May 16, 2025 • 63 mins
Liar, Lunatic, or Lord? C.S. Lewis summed up the options well, the only option that isn't available is as a good teacher of morality, why? The bold, audacious claims of the God-Man Jesus Christ leave no other options, and it all hinges on the uniqueness of who He is at birth; and therefore our response is critical.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today, the full lesson fromJeremy Thomas.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here's a hint of what's to come.
The point is, we want to try tounderstand how it is that
Christ avoided these three sinproblems.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Have you ever told a website to remember your
username and password and thenyou come back a couple of days
later and it has forgotten whoyou are and you have to sign
back in again?
Why does something like this soquickly and easily forget?
The answer is pretty simplebecause humans programmed it and
(00:40):
we forget.
Therefore, the things that weprogram, plan, build, kind of
carry our characteristics.
They can be forgetful, notintentionally, sometimes rather
unintentionally.
How does this relate to theBible lesson today?
Well, when the Lord of Gloryshowed up in human form in
(01:04):
Jerusalem to be dedicated as ayoung child, the people marveled
.
And when he taught in thetemple at age 12, the people
were amazed.
And yet by the time he had cometo be an adult man and to begin
his ministry, they hadcompletely forgotten the amazing
(01:24):
things they had seen of him andheard of him and knew of him.
We are frail humans and weforget, which is why it's so
important to be involved inregular Bible study and
fellowship at a local church.
Because we are forgetful localchurch, because we are forgetful
(01:48):
.
Today we look at the virginbirth of Christ and what that
means for who he is andtherefore what we get to benefit
from and we get to be involvedin in salvation the virgin birth
, the cornerstone of who Jesus,the Son of man, is.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, okay, well, in the New Testament framework,
again, we go through the variousevents.
There's going to be four eventsin the life of Christ.
They're easy to remember thebirth of Christ, the life of
Christ, the death of Christ andthe resurrection.
We've been working on the firstevent, which deals with the
virgin birth and specificallywhy there had to be a virgin
(02:25):
birth.
I've been giving variousreasons, but as we go through
these, remember we're trying towork ourselves to this very rich
, complicated statement that wasdeveloped through church
history as people thought aboutChrist, through church history,
as people thought about Christ,what the New Testament says
(02:45):
about Christ, and various ideasor differences arose through
church history, such as peoplelike the Docetists or those who
were monarchians, modalmonarchians, modalism and stuff
like that.
Maybe not familiar with allthese things, but you are
(03:07):
familiar with groups likeJehovah's Witnesses or Mormons
who have alternate views ofChrist, and these views, like
Jehovah's Witnesses andMormonism, are just really
modern expressions of ancientArianism.
So these ideas aren't reallynew.
They just keep cropping upunder new names and so they are
(03:30):
still with us today.
But these things went on inchurch history and so the church
had to wrestle with the personof Christ, and this is
essentially the statement thatthey came up with that Jesus
Christ is undiminished deity,united with true humanity in one
person, without confusion orseparation, forever.
(03:51):
There's a whole lot packed intothis statement that by the time
we finish the birth event.
We will take some time to gointo this doctrine, which is
called the hypostatic union andone of the more complicated
doctrines, but it's built ondoctrines from the Old Testament
(04:13):
.
So if we're clear on doctrineslike who God is and who man is,
that will help us when we thinkabout the person who is both God
and man, emmanuel, and so thatwill help us develop a proper
understanding of who Christ is.
So we're working our way towardthis and as we do so, we work
through three aspects of eachevent the event itself, which
(04:36):
now we're discussing, the virginbirth.
Then secondly, the response tothe event.
We're going to start this today.
We've been working with theevent itself, talking about the
various necessities of thevirgin birth, why this is not
something that's just a sidetruth, a peripheral, but why
it's an essential, why it wascalled at the early in 1909,
(04:58):
there was a book publishedcalled the Fundamentals, and
this book had as one of itsfundamentals, the virgin birth.
Because at that time the virginbirth was being challenged by
liberal theologians throughvarious denominations, and so
they set forth the fundamentals,one of which is the virgin
birth.
(05:18):
So we want to talk about we'vebeen talking about the necessity
for this belief.
We want to talk today someabout the responses to this
event.
I'll look at it from the sideof the Jews as well as from the
side of the Gentiles and then,lastly, as we go along here in
the next couple weeks, as wedeal with the responses, we'll
also talk about what's theproper response, how people
(05:39):
should have responded to thevirgin birth.
So three reasons for the virginbirth.
We'll finish this up today.
We've already looked at theprophetic.
If God is God, then God cantell the future, and if he's not
God, he doesn't know what isgoing to happen.
And the God of the Bibleinsists throughout the Old
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Testament and Isaiah, andthrough all the prophets, of
course, that he indeed does knowthe future, and when prophecy
is fulfilled, we see, in fact,confirmation that he is the one
true God.
So there are passages thatforeshadow the virgin birth,
like Genesis 3.15, the seed ofthe woman.
Women don't have seed, you know.
Isaiah 7.14, a virgin will bewith child.
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Women don't have seed.
You know, isaiah 7.14, a virginwill be with child.
Jeremiah 22,.
He can't be of this line ofnatural descent, the line of
Coniah that came to Joseph.
So he must somehow avoid beingthe son of David in a natural
biological sense but yet beadopted by him to get throne
rights.
And all this is confirmed inMatthew 1, that God indeed does
tell the future, and one of thethings that he told was the
(06:45):
virgin birth and that it didtake place.
The legal reasons which wediscussed last week, and this
relates to the sin problem,actually both B and C here, the
legal and spiritual necessitiesrelate to sin.
The legal one relates primarilyto one of the types of sin and
that is imputed sin.
I mean, everybody knows aboutpersonal sin, right?
(07:08):
Hopefully you don't know toomuch about it, but we all know
about this, right?
We all know about personal sin.
That's what most people thinkof when they think of sin.
You know something in thought,word or deed.
Some people may even think it'sjust deeds.
Thought, word or deed.
Some people may even think it'sjust deeds.
(07:28):
It doesn't have anything to dowith what I think, but it
certainly does have to do withwhat we think, and so sin is
anything contrary to the perfectrighteousness or holiness of
God, anything that does notconform to that, and so that's
the common way of thinking aboutsin.
But there's two othercategories of sin imputed, and
this is a legal term.
(07:49):
It refers to an imputation orcrediting of sin to every
individual who is in Adam.
Romans 5.12 is the key passage.
It says you know that.
Therefore, just as sin enteredthe world through one man and
death through sin, so deathspread to all men.
(08:10):
And then it says because allsin.
And you say well, how did wesin?
I wasn't there, I didn't eat ofthe fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
And yet, as I explained, wewere in Adam.
The whole human race was inAdam, including Eve, who was
made out of Adam, and thiscreates in the human race a
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solitary origin.
We were all in one individual,and that individual is named
Adam or Adama, which means notjust man but mankind.
He was, in all truth, all ofmankind, and we sinned in him,
although, as Romans 5 also says,not in the likeness of him,
(08:52):
meaning we weren't consciously,personally there to say, oh,
thank you, eve.
I would love to try this, but,as I say to people, you would
have done the same thing.
Don't try to excuse yourself,but God sets everything up and
he imputes or credits that sinto all of us who were in Adam.
So it's a direct transmissionfrom Adam to us.
(09:15):
This is pointing out ourproblem, right, all three types
of sin.
We have a serious sin problem.
That's not all.
We have a third type of sin thatI want to discuss a little bit
more today, and that's inheritedsin.
This is the biologicalinheriting of sin, and the
transmission here is indirect,whereas with imputed it's direct
(09:38):
.
It's from Adam to each of us.
Because we're in Adam, this oneis transmitted.
Because we're in Adam, this oneis transmitted indirectly from
Adam to his offspring, meaningAbel and Cain and other sons and
daughters that Adam is said tohave had all the way down
through the whole chain of thehuman race, to you and to me,
(10:00):
from our parents, okay.
So this is transferred to us atconception Psalm 51.5, where
David says in sin, my motherconceived me.
It doesn't mean that the act ofprocreation is sinful.
It means that at conception,when the joining of the egg and
(10:20):
the sperm took place, there wasa transmission of sin to the
offspring, that is, david.
This is what results inacquiring a sin nature or a
flesh, and obviously the Biblehas a lot to say about the flesh
.
You know, we should walk by theSpirit and not by the flesh,
(10:42):
and everybody knows this type ofterminology.
The flesh is an inclination ordisposition to sin.
It's part of who we are, fromconception.
People will then, of course,come with a question, and this
is a brief aside.
Well then, what about babies,who are infants, or those in the
(11:03):
womb, let's say, who arespontaneously aborted or die in
the womb?
Let's say who are spontaneouslyaborted or die, you know, in
the womb for some reason, ifthey have sin, you know, won't
sin separate us from God?
Yes, sin separates us from God.
All sin separates us from God.
They don't have any personalsin, maybe, but they have
inherited sin, they have imputedsin.
So this is going to separatethem from God.
(11:23):
So how does God resolve theseproblems?
Well, the first thing I'd sayabout that is it's not a problem
for God, it's just a problemfor you and me maybe, but I've
always held the position thatthere's a little book on this
that I really like, by BobLeitner Robert Leitner, it's
called.
What is the name of that book?
(11:44):
Anyway, the book basically goesthrough the idea that if a
person and we would say there'sa full personhood in the womb if
there's a person who cannotmeet the requirement for eternal
life, and that requirement isto believe, you have to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Well, obviously, a baby in thewomb or a young baby or someone
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who is mentally retarded cannotunderstand the gospel message.
If a person cannot meet therequirement to believe that
message, then God in his grace,through the unlimited atonement
of Christ, provides salvationfor them.
This seems fitting andconsistent with the nature of
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our God and His grace.
But the point is I'm justtrying to make is that even in
the womb we have inherited sin,we have a flesh.
Now let's turn to Romans 8.3,because the the point is we want
to try to understand how it isthat Christ avoided these three
sin problems.
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Obviously, the personal sinproblem.
We know that, the temptations.
You can look at the passagesabout his temptations and you
see he's overcoming thetemptation to personal sin.
But how did he overcome imputedsin?
We discussed that last week.
And how did he overcomeinherited sin?
Well, the virgin birth is theanswer, in some way or another,
(13:15):
to all these questions.
So Romans 8, verse 3 sayssomething very interesting about
him.
So we understand that he waswithout a sin nature or flesh.
Romans 8 3 for what the lawcould not do, speaking of the
law of moses, weak as it was,through the flesh.
In other words, the lawbasically caused the human
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sinful flesh to want to rebel.
Rebel, you know.
You tell a kid don't eat thosecookies while I'm gone.
All they want to do now is tryto see how they can get a cookie
, because what you've done isthe flesh.
(13:59):
You've given a standard, butthe flesh uses the standard as a
base to push off of, to exertitself, and so they want to
break the law.
And that's what he's saying thelaw, the law of Moses, weak as
it was, through the flesh,meaning causing people to
stumble and get into sin.
Well, it couldn't do this, butGod did.
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It's sending his own son in thelikeness of sinful flesh.
In the likeness of sinful flesh.
Note the key word, obviously,likeness.
He looked like sinful flesh inthe sense that he looked like
you, he looked like me, he had atrue human body, he had a true
human spirit and he was a truehuman soul.
(14:41):
So he had a physical appearance, he was real, he wasn't just a
phantom.
He had a true human spirit,which means he had personality,
he had conscience, he had allthe things that are aspects of
our immaterial being, and he wasa true human soul.
That's why we say he's truehumanity, he's 100% a true human
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being.
Okay, but he wasn't sinfulflesh, was he?
According to this verse, hecame in the likeness of sinful
flesh, so he didn't have onelike you have and like I have,
and that's the point of bringingthis verse up.
He was unique in this sense.
He avoided it.
How did he avoid it?
He avoided this inherited sinbecause his?
(15:25):
Well, two points.
First of all, because thetransmission is direct through
the male.
We looked at that last weekHebrews 7, 1 through 10.
And since he's born of Maryalone and not Mary and Joseph,
but Mary alone, then he avoidsthe transmission.
Because the transmission isthrough the male, okay.
And secondly, jesus avoids itby the work of the Spirit upon
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Mary at the virgin conception,because he's the one who was
involved in the conception.
If Joseph wasn't, who was?
Well, the Holy Spirit providedthat aspect of his humanity.
So that's how he avoidsinherited sin.
And this is interesting Now,since he has none of the three
kinds of sin right.
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He avoided the temptationstempted in all things as we.
Yet without sin, he avoidsimputed sin by the over, by the
overpowering work of the father,this barrier that was put up,
luke 135, and he avoids theinherited sin because the holy
Spirit, not Joseph, conceivedthe child within her.
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Then this means something unique.
It means that Jesus didn't haveto die physically.
Doesn't it mean that?
In other words, here's what I'msaying If Jesus had wanted to
continue living in this world,could he still be here today?
Yes, because he has no cause ofdeath residing within him.
Sin is the cause of death, sinis the cause of sickness, it's
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the root cause of all thesethings.
If he doesn't have sin, theroot cause, then he can't die
physically, and that's why he'llsay things in the Gospels that
well, quite frankly, they soundamazing.
Like who could say that?
He'll say something like no onetakes my life from me, but I
lay it down of my own accord,meaning, if I'm going to die,
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it's because I'm going towillingly give my life up, but
I'm not just going to die.
I can't just die.
The great story at Nazarethwhere he says a prophet is not
welcome in his own town.
It's a village, really, it's avery small place.
They ran him out of town to anedge and they were going to push
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him off the cliff.
And you've got to imaginethere's got to be several dozen
people here at least.
They're going to shove him offthe cliff.
And then the text says and hewent through them and they could
no longer find him.
You're like what, how could youmiss the guy?
I mean there's 30, 40, whoknows how many people there and
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he just goes through the midstof you and Well, he couldn't die
.
He could not until he and when.
He chose to die for us.
So he says these unique thingsand they're arising out of the
fact that he didn't have any sin, so no cause of death residing
within him.
He could still be with us today.
He'd be about 2,030 years old,if my math is right, as far as
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the birth.
Lastly, well, why didn't we goto John 10, 14 through 18?
We might as well look at itJohn 10, we're here.
John 10, 14 through 18.
A lot of this stuff in theGospel of John, because the
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Gospel of John is theological.
It was written later than theother Gospels.
The other Gospels give usnarratives, they tell us the
stories, they're giving us thefacts, okay, but John gives us a
theological reflection on thefacts.
So John 10, 14 through 18.
Yeah, I wanted to discuss thispassage.
Jesus says I am the goodshepherd and I know my own and
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my own know me, even as thefather knows me and I know the
father.
I lay down my life for thesheep.
See, that's what I'm saying.
Nobody could kill him.
He had to lay down his life,notice.
He says I lay down my life forthe sheep.
Now, some people say, well,that means he's just dying for
certain people.
He doesn't die for all people,he only dies for some people.
(19:29):
The people say well, that meanshe's just dying for certain
people.
He doesn't die for all people,he only dies for some people,
the people that are called hissheep.
That's one way people approachthis passage and they believe in
limited atonement, that Jesusonly came to die for a limited
group of people, not all people.
Now, I don't think that's thecase.
(19:50):
Let's read on and I'll explain.
He says I have other sheep whichare not of this fold.
I must bring them also, andthey will hear my voice and they
will become one flock with oneshepherd.
Now, so there's other sheep, hesays, but not of this fold,
right, but they will become oneflock with one shepherd.
(20:12):
What Is anybody theologicallyacute enough to know, first of
all, who his sheep are?
At the end of verse 15?
My father knows me.
I know the father.
I lay down my life for thesheep.
Who's he talking to?
That would be the firstquestion.
Who is the audience?
Israel?
If you go back earlier, you see, in verse 40 of the previous
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chapter, those of the Phariseeswho were with him heard these
things and blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
Are we blind too?
Okay, he goes on and on.
So through this, if you go backand read all this, you'll see
he's talking to the Jews, toJewish people, including the
Pharisees.
The ones that are his sheep areIsrael.
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That's Israel.
But then he says in verse 16, Ihave other sheep, not of this
fold, meaning not of Israel, sothey're going to be Gentiles.
This is not that hard.
I must bring them also and theywill hear my voice and they
will become one flock with oneshepherd.
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One flock with one shepherd.
So he's looking forward to thechurch, right when you've got
Jew and Gentile in one body orone flock.
So this isn't saying he onlydies for the sheep.
There's a limited atonement.
He doesn't die for all men.
It's saying he died for Israel,but he also died for Gentiles
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and he's going to make them allone flock, as he's prophesying
here of the future church whichbegan on the day of Pentecost.
So verse 17,.
For this reason the Fatherloves me.
Why?
Because I lay down my life sothat I may take it again.
I lay down my life, see.
He had to give his life for us.
Nobody could take it from him.
He says no one has taken itaway from me, but I lay it down
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of my own initiative.
I have authority to lay it andI have authority to take it up
again.
This commandment I receivedfrom my Father.
Now, can anyone say that, exceptthe Lord Jesus Christ?
In fact, as you're going to see, some of his statements lead
you to this idea that CS Lewisdiscussed in his book Mere
(22:23):
Christianity, which is commonlydescribed as Jesus is either a
liar, he's a lunatic or he'sLord.
This type of statement, see, Imean, are you crazy?
You lay down your life and youtake it up again.
(22:44):
What are you taught?
Nobody can do that.
In fact, what did the Jews sayin verse 19 after he said this?
It says a division occurredagain among the Jews because of
these words, and many of themwere saying he has a demon and
is insane, he's a lunatic.
See, and that's all that Lewisand Clive Staples Lewis was
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pointing out, right?
And that's all that Lewis inClive Staples' Lewis was
pointing out, right, that ifyou're honest, when you read the
Gospels, you think this guy iseither the biggest liar in all
of history or he's a totallunatic, or he's Lord of
(23:29):
everything.
And so read this and be honest,be honest.
I mean, can you really justconclude that Jesus was a good
teacher if you read this?
Well, and no, he's.
If he's a liar, he's immoral.
You know, it's just not apossibility that he'd be just a
good teacher.
He's far more than that.
Or he's just not a possibilitythat he'd be just a good teacher
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.
He's far more than that, orhe's just crazy.
So we have these types ofpassages in John 10, 14 through
18.
Now let's look at John 1, 14and 3, 16, which you already
know, because we want to showthat Jesus was entirely unique.
I mean we've already started toshow that.
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But John 1.14,.
This is talking about thevirgin birth, because it's an
incarnation passage, verse 14,.
And the Word became flesh anddwelt among us, meaning he's a
true human right and he dweltamong true humans.
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And John says and we saw hisglory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, fullof grace and truth.
We saw his glory.
Now, who shares glory with theFather?
I don't share His glory, youdon't share His glory, nobody
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shares His glory, but the LordJesus Christ shared glory with
the Father.
This is something unique.
It also says as the onlybegotten right.
Glory, as of the only begottenright, glory as of the only
begotten.
In other words, this is thereason he can actually share in
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the glory of the father isbecause he's the only begotten.
Now this is also used in john 3, 16 right for god so loved the
world that he gave his onlybegotten son that whosoever
believes in him shall not perishbut have everlasting life.
That Greek word that I guess inour language to many people.
They think well, that means hewas born.
(25:38):
It's talking about the birth ofJesus, or something like that
and therefore, as the Mormonsand Jehovah's Witnesses will say
, these verses prove that he'snot God, but he's less than God.
That's not what this word means.
This word is monogenes.
One word, monogenes.
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The word means unique, one of akind.
That's why I'll say somethinglike the only begotten, because
the only one is a one of a kind.
He's a one of a kind person.
What is it that makes him?
You know, you can justtranslate it.
I often translate it unique.
I'll say John 3, 16 that way.
I won't quote it with onlybegotten, because people start
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thinking about babies and stuff.
It's not really talking abouthim being born or something like
that.
It's talking about his uniqueson.
Not really talking about himbeing born or something like
that.
It's talking about hisuniqueness, for God so loved the
world that he gave his uniqueson, the unique one.
He's unique because he's Godand man in one person.
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As the Old Testament predictedright, he shall be called
Emmanuel, which means God withus, and that's what John 1.14 is
saying.
The word became flesh and dweltamong us.
He dwelt with us see, and wesaw his glory.
This was something totallyunique.
How does Hebrews 1 begin?
Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 3,begins with a statement.
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I'm going to go back to John 1,so don't lose John 1.
But Hebrews 1, which I'm goingto go back to John 1, so don't
lose John 1.
But Hebrews, chapter 1, which Ijust want to read.
God, after he spoke long ago tothe fathers and the prophets so
that's the Old Testament hespoke to them in many portions
and in many ways you know,dreams, visions and so forth In
these last days has spoken to usin his son, whom he appointed
(27:28):
heir of all things.
Okay, okay, so he's the heir ofthe world, through whom also he
made the world.
So the father, through the son,the book of genesis, whenever
god said let there be something,this is the father creating
through the agency of the son,okay, and that is why john 1 1
begins with in the agency of theSon.
Okay, and that is why John 1.1begins with in the beginning was
(27:50):
the Word speech, and the Wordwas with God and the Word was
God.
It's speaking of the first twomembers of the Trinity.
And God, the Father, as thesource of creation, did it
through the agent, the Son, andhe's spoken to us in His Son,
and verse 3 says he is theradiance of His glory and this
(28:12):
us in his son.
And verse 3 says he is theradiance of his glory, and this
is a stunning phrase.
He is the exact representationof his nature.
He is the exact representationof his nature.
In other words, if you had beenhere on earth during the
ministry of the Lord JesusChrist and you saw him standing
(28:32):
on the Sea of Galilee shore orsomething like that, ask you a
question Were you seeing God?
Yes, you were seeing God in theflesh.
He is the exact expression, theexact representation of god.
Now so back to john 1.
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Okay, this uniqueness havingthe glory of the father.
Sharing this, in verse 15, johntestified about him and cried
out saying this was he of whom Isaid.
He who comes after me has ahigher rank than I.
Why?
Because he existed before me.
The preexistence of the MessiahVerse 16,.
(29:19):
For of his fullness we have allreceived.
And grace upon grace, for thelaw was given through Moses,
grace and truth were realizedthrough Jesus Christ.
And then he says something elseinteresting no one has seen God
at any time, the only begottenGod, who is in the bosom of the
Father, which means in the careof, in the lap, being taken care
(29:40):
of by the Father.
He has exegeted him.
That is the Greek word forexegete, exegeo, which we mean.
When you study the Bible, wealways say you are to read out.
Ex means out, right Like exodus, exit.
There's a sign there that saysexit.
(30:01):
If you don't know where theexits are, here they are.
That's the way out if you don'tlike what I'm saying.
And exegel means to lead or todraw out.
So what do we do when we studythe Bible?
We lead or draw out what is inthe text.
We do not eisegete.
Eis means in, To lead or readin.
(30:24):
We don't want to read our ideainto the words of the Bible.
We want to draw out what isthere.
And so what this is saying aboutthe son is that he drew out who
the father was.
If we had been here, we wouldhave seen him, because if you
(30:44):
see me, he said, you have seenthe Father.
I and the Father are one.
And he goes on to say crazythings like I only do the will
of my Father.
What human can say that they'veonly and always done the will
of God?
Again, these are uniqueexpressions.
They're saying that he is atotally unique and different
(31:08):
type of person, even though hewould have looked like a human
being.
John 8.29.
Flip over there, john 8.29.
John 8.29.
This is this is one of thosestatements that cs lewis is
(31:31):
referring to.
I mean, you're either lying oryou're a total lunatic, or he's
lord of all.
Verse 29 he who sent me is withme.
He has not left me alone, for Ialways do the things that are
pleasing to him.
I mean, give me a break, really.
I mean, think if someone saidthat to you, you'd be like this
(31:52):
is the most arrogant person onthe planet, right, or they're
actually who they claim to beand you have to make a decision
how you're going to deal withthem.
So here's what Lewis actuallysaid in Mere Christianity.
I'm trying here to preventanyone saying the really foolish
thing that people often sayabout him, that is Christ.
(32:14):
That quote.
I'm ready to accept Jesus as agreat moral teacher, but I don't
accept his claim to be God.
Lewis says that's one thing wemust not say.
A man who is merely a man andsaid the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moralteacher.
He would either be a lunatic onlevel with the man who says he
is a poached egg, or else he'dbe the devil of hell.
(32:37):
You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is theSon of God, or else he's a
madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool.
That's what the Pharisees did.
They said he's insane.
You can spit at him and killhim as a demon, or you can fall
(32:59):
at his feet and call him Lordand God.
But let us not come up with anypatronizing nonsense about his
being a great human teacher.
He has not left that optionopen to us.
He did not intend to.
Now, that said, I want to turn.
We're going to see this themecontinue in the Gospels as we go
(33:23):
through his life and his deathand resurrection.
We want to start looking at theresponses that the Jews and the
Gentiles had to the virginbirth.
So first of all, we'll look atthe Jews, then we'll look at the
Gentiles, and this is a veryinteresting story.
So let's turn to Luke, chapter2.
This is a story, you know, ofthe shepherds in the field.
(33:48):
You know, keeping their flocksby night Luke, chapter 2.
There's obviously initialexcitement.
You've heard this story.
You know they get excited,right.
So let's look at thisexcitement and also, as we read
this, ask yourself, as weprogress through this, how
(34:11):
should people have responded to,how should the Jews have
responded to these claims of thebirth and this actual birth?
So 2.8, in the same region.
The region is Bethlehem, verse4.
In the same region, there weresome shepherds staying out in
the fields and keeping watchover their flocks by night.
We don't know who theseshepherds were.
Some people say, well, they'rejust normal shepherds.
(34:33):
These were basically the lowestpeople in society.
Other people say no, these werepriestly shepherds who were
watching over the temple flock,the flock that was destined for
sacrifice.
Either way, they're out inthese fields, very close to
Jerusalem, around Bethlehem,just a few miles from Jerusalem,
and an angel of the Lordsuddenly stood before them and
(34:55):
the glory of the Lord shonearound them and they were
terribly afraid.
But the angel said to them donot be afraid.
Behold, I bring you good newsof great joy, which will be for
all the people, the people ofIsrael, for today, in the city
of David, there's been born foryou a Savior linking us to the
Davidic covenant, the city ofDavid, a Savior who is Messiah,
right, the Lord, that is God.
(35:17):
This will be a sign for you,you will find a baby wrapped in
claws and lying in a manger.
So it's a sign of which childis the Messiah.
In verse 13,.
Suddenly there appeared, withthe angel, a multitude of the
heavenly hosts praising God andsaying glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peaceamong men, with whom he is well
pleased.
And when the angels had goneaway from them into heaven, the
(35:38):
shepherds began saying to oneanother let us go straightway to
Bethlehem and see this thingthat has happened, which the
Lord has made known to us.
See the excitement.
Let's just go straightway Now.
You're going to leave yourflock.
Yes, they're going to leave theflock.
You, you don't ever leave theflock as a shepherd, but if the
true shepherd, the true shepherd, has just been born, let's go
(36:00):
and see.
See, let's go and see the thingthat the lord has made known.
So verse 16.
They came in a hurry and theyfound their way to mary and
joseph and the baby as he lay inthe manger.
And when they had seen this,they made known.
So did they go tell otherpeople, according to verse 17.
Yes, they went and they madeknown this statement and
(36:22):
everything that was told to themabout this child, the Savior,
this one who's a descendant ofDavid the Messiah.
He's been born and all whoheard it verse 18 they wondered
at the things which were toldthem by the shepherds.
They were astonished.
This word thalmadzo for wonder,astonishment, awe.
They were in awe at the thingswhich were told them by the
(36:42):
shepherds.
This is the great hope ofisrael, right that god sent the
messiah.
And then mary.
She treasures all these things,she.
She's pondering them, sumbalo,throwing them together.
The Old Testament prophecies iswhat it's talking about.
She's trying to understand whathas transpired in her heart.
And the shepherds went back totheir flocks glorifying and
(37:03):
praising God for all that theyhad heard and seen, just as had
been told them.
Now you would think, okay, youhave this virgin birth.
They go, they see the child.
It seen just as had been toldthem.
Now you would think, okay, youhave this virgin birth.
They go, they see the child.
It's just as the angel said.
They tell everybody about this.
You would think, well, howshould the Jews respond?
What are they going to do?
Are they going to follow?
(37:24):
I mean, what should they do?
Shouldn't they follow thecareer of this baby with great
interest?
Wouldn't you follow the careerof this child with great
interest.
Let's read on.
Some people did have a goodresponse, as we'll see here.
(37:46):
Verse 21 and following wheneight days had passed before his
circumcision, his name was thencalled Jesus, the name given by
the angel before he wasconceived in the womb.
When the days for theirpurification according to the
law of Moses were completed,they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the law ofthe Lord, every firstborn male
that opens the womb shall becalled holy to the Lord and
(38:09):
offer a sacrifice, according towhat was said in the law of the
Lord, a pair of turtle doves ortwo young pigeons.
So Mary and Joseph, after thedays of purification, are going
down to the temple right inJerusalem.
They're taking the baby up.
And verse 25,.
There was a man in Jerusalemwhose name was Simeon, and this
man was righteous and devout.
He was looking for theconsolation of Israel.
Well, let me ask you a question.
(38:31):
Who's the consolation of Israel, by the way?
Oh, the Messiah.
That's who he's waiting for.
And the Holy Spirit was uponhim, and it had been revealed to
him by the Holy Spirit that hewould not see death before he
had seen the Lord's Christ.
We've got two people early on,before John the Baptist comes
along and has his ministry.
We have two people that theLord has spoken to, simeon and
(38:54):
Zechariah, the father of Johnthe Baptist.
Both of these.
So you see God starting tospeak again.
We said during theintertestamental times.
It's sometimes called theperiod of silence 400 years of
silence.
He's starting to speak again.
Zechariah is now Simeon.
Simeon's been told he's notgoing to see death before he's
seen the Lord's Messiah Verse27,.
(39:14):
He came in the spirit into thetemple and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus tocarry out for him the custom of
the law, he took him into hisarms.
Now you're Mary, okay, you gotthe baby Jesus.
This guy comes along and justsweeps him out of your arms.
That's the picture, becausethat's what happened and the
grammar is deliberately movingthe narrative along quickly.
So we think of someone swiftlytaking a baby out of your arms.
(39:38):
And he blessed God and he saidnow, lord, you are releasing
your bondservant to depart inpeace.
In other words, I can go now, Ican die According to your word,
for my eyes have seen yoursalvation, which you have
prepared in the presence of allpeoples, a light of revelation
to the gentiles and the glory ofyour people.
Israel and his father and motherwere amazed at the things which
(39:59):
were being said about him.
See, they're just trying topiece all this together.
You can imagine if you were ahusband or wife with your first
baby and these things have beensaid about your child.
All these strange, uniquethings have occurred around the
conception and the birth.
And so Simeon blesses them andhe says in verse 34, behold,
this child is appointed for thefall and the rise of many in
(40:19):
Israel and for a sign to beopposed.
And a sword will pierce evenyour own soul to the end that
the thoughts from many heartsmay be revealed.
That is one of my favoriteverses because obviously the
sword piercing through her ownsoul is looking to his horrible
crucifixion that will eventuallytake place.
(40:40):
But also the end of thatcrucifixion is that thoughts
from many hearts are revealed,because it's looking at one's
response to the crucifixion.
That's why the third part ofwhat we're doing here is always
or.
The second part is how did theyrespond?
How did the people respond?
And the last section is what isthe proper response?
(41:05):
Right, and they're both righthere at the end of verse 35.
So that's Simeon.
Good response, right, jew?
Good response.
Another good response verse 36,the prophetess Anna, the
daughter of Phanuel of the tribeof Asher.
She's advanced in years.
She had lived with her husbandseven years after her marriage
and then as a widow.
So he died.
She lived to the age of 84.
(41:25):
She never left the temple,serving night and day with
fastings and prayers hyperbolemeaning she was always there.
At that very moment she came upand began giving thanks to God.
So this is right after Simeon,she comes up, she begins giving
thanks to God.
She continued to speak of himto all those who were looking
for the redemption of Israel.
See, there were people who werelooking for the redemption of
Israel.
There were people looking forthe consolation of Israel, there
(41:46):
were people looking for theSavior, there were people
looking for the Messiah, and allthis is very close to the
virgin birth.
So there is this initialexcitement.
There's Simeon, there's theshepherds, there's Anna, the
prophetess, and then we come toverse 36.
I'm sorry, 39.
36.
(42:09):
I'm sorry, 39.
Let's go to 41.
Now look, that's the last storyyou hear about in all the
Gospels, about Jesus.
It's all about his birth, aboutthat time period.
You don't hear anything elseuntil verse 41.
(42:31):
Now his parents went toJerusalem every year at the
feast of the passover, and whenhe became 12, what what when he
became 12?
what happened to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten and eleven?
We're talking, you know, 11times, or 12 times, 365 days.
(42:52):
That's a lot of days that youdon't read anything.
The word went out from theshepherds and the prophetess was
telling people what's theproper response again, wouldn't
you want to track the career ofthis uniquely wrought child?
But they didn't.
(43:14):
They forgot.
We have this now.
He's 12 years old.
They go up according to thecustom of the feast, verse 43.
As they're returning, they wentin caravans with people from
Nazareth After spending the fullnumber of days.
The boy, jesus, stayed behindin Jerusalem, but his parents
weren't aware of it.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
People today say wow, what in the?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
world, these irresponsible parents.
You know these kids would justplay.
It was a large caravan.
They'd play all the time.
I mean, if you don't see yourkid all day, that's because he's
playing with so-and-so else'skids.
We all live in the same villageof Nazareth.
This is no big deal, right?
They supposed him to be in thecaravan.
They went a day's journey.
They began looking for him.
Okay, at the end of the dayyeah, where is he Among their
(43:54):
relatives and acquaintances?
Verse 45,.
When they did not find him,they returned to Jerusalem
looking for him.
After three days they found himin the temple.
I mean, I can only imagine thestress, right, sitting in the
midst of the teachers.
These are the most brilliantminds in Judaism, right?
He's both listening to them andhe's asking them questions.
(44:14):
He's 12 years old and all whoheard him were amazed at his
understanding and his answers.
You're amazed at a 12-year-old.
You're amazed at theunderstanding of a 12-year-old.
You're amazed at his answers toyour questions, that you, as
the great teachers of the law.
You have questions he's able toanswer.
(44:36):
He's able to ask questions thatyou're probably not able to
answer.
He's giving answers toquestions that you don't have
the answers for or you still arecurious about.
What do we say?
We read in Isaiah 50, verse 4 acouple weeks ago, morning by
morning, the Father would awakethe Messiah and teach him, and
teach him In his true humanity.
(44:57):
He had to learn the Word of God.
Here he is, at 12 years old.
Don't think children can'tlearn the Word of God.
Jesus didn't get to cheat.
Okay, he didn't get to cheat.
I've seen some pretty brilliant12, 13-year-olds in my life.
Some of these people have goneoff to places like Cambridge or
Yale when they're like 12 or 13years old.
(45:18):
How do they do that?
I mean, they're smart people,way smarter than me, probably
way smarter than anybody in thisroom.
I don't know, some of you maybe super geniuses off the Mensa
scale, but Jesus applied himselfand he listened to his father's
teaching and he learned theword of God to the point that
(45:42):
the great teachers of the laware astonished at this kid,
verse 48,.
When they saw him, they wereastonished.
His mother said to him son, whyhave you treated us like this?
And you know the rest of thestory.
You know, didn't?
You know?
I had to be in my father'shouse.
They didn't understand thestatement.
A 12-year-old understood it,but they didn't understand it.
Is he not unique?
(46:02):
But see, the point is here theJews really kind of forgot.
They're not really tracing hiscareer with great interest.
They're not really tracing hiscareer with great interest if at
this point, I was one of thosegreat teachers and I recognized
I'm a seminary professor.
So if I recognize in somestudent who's 18, 20, 25 years
old, even today, great potential, I don't you know that I will
(46:22):
be basically following thisperson's career and I will be
like investing in them as muchas I possibly can.
I've had some students who arethat way, like John Miles.
I was like, okay, this guy'skind of off the charts.
I mean, you should be teachingthe class, not me.
So follow his career with greatinterest.
Personally I do, but theydidn't do that.
(46:44):
It's the wrong response.
You'd think after this you'dlearn something about when he
was 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, how he'steaching in synagogue at 17, 18
, 19.
You don't read any of that.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing there untilJohn comes along and he's
baptizing and he comes to theJordan right Now.
(47:07):
That was the Jews and you seethis declining interest and then
animosity during the gospels,right when it's during his life
and his leads to the death.
Let's go to the gentiles.
This one is amazing.
Okay, matthew, I don't havetime to go through the whole
book of matthew, but isn't itinteresting that in matthew,
chapter 2, the first chapterafter we've got the birth of the
(47:27):
king, we have the genealogy ofj Joseph and then you have the
virgin birth.
Then you come to this reallystrange chapter that nobody else
in any other gospel writersrecords, right?
It's a story about the wise menright from the east.
These were really astronomersfrom Babylon.
Now let's just read a little ofit.
(47:48):
This is a Gentile response tothe birth, right?
That's why we're looking atthis now.
After jesus was born inbethlehem of judea, in the days
of herod, the king magi from theeast arrived in jerusalem
saying where is he?
Who has been born?
King of the jews?
Now, first of all, they camefrom the east, okay, and babylon
is to the.
This is where they were from.
(48:09):
It was 800 miles away.
They didn't have cars, theydidn't have trains, they didn't
have airplanes.
They had to walk or go in acaravan, on whatever type of
animal transportation they mighthave used 800 miles.
I don't know any woman whowould do that today.
(48:29):
I don't know many woman whowould do that today.
I don't know many guys thatwould do that.
Here they've come.
These are more royal type people, higher class, and they ask
where has he been born, the kingof the Jews?
We saw his star in the east.
We're talking about Numbers 24,the prediction of a star in
(48:50):
association with the Messiah.
He says and we've come toworship him.
Gentiles, come to worship aJewish king.
Is that not interesting, thisresponse?
They were probably descendedfrom the people that Daniel in
his days in Babylon.
Daniel became the head of theschool of astronomy at the end
(49:15):
of Daniel, chapter 2.
Because he interpreted dreams,remember, he saved the lives of
all the other people who were inthe school.
Remember, because Ariok wasgoing around, the commander, he
was killing them all.
Because Nebuchadnezzar realizedyou guys are a bunch of sham,
you don't know what my dreamsare about.
And Daniel, god revealed to himthe dream and he went into the
(49:36):
king and he told him theexplanation and the king was
pleased and recognized this isfrom God and he stopped slaying
the rest of the Gentile,soothsayers and sorcerers and so
forth.
I think these people becameconverted under Daniel, who
became head of that school.
And now we are five, six.
There's six, centuries laterand there's still a line of
people in Babylon who arelooking for this Jewish king and
(49:59):
they come 800 miles to worshiphim.
Now that's an interesting storythat this is plugged in right
here in Matthew chapter two.
But go now to Matthew chaptereight.
Matthew chapter Matthew isdoing something.
Matthew, periodically as hegoes along.
It's all this stuff about Jews.
And then all of a suddenthere's a story about a Gentile.
We just saw the first one, andnot without purpose, is it right
(50:23):
there at the birth?
But we come down now into hislife, into his ministry, in
Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5,and we meet a centurion Also, of
course, gentile.
So verse 5,.
When Jesus entered Capernaum,this was Peter's hometown, this
was where Peter lived, hismother lived here and a
(50:44):
centurion came to him.
So he's a Roman centurion.
He's over about a hundred menright and he's imploring him and
saying Lord, my servant islying paralyzed at home,
fearfully, tormented.
And Jesus said to him I willcome and heal him.
But the centurion said, lord,I'm not worthy for you to come
under my roof.
Just say the word and myservant will be healed.
(51:04):
And then he explained.
He says for I'm also a manunder authority, soldiers under
me, and I say to this one, yougo.
And he goes.
And I said to another, you come, and he comes into my slave.
I say, do this, and he does it.
Now, when jesus heard this, hemarveled.
Do you know?
He only marvels like two orthree times in the gospels only
(51:27):
two or three times.
Has he ever marveled?
This whole thing made himmarvel.
This astonished him and he saidto those who were following
truly, I say to you, I have notfound such great faith with
anyone in Israel.
Nobody, nobody In all Israel,but a Roman and Korean could see
(51:53):
it.
He could see his authority.
You don't have to come, justsay the word.
You command everything, you'rethe commander of the universe.
That is great faith.
That is great faith.
(52:14):
Now, well, let's just read therest of the story.
It's too good.
Verse 11 I say to you that manywill come from east and west
and recline at the table withabraham, isaac and jacob in the
kingdom of heaven.
He's talking about gentilescoming with jews in the kingdom.
But the sons of the kingdom,that's, the natural recipients
of the kingdom, the Jewishpeople, will be cast into the
outer darkness.
In that place there will beweeping and gnashing of teeth.
(52:36):
See, the Jewish people weren'tresponding correctly.
See, they were not respondingcorrectly to his birth, they
weren't responding correctly tohis life and to his miracles.
And here's a Roman centurion,and he is.
And so he concludes in verse13,.
And Jesus said to the centurionGo, it shall be done for you as
you have believed.
And the servant was healed thatmoment.
(53:08):
The last one is chapter 15,matthew 15.
What is Matthew doing?
He is showing through hisgospel, which is basically
chronological, an increasingrejection by the Jewish people
and an increasing reception byGentiles.
An increasing rejection by theJewish people and an increasing
reception by Gentiles.
(53:29):
Here's the Syrophoenician woman, another great story that
you'll all recognize, beginningin verse 21.
So Jesus went away from thereand withdrew into the districts
of Tyre and Sidon.
That's kind of Gentileterritory, right?
That's not Jewish territory,that's pagan, unclean territory.
And a Canaanite woman I mean,are you kidding A Canaanite
(53:53):
woman?
They were polytheistic.
Nasty people from that regioncame out and began to cry out
saying have mercy on me, lord,son of David.
She recognizes the Davidiccovenant.
She recognizes David in thisline my daughter is cruelly
demon possessed.
But he did not answer her aword.
People oh he's big meanie andhis disciples came and implored
(54:15):
him, saying send her away.
She's just annoying us, she'sshouting just get this woman out
of here.
But he answered and he said Iwas sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of israel.
Later, what does he say?
Go into all nations, but rightnow the mission is Israel, the
mission is Israel, the missionis Israel.
(54:35):
Later, when Israel says we'redone with you, we'll have no
king but Caesar, then the doorof salvation, the floodgates,
will open to Gentiles.
But at this time the house ofIsrael Even said in Matthew 10,
5 and 6, he says to them do notgo in the way of the Gentiles.
But at this time, the house ofIsrael Even said in Matthew 10,
5 and 6, he says to them do notgo in the way of the Gentiles,
do not even get on the road thatgoes to Samaria.
(54:57):
He says but go only to the lostsheep of the house of Israel.
Remember that that's becausethe mission was to Israel.
He doesn't even answer.
This woman just totally ignoresher.
Verse 25,.
But she came and she began tobow down before him saying Lord,
help me.
But she came and she began tobow down before him saying Lord,
help me.
And he answered and said it'snot good to take the children's
bread that's Israel, their breadand throw it to the dogs.
(55:19):
Now we may not like that somuch, because we're Gentiles and
most of us Not all of us andmost of us, not all of us, but
dogs in Jewish culture wereconsidered unclean animals.
(55:40):
They didn't have dogs as petsrunning around their house.
No, remember, there were dogsthat ate up Jezebel in the Old
Testament after she was thrownout a window.
These were not pets in theirthinking, they were unclean
animals.
And because Gentiles werenon-Jews, they were considered
unclean.
And so dogs is a metaphor foran unclean people.
(56:01):
It's not good to take the breadthat belongs to Israel and
throw it to unclean people, toIsrael and throw it to unclean
people.
But she said yes, lord, eventhe dogs feed on the crumbs
which fall from the master'stable.
So she agreed with him yes,this is the bread that belongs
(56:24):
to the children, but even theunclean Gentiles, see, we feed
on these crumbs that fall on thefloor from your table, master.
And he said oh woman, yourfaith is great, it shall be done
for you.
And her daughter was healed.
(56:45):
Okay, that said again, how didthe Jews respond to the birth
and then later, the life,increasing rejection.
There's some excitement, butthey just basically forgot.
And there's more and morerejection, but along the way,
matthew says and, by the way,there are these gentiles who
have this response and guesswhat?
They're paving the way for more.
(57:05):
There's going to be more.
There's going to be more, andjesus has hinted at this.
He said things like many willcome from east to west and sit
down with Abraham and Isaac andJacob and feast in the kingdom.
So there's a ton of Gentilesthat are to come in.
(57:25):
Now, gentiles just keep gaininginterest.
If you go into the book of Acts, acts 13,.
Now, gentiles just keep gaininginterest If you go into the
book of Acts, acts 13,.
Well, let's go to 1427.
1427, I think, is my favoriteone here and I don't want to
keep you all day unless you wantto stay and just keep learning
(57:46):
the Bible.
1427,.
Here it is.
You've seen it in 11.1,.
That's Cornelius and hishousehold, acts 13.48,.
Paul says we're turning to theGentiles.
You Jews don't like it.
You consider yourselvesunworthy.
I'll go to the Gentiles.
14.27,.
When they had arrived andgathered the church together,
they began to report all thingsthat God had done with them and
how he had opened a door offaith to the Gentiles.
Gentiles, see, like the Jewsare starting to realize gosh.
(58:12):
There's a lot of Gentiles whoare responding to the by grace
alone, through faith alone,message of Jesus, the Jewish
Messiah, and they spent a longtime with the disciples.
Romans 11.25,.
We'll close with this, romans11.25.
Romans 9 through 11 recountsbasically God's program for
Israel and Gentiles and he'scommenting in this section on
(58:41):
what Jesus said in John 10 aboutI have many sheep in this fold.
You know, I'm going to bring inthis other flock and I'm going
to make them all one flock intothe shepherd, talking about the
church, jew and gentile in onebody.
And he comes down to romans,chapter 11, verse 25, after he's
talked about jew and gentileand they're both branches in
this one olive tree and enjoyingthe spiritual blessings from
(59:04):
that tree during this time, whatwe call the church.
And in romans 11, verse 25, hesays I don't want you, brethren,
to be uninformed of thismystery so that you will not be
wise in your own estimation thata partial hardening has
happened to israel until thefullness of the gentiles has
come in.
There's this partial hardeningthat happened to is Israel
(59:27):
because they were initiallyexcited and all that, but they
forgot and they eventually justbecame hateful toward him and
they finally just totallyrejected him and had him
crucified right At the hands ofPontius Pilate and so forth.
But at the same time, all thatwas happening, this door of
salvation was opening to theGentiles, and so there's this
(59:50):
fullness of Gent was opening tothe Gentiles, and so there's
this fullness of Gentiles thathave to come in Now.
After all that see, god's notdone with Israel.
That's one of the big questionsabout Romans 9 through 11.
Paul's answering is God donewith Israel?
Has God cast Israel awayforever because they rejected
their Messiah?
Well, romans 11.26 answers itwith great finality Until the
(01:00:12):
fullness of the Gentiles hascome in, and so all Israel will
be saved.
Yeah, all Israel, meaning thenation Israel, will eventually
be saved.
And he goes on to describepassages about the new covenant
which will be fulfilled toIsrael.
So the responses weren't sogreat from the Jews.
They forgot.
(01:00:32):
The Gentiles are interested,and their interest just keeps
gaining.
And this is going to go onuntil there's a fullness of
Gentiles is reached, and thenthe church will be complete, the
rapture will take place, andthen issues with Israel
transpire and the end of thatwill be all Israel will be saved
.
See, okay, next week, what I'mgoing to start to do is I'm
going to detail out why the Jewsrejected him.
I'm going to give you abouteight to ten reasons about why
(01:00:55):
they rejected him and we'll gointo the Gospels again and just
look what was it that theydidn't like so much?
Why did they hate him so much?
Issues like the Sabbath, issueslike the temple, issues like
the law Okay, like the Sabbath,issues like the temple, issues
like the law okay, All thesethings add up to their turning
(01:01:15):
against him in his life andeventually his death.
But God raised him from thedead right, so that here we all
are today.
If you're not saved if you hey,it's just a free gift, nobody's
forcing it down your throat Ifyou believe that Jesus came and
died for your sins and you areconvinced of that truth, that he
(01:01:36):
came and died for you, guesswhat?
You are saved, because that'swhat has to happen.
You hear and you understandwhat he's done for you and
you're convinced you arepersuaded, you have believed you
receive this.
At that moment, he gives youeverlasting, are persuaded, you
have believed you receive this.
At that moment, he gives youeverlasting life.
If you have everlasting life,let me ask you a question can
(01:02:03):
you lose it?
It's not everlasting.
If you could lose it.
And Jesus didn't come to promisetemporary life, he came to
promise eternal life.
He says he who believes in mehas everlasting life.
You have it right now, and soyou have nothing to fear.
We have peace with God.
Romans 5.1.
These are all great promises ofGod.
You can relax and relax and youcan live life just to his glory
(01:02:23):
, out of your gratitude for whathe has done for you and in
anticipation of what he's goingto come and do in the future.
And in anticipation of whathe's going to come and do in the
future.
Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(01:02:51):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today, the full lesson fromJeremy Thomas.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here's a hint of what's to come.
The point is, we want to try tounderstand how it is that
Christ avoided these three sinproblems.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Have you ever told a website to remember your
username and password and thenyou come back a couple of days
later and it has forgotten whoyou are and you have to sign
back in again?
Why does something like this soquickly and easily forget?
The answer is pretty simplebecause humans programmed it and
(00:40):
we forget.
Therefore, the things that weprogram, plan, build, kind of
carry our characteristics.
They can be forgetful, notintentionally, sometimes rather
unintentionally.
How does this relate to theBible lesson today?
Well, when the Lord of Gloryshowed up in human form in
(01:04):
Jerusalem to be dedicated as ayoung child, the people marveled
.
And when he taught in thetemple at age 12, the people
were amazed.
And yet by the time he had cometo be an adult man and to begin
his ministry, they hadcompletely forgotten the amazing
(01:24):
things they had seen of him andheard of him and knew of him.
We are frail humans and weforget, which is why it's so
important to be involved inregular Bible study and
fellowship at a local church.
Because we are forgetful localchurch, because we are forgetful
(01:48):
.
Today we look at the virginbirth of Christ and what that
means for who he is andtherefore what we get to benefit
from and we get to be involvedin in salvation the virgin birth
, the cornerstone of who Jesus,the Son of man, is.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, okay, well, in the New Testament framework,
again, we go through the variousevents.
There's going to be four eventsin the life of Christ.
They're easy to remember thebirth of Christ, the life of
Christ, the death of Christ andthe resurrection.
We've been working on the firstevent, which deals with the
virgin birth and specificallywhy there had to be a virgin
(02:25):
birth.
I've been giving variousreasons, but as we go through
these, remember we're trying towork ourselves to this very rich
, complicated statement that wasdeveloped through church
history as people thought aboutChrist, through church history,
as people thought about Christ,what the New Testament says
(02:45):
about Christ, and various ideasor differences arose through
church history, such as peoplelike the Docetists or those who
were monarchians, modalmonarchians, modalism and stuff
like that.
Maybe not familiar with allthese things, but you are
(03:07):
familiar with groups likeJehovah's Witnesses or Mormons
who have alternate views ofChrist, and these views, like
Jehovah's Witnesses andMormonism, are just really
modern expressions of ancientArianism.
So these ideas aren't reallynew.
They just keep cropping upunder new names and so they are
(03:30):
still with us today.
But these things went on inchurch history and so the church
had to wrestle with the personof Christ, and this is
essentially the statement thatthey came up with that Jesus
Christ is undiminished deity,united with true humanity in one
person, without confusion orseparation, forever.
(03:51):
There's a whole lot packed intothis statement that by the time
we finish the birth event.
We will take some time to gointo this doctrine, which is
called the hypostatic union andone of the more complicated
doctrines, but it's built ondoctrines from the Old Testament
(04:13):
.
So if we're clear on doctrineslike who God is and who man is,
that will help us when we thinkabout the person who is both God
and man, emmanuel, and so thatwill help us develop a proper
understanding of who Christ is.
So we're working our way towardthis and as we do so, we work
through three aspects of eachevent the event itself, which
(04:36):
now we're discussing, the virginbirth.
Then secondly, the response tothe event.
We're going to start this today.
We've been working with theevent itself, talking about the
various necessities of thevirgin birth, why this is not
something that's just a sidetruth, a peripheral, but why
it's an essential, why it wascalled at the early in 1909,
(04:58):
there was a book publishedcalled the Fundamentals, and
this book had as one of itsfundamentals, the virgin birth.
Because at that time the virginbirth was being challenged by
liberal theologians throughvarious denominations, and so
they set forth the fundamentals,one of which is the virgin
birth.
(05:18):
So we want to talk about we'vebeen talking about the necessity
for this belief.
We want to talk today someabout the responses to this
event.
I'll look at it from the sideof the Jews as well as from the
side of the Gentiles and then,lastly, as we go along here in
the next couple weeks, as wedeal with the responses, we'll
also talk about what's theproper response, how people
(05:39):
should have responded to thevirgin birth.
So three reasons for the virginbirth.
We'll finish this up today.
We've already looked at theprophetic.
If God is God, then God cantell the future, and if he's not
God, he doesn't know what isgoing to happen.
And the God of the Bibleinsists throughout the Old
(06:02):
Testament and Isaiah, andthrough all the prophets, of
course, that he indeed does knowthe future, and when prophecy
is fulfilled, we see, in fact,confirmation that he is the one
true God.
So there are passages thatforeshadow the virgin birth,
like Genesis 3.15, the seed ofthe woman.
Women don't have seed, you know.
Isaiah 7.14, a virgin will bewith child.
(06:23):
Women don't have seed.
You know, isaiah 7.14, a virginwill be with child.
Jeremiah 22,.
He can't be of this line ofnatural descent, the line of
Coniah that came to Joseph.
So he must somehow avoid beingthe son of David in a natural
biological sense but yet beadopted by him to get throne
rights.
And all this is confirmed inMatthew 1, that God indeed does
tell the future, and one of thethings that he told was the
(06:45):
virgin birth and that it didtake place.
The legal reasons which wediscussed last week, and this
relates to the sin problem,actually both B and C here, the
legal and spiritual necessitiesrelate to sin.
The legal one relates primarilyto one of the types of sin and
that is imputed sin.
I mean, everybody knows aboutpersonal sin, right?
(07:08):
Hopefully you don't know toomuch about it, but we all know
about this, right?
We all know about personal sin.
That's what most people thinkof when they think of sin.
You know something in thought,word or deed.
Some people may even think it'sjust deeds.
Thought, word or deed.
Some people may even think it'sjust deeds.
(07:28):
It doesn't have anything to dowith what I think, but it
certainly does have to do withwhat we think, and so sin is
anything contrary to the perfectrighteousness or holiness of
God, anything that does notconform to that, and so that's
the common way of thinking aboutsin.
But there's two othercategories of sin imputed, and
this is a legal term.
(07:49):
It refers to an imputation orcrediting of sin to every
individual who is in Adam.
Romans 5.12 is the key passage.
It says you know that.
Therefore, just as sin enteredthe world through one man and
death through sin, so deathspread to all men.
(08:10):
And then it says because allsin.
And you say well, how did wesin?
I wasn't there, I didn't eat ofthe fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
And yet, as I explained, wewere in Adam.
The whole human race was inAdam, including Eve, who was
made out of Adam, and thiscreates in the human race a
(08:31):
solitary origin.
We were all in one individual,and that individual is named
Adam or Adama, which means notjust man but mankind.
He was, in all truth, all ofmankind, and we sinned in him,
although, as Romans 5 also says,not in the likeness of him,
(08:52):
meaning we weren't consciously,personally there to say, oh,
thank you, eve.
I would love to try this, but,as I say to people, you would
have done the same thing.
Don't try to excuse yourself,but God sets everything up and
he imputes or credits that sinto all of us who were in Adam.
So it's a direct transmissionfrom Adam to us.
(09:15):
This is pointing out ourproblem, right, all three types
of sin.
We have a serious sin problem.
That's not all.
We have a third type of sin thatI want to discuss a little bit
more today, and that's inheritedsin.
This is the biologicalinheriting of sin, and the
transmission here is indirect,whereas with imputed it's direct
(09:38):
.
It's from Adam to each of us.
Because we're in Adam, this oneis transmitted.
Because we're in Adam, this oneis transmitted indirectly from
Adam to his offspring, meaningAbel and Cain and other sons and
daughters that Adam is said tohave had all the way down
through the whole chain of thehuman race, to you and to me,
(10:00):
from our parents, okay.
So this is transferred to us atconception Psalm 51.5, where
David says in sin, my motherconceived me.
It doesn't mean that the act ofprocreation is sinful.
It means that at conception,when the joining of the egg and
(10:20):
the sperm took place, there wasa transmission of sin to the
offspring, that is, david.
This is what results inacquiring a sin nature or a
flesh, and obviously the Biblehas a lot to say about the flesh
.
You know, we should walk by theSpirit and not by the flesh,
(10:42):
and everybody knows this type ofterminology.
The flesh is an inclination ordisposition to sin.
It's part of who we are, fromconception.
People will then, of course,come with a question, and this
is a brief aside.
Well then, what about babies,who are infants, or those in the
(11:03):
womb, let's say, who arespontaneously aborted or die in
the womb?
Let's say who are spontaneouslyaborted or die, you know, in
the womb for some reason, ifthey have sin, you know, won't
sin separate us from God?
Yes, sin separates us from God.
All sin separates us from God.
They don't have any personalsin, maybe, but they have
inherited sin, they have imputedsin.
So this is going to separatethem from God.
(11:23):
So how does God resolve theseproblems?
Well, the first thing I'd sayabout that is it's not a problem
for God, it's just a problemfor you and me maybe, but I've
always held the position thatthere's a little book on this
that I really like, by BobLeitner Robert Leitner, it's
called.
What is the name of that book?
(11:44):
Anyway, the book basically goesthrough the idea that if a
person and we would say there'sa full personhood in the womb if
there's a person who cannotmeet the requirement for eternal
life, and that requirement isto believe, you have to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Well, obviously, a baby in thewomb or a young baby or someone
(12:08):
who is mentally retarded cannotunderstand the gospel message.
If a person cannot meet therequirement to believe that
message, then God in his grace,through the unlimited atonement
of Christ, provides salvationfor them.
This seems fitting andconsistent with the nature of
(12:30):
our God and His grace.
But the point is I'm justtrying to make is that even in
the womb we have inherited sin,we have a flesh.
Now let's turn to Romans 8.3,because the the point is we want
to try to understand how it isthat Christ avoided these three
sin problems.
(12:51):
Obviously, the personal sinproblem.
We know that, the temptations.
You can look at the passagesabout his temptations and you
see he's overcoming thetemptation to personal sin.
But how did he overcome imputedsin?
We discussed that last week.
And how did he overcomeinherited sin?
Well, the virgin birth is theanswer, in some way or another,
(13:15):
to all these questions.
So Romans 8, verse 3 sayssomething very interesting about
him.
So we understand that he waswithout a sin nature or flesh.
Romans 8 3 for what the lawcould not do, speaking of the
law of moses, weak as it was,through the flesh.
In other words, the lawbasically caused the human
(13:38):
sinful flesh to want to rebel.
Rebel, you know.
You tell a kid don't eat thosecookies while I'm gone.
All they want to do now is tryto see how they can get a cookie
, because what you've done isthe flesh.
(13:59):
You've given a standard, butthe flesh uses the standard as a
base to push off of, to exertitself, and so they want to
break the law.
And that's what he's saying thelaw, the law of Moses, weak as
it was, through the flesh,meaning causing people to
stumble and get into sin.
Well, it couldn't do this, butGod did.
(14:21):
It's sending his own son in thelikeness of sinful flesh.
In the likeness of sinful flesh.
Note the key word, obviously,likeness.
He looked like sinful flesh inthe sense that he looked like
you, he looked like me, he had atrue human body, he had a true
human spirit and he was a truehuman soul.
(14:41):
So he had a physical appearance, he was real, he wasn't just a
phantom.
He had a true human spirit,which means he had personality,
he had conscience, he had allthe things that are aspects of
our immaterial being, and he wasa true human soul.
That's why we say he's truehumanity, he's 100% a true human
(15:01):
being.
Okay, but he wasn't sinfulflesh, was he?
According to this verse, hecame in the likeness of sinful
flesh, so he didn't have onelike you have and like I have,
and that's the point of bringingthis verse up.
He was unique in this sense.
He avoided it.
How did he avoid it?
He avoided this inherited sinbecause his?
(15:25):
Well, two points.
First of all, because thetransmission is direct through
the male.
We looked at that last weekHebrews 7, 1 through 10.
And since he's born of Maryalone and not Mary and Joseph,
but Mary alone, then he avoidsthe transmission.
Because the transmission isthrough the male, okay.
And secondly, jesus avoids itby the work of the Spirit upon
(15:50):
Mary at the virgin conception,because he's the one who was
involved in the conception.
If Joseph wasn't, who was?
Well, the Holy Spirit providedthat aspect of his humanity.
So that's how he avoidsinherited sin.
And this is interesting Now,since he has none of the three
kinds of sin right.
(16:11):
He avoided the temptationstempted in all things as we.
Yet without sin, he avoidsimputed sin by the over, by the
overpowering work of the father,this barrier that was put up,
luke 135, and he avoids theinherited sin because the holy
Spirit, not Joseph, conceivedthe child within her.
(16:33):
Then this means something unique.
It means that Jesus didn't haveto die physically.
Doesn't it mean that?
In other words, here's what I'msaying If Jesus had wanted to
continue living in this world,could he still be here today?
Yes, because he has no cause ofdeath residing within him.
Sin is the cause of death, sinis the cause of sickness, it's
(16:56):
the root cause of all thesethings.
If he doesn't have sin, theroot cause, then he can't die
physically, and that's why he'llsay things in the Gospels that
well, quite frankly, they soundamazing.
Like who could say that?
He'll say something like no onetakes my life from me, but I
lay it down of my own accord,meaning, if I'm going to die,
(17:20):
it's because I'm going towillingly give my life up, but
I'm not just going to die.
I can't just die.
The great story at Nazarethwhere he says a prophet is not
welcome in his own town.
It's a village, really, it's avery small place.
They ran him out of town to anedge and they were going to push
(17:41):
him off the cliff.
And you've got to imaginethere's got to be several dozen
people here at least.
They're going to shove him offthe cliff.
And then the text says and hewent through them and they could
no longer find him.
You're like what, how could youmiss the guy?
I mean there's 30, 40, whoknows how many people there and
(18:03):
he just goes through the midstof you and Well, he couldn't die
.
He could not until he and when.
He chose to die for us.
So he says these unique thingsand they're arising out of the
fact that he didn't have any sin, so no cause of death residing
within him.
He could still be with us today.
He'd be about 2,030 years old,if my math is right, as far as
(18:25):
the birth.
Lastly, well, why didn't we goto John 10, 14 through 18?
We might as well look at itJohn 10, we're here.
John 10, 14 through 18.
A lot of this stuff in theGospel of John, because the
(18:45):
Gospel of John is theological.
It was written later than theother Gospels.
The other Gospels give usnarratives, they tell us the
stories, they're giving us thefacts, okay, but John gives us a
theological reflection on thefacts.
So John 10, 14 through 18.
Yeah, I wanted to discuss thispassage.
Jesus says I am the goodshepherd and I know my own and
(19:08):
my own know me, even as thefather knows me and I know the
father.
I lay down my life for thesheep.
See, that's what I'm saying.
Nobody could kill him.
He had to lay down his life,notice.
He says I lay down my life forthe sheep.
Now, some people say, well,that means he's just dying for
certain people.
He doesn't die for all people,he only dies for some people.
(19:29):
The people say well, that meanshe's just dying for certain
people.
He doesn't die for all people,he only dies for some people,
the people that are called hissheep.
That's one way people approachthis passage and they believe in
limited atonement, that Jesusonly came to die for a limited
group of people, not all people.
Now, I don't think that's thecase.
(19:50):
Let's read on and I'll explain.
He says I have other sheep whichare not of this fold.
I must bring them also, andthey will hear my voice and they
will become one flock with oneshepherd.
Now, so there's other sheep, hesays, but not of this fold,
right, but they will become oneflock with one shepherd.
(20:12):
What Is anybody theologicallyacute enough to know, first of
all, who his sheep are?
At the end of verse 15?
My father knows me.
I know the father.
I lay down my life for thesheep.
Who's he talking to?
That would be the firstquestion.
Who is the audience?
Israel?
If you go back earlier, you see, in verse 40 of the previous
(20:36):
chapter, those of the Phariseeswho were with him heard these
things and blah, blah, blah,blah, blah.
Are we blind too?
Okay, he goes on and on.
So through this, if you go backand read all this, you'll see
he's talking to the Jews, toJewish people, including the
Pharisees.
The ones that are his sheep areIsrael.
(20:58):
That's Israel.
But then he says in verse 16, Ihave other sheep, not of this
fold, meaning not of Israel, sothey're going to be Gentiles.
This is not that hard.
I must bring them also and theywill hear my voice and they
will become one flock with oneshepherd.
(21:18):
One flock with one shepherd.
So he's looking forward to thechurch, right when you've got
Jew and Gentile in one body orone flock.
So this isn't saying he onlydies for the sheep.
There's a limited atonement.
He doesn't die for all men.
It's saying he died for Israel,but he also died for Gentiles
(21:39):
and he's going to make them allone flock, as he's prophesying
here of the future church whichbegan on the day of Pentecost.
So verse 17,.
For this reason the Fatherloves me.
Why?
Because I lay down my life sothat I may take it again.
I lay down my life, see.
He had to give his life for us.
Nobody could take it from him.
He says no one has taken itaway from me, but I lay it down
(22:03):
of my own initiative.
I have authority to lay it andI have authority to take it up
again.
This commandment I receivedfrom my Father.
Now, can anyone say that, exceptthe Lord Jesus Christ?
In fact, as you're going to see, some of his statements lead
you to this idea that CS Lewisdiscussed in his book Mere
(22:23):
Christianity, which is commonlydescribed as Jesus is either a
liar, he's a lunatic or he'sLord.
This type of statement, see, Imean, are you crazy?
You lay down your life and youtake it up again.
(22:44):
What are you taught?
Nobody can do that.
In fact, what did the Jews sayin verse 19 after he said this?
It says a division occurredagain among the Jews because of
these words, and many of themwere saying he has a demon and
is insane, he's a lunatic.
See, and that's all that Lewisand Clive Staples Lewis was
(23:07):
pointing out, right?
And that's all that Lewis inClive Staples' Lewis was
pointing out, right, that ifyou're honest, when you read the
Gospels, you think this guy iseither the biggest liar in all
of history or he's a totallunatic, or he's Lord of
(23:29):
everything.
And so read this and be honest,be honest.
I mean, can you really justconclude that Jesus was a good
teacher if you read this?
Well, and no, he's.
If he's a liar, he's immoral.
You know, it's just not apossibility that he'd be just a
good teacher.
He's far more than that.
Or he's just not a possibilitythat he'd be just a good teacher
(23:49):
.
He's far more than that, orhe's just crazy.
So we have these types ofpassages in John 10, 14 through
18.
Now let's look at John 1, 14and 3, 16, which you already
know, because we want to showthat Jesus was entirely unique.
I mean we've already started toshow that.
(24:10):
But John 1.14,.
This is talking about thevirgin birth, because it's an
incarnation passage, verse 14,.
And the Word became flesh anddwelt among us, meaning he's a
true human right and he dweltamong true humans.
(24:31):
And John says and we saw hisglory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, fullof grace and truth.
We saw his glory.
Now, who shares glory with theFather?
I don't share His glory, youdon't share His glory, nobody
(24:55):
shares His glory, but the LordJesus Christ shared glory with
the Father.
This is something unique.
It also says as the onlybegotten right.
Glory, as of the only begottenright, glory as of the only
begotten.
In other words, this is thereason he can actually share in
(25:17):
the glory of the father isbecause he's the only begotten.
Now this is also used in john 3, 16 right for god so loved the
world that he gave his onlybegotten son that whosoever
believes in him shall not perishbut have everlasting life.
That Greek word that I guess inour language to many people.
They think well, that means hewas born.
(25:38):
It's talking about the birth ofJesus, or something like that
and therefore, as the Mormonsand Jehovah's Witnesses will say
, these verses prove that he'snot God, but he's less than God.
That's not what this word means.
This word is monogenes.
One word, monogenes.
(25:58):
The word means unique, one of akind.
That's why I'll say somethinglike the only begotten, because
the only one is a one of a kind.
He's a one of a kind person.
What is it that makes him?
You know, you can justtranslate it.
I often translate it unique.
I'll say John 3, 16 that way.
I won't quote it with onlybegotten, because people start
(26:20):
thinking about babies and stuff.
It's not really talking abouthim being born or something like
that.
It's talking about his uniqueson.
Not really talking about himbeing born or something like
that.
It's talking about hisuniqueness, for God so loved the
world that he gave his uniqueson, the unique one.
He's unique because he's Godand man in one person.
(26:42):
As the Old Testament predictedright, he shall be called
Emmanuel, which means God withus, and that's what John 1.14 is
saying.
The word became flesh and dweltamong us.
He dwelt with us see, and wesaw his glory.
This was something totallyunique.
How does Hebrews 1 begin?
Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 3,begins with a statement.
(27:03):
I'm going to go back to John 1,so don't lose John 1.
But Hebrews 1, which I'm goingto go back to John 1, so don't
lose John 1.
But Hebrews, chapter 1, which Ijust want to read.
God, after he spoke long ago tothe fathers and the prophets so
that's the Old Testament hespoke to them in many portions
and in many ways you know,dreams, visions and so forth In
these last days has spoken to usin his son, whom he appointed
(27:28):
heir of all things.
Okay, okay, so he's the heir ofthe world, through whom also he
made the world.
So the father, through the son,the book of genesis, whenever
god said let there be something,this is the father creating
through the agency of the son,okay, and that is why john 1 1
begins with in the agency of theSon.
Okay, and that is why John 1.1begins with in the beginning was
(27:50):
the Word speech, and the Wordwas with God and the Word was
God.
It's speaking of the first twomembers of the Trinity.
And God, the Father, as thesource of creation, did it
through the agent, the Son, andhe's spoken to us in His Son,
and verse 3 says he is theradiance of His glory and this
(28:12):
us in his son.
And verse 3 says he is theradiance of his glory, and this
is a stunning phrase.
He is the exact representationof his nature.
He is the exact representationof his nature.
In other words, if you had beenhere on earth during the
ministry of the Lord JesusChrist and you saw him standing
(28:32):
on the Sea of Galilee shore orsomething like that, ask you a
question Were you seeing God?
Yes, you were seeing God in theflesh.
He is the exact expression, theexact representation of god.
Now so back to john 1.
(28:55):
Okay, this uniqueness havingthe glory of the father.
Sharing this, in verse 15, johntestified about him and cried
out saying this was he of whom Isaid.
He who comes after me has ahigher rank than I.
Why?
Because he existed before me.
The preexistence of the MessiahVerse 16,.
(29:19):
For of his fullness we have allreceived.
And grace upon grace, for thelaw was given through Moses,
grace and truth were realizedthrough Jesus Christ.
And then he says something elseinteresting no one has seen God
at any time, the only begottenGod, who is in the bosom of the
Father, which means in the careof, in the lap, being taken care
(29:40):
of by the Father.
He has exegeted him.
That is the Greek word forexegete, exegeo, which we mean.
When you study the Bible, wealways say you are to read out.
Ex means out, right Like exodus, exit.
There's a sign there that saysexit.
(30:01):
If you don't know where theexits are, here they are.
That's the way out if you don'tlike what I'm saying.
And exegel means to lead or todraw out.
So what do we do when we studythe Bible?
We lead or draw out what is inthe text.
We do not eisegete.
Eis means in, To lead or readin.
(30:24):
We don't want to read our ideainto the words of the Bible.
We want to draw out what isthere.
And so what this is saying aboutthe son is that he drew out who
the father was.
If we had been here, we wouldhave seen him, because if you
(30:44):
see me, he said, you have seenthe Father.
I and the Father are one.
And he goes on to say crazythings like I only do the will
of my Father.
What human can say that they'veonly and always done the will
of God?
Again, these are uniqueexpressions.
They're saying that he is atotally unique and different
(31:08):
type of person, even though hewould have looked like a human
being.
John 8.29.
Flip over there, john 8.29.
John 8.29.
This is this is one of thosestatements that cs lewis is
(31:31):
referring to.
I mean, you're either lying oryou're a total lunatic, or he's
lord of all.
Verse 29 he who sent me is withme.
He has not left me alone, for Ialways do the things that are
pleasing to him.
I mean, give me a break, really.
I mean, think if someone saidthat to you, you'd be like this
(31:52):
is the most arrogant person onthe planet, right, or they're
actually who they claim to beand you have to make a decision
how you're going to deal withthem.
So here's what Lewis actuallysaid in Mere Christianity.
I'm trying here to preventanyone saying the really foolish
thing that people often sayabout him, that is Christ.
(32:14):
That quote.
I'm ready to accept Jesus as agreat moral teacher, but I don't
accept his claim to be God.
Lewis says that's one thing wemust not say.
A man who is merely a man andsaid the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moralteacher.
He would either be a lunatic onlevel with the man who says he
is a poached egg, or else he'dbe the devil of hell.
(32:37):
You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is theSon of God, or else he's a
madman or something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool.
That's what the Pharisees did.
They said he's insane.
You can spit at him and killhim as a demon, or you can fall
(32:59):
at his feet and call him Lordand God.
But let us not come up with anypatronizing nonsense about his
being a great human teacher.
He has not left that optionopen to us.
He did not intend to.
Now, that said, I want to turn.
We're going to see this themecontinue in the Gospels as we go
(33:23):
through his life and his deathand resurrection.
We want to start looking at theresponses that the Jews and the
Gentiles had to the virginbirth.
So first of all, we'll look atthe Jews, then we'll look at the
Gentiles, and this is a veryinteresting story.
So let's turn to Luke, chapter2.
This is a story, you know, ofthe shepherds in the field.
(33:48):
You know, keeping their flocksby night Luke, chapter 2.
There's obviously initialexcitement.
You've heard this story.
You know they get excited,right.
So let's look at thisexcitement and also, as we read
this, ask yourself, as weprogress through this, how
(34:11):
should people have responded to,how should the Jews have
responded to these claims of thebirth and this actual birth?
So 2.8, in the same region.
The region is Bethlehem, verse4.
In the same region, there weresome shepherds staying out in
the fields and keeping watchover their flocks by night.
We don't know who theseshepherds were.
Some people say, well, they'rejust normal shepherds.
(34:33):
These were basically the lowestpeople in society.
Other people say no, these werepriestly shepherds who were
watching over the temple flock,the flock that was destined for
sacrifice.
Either way, they're out inthese fields, very close to
Jerusalem, around Bethlehem,just a few miles from Jerusalem,
and an angel of the Lordsuddenly stood before them and
(34:55):
the glory of the Lord shonearound them and they were
terribly afraid.
But the angel said to them donot be afraid.
Behold, I bring you good newsof great joy, which will be for
all the people, the people ofIsrael, for today, in the city
of David, there's been born foryou a Savior linking us to the
Davidic covenant, the city ofDavid, a Savior who is Messiah,
right, the Lord, that is God.
(35:17):
This will be a sign for you,you will find a baby wrapped in
claws and lying in a manger.
So it's a sign of which childis the Messiah.
In verse 13,.
Suddenly there appeared, withthe angel, a multitude of the
heavenly hosts praising God andsaying glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peaceamong men, with whom he is well
pleased.
And when the angels had goneaway from them into heaven, the
(35:38):
shepherds began saying to oneanother let us go straightway to
Bethlehem and see this thingthat has happened, which the
Lord has made known to us.
See the excitement.
Let's just go straightway Now.
You're going to leave yourflock.
Yes, they're going to leave theflock.
You, you don't ever leave theflock as a shepherd, but if the
true shepherd, the true shepherd, has just been born, let's go
(36:00):
and see.
See, let's go and see the thingthat the lord has made known.
So verse 16.
They came in a hurry and theyfound their way to mary and
joseph and the baby as he lay inthe manger.
And when they had seen this,they made known.
So did they go tell otherpeople, according to verse 17.
Yes, they went and they madeknown this statement and
(36:22):
everything that was told to themabout this child, the Savior,
this one who's a descendant ofDavid the Messiah.
He's been born and all whoheard it verse 18 they wondered
at the things which were toldthem by the shepherds.
They were astonished.
This word thalmadzo for wonder,astonishment, awe.
They were in awe at the thingswhich were told them by the
(36:42):
shepherds.
This is the great hope ofisrael, right that god sent the
messiah.
And then mary.
She treasures all these things,she.
She's pondering them, sumbalo,throwing them together.
The Old Testament prophecies iswhat it's talking about.
She's trying to understand whathas transpired in her heart.
And the shepherds went back totheir flocks glorifying and
(37:03):
praising God for all that theyhad heard and seen, just as had
been told them.
Now you would think, okay, youhave this virgin birth.
They go, they see the child.
It seen just as had been toldthem.
Now you would think, okay, youhave this virgin birth.
They go, they see the child.
It's just as the angel said.
They tell everybody about this.
You would think, well, howshould the Jews respond?
What are they going to do?
Are they going to follow?
(37:24):
I mean, what should they do?
Shouldn't they follow thecareer of this baby with great
interest?
Wouldn't you follow the careerof this child with great
interest.
Let's read on.
Some people did have a goodresponse, as we'll see here.
(37:46):
Verse 21 and following wheneight days had passed before his
circumcision, his name was thencalled Jesus, the name given by
the angel before he wasconceived in the womb.
When the days for theirpurification according to the
law of Moses were completed,they brought him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the law ofthe Lord, every firstborn male
that opens the womb shall becalled holy to the Lord and
(38:09):
offer a sacrifice, according towhat was said in the law of the
Lord, a pair of turtle doves ortwo young pigeons.
So Mary and Joseph, after thedays of purification, are going
down to the temple right inJerusalem.
They're taking the baby up.
And verse 25,.
There was a man in Jerusalemwhose name was Simeon, and this
man was righteous and devout.
He was looking for theconsolation of Israel.
Well, let me ask you a question.
(38:31):
Who's the consolation of Israel, by the way?
Oh, the Messiah.
That's who he's waiting for.
And the Holy Spirit was uponhim, and it had been revealed to
him by the Holy Spirit that hewould not see death before he
had seen the Lord's Christ.
We've got two people early on,before John the Baptist comes
along and has his ministry.
We have two people that theLord has spoken to, simeon and
(38:54):
Zechariah, the father of Johnthe Baptist.
Both of these.
So you see God starting tospeak again.
We said during theintertestamental times.
It's sometimes called theperiod of silence 400 years of
silence.
He's starting to speak again.
Zechariah is now Simeon.
Simeon's been told he's notgoing to see death before he's
seen the Lord's Messiah Verse27,.
(39:14):
He came in the spirit into thetemple and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus tocarry out for him the custom of
the law, he took him into hisarms.
Now you're Mary, okay, you gotthe baby Jesus.
This guy comes along and justsweeps him out of your arms.
That's the picture, becausethat's what happened and the
grammar is deliberately movingthe narrative along quickly.
So we think of someone swiftlytaking a baby out of your arms.
(39:38):
And he blessed God and he saidnow, lord, you are releasing
your bondservant to depart inpeace.
In other words, I can go now, Ican die According to your word,
for my eyes have seen yoursalvation, which you have
prepared in the presence of allpeoples, a light of revelation
to the gentiles and the glory ofyour people.
Israel and his father and motherwere amazed at the things which
(39:59):
were being said about him.
See, they're just trying topiece all this together.
You can imagine if you were ahusband or wife with your first
baby and these things have beensaid about your child.
All these strange, uniquethings have occurred around the
conception and the birth.
And so Simeon blesses them andhe says in verse 34, behold,
this child is appointed for thefall and the rise of many in
(40:19):
Israel and for a sign to beopposed.
And a sword will pierce evenyour own soul to the end that
the thoughts from many heartsmay be revealed.
That is one of my favoriteverses because obviously the
sword piercing through her ownsoul is looking to his horrible
crucifixion that will eventuallytake place.
(40:40):
But also the end of thatcrucifixion is that thoughts
from many hearts are revealed,because it's looking at one's
response to the crucifixion.
That's why the third part ofwhat we're doing here is always
or.
The second part is how did theyrespond?
How did the people respond?
And the last section is what isthe proper response?
(41:05):
Right, and they're both righthere at the end of verse 35.
So that's Simeon.
Good response, right, jew?
Good response.
Another good response verse 36,the prophetess Anna, the
daughter of Phanuel of the tribeof Asher.
She's advanced in years.
She had lived with her husbandseven years after her marriage
and then as a widow.
So he died.
She lived to the age of 84.
(41:25):
She never left the temple,serving night and day with
fastings and prayers hyperbolemeaning she was always there.
At that very moment she came upand began giving thanks to God.
So this is right after Simeon,she comes up, she begins giving
thanks to God.
She continued to speak of himto all those who were looking
for the redemption of Israel.
See, there were people who werelooking for the redemption of
Israel.
There were people looking forthe consolation of Israel, there
(41:46):
were people looking for theSavior, there were people
looking for the Messiah, and allthis is very close to the
virgin birth.
So there is this initialexcitement.
There's Simeon, there's theshepherds, there's Anna, the
prophetess, and then we come toverse 36.
I'm sorry, 39.
36.
(42:09):
I'm sorry, 39.
Let's go to 41.
Now look, that's the last storyyou hear about in all the
Gospels, about Jesus.
It's all about his birth, aboutthat time period.
You don't hear anything elseuntil verse 41.
(42:31):
Now his parents went toJerusalem every year at the
feast of the passover, and whenhe became 12, what what when he
became 12?
what happened to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten and eleven?
We're talking, you know, 11times, or 12 times, 365 days.
(42:52):
That's a lot of days that youdon't read anything.
The word went out from theshepherds and the prophetess was
telling people what's theproper response again, wouldn't
you want to track the career ofthis uniquely wrought child?
But they didn't.
(43:14):
They forgot.
We have this now.
He's 12 years old.
They go up according to thecustom of the feast, verse 43.
As they're returning, they wentin caravans with people from
Nazareth After spending the fullnumber of days.
The boy, jesus, stayed behindin Jerusalem, but his parents
weren't aware of it.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
People today say wow, what in the?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
world, these irresponsible parents.
You know these kids would justplay.
It was a large caravan.
They'd play all the time.
I mean, if you don't see yourkid all day, that's because he's
playing with so-and-so else'skids.
We all live in the same villageof Nazareth.
This is no big deal, right?
They supposed him to be in thecaravan.
They went a day's journey.
They began looking for him.
Okay, at the end of the dayyeah, where is he Among their
(43:54):
relatives and acquaintances?
Verse 45,.
When they did not find him,they returned to Jerusalem
looking for him.
After three days they found himin the temple.
I mean, I can only imagine thestress, right, sitting in the
midst of the teachers.
These are the most brilliantminds in Judaism, right?
He's both listening to them andhe's asking them questions.
(44:14):
He's 12 years old and all whoheard him were amazed at his
understanding and his answers.
You're amazed at a 12-year-old.
You're amazed at theunderstanding of a 12-year-old.
You're amazed at his answers toyour questions, that you, as
the great teachers of the law.
You have questions he's able toanswer.
(44:36):
He's able to ask questions thatyou're probably not able to
answer.
He's giving answers toquestions that you don't have
the answers for or you still arecurious about.
What do we say?
We read in Isaiah 50, verse 4 acouple weeks ago, morning by
morning, the Father would awakethe Messiah and teach him, and
teach him In his true humanity.
(44:57):
He had to learn the Word of God.
Here he is, at 12 years old.
Don't think children can'tlearn the Word of God.
Jesus didn't get to cheat.
Okay, he didn't get to cheat.
I've seen some pretty brilliant12, 13-year-olds in my life.
Some of these people have goneoff to places like Cambridge or
Yale when they're like 12 or 13years old.
(45:18):
How do they do that?
I mean, they're smart people,way smarter than me, probably
way smarter than anybody in thisroom.
I don't know, some of you maybe super geniuses off the Mensa
scale, but Jesus applied himselfand he listened to his father's
teaching and he learned theword of God to the point that
(45:42):
the great teachers of the laware astonished at this kid,
verse 48,.
When they saw him, they wereastonished.
His mother said to him son, whyhave you treated us like this?
And you know the rest of thestory.
You know, didn't?
You know?
I had to be in my father'shouse.
They didn't understand thestatement.
A 12-year-old understood it,but they didn't understand it.
Is he not unique?
(46:02):
But see, the point is here theJews really kind of forgot.
They're not really tracing hiscareer with great interest.
They're not really tracing hiscareer with great interest if at
this point, I was one of thosegreat teachers and I recognized
I'm a seminary professor.
So if I recognize in somestudent who's 18, 20, 25 years
old, even today, great potential, I don't you know that I will
(46:22):
be basically following thisperson's career and I will be
like investing in them as muchas I possibly can.
I've had some students who arethat way, like John Miles.
I was like, okay, this guy'skind of off the charts.
I mean, you should be teachingthe class, not me.
So follow his career with greatinterest.
Personally I do, but theydidn't do that.
(46:44):
It's the wrong response.
You'd think after this you'dlearn something about when he
was 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, how he'steaching in synagogue at 17, 18
, 19.
You don't read any of that.
There's nothing there.
There's nothing there untilJohn comes along and he's
baptizing and he comes to theJordan right Now.
(47:07):
That was the Jews and you seethis declining interest and then
animosity during the gospels,right when it's during his life
and his leads to the death.
Let's go to the gentiles.
This one is amazing.
Okay, matthew, I don't havetime to go through the whole
book of matthew, but isn't itinteresting that in matthew,
chapter 2, the first chapterafter we've got the birth of the
(47:27):
king, we have the genealogy ofj Joseph and then you have the
virgin birth.
Then you come to this reallystrange chapter that nobody else
in any other gospel writersrecords, right?
It's a story about the wise menright from the east.
These were really astronomersfrom Babylon.
Now let's just read a little ofit.
(47:48):
This is a Gentile response tothe birth, right?
That's why we're looking atthis now.
After jesus was born inbethlehem of judea, in the days
of herod, the king magi from theeast arrived in jerusalem
saying where is he?
Who has been born?
King of the jews?
Now, first of all, they camefrom the east, okay, and babylon
is to the.
This is where they were from.
(48:09):
It was 800 miles away.
They didn't have cars, theydidn't have trains, they didn't
have airplanes.
They had to walk or go in acaravan, on whatever type of
animal transportation they mighthave used 800 miles.
I don't know any woman whowould do that today.
(48:29):
I don't know many woman whowould do that today.
I don't know many guys thatwould do that.
Here they've come.
These are more royal type people, higher class, and they ask
where has he been born, the kingof the Jews?
We saw his star in the east.
We're talking about Numbers 24,the prediction of a star in
(48:50):
association with the Messiah.
He says and we've come toworship him.
Gentiles, come to worship aJewish king.
Is that not interesting, thisresponse?
They were probably descendedfrom the people that Daniel in
his days in Babylon.
Daniel became the head of theschool of astronomy at the end
(49:15):
of Daniel, chapter 2.
Because he interpreted dreams,remember, he saved the lives of
all the other people who were inthe school.
Remember, because Ariok wasgoing around, the commander, he
was killing them all.
Because Nebuchadnezzar realizedyou guys are a bunch of sham,
you don't know what my dreamsare about.
And Daniel, god revealed to himthe dream and he went into the
(49:36):
king and he told him theexplanation and the king was
pleased and recognized this isfrom God and he stopped slaying
the rest of the Gentile,soothsayers and sorcerers and so
forth.
I think these people becameconverted under Daniel, who
became head of that school.
And now we are five, six.
There's six, centuries laterand there's still a line of
people in Babylon who arelooking for this Jewish king and
(49:59):
they come 800 miles to worshiphim.
Now that's an interesting storythat this is plugged in right
here in Matthew chapter two.
But go now to Matthew chaptereight.
Matthew chapter Matthew isdoing something.
Matthew, periodically as hegoes along.
It's all this stuff about Jews.
And then all of a suddenthere's a story about a Gentile.
We just saw the first one, andnot without purpose, is it right
(50:23):
there at the birth?
But we come down now into hislife, into his ministry, in
Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5,and we meet a centurion Also, of
course, gentile.
So verse 5,.
When Jesus entered Capernaum,this was Peter's hometown, this
was where Peter lived, hismother lived here and a
(50:44):
centurion came to him.
So he's a Roman centurion.
He's over about a hundred menright and he's imploring him and
saying Lord, my servant islying paralyzed at home,
fearfully, tormented.
And Jesus said to him I willcome and heal him.
But the centurion said, lord,I'm not worthy for you to come
under my roof.
Just say the word and myservant will be healed.
(51:04):
And then he explained.
He says for I'm also a manunder authority, soldiers under
me, and I say to this one, yougo.
And he goes.
And I said to another, you come, and he comes into my slave.
I say, do this, and he does it.
Now, when jesus heard this, hemarveled.
Do you know?
He only marvels like two orthree times in the gospels only
(51:27):
two or three times.
Has he ever marveled?
This whole thing made himmarvel.
This astonished him and he saidto those who were following
truly, I say to you, I have notfound such great faith with
anyone in Israel.
Nobody, nobody In all Israel,but a Roman and Korean could see
(51:53):
it.
He could see his authority.
You don't have to come, justsay the word.
You command everything, you'rethe commander of the universe.
That is great faith.
That is great faith.
(52:14):
Now, well, let's just read therest of the story.
It's too good.
Verse 11 I say to you that manywill come from east and west
and recline at the table withabraham, isaac and jacob in the
kingdom of heaven.
He's talking about gentilescoming with jews in the kingdom.
But the sons of the kingdom,that's, the natural recipients
of the kingdom, the Jewishpeople, will be cast into the
outer darkness.
In that place there will beweeping and gnashing of teeth.
(52:36):
See, the Jewish people weren'tresponding correctly.
See, they were not respondingcorrectly to his birth, they
weren't responding correctly tohis life and to his miracles.
And here's a Roman centurion,and he is.
And so he concludes in verse13,.
And Jesus said to the centurionGo, it shall be done for you as
you have believed.
And the servant was healed thatmoment.
(53:08):
The last one is chapter 15,matthew 15.
What is Matthew doing?
He is showing through hisgospel, which is basically
chronological, an increasingrejection by the Jewish people
and an increasing reception byGentiles.
An increasing rejection by theJewish people and an increasing
reception by Gentiles.
(53:29):
Here's the Syrophoenician woman, another great story that
you'll all recognize, beginningin verse 21.
So Jesus went away from thereand withdrew into the districts
of Tyre and Sidon.
That's kind of Gentileterritory, right?
That's not Jewish territory,that's pagan, unclean territory.
And a Canaanite woman I mean,are you kidding A Canaanite
(53:53):
woman?
They were polytheistic.
Nasty people from that regioncame out and began to cry out
saying have mercy on me, lord,son of David.
She recognizes the Davidiccovenant.
She recognizes David in thisline my daughter is cruelly
demon possessed.
But he did not answer her aword.
People oh he's big meanie andhis disciples came and implored
(54:15):
him, saying send her away.
She's just annoying us, she'sshouting just get this woman out
of here.
But he answered and he said Iwas sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of israel.
Later, what does he say?
Go into all nations, but rightnow the mission is Israel, the
mission is Israel, the missionis Israel.
(54:35):
Later, when Israel says we'redone with you, we'll have no
king but Caesar, then the doorof salvation, the floodgates,
will open to Gentiles.
But at this time the house ofIsrael Even said in Matthew 10,
5 and 6, he says to them do notgo in the way of the Gentiles.
But at this time, the house ofIsrael Even said in Matthew 10,
5 and 6, he says to them do notgo in the way of the Gentiles,
do not even get on the road thatgoes to Samaria.
(54:57):
He says but go only to the lostsheep of the house of Israel.
Remember that that's becausethe mission was to Israel.
He doesn't even answer.
This woman just totally ignoresher.
Verse 25,.
But she came and she began tobow down before him saying Lord,
help me.
But she came and she began tobow down before him saying Lord,
help me.
And he answered and said it'snot good to take the children's
bread that's Israel, their breadand throw it to the dogs.
(55:19):
Now we may not like that somuch, because we're Gentiles and
most of us Not all of us andmost of us, not all of us, but
dogs in Jewish culture wereconsidered unclean animals.
(55:40):
They didn't have dogs as petsrunning around their house.
No, remember, there were dogsthat ate up Jezebel in the Old
Testament after she was thrownout a window.
These were not pets in theirthinking, they were unclean
animals.
And because Gentiles werenon-Jews, they were considered
unclean.
And so dogs is a metaphor foran unclean people.
(56:01):
It's not good to take the breadthat belongs to Israel and
throw it to unclean people, toIsrael and throw it to unclean
people.
But she said yes, lord, eventhe dogs feed on the crumbs
which fall from the master'stable.
So she agreed with him yes,this is the bread that belongs
(56:24):
to the children, but even theunclean Gentiles, see, we feed
on these crumbs that fall on thefloor from your table, master.
And he said oh woman, yourfaith is great, it shall be done
for you.
And her daughter was healed.
(56:45):
Okay, that said again, how didthe Jews respond to the birth
and then later, the life,increasing rejection.
There's some excitement, butthey just basically forgot.
And there's more and morerejection, but along the way,
matthew says and, by the way,there are these gentiles who
have this response and guesswhat?
They're paving the way for more.
(57:05):
There's going to be more.
There's going to be more, andjesus has hinted at this.
He said things like many willcome from east to west and sit
down with Abraham and Isaac andJacob and feast in the kingdom.
So there's a ton of Gentilesthat are to come in.
(57:25):
Now, gentiles just keep gaininginterest.
If you go into the book of Acts, acts 13,.
Now, gentiles just keep gaininginterest If you go into the
book of Acts, acts 13,.
Well, let's go to 1427.
1427, I think, is my favoriteone here and I don't want to
keep you all day unless you wantto stay and just keep learning
(57:46):
the Bible.
1427,.
Here it is.
You've seen it in 11.1,.
That's Cornelius and hishousehold, acts 13.48,.
Paul says we're turning to theGentiles.
You Jews don't like it.
You consider yourselvesunworthy.
I'll go to the Gentiles.
14.27,.
When they had arrived andgathered the church together,
they began to report all thingsthat God had done with them and
how he had opened a door offaith to the Gentiles.
Gentiles, see, like the Jewsare starting to realize gosh.
(58:12):
There's a lot of Gentiles whoare responding to the by grace
alone, through faith alone,message of Jesus, the Jewish
Messiah, and they spent a longtime with the disciples.
Romans 11.25,.
We'll close with this, romans11.25.
Romans 9 through 11 recountsbasically God's program for
Israel and Gentiles and he'scommenting in this section on
(58:41):
what Jesus said in John 10 aboutI have many sheep in this fold.
You know, I'm going to bring inthis other flock and I'm going
to make them all one flock intothe shepherd, talking about the
church, jew and gentile in onebody.
And he comes down to romans,chapter 11, verse 25, after he's
talked about jew and gentileand they're both branches in
this one olive tree and enjoyingthe spiritual blessings from
(59:04):
that tree during this time, whatwe call the church.
And in romans 11, verse 25, hesays I don't want you, brethren,
to be uninformed of thismystery so that you will not be
wise in your own estimation thata partial hardening has
happened to israel until thefullness of the gentiles has
come in.
There's this partial hardeningthat happened to is Israel
(59:27):
because they were initiallyexcited and all that, but they
forgot and they eventually justbecame hateful toward him and
they finally just totallyrejected him and had him
crucified right At the hands ofPontius Pilate and so forth.
But at the same time, all thatwas happening, this door of
salvation was opening to theGentiles, and so there's this
(59:50):
fullness of Gent was opening tothe Gentiles, and so there's
this fullness of Gentiles thathave to come in Now.
After all that see, god's notdone with Israel.
That's one of the big questionsabout Romans 9 through 11.
Paul's answering is God donewith Israel?
Has God cast Israel awayforever because they rejected
their Messiah?
Well, romans 11.26 answers itwith great finality Until the
(01:00:12):
fullness of the Gentiles hascome in, and so all Israel will
be saved.
Yeah, all Israel, meaning thenation Israel, will eventually
be saved.
And he goes on to describepassages about the new covenant
which will be fulfilled toIsrael.
So the responses weren't sogreat from the Jews.
They forgot.
(01:00:32):
The Gentiles are interested,and their interest just keeps
gaining.
And this is going to go onuntil there's a fullness of
Gentiles is reached, and thenthe church will be complete, the
rapture will take place, andthen issues with Israel
transpire and the end of thatwill be all Israel will be saved
.
See, okay, next week, what I'mgoing to start to do is I'm
going to detail out why the Jewsrejected him.
I'm going to give you abouteight to ten reasons about why
(01:00:55):
they rejected him and we'll gointo the Gospels again and just
look what was it that theydidn't like so much?
Why did they hate him so much?
Issues like the Sabbath, issueslike the temple, issues like
the law Okay, like the Sabbath,issues like the temple, issues
like the law okay, All thesethings add up to their turning
(01:01:15):
against him in his life andeventually his death.
But God raised him from thedead right, so that here we all
are today.
If you're not saved if you hey,it's just a free gift, nobody's
forcing it down your throat Ifyou believe that Jesus came and
died for your sins and you areconvinced of that truth, that he
(01:01:36):
came and died for you, guesswhat?
You are saved, because that'swhat has to happen.
You hear and you understandwhat he's done for you and
you're convinced you arepersuaded, you have believed you
receive this.
At that moment, he gives youeverlasting, are persuaded, you
have believed you receive this.
At that moment, he gives youeverlasting life.
If you have everlasting life,let me ask you a question can
(01:02:03):
you lose it?
It's not everlasting.
If you could lose it.
And Jesus didn't come to promisetemporary life, he came to
promise eternal life.
He says he who believes in mehas everlasting life.
You have it right now, and soyou have nothing to fear.
We have peace with God.
Romans 5.1.
These are all great promises ofGod.
You can relax and relax and youcan live life just to his glory
(01:02:23):
, out of your gratitude for whathe has done for you and in
anticipation of what he's goingto come and do in the future.
And in anticipation of whathe's going to come and do in the
future.
Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(01:02:51):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.
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