God presents Jesus

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 23 October 2016

God here is presenting Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, through the words of Paul. And the Old Testament and the New Testament are both equally concerned with presenting Jesus Christ. The Old Testament presents the Christ who will come. And the New Testament presents the Christ who did come. But they all focus on Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament, God keeps promising a Deliverer, a Savior, a King and a Messiah; and in the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth fulfills every single prophecy that God ever made of a Messiah. The ones that are yet to be fulfilled by Him will be fulfilled in His Second Coming, which we will see. In Genesis 3:15 God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.”

Now, we all know that the woman has no seed. Here is a prophecy of a virgin-born man, and that He would bruise the serpent's head. This virgin-born man would deal a killing blow to Satan. That was the first Messianic prophecy so beautifully fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 says, "A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child," and it was Emmanuel, God with us.

Jesus fulfilled the virgin-born prophecy, and He also fulfilled the prophecy of victory over Satan as He won the victory at the cross; and the writer of Hebrews says, "He destroyed the power of the devil in His own death." Isaiah 9:6 says, "This Messiah who comes would be God.” In Psalm 2:7, God says, "This is My beloved Son." And Jesus claimed to be both God and the Son of God; and He substantiated both claims.

The prophet Micah said, "When He comes, He will be born in Bethlehem." Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Moses told us in the Pentateuch that the Messiah would be a son of Abraham. And Matthew tells us, "Jesus was a son of Abraham." In Numbers 24:17, it says, "The Messiah will be a star out of Jacob." In Luke 3: 34, we find that Jesus comes through Jacob.

In Genesis 49:10, the Bible says that, "Jesus will come through Judah." Revelation 5:5 calls Him the Lion of Judah. In Isaiah 11:1 and in Luke 3:23, 32, we find that Jesus came from Jesse. In Jeremiah 23:5 it says, "Behold, I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and He will reign and prosper," and the New Testament repeatedly says that, "Jesus was the son of David." In Matthew 2:16, He fulfills that prophecy.

In Deuteronomy 18:18, the Word of God came to Moses, "I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen, like you. And I will put My Words in His mouth," and Jesus came along, and the people in Galilee looked at Him in John 6:14, and said, "He is like that Prophet,” like Moses. In Psalm 110, God said that, "Whoever the Messiah is, He will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. A priest for eternity forever."

Those are just a few proofs, and all of the details of the life of Jesus Christ just fulfill prophecy after prophecy after prophecy. There is no way this could be manufactured, it is a mathematical impossibility. The powerful argument of prophecy sweeps away all doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah, the Deliverer of Israel.

Now, let us continue to look at Paul who is basically used by God to present Jesus to the Jews. Now, the sermon falls into three parts. Jesus Christ is presented first as the culmination of history; secondly, as the fulfillment of prophecy; and thirdly, as the justifier of sinners. Now, a while back, we have seen Paul's first point, that Jesus is the culmination of history.

So in those verses 17 to 22, Paul describes their history. God led you out of Egypt, took care of you in the wilderness, brought you into the Promised Land, divided the nation for you, and gave you the portions that you were supposed to have. Even when you wanted a king, He gave you a king. Then He raised up His king David, and David ruled.

And then we come to verse 23, “From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus.” And then he gave the last word of verse 23, Jesus. None of them expected to hear that. Paul recites their history. "Yes, God is controlling your destiny. God is controlling your history. Your history is going toward a Savior, the seed of David." And then, wham, Jesus...

History will reach its apex in the Savior who will make it possible to bring men to God; and that Savior is Jesus. Verse 23 is the bridge to his second point: Jesus is the seed of David. Through the line of Mary, He had the blood of David. Through the line of Joseph, He had the right to the throne from David. So through both parents He was David's seed.

And now Paul gives another great statement. Secondly, he says, "According to the promise.” Jesus is presented as the Messiah because He fulfilled all the Messianic prophecy. In the Old Testament, God prophecies what will happen, and it all happens to Jesus, He is the fulfillment of God's prediction. That is the reason why you have all these prophecies about Messiah, Jesus comes along and fulfills every one of them.

Now, Paul doesn't expect those Jews to just believe that because he tells them, so he begins then to quote these prophecies one by one. And from verse 23 through 37, Paul outlines the fulfillments of prophecy in the life of Jesus of Nazareth that qualify Him to be the Messiah.

Let's begin in verse 23, notice the word promise. God said in 2 Samuel 7:13, “I will raise up a Savior according to the seed of David.” God always keeps His promises. Numbers 23:19 and Isaiah 46:9-10 say, God cannot lie. Jeremiah 33:17, "For so says the Lord: 'David shall never lack a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.'" In other words, David's line will never die out so that there is no descendent.

Well, that's the first promise, and Jesus fulfilled it. In verse 24, Paul then says, “After John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.” The first great prophecy in regard to the coming of Messiah, was the prophecy that there would be a forerunner to Messiah to prepare the way. Paul is talking about John the Baptist and he is called that way because he baptized many people.

Verse 25, “And as John fulfilled his course." Notice the word fulfilled, it means that a prophecy was fulfilled. The Messiah is coming, but before His death and resurrection, there is the baptism of repentance. It is ceremonial cleansing among the Jews. Why? Because they were getting themselves ready for the Messiah, so their hearts would be ready to receive Him.

Before anybody even in this age comes to know Jesus Christ, there must be repentance. There must be the turning from sin in the heart, and then the turning to Christ. The reason we have so many shallow conversions today is that people don't really know Jesus Christ. There is either an omission or a minimizing of the concept of repentance.

Verse 25 continues, “John said, I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.” The most demeaning task of a slave was to take the shoes off the dirty feet of his master. And only the lowest of the lowest had the right to do that; and John says, "I'm not even worthy to take off His dirty shoes." That's humility, isn't it?

Verse 26, “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation has been sent.” Here he makes the two distinctions: the children of the stock of Abraham would be Jews, and the “those among you who fear God” would be Gentile converts. And Paul says, “the salvation that comes in Jesus as announced by John is for us.”

Now, at this point, there are two questions. If I was a Jew, I would say, “If Jesus is, as you say, the Messiah, why didn't our leaders recognize Him?" And question No. 2, if by some unbelievable circumstance, He was the Messiah, and they did kill Him, does that wipe out God's plan? Paul proceeds to answer those two questions, giving prophetic reasons.

Verse 27, “For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.” Listen to that powerful statement. Because they were blinded by their own sin, they killed Him because they didn't want to know who He was.

How could our leaders miss Him? They have missed Him because they didn't understand what they were reading. Too much sin, too much hypocrisy. The second question was, “If they killed Him, did that wipe out God's plan?” The answer to that is at the end of verse 27, "They have fulfilled them in condemning Him.”

Look at verse 28, “And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.” Listen to Psalm 69:4 prophecy, "Those who hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of My head." There wasn't any legitimate accusation that could hold up, and Pilate repeatedly said, "I find no fault in Him.”

God knew they would do that. Jesus fulfills every prophecy. Some people say that Jesus got up there on the cross and tried to fulfill all the prophecy, but how do you get the whole nation of Israel to condemn Him without a cause? Look at verse 29, “Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.”

Psalm 22:18, "They divided My garments among them and for My clothing they cast lots." In John 19: 24, the soldiers said, "Let's not part His garment. Let's cast lots." Exactly fulfilling the prophecy. The Roman soldiers fulfilled it without knowing it. Psalm 69:21, “And for My thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink and gall." In Matthew 27:34, "They gave Him wine to drink mingled with gall."

In Psalm 31:5, it says, "Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit," the statement of Messiah. In Luke 23:46, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit," said Jesus. Psalm 34:20 says, "He keeps all His bones, not one of them is broken." John 19:33 says, "But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”

In Zechariah 12:10, the prophet said, "They will look on Me whom they have pierced." In John 19:34, a soldier took a spear and pierced His side, fulfilling the prophecy. The Romans were in on the fulfillment. The Jews were in on the fulfillment. Jesus was in on the fulfillment. The crowd was in on the fulfillment. Everybody was in on the fulfillment, because God ordered it all. Jesus was Messiah every way you look at it.

Notice in verse 29, "They laid Him in a tomb." You know that fulfilled prophecy? Isaiah 53:9 says, "And they made His grave with the wicked." It was assigned to be there, "but with the rich at His death." Jesus didn't end up where the criminals were buried, but He was buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah.

Look at verse 30, "But God raised Him from the dead.” God and man see Jesus’ death differently, and God reversed the verdict of Israel, right? God gave His approval, and raised Him from the grave. And then He gives evidence in verse 31, “He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.”

And then in verse 32-33, he says, “And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. 33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” God predicted this and it has to do, not only with His incarnation, but also with His resurrection.

Then Paul goes to a second promise, verse 34, “And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.” That's Isaiah 55:3, God had given all these promises to come in Messiah. So he says, "I raised Him so that I could grant the promises, the sure mercies, to you through Him.”

Then the last promise in verse 35, “Therefore He also says in Psalm 16: 8-10: ‘You shall not allow Your Holy One to see corruption." Some people say, that refers to David. So Paul answers in verse 36, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption.”

Verse 37, "But He.whom God raised up saw no corruption.” Oh, he's saying, "Hey people, you have to believe Jesus is Messiah." God raised Him from the dead. Jesus is the Messiah, because of what happened before He came, what happened while He came, and what happened after He went. God raised Him again to life.

Jesus is the Messiah. He is not only the culmination of history, He is the fulfillment of prophecy. God always kept every promise. Fulfilled is the key word all through there. And God has appointed a future day of judgment. The Bible says, 'That for every man who rejects Jesus Christ, there will be the judgment of eternal hell." For one who rejects Jesus Christ, Hebrews 10:31 says, “it is a fearful thing to fall under the hands of the living God.”