interesting with Jesus? Yes. Yes.

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I can count on my bones, he says. Right? His bones wouldn't be broken. Yes. Psalm 22.

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We did it last week. Psalm 22 has a psalm that starts off with these words. Help me now finish it.

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Ready? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So Psalm 22 starts with my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then that psalm moves down and it says they pierced my hands and my feet.

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It says my heart is like wax. It is melted within me. It says they surround me and they wag their heads saying he trusted in the

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Lord. Right? And it says that they divided my garments among them and from my clothing they cast lots.

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Right? That's Psalm 22 written about a thousand years before Jesus. And when it says they pierced his hands and his feet, that's talking about a form of torture that didn't even exist yet.

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The Romans created crucifixion. Right? And his heart like wax melted within him.

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That whole thing describes Jesus' death on the cross. They pierced through his ribcage just to make sure that he was dead.

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And his it says blood and water flowed out. And people that research the historical accounts say that means they pierced his heart sack because blood and water flowed out.

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It says I can count all my bones. The Messiah's bones wouldn't be broken. What did they do when they came to Jesus on the cross?

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They wanted to make sure that he was dead and that they were all dead so they weren't hanging over there on Sabbath.

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So what did they do to their legs? They broke their legs. Why would you break the legs of the criminals?

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Why? So you can't push up off your legs to catch your breath. You would suffocate faster.

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Right? But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. So they didn't break his legs but they did pierce his heart to make sure that he was dead for sure because if he wasn't dead, the soldier would be dead.

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Right? Now that text is a prophecy from the Old Testament that tells all about Jesus, his death.

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Right? But then that prophecy says that Jesus is actually not going to stay dead.

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Right? And it says that all the nations are going to be drawn to God. They're going to return to worship Yahweh.

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And I pointed out last week something really cool about this moment. Right? Here we are, brothers and sisters in the

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Lord. Amen? Look at all the different colors here in this room right now.

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Right? Isn't it beautiful? Here is the families of the earth returning to worship

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God because of Christ, because of his passion, because of his crucifixion. Right? Okay, so Messianic prophecies is this.

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The Old Testament is written long before Jesus. It tells us all the details necessary to know

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Jesus. Right? For example, if you want to get specific, it tells us who the Messiah is.

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Now, if the Old Testament had just said, there's going to be a guy, a really righteous man, well that's good but it's kind of vague.

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But if the Old Testament tells us that God himself is coming as a man, that's so specific only one being can fulfill that role.

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Because how many gods are there? One. Before me there was no

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God formed, neither shall there be after me. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no

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God. God says this. He is God in the heavens above alone and on the earth below.

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There is no other. There is only one God. Hear oh Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. And the amazing thing about Isaiah is that Isaiah says long before Jesus comes,

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Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, unto us a son is born, a child is, or a son is given and a child is born and the government will be upon his shoulders and it says his name will be called

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Wonderful Counselor El Gebor, the mighty

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God, the Father of Eternity and it says of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end and it says on the throne of David to establish it and to uphold it with justice and then what's it say?

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So get this, watch. It's not just that there's going to be a

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Messiah. This is critical to get. Listen, you need to understand how amazing our faith is. It's not just that there's going to be a

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Messiah. It's that the one true and living God is going to come down as a son and a child and he is going to establish his kingdom to bring peace and justice and righteousness into the world.

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But how many gods are there? There's only one God. So who's coming? God's coming.

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Jesus, the second person of the Trinity is coming and walking among us to bring his kingdom and to bring salvation.

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Guys, listen, you can't get more specific than that. Have you guys ever seen some of the prophecies that people try from false religions?

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You ever seen some of those prophecies? Or like Nostradamus prophecies, right? Like there's going to be this guy and he's going to walk upright and he's going to say some really cool things and like they're really vague and you can squeeze anything into them.

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The Bible's prophecies are not like that. They are specific to person, to identity, to location, to time.

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When is this going to happen? I'll give you another example. Where's the Messiah coming from? I told it to you last week.

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Bethlehem. But wait a minute. When Jesus was in the womb of Mary, were they in Bethlehem?

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No. How'd they get to Bethlehem? A pagan governor calls a census to bring them back and then when they get there,

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Jesus is born where? In Bethlehem, which is where the Bible says, Micah 5 2, that he was coming from, but it gets better.

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It's not just Bethlehem. It says that he's coming from Bethlehem and it says, His goings forth are from old, yea, even from everlasting, from eternity.

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There it is again. Not a vague prophecy. It's specific

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Bethlehem. Oh, and by the way, he's the eternal one. Well, who's the eternal one?

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Well, there's lots of those walking around. No, there's only one God, one eternal God. Psalm 90 verse 2, from eternity into eternity, you are

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God. So the one coming to Bethlehem is the eternal God. But then it gets even better.

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Messianic prophecies fulfilled in Jesus. Daniel chapter 9. Now, by the way, I am not even going to try to unpack

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Daniel 9 because it took me like 6 months at home. I have a problem with talking a lot at church, right?

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But Daniel chapter 9 is an amazing, amazing, amazing verse. You have got to hear this.

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It's one of my very favorite prophecies. I brought this to a rabbi once who held a seminar in Phoenix that was this.

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Jesus is not the Messiah. A rabbi. And he invited the public, mostly

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Jews, to come and listen to how we know Jesus is not the Messiah. So I saw this ad in the

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Jewish newspaper in my town and I thought, I'll go. I'll check it out. So I brought my Bible, my backpack, and I go with a couple friends.

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We were the only people there at this meeting with the Bible. The only ones. And it was really awkward because we showed up, the

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Christians. I got to put a little yarmulke on. I got to wear it on the back of my head. And we showed up. Everyone knew we were

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Gentiles. So we're sitting there and I have my Bible open and everybody kept looking back. Like looking at our

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Bibles because nobody had a Bible. So the rabbi goes up and he's all decked out in his rabbi stuff and you know he's up there and when he was all finished about 2 hours he talked, he didn't go into any of the passages that we would do.

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For 2 ,000 years Jewish Christians have been using to show Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. So when he was all finished,

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I wanted to be gentle and with respect. So I walked up down the middle of the aisle.

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I walked up to the rabbi. Everybody's watching us and as soon as I got in front of them, everyone swarms us.

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And they're just waiting for the fight between the rabbi and the Christian. And so Daniel chapter 9 was a verse that I showed him.

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I said, Rabbi, I said, thank you for letting us come tonight. He said, of course. And I said,

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I'm just wondering how come you didn't touch on any of the scriptures from the Torah and the Tanakh, the Old Testament, that demonstrate that Jesus is

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Mashiach, that he's the Messiah. He said, well, I did all of them. I said, Rabbi, you didn't touch one that I would show you.

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And he goes, well, like what? I said, where do I start? I was like, how about Daniel chapter 9?

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And he goes, well, what about it? I said, well, Daniel 9 was written long before Jesus comes. He goes, yes, yes.

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And I said, well, Daniel 9 says that there's going to be a certain time period that goes by and you can count down the days till the

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Messiah. And I said, but in that prophecy, it says that the Messiah is going to be cut off.

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He's going to die a violent death. And then it says that the second Jewish temple is going to be destroyed.

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Now, by the way, just catch this. Now, if you've lost me now, come back because this is massive.

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When Daniel wrote Daniel, there was not a second temple.

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What happened to the temple? The first temple was destroyed because of their sin.

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Now, when Daniel writes about this other temple being destroyed, listen, he's not just prophesying the destruction of the second temple, he's prophesying the rebuilding of the second temple.

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But what's amazing is this, listen closely. It says the Messiah is going to come and he's going to die a violent death and then the second temple is going to be destroyed.

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Well, I said to the rabbi, Rabbi Daniel 9 says the Messiah is going to come, he's going to die, and then the second temple is going to be destroyed.

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I said, Rabbi, when was the second temple destroyed? He said, well, everybody knows it was destroyed in 70

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AD. I said, right, 40 years after Jesus' death and resurrection.

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And so I said, Rabbi, if the temple's gone, it's destroyed, if Jesus isn't the

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Messiah, who is? And so the rabbi looks around, everybody's smiling, you know, they're like, just wait till he gets him, wait till he gets him.

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And so the rabbi grabs my Bible, he starts looking through it, he starts going like this, and he looks up and everyone's just waiting, panting, they're like, watch this, watch this.

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And he goes, I'll tell you what, give me your email address, I'll get back to you.

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Because listen, when we're talking about the Messianic prophecies of Jesus, we are not talking about vague, weird prophecies that could fit anybody.

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We're talking about specifics. It has to be God. God, Jesus, the second person of the

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Trinity, God himself as a man. He has to come from Bethlehem. He has to actually come and die before the second temple's destroyed.

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Listen, brothers and sisters, think about this for a moment. If Jesus isn't the Messiah, watch, there is no

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Messiah. There isn't one. Because the second temple is gone. It's destroyed.

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It's done. It was taken apart just like Jesus said before that generation had all died,

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Jesus actually pointed to the temple and said, before that generation passed away, there wouldn't be one stone left standing upon another.

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That's what Jesus promised them, and it happened just like Daniel said, hundreds of years before Jesus came.

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Now here's what's really important. Listen, the Bible tells us who the Messiah is long before he comes.

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Who is he? Jesus, right? But specifically? God. Where is he coming to?

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I'm reviewing with you. Guys, I promise I will not hurt you for speaking. I'm giving a review now because I want to make sure

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I don't just throw things at you. Listen, I have failed as your teacher. I have failed as your brother and your teacher.

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If I walk away from here and you say, isn't that great that Jeff knows that? I failed you.

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So this is not about me just having an opportunity to talk. I want to serve you, and I want you to be blessed and encouraged.

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So I want to help you. So let's do the first thing. Who is the Messiah from the Old Testament? Who? God. Where is he coming from?

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Bethlehem, right? Bethlehem. What does it say about the Messiah and the second temple? When does the

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Messiah have to come, according to Daniel 9? Before the second temple was destroyed.

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When was it destroyed, brothers and sisters? 70 AD, 40 years after Jesus' death and resurrection.

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Do you see that? Or how about this? Isaiah 53 tells you all the details, and this is the last one

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I'll do tonight. We could go all night with this, I promise. But here's the last one I'll show you for the Messianic Prophecy.

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I'm going to read through like I did last week to make sure this is rooted in your souls because this is so beautiful.

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I'm going to start above 53 at 52, 13. Now this text says,

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Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He should be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. Now, what's that?

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That's powerful. The servant will act wisely. He'll be high and lifted up.

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This servant's going to be high and lifted up. He's going to be exalted. That's a prominent position. Isn't that good?

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Yes? But watch what it says. It's a switch right after. It says this, As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

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Wait a minute. It just said that he was going to be exalted and lifted up and now it's saying that he's going to be so marred that he's beyond human semblance, the ability to even figure out.

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And it says this, So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand.

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Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he, this

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Messiah, grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

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Real fast. What was the reaction of people when they said, We found the

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Messiah! We found the Messiah! What did one of the disciples say? He said, Nazareth?

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Can any good thing come from Nazareth? I said to you guys last week that Nazareth, people used to say, was a made up place because it was so insignificant and so small that people thought that we were lying about it until of course they found it.

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That's where Jesus came from. He came from a place that was so insignificant it was hardly on the map.

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There was nothing about Jesus that would have drawn you to him. As he was walking down the street, he wasn't glowing.

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Right? He did have a moment where his light shone through, right?

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Where God took off the veil for a second. When was that? The Mount of Transfiguration was that moment where they got a real glimpse of who they were dealing with.

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And it freaked them out. Right? They wanted to build all these tabernacles. Let's set something up here because this is an amazing moment.

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Who showed up with Jesus? Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets. That was the only moment where Jesus unveiled his glory and his light shone through to them.

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But other than that, Jesus is walking along Galilee and he's just like one of us.

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Right? Jesus is just like one of us. He bleeds like us.

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He sweats like us. Jesus got stomach aches. Jesus had pimples probably.

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Right? Think of Jesus. Listen, we can't think about Jesus as he was hovering through the streets of Jerusalem because yes, he was fully

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God, but he was also fully man. And Jesus was seen in his day as another human being.

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And it says this, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces.

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He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely, watch this, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

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Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. What's that say? Long before Jesus comes, it says that they were going to think, they were going to think that he was suffering for his own sins.

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They were going to think that he was the person who was being punished. But here's what it says, as he was despised and rejected.

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Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

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All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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Now real quick, this is important, little detail, so important to get right. Who wrote Isaiah?

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Yes, good, okay, okay. It's so simple, right? No trick questions, right? Isaiah wrote

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Isaiah. Now, watch. Isaiah has an amazing scene in Isaiah 6 that I think you all know.

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And this is the scene where he gets a glimpse into God's throne room, and he sees the angels, right, the angels singing about God, saying about God, what?

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Holy, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. Now in the

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Hebrew, there are no exclamation points. Like if I wanted to shout something in Kauai, I can just write, hey!

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Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, and you would know what I'm saying, right?

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I'm not going, hey, right? You know what I'm doing. I am telling you, hey, this is supposed to be screamed at you, hey!

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Like one, two, three. In the Hebrew, there are no punctuation points. If you want to say something in the

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Hebrew and mean it, you say it once. That's it. If you want to yell it, stress it, you say it two times.

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If you want to absolutely scream it, you say it three times.

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So the angels are saying, holy, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty.

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And what does Isaiah say when he gets a glimpse of God's holiness? What's the first thing he does? He says, woe is me.

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What that is in Hebrew as a prophet is saying, God, kill me. End my life. And he says,

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I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm coming apart at the seams. What Isaiah knows is that there is no one holy.

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There is no one righteous. So this is really strange. A monotheistic

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Jew who believes in only one God, that knows that only God is holy, and that all of us are sinners, says that the

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Messiah who's coming is going to have our sin put onto him.

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Can I ask you a question? Let's do a quick review of our Bible. Quick question.

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Um, Abraham. Abraham is the father of our faith. Amen? Abraham believed

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God. It was credited to him for righteousness. He was saved by faith in the same way we're saved by faith.

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From the very beginning, it's always been through faith and through faith alone. But is Abraham guilty of any sin?

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What did he do that's in the record? What did he do? He lied.

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About who? His wife. Said it was who? His sister. Now he's obviously trying to guard his life, but that's still a lie.

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Right? Or how about this? Moses. He's a prophet of God, one of our heroes of the faith, right?

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Moses, right? How about Moses? You got any sins for Moses on the page? Right? He killed somebody.

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But what else? There you go.

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He's not even allowed in the promised land because of his sin. Or how about King David? He's fine, right?

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Right? King David, right? The hero, like he's the man after God's own heart. He's good, right? He can take our sins, David. Yeah?

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No? What is he guilty of? Adultery and murder. How do you like all of our heroes absolutely sucking at this?

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Right? So we've got David who is adulterer and a murderer. Goodness. How about one of the apostles?

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Paul. He can take our sins. What does Paul call himself? The chief of sinners.

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Or how about Peter? He'll take our sins. Peter's good, right? He's a hero and Peter can take our sins. What did

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Peter do? Deny Christ. How many times do we have to see in the scriptures that even our heroes are sinners?

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Brothers and sisters, get this. Ready? Can any biblical hero as much of a hero as they are, can they take our sins?

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So what in the world is Isaiah doing saying that someone is coming and God's going to lay on him our sins?

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He's prophesying about the Messiah and it's God himself. Who's the only righteous one? God. Watch.

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Here's the thing. Watch. If God is holy and you're a sinner, what do you need to be right with God? If he's holy and you're a sinner, if you're corrupt, if you're broken, if you're foul and he's holy, what do you need?

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You need a righteousness that is like him. And who's the only person that can give you that righteousness?

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God himself. That's why you need God to be our savior.

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Only God. Only God can give you his perfect righteousness. Okay. I digress. More. It says this.

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What did Jesus do as he went from trial to trial, as they were beating him, as they were lying about him?

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Did he try to get out of it? Did he try to escape? As a matter of fact, they were getting upset with him because he wasn't saying anything.

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He was just going to his death. He wasn't trying to escape. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter.

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And it says this. Did you catch that?

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It just combined his dying with his being stricken for God's people.

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His death was for God's people. But there's more. It says this.

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Who did Jesus die with? Thieves.

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But what did the father count Jesus as when he died? The wicked. You. Me.

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Whose tomb was he buried in? Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man.

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Although he had done no violence and there was no, listen closely, this is huge, there was no deceit in his mouth.

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Who wrote this? Isaiah. What was his first response when he got a glimpse of God's holiness?

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Tell me again. What was me? I'm a man of what? What does the person who wrote this know about his lips?

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They're unclean. What does he say about the Messiah? There's no deceit in his mouth. Do you see it?

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Now watch. It says this. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

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He shall prolong his days. Wait, I thought he was dead. It says he dies, but now it says that he sees his offspring.

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He prolongs his days. It says the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul.

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He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge, by knowing him.

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Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

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Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

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Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. How do you like that? Who is that?

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Who is it? It's Jesus. You can't get away from it. You cannot get around it. That is so specific.

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You're reading about Jesus. Watch. People used to say, you know how that worked?

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Isaiah 53. You know how it worked? Some sneaky Christian put that in Isaiah long after the time of Christ.

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And you know what? At the time, it was difficult to, like, refute that. I mean, it was not difficult, but it was hard to basically tell somebody.

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Like, nobody put that in there, right? Because the problem was that the oldest scroll of Isaiah we had at the time was from long after Christ's death because they turned to dust.

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These things are written on animal skins and papyrus. They turned to dust. And then when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls buried 200 years before Jesus, what did they find in Isaiah?

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Same text we have now. Like God says, He preserves His Word, right?

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Is that awesome or what? Am I the only one that gets, like, excited about this? Because it's amazing. Now watch.

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I can go all night with this, but what did I tell you? Is Jesus the Messiah? I'd love to think of an acrostic for yes, but I needed more.

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What is the acrostic I gave you? Most definitely. What's the M stand for? Messianic prophecies.

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We'll end there for now. We could go all night with this. We really could. But let me give you another one. Ready? The O stands for what?

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Now for this, I'm just gonna tell you this because I want to get to the S and spend more time on that one.

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The O, the original life of Jesus is so powerful. The O, original life of Jesus.

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How do we know He's the Messiah? Well, the Messiah must be God in the flesh. And when you look at Jesus' life, it's the unique life that nobody in history has matched.

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Jesus, listen, could stand, watch, this is huge, He could do what you can't do.

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All of us can't do. He could stand in front of His friends, His family, and His enemies, and He could say this, which of you accuses me of sin?

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Now watch. I dare you. I dare you to stand up right now with your family. I dare you to stand up right now and go, which of you accuses me of sin?

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Right? You know you'd have family here going, I've known you for a while, right?

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I've seen you a bit. Right? Listen, if I did that with my family, if I said, which of you accuses me of sin?

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My son's right here. He'd be like, I'll give you a, you want a list? I'll write it down now. Like what, do you want to start 2018 or 17?

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Right? Because listen, we're sinners, but Jesus can do what we can't do. Nobody in history can do.

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The original life of Jesus is which of you accuses me of sin? And there is silence. There's another thing.

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Jesus can do something that we can't do, and that's this. Convince his family that he's

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God in the flesh. Watch this. What would it take for you to believe that your brother is

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God? You know, who has a brother here? Brothers? Got brothers?

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I got a brother, and I'll tell you right now, not even close. Right? And me,

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I'm a brother, and trust me, not even close. But listen, James was the Lord's brother, his half -brother.

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Mary did have other children. Yep. After Jesus, yes she did. It says it in the text.

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And we know that James was Jesus' half -brother. Now watch. Watch this. James wrote the book of James in your

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Bible, and James was one of the most well -known pastors in Jerusalem. He was famous, respected, revered as a pastor in Jerusalem, a follower of Jesus.

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What would it take for you to give up your life for the message that your brother is

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God and the only way to salvation is through him? What would you have to know about your brother?

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That he's God! Now James grew up with Jesus. He saw him, how he interacted with his mother and his stepfather.

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He saw him in how he dealt with trials and tragedies and difficulties. He saw

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Jesus when Jesus interacted with the father. And James, watch, he was martyred!

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He died a very brutal death for, watch, his faith in his brother as God and the only way to salvation.

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Anybody else have family members that could possibly think you're God? No way! Or how about this?

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The original life of Jesus, beyond just his righteousness and his sinless life. Never forget this, watch.

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The apostles of Jesus, they died gruesome martyr's deaths. Gruesome!

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For the testimony that Jesus is God in the flesh, that he's the righteous one, he's the only way to salvation, and that he rose again from the dead, that he's the king of the world, he's ascended and seated on the throne, he's brought his kingdom.

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Now, what's amazing about this, about Jesus' original life, and about that message, is those apostles walked with Jesus, they saw his life, they saw his ministry, they saw his death, they saw his resurrection, and they all died gruesome deaths to say that he's the only way to salvation.

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Can I ask you a question? What would it take for you to give up your life for a person that says they're

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God and the only way to salvation, when the death method is flaying?

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That is where they cut the skin off your body while you're still alive, all of it. All of it.

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That's how one of the apostles died. Or how about the apostle's age, was it Thomas who went to India? Thomas goes to India, and Thomas was when he went to India to bring the gospel to the pagans in India, they threw him into an oven and burned him alive.

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What would it take for you to be put on a rack and stretched until you're broken to pieces? Or how about being tied to a stake and wrapped in pitch and lit on fire?

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What would it take for you to die to say he is God and he's the only way to salvation?

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They walked with him, his original life of righteousness. Or how about this? Here's more. We can go on.

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Jesus showed his original life that is unmatched in that he showed control over the elements.

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What did Jesus walk on? Now this was not David Blaine. This is in the middle of the

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Sea of Galilee. There are no wires, there are no tricks, there is no technology. Jesus walks on water because, listen, he is the creator himself.

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That's the original life of the creator. Only the creator could control the elements like that. Or how about this?

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Did you ever catch this? Which, by the way, I will be honest, be real honest here. This would have been one of the things that freaked me out about walking with Jesus.

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It would have freaked me out. Do you know how many times in the Gospels you see it say, And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, answered them.

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I have to confess, that would have freaked me out. To be with Jesus and he just looks over at you.

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Right? And you're like, oh no. Jesus, knowing their thoughts.

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It says in the Bible that God searches the mind and heart. And here is

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Jesus, knowing their thoughts, answering them before they even speak.

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He controls the elements. He knows their thoughts before they answer. How about this? He's so in control of his own creation, he gives sight to the blind.

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He gives the deaf their hearing back. Or when a little girl is dead, he says, little girl arise, and she gets up.

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You know my favorite part about that one is? This is honestly my favorite part. It's one of those things historians look for.

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It's just sort of the things that are toss -ins that only eyewitnesses throw in. Right? It's not like a story that's just sort of like really perfected.

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It's a story that a witness will always just toss in incidental details. Right? Historians look for the incidental details that witnesses throw in.

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Like, oh and Larry was there. Or, oh and the sun was about this high. Or, when the little girl is told to arise, it says,

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Jesus says, give her something to eat. Because she's been dead for several days.

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So Jesus is like, she's probably hungry. Give her something to eat. Right? So he raises the little girl from the dead and shows that he has control over life and death.

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He brings to life. Or how about this? More importantly, Jesus doesn't just show he has control over other people's death and resurrection.

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He shows people that he has power over his own death and resurrection.

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Because what does Jesus say? He says, destroy this temple and in three days

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I, I, I will raise it up. By the way, that's a good one to show to your

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Jehovah's Witness friends. It says that Jesus told them,

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I will raise myself up. And they'll say, yeah but the Father raised Jesus. Yes. And it says the

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Holy Spirit raised Jesus. And it says God raised Jesus. But it says Jesus raised

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Jesus. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God. See how it works?

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The Bible says all those things. But it says Jesus raised himself from the dead. So, the M in most definitely stands for what?

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Messianic prophecies. The O stands for what? The original life of Jesus. Now we're finishing up here guys.

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The S, I could honestly spend weeks with you on. But I'm going to give you something you already know very well.

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Symbols fulfilled. Catch this. In the Old Testament, there are not just prophecies that predict

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Jesus coming. There are prophecies that actually are wrapped up in symbols. Now we did one last week, right?

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Remember the one we did last week? We already know this one. The Jews are in slavery to Egypt.

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Right? And then God sends Moses to Pharaoh to say what? Let my people go.

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And Pharaoh, God says he hardens Pharaoh's heart so that Pharaoh says no.

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Now by the way, get this. Pharaoh wanted to say no all by his lonesome as a sinner.

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God lets him be what he wants to be. A rebel against the king. And so he hardens his heart.

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And what does God send into Egypt? Plagues. Frogs. Locusts.

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What else? Lice. And what does God do to the water? Turns it to blood. What was significant, I told you last week about that, was that all those things were representative of the gods the

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Egyptians worshipped. So what is God doing to Egypt? He's showing them he's God.

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They're not. They're worshipping false gods. That's why the frogs and the locusts and the lice and the blood, because when the

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Egyptians are praying to the god of the waters to fix the waters, nothing's happening. Only God controls that.

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But what happens is it's Passover. God says to the Israelites, he says this, take a lamb, no spot, no blemish, and he says, don't break its bones.

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Now they don't know why. This is 1400 years before Jesus. That's when the exodus takes place.

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1400 years before Jesus. God says, lamb, no spot, no blemish, don't break its bones.

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And then he says, take the blood of that lamb and you put it over your doorposts. Coincidental.

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And he says this, when his judgment comes, he will pass over that house on account of the blood of the lamb and they will be redeemed from their slavery and they will enter into the promised land in relationship with God.

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Now here's what's amazing. That's 1400 years before Jesus. Guys, nobody knows about Jesus yet.

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They're new to this. They know he's God. He's the only one and he's rescuing us from our slavery. That's about what they know.

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Right? We know that. And now all of a sudden God gives them this ritual to do on Passover. Lamb, no spot, no blemish, don't break its bones.

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My judgment will pass over that house on account of the lamb. You'll be redeemed from your slavery to Egypt. Promised land.

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That's what they know. Now, fast forward. I'm going to sneeze. Whew. Okay.

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Now fast forward to the first century. And now what's the first thing John the Baptist says when he sees

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Jesus? Behold what? The lamb of God. Is Jesus without spot and blemish?

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He's without sin. Right? He's without sin. He says that he's without sin.

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Now what's amazing too is that when did Jesus die? Passover.

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What did they not do to the lamb's bones on the cross? They didn't break his bones. Jesus says whoever commits sin is a slave of sin but if the sun sets you free, what?

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You'll be free indeed. When Jesus is your Passover lamb, that blood of the lamb covers your house and the judgment of God passes over you on account of the lamb with no spot and blemish and no broken bones and you are rescued and ransomed from your slavery to sin and death and you are entering into the promised land of relationship with God.

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Are you seeing the symbolism now? But there's another one. It's my favorite. More than that. I have so many favorites.

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I have another one. I'm going to give you ones that you know. I know you know this one. Open your

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Bible because I want you to see it with your own eyes. Go to that picture.

55:37

Go to Genesis chapter 22. This is one of my all time favorite

55:45

When I first discovered this it gave me goosebumps. Okay.

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Now we're basically going to end on this one tonight. The transformation of the lives of the Apostle is easy enough to demonstrate.

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We've already talked a bit about it. Now on this text, Genesis 22 Abraham is the father of our faith.

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Him and Sarah can't have a child and God says what about Isaac? In his seed all the nations shall be blessed.

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Through who? Isaac. And what was that really about? And it's pointing to who? Jesus. Right? But it was going to be through Isaac and not

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Ishmael. And even with this, Abraham jumped the gun and he has sex with a concubine and they have

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Ishmael. Right? But who was the son of the promise? Isaac.

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Now watch. Catch this. This story now is happening about 20 years after Isaac. Genesis 22

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After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said,

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

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I will tell you. I shall tell you. Now watch this. This is big. He says, Take your son, your only son the son of your what?

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Love. And he says, Go where? Just down the street. No, he says,

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Go to Moriah and offer him there on a mountain. How many days journey is it?

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Three days. So God didn't say to Abraham just go across the street and sacrifice your son.

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First of all, that's kind of weird in the first place. He's the son that you said the whole world's going to be blessed through.

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Him. So what do you mean sacrifice him? My only son, the son of my love. He's the son of the promise.

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Watch this. This is huge, massive. The writer of Hebrew says this. That he knew that God even had the power to raise the dead.

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Abraham never thought that his son was going to die and stay dead. Because what? What did God promise him?

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That through Isaac all the world was going to be blessed. So here's what Abraham does. He says this.

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

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

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

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Three day journey. By foot. Not by vehicle. Not by boat.

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By foot. Three day journey to get to Mount Moriah, the specific place with his son, his only son, the son of his love.

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Three days it took him to get there. And this is what Abraham says. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

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Quick question. Did Abraham think at all that he was going to go kill his son and he was going to stay dead?

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What did he say was going to happen? We'll go over there and worship and what's going to happen? We're coming back.

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Why? Because he knew that God said Isaac was the son of the promise and in him all the nations would be blessed.

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So whatever God was doing here, he could even raise the dead. So watch what happens here.

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This is his son, his only son, the son of his love. Abraham said... Oh, I missed my spot there.

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Okay. It says, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

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And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. Now watch this.

59:29

This is where it gets awesome. Isaac's the son of his love, his only son. They go to this specific spot,

59:36

Moriah, that's a three -day journey. Isaac, his only son, the son of his love, is carrying the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

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Are you starting to catch it now? He's carrying the wood to the place of the sacrifice. Three -day journey to get there.

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His only son, the son of his love. And here's what it says. And Isaac said to his father

01:00:02

Abraham, my father, and he said, Here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood. But where is the, what?

01:00:10

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

01:00:19

So what's the question? Where is the lamb? And what does Abraham promise? God will provide for himself the lamb.

01:00:26

And so it says this. When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound

01:00:32

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

01:00:39

But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

01:00:45

And he said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now

01:00:50

I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

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The angel of the Lord. And Abraham lifted up his eyes. Wait, actually, I missed a spot there. Okay, yeah, there you go.

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And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him was a what? A ram, not a what?

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Not a lamb. Caught in the thicket by his horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

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So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the

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Lord it shall be provided. So check this out. Abraham takes his son, the son of his love, his only son, and he takes him to this place.

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It's three days away, Mount Moriah. He lays the wood on his only son and his son carries the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

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Abraham says, God will provide for himself the lamb. The angel of the Lord stops him and says,

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Don't do it. And what do they find in the thicket? A ram, not a what? Not a lamb.

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And then Abraham names that mountain, this is the place the Lord will provide it.

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And wouldn't you know it, nearly 2 ,000 years later, the son of God, God's only son, the son of his love, carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

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And did you know that Mount Moriah is where Jesus was crucified?

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So the amazing thing here is this, is that God told Abraham, you give your son as a sacrifice, but then he stopped him.

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But when God had his son go to the place of the sacrifice, he did not withhold his hand.

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And that's the place where he provided the lamb for the offering. That is

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Genesis 22, the symbolism of the Old Testament. We could go on and on and on.

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It just goes for days. God was not just having things happen in history.

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He was telling a story underneath it that his people would need to know about the Messiah. So is

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Jesus the Messiah? Most definitely. What's the M stand for? What's the

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O stand for? Sorry, the M stands for Messianic, the O stands for original life, the S stands for symbols fulfilled in Jesus from the

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Old Testament, and the T is the transformation of the lives of the apostles and people today. The Bible promised that God was going to send his

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Spirit. He was going to fill people. He was going to change their hearts. He was going to cause them to obey his statutes.

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One of the evidences that Jesus is the Messiah is your life.

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How many of you guys have turned to Christ in faith and your lives have been completely transformed by him?

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Yes, you still struggle with sin, but now you struggle with sin before you didn't.

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Now you struggle with it. You hate your sin. You desire God. You long for God. You long to know Jesus deeply.

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You long to worship him. You long to grow in him. Why? Because the Bible promised that God was going to transform the lives of his people by his

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Spirit in Jesus. You see it in the lives of the apostles and you see it in the lives of believers today.

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That was one of the promises of God's Old Covenant and New Covenant is the transformation of his people.

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So is Jesus the promised Messiah? Most definitely. I wish it was yes.

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Most definitely. There you go. Messianic prophecy, original life, symbols fulfilled, the transformation of the lives of the apostles and people today.