Grant, Ted: Week Of Meetings-2008-01 ~ Who Is Jesus Of The Gospels

To make. Uh, last night I lied. Don't tell anybody. Last night I said I would spend the week talking about bibliology, the word of God, and after I got down from the platform, Bert came up to me and he said, hey, I thought you were gonna speak on the Jesus of the Gospels. And I thought back, and I went home and looked at my emails, and sure enough, that's what I said. I was supposed to speak on the Jesus of the Gospels. As Bruce said last night, be sure your sins will find you out. Well, after the service this morning, after the breaking of bread service, where we emphasize the, uh, that the Lord Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, I thought it would probably be more appropriate, actually, to speak about the Jesus of the Gospels. And so I rushed home because I didn't have my notes with me and got my notes. And, uh, but don't worry, even though I lied, we can fix it. We'll, we'll talk about the Jesus of the Gospels in the evening, and we'll talk about Bibliology, the Word of God, in the morning sessions. So this morning we're going to start off with Matthew's account of the triumphant entry, which was actually read earlier in the earlier service. And, uh, the title of this morning's sermon is Who is This? The text is, uh, Matthew chapter twenty one verses one through twelve. Just going to read the text, and then we'll give you a brief introduction, not only to this sermon, but to the next, uh, few sermons. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, he will send them right away. This took place to fulfill what, what was spoken through the prophet. Say to the daughter of Zion, see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, and the foal of a donkey. The disciples went, and Jesus, Jesus had, uh, instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole, uh, city was stirred. Sorry, I haven't been keeping up here, and asked, who is this? The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Jesus entered the temple area. Just a little bit of the geography there. Jesus is making his last trip, the last trip of his earthly life, and he's going from Jericho to Jerusalem, and he's passing through Bethany and Bethphage to Jerusalem. Bethany and Bethphage were suburbs of Jerusalem, and you could walk from Bethany to Jerusalem in about a day, as we learned from, uh, Mark's account. And, uh, uh, Jesus actually stops, uh, in Bethany and sends, uh, his disciples along, and then he makes this triumphant entry along the road from Bethany into Jerusalem. These last days of the Lord Jesus are called the Passion of the Christ. The word passion means suffering, the suffering of the Christ. Each of the four gospels describes this passion, but each gospel describes the passion in a different way. We have four gospels. Some people wonder why we have four gospels. Some people think it's confusing to have four gospels. There are even people who try to combine all four gospels into one, uh, large gospel and try to describe things in chronological order. Well, if the Holy Spirit had only wanted one gospel, he would have only written one gospel. There is a reason why there are four gospels, and the reason why there are four gospels is that each of the gospel writers, each of the evangelists, had a particular portrait of Jesus that he wanted to portray. Each evangelist was writing to a different audience and for a different purpose and had a different portrait of the Lord Jesus. Matthew's gospel was written to Jews. Jews were his audience. And the language of Matthew tells you that he was writing to Jews. For example, in Matthew's gospel, you never read the expression, the kingdom of God. Matthew always refers to the kingdom of God as the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom of God, because Jews didn't like to use the word God or the name God. They used what we call circumlocutions of God. They tried to talk around it so they didn't have to say God or God's name. Uh, they often use the passive voice, for example. Um, uh, uh, that, that, that, that they describe the actions of God in the passive voice. Mark's gospel emphasizes the divinity of Christ. Luke's gospel was written to Gentiles, and he uses the expression quite frequently, the kingdom of God. And John, the beloved disciple, emphasized the humanity of Christ, and at the end of his gospel, he states very explicitly why he wrote it. These are written, I could have written a whole bunch of other things, he said, but these are written that you might believe. That's the reason he wrote it. Now, why did Matthew r- write his gospel? Well, the reason Matthew write his go- wrote his gospel is because Matthew had a very specific mission. He was writing to Jews, and he wanted to convince Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The word Messiah is actually a Hebrew word, but interestingly, it only occurs on two occasions in the entire Old Testament, and both occasions are found in Daniel chapter nine. The word Messiah actually means the anointed one, the one who is anointed by God. And what Matthew wants to do is to convince his Jewish audience that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Messiah, the one anointed by God who is to come. According to the Jews, according to the messianic thinking of the Jews and the messianic theology of the Jews, the Messiah, when he comes, would be the one who would gather the people of God together and establish the kingdom of God on earth. Those are the two things the Messiah would do. During the exilic period and post-exilic period, Jews were scattered all over the world, and their hope was when the Messiah came, he would reassemble this dispersion or the dis- diaspora and bring all Jews together and establish the kingdom of God on earth. And that was Matthew's burden. That was what he wanted to show. And in Matthew's description of the triumphant entry, we see very clearly how Matthew goes out of his way to portray the Lord Jesus as the promised Messiah. Matthew describes the events in messianic terms. They're approaching Jerusalem. Obviously, the king had to come to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the city of David. Jerusalem was the place where David established his kingdom. And if the Lord Jesus himself was going to be this promised Davidic king, he had to approach Jerusalem. But he approaches Jerusalem from the east, from the Mount of Olives, and for this, for Matthew, this was also a fulfillment of prophecy of the Messiah. And he quotes Zechariah chapter fourteen and verse four, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives. And Matthew describes Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The king riding on a donkey. That was Zechariah's answer to Micah's question in Micah chapter four and verse nine, Micah speaks to the daughter of Zion, and he asks the question, have you no king? Have you no king? Is there no king? And there was no king, even though Micah was a pre-exilic prophet. He prophesied before the exile. There was no king. But now the king. Behold, your king comes with righteousness and salvation, gentle, and riding on a donkey. And Matthew describes this triumphant entry, and as you read Matthew's account, it must have been amazing. The disciples get this donkey, as Jesus had instructed them. They put their cloaks on the donkey. Jesus sits on the donkey and starts to ride into Jerusalem. And as he is riding towards the city on this donkey, the people along the way, pilgrims going to Jerusalem for the Passover, take off their clothes, their cloaks, throw it down on the road. They cut down the leaves of palm trees and strew them along the road. And as Jesus is approaching the city, this crowd shouts, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And the obvious question of the people in Jerusalem when they hear the shouting is, who is this? Who is this? Who is this? That's the question Matthew wants to answer. That's a very important question, as a matter of fact, it's hard to think of a more important question. Who is this? That was a question John the Baptist himself asked. Luke chapter nine, John the Baptist was in prison, and he'd heard about Jesus, and he wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah. Of course, he couldn't go to Jesus himself because he was in prison, so he sent two of his disciples to Jesus, and he said, when you go to Jesus, I want you to ask him, are you he who should come, or should we look for somebody else? He who should come is the Messiah. And so these disciples go to Jesus, and they said, John sent us to you. Are you he who should come, or should we look for somebody else? And Jesus gives a very interesting answer. Jesus didn't say, yes, I'm he who should come. Jesus didn't say, yes, I'm t- tell John I'm the Messiah. Jesus' answer is, tell John what you've seen and heard. Tell John what you have seen and heard. The lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's what the mes- that's what the Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would do. There's your answer. And they went back and told John. And immediately when John heard that answer, he knew that Jesus is he who was to come. Who are you? Who is this? Jesus himself asked that question. Who do people say that the Son of Man is? He asked the disciples, whom do you say that I am? And Peter gave that dramatic answer in Matthew chapter sixteen, You are the Christ. The word Christ is just the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Mashiach. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. That's who you are. But in this passage that we've just read in Matthew chapter twenty one, Matthew gives us a number of different answers to that question. Who is this? The first answer is given by the crowds. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowds answered, that's their first answer. This is Jesus. That was definitely true. This was Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, the prophet in Nazareth from Galilee. The crowd called him the prophet. Was he a prophet? Yeah, he was a prophet. What's a prophet? What is a prophet? Several years ago, I was preaching at an Easter conference in Nairobi in Kenya, and as I was preaching, there was a man standing next to me translating what I was saying into Swahili, and I was talking about the prophets in the Old Testament, the minor prophets, and I kept hearing him speaking in Swahili, and he kept using the word nati, which kind of piqued my, uh, interest, my curiosity, because nati is actually the Hebrew word for prophet. So I asked him, what is the Swahili word for prophet? And he said, nafi. And it actually came through, uh, Swahili, I imagine not through Hebrew, but probably through Arabic. But what is a Nafi? What is a prophet? Well, it turns out that that Hebrew word Nafi actually means a spokesman, somebody who speaks on behalf of somebody else. In the Old Testament, when God told Moses to go and tell Pharaoh to let his people go, Moses said, oh God, I can't do that. I- I- I'm tongue tied. I'm not a great speaker. I'm not very eloquent. I can't do that, God. And God said to Moses, don't worry about it, Moses. You can go and talk to Pharaoh, and Aaron will be your prophet. In other words, Aaron is going to be your spokesman. He's going to speak to the Pharaoh on your behalf. And that's what the prophets in the Old Testament were. They were spokesmen, but they were spokesmen for God. They told the people what God said. And so when you read the Old Testament prophets, for example, they will say, for example, in, um, the book of Amos begins, the words of Amos. Amos speaking, thus saith the Lord. It's not just the words of Amos, it's also what God is saying. And Jesus was indeed a prophet. He was God's spokesman. He was the one who had God's delegated authority. But, you know, Jesus was more than a prophet. Jesus wasn't just any prophet. In, uh, Luke chapter seven, Jesus is, uh, invited to the home of a Pharisee. And, uh, and, uh, the, uh, while they're, uh, sitting at the table eating, the Pharisee, uh, the Pharisee comes to a, a, a woman comes to Jesus, and she, uh, this woman was obviously a woman of ill repute, and, uh, she, uh, begins to, um, uh, uh, cry and wipes the feet of Jesus with, uh, her tears and wipes his feet with her hair. And Jesus' host, who was a Pharisee, undoubtedly considered himself a very godly man, watched all of this and s- in amazement, and said to himself, if this man were a prophet. He uses the, in the English, it's in the subjunctive mood, which is implying that Jesus wasn't a prophet. If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman this is, who is touching him. And Jesus said to his host, Simon, I got, got a question for you. A man had two debtors. One owned him, one owed him a large amount of money, and one owed him a small amount of money, and he forgave both of them. Which do you think loved him more? And Simon said, well, you know, maybe the one who he forgave more. And Jesus said, you got that right, Simon. That's exactly right. And then he turns to the woman and he said to her, your sins are forgiven. And everybody in the room stopped. Who is this? They asked. Who is this who can forgive sins? None of the prophets in the Old Testament could forgive sins. This wasn't just a prophet. He was a prophet. He was a spokesman for God. But he was a special prophet. He was someone who could also forgive sins. He was God himself. But Matthew gives us another answer. Jesus was not only a prophet, but he quotes Zechariah, say to the daughter of Zion, Ze- Zechariah chapter nine, see your king comes to you gentle, riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And as I mentioned, that was Zechariah's answer to Micah's question, have you no king? But the king that Matthew describes here is a very unusual king. He comes to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Kings don't ride on donkeys. Kings ride on horses, on gallant steeds, on great white horses, and they enter the city in great triumph. But Matthew quotes Zechariah. Your king, see, behold, your king comes to you, not boasting and triumphant, but lowly and gentle, riding on a donkey. Is he really a king? Well, the crowd must have thought so. They began to shout, Hosanna. Hosanna was a Hebrew word which meant help. Why were they shouting help? Well, the reason they were shouting help was because that's what the Messiah was gonna do when he came. He was gonna help them. He was gonna throw off the Roman bondage. He was gonna reestablish Israel as a great kingdom. He was gonna help them. Hosanna to the son of David. He was gonna establish the Davidic kingdom. And they expected that the Messiah would be the son of David. In Matthew chapter twenty two, Jesus has a discussion with the Pharisees, and he asked them, what do you think about the Christ? As I said, Christ is just the Greek translation of the word Messiah. What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he? And the Pharisees said, well, obviously, clearly, if he's going to reestablish the Davidic kingdom, the Messiah has to be the son of David. And so this crowd, this crowd of pilgrims on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem, as they are shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. What did they mean? They meant that Jesus was the Messiah, the king. Deliver us, O son of David, is what they were saying by shouting Hosanna. Their expectation was that the Messiah would be a political Messiah, a Messiah who would establish a political kingdom and destroy the existing political hegemony of the Roman Empire. But Matthew's description of Jesus shows that Jesus was not only more than a prophet, but he is also more than a king. He is more than a king. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? Who is this? In verse eleven, we have the answer of the crowds. The crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. In verse twelve, you have Jesus's answer to that question. Jesus entered the temple. Now, in a way, it was probably a good thing that Jesus entered the temple right then, because as this crowd of people were shouting Hosanna to the Son of David, I'm sure there were Roman soldiers standing around wondering what was happening. And any indication that there was some king other than Caesar would immediately draw the charge of treason. And Jesus diffused that by... going into the temple. But Jesus had another reason for going into the temple. What Jesus wanted to show was that... he wasn't just any king. The people were hailing him as a king, and as he enters Jerusalem, he doesn't go to the palace, which is what you'd expect the king to do. He goes to the temple. Kings didn't go to the temple. In Hebrew history, there is always a sharp demarcation between the king and the priest. And the king who assumed for himself the prerogatives of a priest risked great punishment from God, even death. Just think of Josiah. In the entire history of the Old Testament, there was only one man who was simultaneously a king and a priest, and that was a very mysterious figure in the book of Genesis, a man by the name of Melchizedek, who was the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. And in that passage in Matthew chapter twenty two that I quoted earlier, Matthew quotes Psalm one hundred and ten about the Messiah. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He wasn't just any kind of king. He was a kingly priest. A priest who was both a priest and a king simultaneously. The Messiah. But he was more than a prophet. He was more than a king. And he was also more than a priest. He was far more than a priest. And the book of Hebrews tells us that. In Hebrews chapter ten, we read, I think it's verse ten, The book of Hebrews, the author of the Hebrews describing the Old Testament says, every priest stands daily. That's what priests in the Old Testament. They stood. They didn't sit down. Priests in the Old Testament did not sit down. And there were several reasons why they didn't sit down. In the first place, there wasn't any place to sit. There were no chairs in the inner sanctum. There was a box called the, um, oh, blanking on it. The, the Ark of the Covenant. There was a little box in there called the Ark of the Covenant, and the lid of this box was called the Mercy Seat, but it was not a seat. No priest in his right mind would ever, ever, ever think of sitting on the mercy seat. Because the mercy seat was where God was, the presence of God. And no priest would ever sit down in the presence of God. Every priest stood daily. Priests in the Old Testament never sat down on the job. There's another reason why they didn't sit down. To sit down would imply that their job was over. They'd done what they were supposed to do. But their job was never over. They always had to offer sacrifice for sins because people were always sinning. So they couldn't sit down. Every priest stands daily. But then the author of the book of Hebrews says, but this priest, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down. The only priest who ever sat down. This priest sat down. There's a hymn in the Black Book, Done is the Work That Saves. Fourth verse of that hymn, very interesting verse, the words are very interesting. Enthroned in majesty, the high priest sits within. Within means inside, inside the holiest of holies. Not only does he sit within, but he's enthroned in majesty. He's a king. A priest who sits down inside and who is simultaneously a king can only refer to the Messiah. That's the Lord Jesus. He is a priest. He is a prophet. And he is a king. He is the son of David. He is the Messiah. But there's one final answer to this question that Matthew gives us in this passage, which we have overlooked so far. And this answer is also given by Jesus himself. In verse three, Jesus says, if anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs him. Jesus refers to himself as the Lord. Now you have to think about what that means. In the Old Testament, God had a name. Just as my name is Ted and Bruce's name is Bruce, you know, God had a name, and God's name was Yahweh. God told people what his name was. He told Moses what his name was. And the reason God told people what his name was is because God wanted them to know him. In that culture, you couldn't really know someone if you didn't know their name. That is why, for example, in Islam, God, who doesn't have a name, is not knowable. You can't know God in Islam. Allah is not God's name, it's just an Arabic word for God. God doesn't have a name, so you can't know God. But the God of the Old Testament is a God who is knowable. He had a name, but the people of Israel, because God was so high and so mighty and so wonderful, they were afraid to speak his name. And so, whenever they were reading the Hebrew text and they came across God's name, instead of saying God's name, they would say Adonai, which meant my Lord. And in the English Bible, whenever God's name appeared, it's written as Lord in all capital letters. And several hundred years ago, some Hebrew scholars living in the city of Alexandria in Egypt decided to translate the Greek, the Hebrew Bible into Greek. And the question is, when we come to God's name, what should we do? And they decided to translate God's name into Greek as Kurios. Kurios means Lord in Greek. Now, we don't know what Jesus actually said here because Jesus wasn't speaking Greek. Matthew was written in Greek, but Jesus was speaking in Aramaic, and we don't know what Jesus actually said. But it's interesting that the way Matthew writes it, Jesus said, if anyone asks you, tell him that Kurios needs him. In the earlier service, we were reading from Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two says that God has exalted Jesus, and God has given him the name which is above every other name. What is the name that is above every other name? There's only one name that's above every other name, and that's God's name, Yahweh. Kurios. That is the only name that is above every other name. The only name. God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus is Kurios to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is Kurios. He is the God of the Old Testament. That's who he is. The Messiah. Do you know him? That's the question. Do you know him? Not have you heard about him? Not what do you think about him? But do you know him? That's why he came, so that we could know him. And in his high priestly prayer in John chapter seventeen, he says, now, this is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Who is this? Who is this? He is prophet. He is priest. He is king. He is Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Messiah. He is the son of David. He is Kurios, the Lord of the universe, and the question is, is he Lord of my life and Lord of your life? That's who he wants to be, and that's the answer to the question that he desires. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your Son, the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful person is he. The Lord of the universe, the one whom you sent into the world to die on the cross for our sins, so that we might be able to enter into a personal relationship with you and to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. For those of us who have had this experience and who do know you in that way, we thank you for this privilege and praise you in his name. Amen.