Jesus Our Messiah In The New Testament
Jesus Our Messiah In The New Testament
John 1:1, 14:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God…
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
(A personal Word Of Explanation: Ask my wife. Ask my Mom and Dad. Ask my brother and sisters. Ask any of my close friends. Ask any of my teachers along the way [Bless their hearts!] I have always been one of those people who too often have “ . . . their heads in the clouds . . . “ So, for me my imagination has never been limited. Indeed, it has been so strong that it has made me unpredictable, to say the least. In a geometry class I might have seemed to be listening, while actually I was busy admiring clouds in the sky, birds flying by, or maybe some student running across the breezeway. Hence the pictures accompanying the scripture in this week’s blog. Don’t look for deep hidden meaning or any application that would make sense to anyone but me. Just enjoy the various views of the sky as you consider God’s Word attached to each.)
We have certainly seen the clear pattern of Scripture always pointing toward God’s Promise of a Messiah throughout the Old Testament. We have read of patriarchs, kings, poets, and prophets; all looking forward with hope, faith, and expectation to the coming of the Messiah, God’s Promised One. Only those who purposefully close their eyes to this pattern can fail to see how God has always been moving throughout history to establish His eternal Gospel Plan. He has always been moving beyond humanity’s fall toward their redemption and His reconciliation in glory. He has always been offering His Promised Land to those who answer His Call and find through Jesus, the Messiah, the welcome embrace of God’s Perfect Love welcoming them into His Kingdom, nations, peoples, tribes, and individuals. The New Testament boldly claims Jesus as this Messiah, declaring His wondrous life, His miracles, His teaching, His death, His resurrection and His ascension into Heaven—and then points us toward His victorious second coming and the establishment of God’s Eternal Kingdom—New Heaven and New Earth, the ultimate Promised Land.
Colossians 1:15–17:
“He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible…
all things were created through him and for him.”
In the Gospels we read the testimonies of Jesus as He lived out His earthly life. The longer His followers knew Him, the more they began to understand they were looking into the face of God when they looked into the eyes of their teacher and their Lord. When He spoke to them, they heard the very Word of God. When they watched Him care for the sick, they watched the very Love of God. When they listened to Him pray, they felt the very Heart of God. When they saw Him calm the storm, they felt the very Power of God. When they witnessed Him as He restored to the widow her son; Jairus his daughter, and Mary and Martha their brother, they marveled at the very Glory of God so obvious in all He did and said.
When they saw Him arrested, tried, then crucified, they experienced the shock of how much Jesus had to endure to complete His purpose in this life. Their hearts were shattered by the brutality with which Jesus was mistreated. Their minds were assaulted by the questions that arose about Jesus choosing to endure such suffering even though they knew He had the power to overcome any human threat. Their souls were crushed by the weight of Jesus’ suffering and their own failure to stand with Him. The writers of the Gospels do not hide the disciples’ confusion during these, the darkest days of their lives.
Then He arose! The disciples could not believe it. Even the faithful women who first saw the empty tomb, could not believe it. Then the risen Jesus proved Himself to them. The Gospels again hide neither their doubts, not their utter shock as they discovered the Truth of His resurrection that changed their lives forever—and in so doing, gave them their testimony God used to change the history of the world.
Philippians 2:9–11
“Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus did all that God had sent Him to do. He clearly taught the lessons Heaven had for Him to teach on earth. He powerfully revealed the power God’s Love displayed in meeting the deepest needs of humanity. He willingly, He purposefully, He divinely took unto Himself the sins of the world and paid the ultimate price. He shockingly rose up from the grave, defeating sin and death in one victorious proof of God’s Will for His children to accept His Gospel, His Good News. So, as the Scripture says; it will come to pass. Every tongue will proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen and amen and amen!
Hebrews 1:3
“He is the radiance
of the glory of God
and the exact imprint
of his nature,
and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
After making purification for sins,
he sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high.”
As God’s Spirit points us to Jesus, He reveals His own radiance, His perfect Light. Here is such a radiance as transforms even the darkest of nights into the brightest of dawns. We look upon all that Jesus is, through the Gospel writers, through the Holy Spirit at work in the early church, through the letters written for the building up of the various churches established by His saints, in the powerful vision granted John of the triumphant second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the establishment of New Heaven and New Earth. In all of this we witness God’s perfect purpose being accomplished and illuminated through the person of Jesus.
John 14:6:
“Jesus said to him,
‘I am the way,
and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.'”
(Well, there goes my spacey mind again. I just couldn’t go with another picture of the sky when this verse is talking about Jesus being the way. Isn’t this is a beautiful way?) All Scripture testifies to that truth. All of my life testifies to that truth. All who know Jesus testify to that truth. We rejoice together as we find in our Messiah, our Lord and our Savior, the glorious Way to God, the powerful truth of God’s Love for us, and the exhilarating life we discover as we follow God’s Way in Jesus.
1 Timothy 3:16
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
Surely the magnificence and power of Jesus, God come down to earth as man, is a mighty mystery—all about the nature of God. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul summarizes the Gospel message vividly: Jesus revealed the very nature of God in the flesh. The Holy Spirit upheld Him before the people who followed after Him as He preached, taught, healed; all as He lived among them. Angels observed His mighty mission of redemption. And after He died and rose again, the disciples proclaimed His Good News among the nations. Many in the world believed on Him, and after completing His mission, He was taken up into glory.
John 8:58
“Jesus said to them,
‘Truly, truly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I am.'”
Clearly the New Testament writers grew to understand this truth: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit; always existed in a beautiful unity of one purpose, one direction, and one glorious outcome. Every event in history has been a part of God’s eternal Gospel Plan for the redemption of His children to whom He has always been calling; and who, empowered by His Love, have responded in faith. If we have fallen with our parents from Eden, we have been raised through faith by Jesus, exemplified in the provision of God’s ram in place of Isaac on the altar at Mount Moriah.
Titus 2:13
“…waiting for our blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
And so Jesus is our sure and blessed hope. We all would have despaired if it were not for Jesus. We would have perished if God had not provided the Lamb, illuminated and glorified by the unmistakable glory of our God in the the magnificence of the life and death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. We would have had no hope in a dry and weary land destined for everlasting death we deserved for our sin and disobedience before our Holy and Just God. But, as His Perfection proclaimed His Holiness and Justice, it also proclaimed His Love.
Revelation 1:8
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’
says the Lord God,
‘who is and who was
and who is to come,
the Almighty.'”
And so Jesus will ultimately say in final triumph, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” He most surely is the beginning and the end. “I am, I have always been, and will always be. I am the Almighty. Neither sin nor death nor all the powers of sin can stand against me.” God will give the eternal victory. Jesus will deliver the eternal victory. The Holy Spirit will testify to the eternal victory. And so we read in the annals of those glorious times in New Heaven and New Earth; we, His children from every nation upon this earth, will joyfully and wholeheartedly praise Him forever and forever and forever. Maranatha! Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
