1472 - The Confusion Concerning Messiah.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1472. Today we're going to look in the New Testament concerning the Old Testament scriptures related to Jesus, his life, his mission, his substitutionary death, his burial, and his resurrection. And especially deal with how Jesus dealt with his disciples after the resurrection. And it is instructive to us that the scripture says that in passages even like Isaiah 53, which is so obviously to those of us who are followers of Jesus, that this is a reference to Jesus Himself, that we are puzzled when we encounter so many people, and especially Jewish people, that have never heard of Isaiah 53. And there are reasons for that, and we're going to deal with those tomorrow. But we have to understand that even the prophets themselves, when they were speaking of Messiah, didn't understand all about what was going to happen. And we learn that not just from the reaction of the disciples, but the apostle Peter in First Peter chapter one deals with this specifically, and he answers the question that many of us have asked, how was it that the people of the first century, the Jewish people that knew so much about the Old Testament and had studied the Torah and had studied the prophets and had studied the writings, especially the book of Isaiah, especially the book of Psalms, and the great prophecies concerning Messiah, how did they miss it? Well it's the same way that people miss it today who are non Jews. But we are especially puzzled when those who are people of the book just really did not realize what was going on when Jesus was here on the earth. And there's a lot of reasons for that. But we have to give some slack and we have to give some grace because the reality is Peter, when he was talking about this great salvation that God had made known to them, the disciples, those who walked with him, you've got to remember they didn't get it either. And Peter himself, just after the great confession of faith that he had given in the area of Caesarea Philippi in northern Israel, that the Lord had to say to him, Get behind me, Satan, because Peter almost contradicted everything that he had just confessed, because he had his own idea about who Messiah is and who Messiah was. And when he writes his first letter, he begins in chapter one. This is 1 Peter chapter 1, at verse 3, and for the verses that are following, he talks about the great living expectation, the living hope that we have in Jesus. And he talks about this great inheritance that God has given us through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It's incorruptible, it's undefiled, it will always be reserved for us in heaven and it will never fade away. How that you and I are kept, and our reservation in heaven is kept by the power of God through trusting in God's salvation, that it's going to be revealed in the future, how wonderful it is. And then he talks about trials and how that trials do not destroy our faith, but they refine our faith. And God uses trials in our lives and in this present world to refine us and to make us more like Jesus. And in this great salvation that he's talking about, he comes to verses 10 through 12 and he makes an astonishing statement. It's astonishing to me. He says, of this salvation that he's been talking about in verses three through verse nine, he says, of this salvation the prophets, that is, the prophets themselves have inquired and searched carefully, diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, to us, searching what or what manner of time the scriptures were telling us the reality, the Spirit of Christ was testifying beforehand, indicating the sufferings of Messiah and the glories that would follow. You see, they just didn't get it. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were serving up and ministering these things. And he said the things that they talked about, his suffering, there is no doubt that Peter has in his mind Isaiah 53 here. Because in the prophet Isaiah we have on display this great seeming uh contradiction that the Messiah was going to be bruised and battered, he was going to have the weight of the guilt and sin uh placed upon him of mankind, he was going to be bruised for our iniquities, he was going to be the one who was chastised for our peace, not for his own. In other words, he was going to suffer. And the scriptures talk about that. And then it talks about the glory that was to follow and the coming glory that we're going to experience. And so this is what Peter is saying, that they didn't get it. And it says that to them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering these things, which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you. Peter said, Those of us who are preaching the gospel to you and those prophets, and he says, even the angels of heaven desired to look into these very things because it was a mystery to them. You see, the incarnation was a mystery. That is, that Jesus, the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, would be born as a man, and even though the prophecies prophesied of that, it was still an amazing thing to the angelic host. And the prophets no doubt were puzzled about it because they would prophesy that he would be bruised and beaten, he would be rejected, he would be despised, he would look like a piece of fillet meat according to Isaiah 52. We're going to learn that was a part of Isaiah 53. All of this was happening, and yet that he was going to rule, he was going to reign, he was going to conquer death, all of these things, and it was just too much for their minds to get a hold of. And we see this on vivid display, 3D, 4D. It is absolutely amazing in Luke chapter 24 that after the resurrection of Jesus, the very day that all of this happened, you remember Jesus was already raised from the dead when Mary and the women came and it was before dawn. They had come very early in the morning on the first day of the week. And then they ran back the disciples, and according to the text, Peter and James and John, they thought they had lost their minds. And so the disciples, remember, it was the first day of the week. Shabbat had just passed. A devout Jewish follower of Torah would not have walked more than approximately a mile. There were exact measurements as to how far someone could walk, but the people who had been there, the disciples who had been there from Emmas, which was miles outside of Jerusalem, they couldn't go home on Shabbat. They were there when Jesus was crucified, and they stayed over Shabbat, and they headed home. It was now in the afternoon, and they had left the disciples after they had heard about the resurrection or what the women had said about the resurrection. And so we have the encounter in the 13th verse of chapter 24 of Luke. Now, behold, two of them, that is, these disciples, were traveling the same day to the village called Emmaus. And again, the reason they were traveling on the first day of the week is because Shabbat would not allow them to travel very far, certainly not miles outside of Jerusalem. It says it was seven miles from Jerusalem, verse 14, and they talked together of all these things that had happened. So it was that while they conversed and reasoned, they were talking back and forth, that Jesus drew near and went with them, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know who he was. And he said unto them, What is this conversation that you're having with one another as as you walk and you're you're all sad? Then one of them, who was named Cleopas, answered and said unto him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And you've not known the things which have happened there in these days? And so he said unto them, What things? Now he knew exactly what he was asking them. Jesus knew all about what was in their heart. I mean, after all, he is God walking, God talking. It's like God in the garden saying, Adam, where are you? Well, he knew where Adam was. It was not hide and seek. He wanted Adam to know what he had done and where he was and to own up to that. And so Jesus again said, What things? And so they said unto him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word, that is, he claimed to be this, he performed this, and everybody saw all of this, and the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. This is such an important verse. He says, But we were hoping, we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today's the third day since these things have happened. Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb very early in the morning, they knocked us off our feet. The word there is to not be able to remain standing. They were astonished us. In other words, we had to sit down after listening to this because we were just blown away, and of course that's a East Tennessee paraphrase. But they didn't find his body. And they came saying they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb, we know that was Peter and John, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn't see Jesus like the women did. Then he said unto them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Messiah to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Torah, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them. He did a deep dive, he he laid it out, he thoroughly did a discovery on the prophets in the Torah with them in all the scriptures concerning himself. Can you imagine what that would have been? I guarantee you, I promise you, that Jesus would have dealt with Isaiah chapter 52, the last three verses, and all of the twelve verses of fifty-three. Why? Because those are the golden verses of the entire Old Testament, the Tanakh, that deal with the substitutionary death of the Messiah. And he would have covered that. And that is exactly what happened. Now we're going to have, because of time, we're going to have to leave it here, but we'll pick up on this very spot tomorrow as we walk on the way. May God richly bless you and your family. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.