Who Do You Say I Am Series: Week 2- The Spiritual Answer

  While we were in Liberia, Scott, the missionary that we traveled with, was also our travel guide. He told us a lot of little tidbits about the country as we journey along. One day he took Izzy, Navi, and myself to look at the mission’s property outside of the fence. On our way up to the area, he pointed at a hill that rose up about a 1/2 mile away. At the top of the hill was an abandoned house. Scott had mentioned in passing about a village that was at the end of the road that the mission was on. He called it the witchcraft village. Looking up at the abandon house, he told me the reason why he called it that. Several years prior, someone important in the village became very sick. The village shaman took two virgin girls and sacrificed them to make the person well. From what Scott said, it didn’t sound like the person ever got better. Ever since then, the house, where the sacrifice occurred, stood empty.

Human sacrifices are not unheard of in Liberia. From 1987 to 2003, Liberia had two civil wars. One of the staples in the bush, was the fact that human sacrifices occurred to give power to one of the factions. Spirits would be invoked so that one side could gain power over another.

The reality is, we as Christians agree with the majority of the world that there are spirits out there that crave human sacrifice. The spiritual realm is real, and there are evil things seeking to destroy those who play with it. Yet, in our western world, spirituality is something that people say almost flippantly. Back in 2022, 42% of those who considered themselves non-religious in the UK, still considered themselves spiritual (https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2022/10/31/the-nones-who-are-they-and-what-do-they-believe). That sentiment is supposedly growing in the US by about 20% every year with young people (https://www.churchleadership.com/leading-ideas/the-nones-and-the-spirituality-of-everyday-living/). The idea is, that one can be spiritual, without being religious, because religion, the organized variety, is seen as too restrictive. And so, everything is seen through the lens of a free, purely spiritual lens. Through this lens, Jesus becomes a spiritual guru, rather than the Saving God.

And it’s this idea of the spiritual Jesus which brings us back to our Fall apologetics series, where we are looking at three answers to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?”

Last week we talked about how Jesus asked this question in two ways: Who do the one’s looking in from the outside say he is, and who do the close disciples say he is. When Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus beings to explain what that means. Yet, even though Peter is right in attributing the correct title to Jesus, he doesn’t yet understand Jesus’ meaning of Messiah. In fact, when Peter rebuke’s Jesus’ meaning, Jesus rebukes Peter as Satan, because like Satan, Peter was trying to redefine Jesus as Messiah.

We walked away from last week with the understanding that there are two answers to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” There’s the godly answer, which is defined by Jesus himself, and there is the demonic answer, which tries to redefine Jesus as we decide he should be. As people seeking the true Jesus, we need him to define who he is, rather than us define him from our desires, and we need to be able to communicate Jesus’ definition of his Messiahship to the world.

Therefore, for the next three weeks, we are going to look at three general redefining answers to Jesus’ question, and how they do not line up with the biblical Jesus.

The first answer that we’re going to look at is that Jesus came as a spiritual being. What’s that mean? In this redefinition, it means that Jesus’ goal was not to provide a physical restoration, but a spiritual one. The physical realm is either looked at as an evil entity, something to be shed, or a current state that will exist indefinitely.

There are three types of major groups that take this spiritual Jesus approach. 

The first is the Gnostics. Gnosticism is a general term used of several groups who took the idea of Jesus, and combined it with Greek philosophy. In this belief, Jesus is not the Jewish God-man who walked the earth to die for sin, but rather a conglomeration of Jewish mysticism and Greek mythology. 

The ancient idea of the Gnostics was that Jesus is a culmination of Æons, which is the progressive emanation of the eternal being as he worked out his spiritual work in the material world. What’s that mean? An Æons is almost like a power source. If we know the story of the woman who touched Jesus’ robe and he responded with, “Who is it that touched me? (Lk. 8:45),” because he felt power go out from him, then we get a sense of this power. Jesus is basically the culmination of a good deity’s power manifested on earth. 

Most of what we know of what the Gnostics believed comes from outside sources. One of these sources is Irenaeus in his Against Heresies. Irenaeus tells us that the Gnostics believed that the Christ was a spiritual being who came from the spiritual realm, and rested upon a man named Jesus (3.16.6). At the crucifixion the Christ left the man Jesus, who was then put to death.

Irenaeus writes this, “But inasmuch as all those before mentioned, although they certainly do with their tongue confess one Jesus Christ, make fools of themselves, thinking one thing and saying another; for their hypotheses vary, as I have already shown, alleging, [as they do,] that one Being suffered and was born, and that this was Jesus; but that there was another who descended upon Him, and that this was Christ, who also ascended again; and they argue, that he who proceeded from the Demiurge, or he who was dispensational, or he who sprang from Joseph, was the Being subject to suffering; but upon the latter there descended from the invisible and ineffable [places] the former, whom they assert to be incomprehensible, invisible, and impassible: they thus wander from the truth, because their doctrine departs from Him who is truly God, being ignorant that His only-begotten Word, who is always present with the human race, united to and mingled with His own creation, according to the Father's pleasure, and who became flesh, is Himself Jesus Christ our Lord, who did also suffer for us, and rose again on our behalf, and who will come again in the glory of His Father, to raise up all flesh, and for the manifestation of salvation, and to apply the rule of just judgment to all who were made by Him.”

The concept of the Gnostics, is that a god they name the Demiurge, created the physical realm as to enslave spiritual beings. Jesus the man, is a physical cage. The Christ, the true good and creator spirit, then descended and took over the man Jesus. In the end, it was the man Jesus, not the Christ spirit who was killed on the cross.

The purpose of the Christ doing this was to give secret knowledge to those who could understand. This secret knowledge would then point them to the ability to shed their own evil flesh and ascend into a good spiritual state.

There’s a hint of the early church standing against this idea which comes from 1 John 4:2–3. In this first letter to the Churches, John writes “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

Jesus would reject the idea that he came only to bring a spiritual release from the physical world. In places such as the “I am” passages, Jesus claimed to be the God who created and sustains both the spiritual and physical world. The physical is not evil in and of itself, but rather has been subjected to evil through human sin. It is sin that Jesus has to deal with first, because it affects both the spiritual and physical states of the creation. The Gnostic Jesus can be seen in modern groups such as those in Scientology.

The second group that answers the question of Jesus with saying he is a spiritual Jesus, are those that hold to what is called a Christ Consciousness. 

From the Ananda Church of Self-Realization of Nevada County in California, they write this, “To receive Christ means to tune in to the Christ Consciousness within us. That consciousness is omnipresent; it is with us always. Christ Consciousness is the potential rest point at the center of all conscious vibration … If we would truly receive Christ, we must cross the bridge over the chasm that separates our egos from divine consciousness. To ‘receive’ Christ means to absorb him into ourselves, and to allow him to transform us into himself … Our consciousness must expand to become a receptacle for Infinity. We must ourselves, in other words, become infinite. The ‘power’ to know God is the power of self-expansion to infinity. ( https://www.ananda.org/meditation/meditation-support/articles/receiving-christ-consciousness/)”

Those who practice Christ Consciousness, seek to see that Christ is actual in them. They see Christ, not as a person to be adored and worshiped for saving us from our sins and their penalty, but rather, as a state of awareness and gateway to understanding the universe. 

For those who hold to a Christ Consciousness the answer to Jesus’ question, is that he is not the Messiah, who dies for his people, and who will come again to rule, and bring about the new creation. No, he is a guru to open your eyes to your own divinity, and a way to ascend to a higher plain of existence.

John the Baptist shows us that the biblical Jesus is more than what those who adhere Christ Consciousness believe. To his own disciples in John 3 we’re told this, “John answered, ‘A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. (Jn. 3:27-30)”

Those who seek Christ Consciousness say that the goal is to be completely connected to Christ, yet, reject the very core of Jesus’ message: the restoration of our position within God’s created order. Not making us into little divinities, but restoring us to our true humanity.

The final spiritual Jesus is the most recent, and one of the fastest growing heresies within the Church. There is a growing end times belief called Preterism. Within this belief, there are the partial Preterists, and there are the full Preterists. The word preterism, comes from the Latin praeter (pree-tor), which means “past.” The basic idea of Preterism is that all the prophecies in the Bible were fulfilled by AD 70 at the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. 

The difference between a full preterist and a partial preterist is the question, has Jesus’ returned? The partial preterist says no, there are still prophecies of Jesus’ second coming that need to be fulfilled. However the full preterist says that Jesus has come and we are now in his kingdom, led by the Church, until the earth passes away from natural death.

Richard Beck, who is a Senior Fellow at Abilene Christian University, and also teaches at the doctoral level at Fuller Theological Seminary, writes an article called, “On Full Preterism, the Second Coming and Hell.” In that article he writes, “… according to a full preterist eschatology the Second Coming of Jesus has already happened … Basically, according to full preterism, every significant event in relation to salvation history has already occurred. God's kingdom has been established upon earth and Christ has won the victory over sin and death. The biblical story of salvation history has reached The End. (http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-preterism-second-coming-and-hell.html)”

The Jesus of full pretiersim did not physically return and physically rule. The Jesus of full preterism’s goal is to reign spiritually through his people and that’s it. There is no new creation, there is no restoration of the Garden of Eden. These things are spiritually done in the believer’s life. 

But this nothing new. Full Preterism is the flower of Hymenaeus’ root. In Second Timothy 2:16-18, Paul talks about two disciples who departed from the faith because they were teaching the that resurrection had already occurred. The teaching was that the people at the time of Paul were now living in the kingdom to come. Paul rejected this idea.

Paul taught that Jesus’ return occurs with the first resurrection (1 Thess. 15-17). At this coming, the bodies of alive believers will be transformed into heavenly bodies, that are the same as Christ’s resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:49, 52).

This return will happen in a physical manner because the angels told the disciples that Jesus would return in the same physical way, as he left (Acts 1:11). Then after this second coming, Jesus would remake the world into a place where there is no sorrow (Rev. 21-22).

The Apostle John wrote of people who believe in a purely spiritual return of Jesus instead of a physical return. In Second John 1:7, John writes, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

If a person holds that Jesus already returned, not in the physical way that the Scriptures say he will, but in a spiritual way, that person does not follow the Jesus of Scripture, but a Jesus of the antichrist. 

A Jesus that focuses on the spiritual at the detriment of the physical is not the Messiah of the Bible. The Messiah seeks to restore both the spiritual and physical. Jesus is the God who created the spiritual and physical realms and then created humans as a hybrid of both. We are physical and spiritual beings, and Jesus’ Messiahship seeks to restore both.

And there will be a day when we will receive a body that is heavenly as we live with God in the new creation. Where a new heaven and new earth, spiritual and physical, live in God’s perfection.

My challenge for you today is the question, do you see Jesus as only a spiritual Messiah? Do you see this world as something to be extracted from rather than a gift from God that needs restoration? It is true that God must restore us spiritually first. That spiritual restoration has to be done before the physical can be addressed, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus has abandoned the physicality of his creation. He himself took on the physical, and he will transform our bodies into eternal physical ones at his return.

Let us always be reminded that we serve a God, whom the Son stands in eternity with the physical scars that prove his love for his creation. Amen.

Who Do You Say I Am Series: Week 1 - Our Answer, vs Jesus’ Answer

  A lot of the time when we meet new people we exchange names. “Hi I’m …” When I introduce myself around Christians, they usually say something like, “Oh Jeremiah, like in the Bible.” And it’s true both my first and middle names are in the Bible, but that’s not why I’m named the names I am. I’m named Jeremiah for Jeremiah Johnson, and my middle name is Daniel, because of Daniel Boone. It was only after I was born that my parents learned the biblical connection.

But a lot of times, the name we give reflects the person we see ourselves as. Some people go by their middle name, some people go by their full name, while others use a shorter version, and still others use a nickname. Our name is a reflection of who we see ourselves as, and how we want other people to know us.

It’s this idea of how one views themselves which brings us to our Fall apologetic series where we’re going to be looking at one key question: Who do we say Jesus is?

This question might seem easy for us, he’s the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. He’s the Incarnate Word of God. He is the second person of the triune God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the one through whom all things were created, and are sustained. He was at the beginning with God the Father, who he is in partnership with, sends the Holy Spirit to indwell his people, and we will return for his Church, judging humanity.

But that’s not what everyone believes. There are beliefs, that Jesus isn’t the Son of God, or if he is he is a human son, just as anyone else who follows God could say. Some say that Jesus is a created Son of God, not equal with the Father, but a mere creation of the true God. 

Billions may have thousands of answers to this one question, who do we say Jesus is, but here’s the rub, there’s our answers and then there is the answer that Jesus says is true. 

For the next four weeks, we’re going to look at what Jesus’ says is the right answer, and how that truth stands against several other answers. 

So in order to tackle this question, we need to look at the first time the question was asked. So if you have your Bibles, we’re going to look at Mark Chapter 8, starting in verse 27.

And as we open up to Mark 8:27, we need to understand that what we’re going to look at today, has two other parallels in the Gospel of Matthew, and the Gospel of Luke. In fact the order is identical, because the question and aftermath of the correct answer, is extremely important. 

Let’s read together, Mark 8:27-30.

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

The interaction between Jesus and his disciples is a mission critical moment in each of the Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and are called the synoptics because they see Jesus together, or they have a common report about him.

Each of these three reports, place this moment as a critical junction in Jesus’ ministry. Both Matthew and Mark place it at the half point of Jesus’ itinerate work. Luke has more to say on the back end of Jesus’ work, and so it comes earlier in his account.

Focusing in on Mark, this question comes after Mark has led the reader through Jesus’ teachings, his healings, exorcisms, and miracles which call into question if Jesus is a mere man. It is also a turning point in the story of Jesus, because right after, were told this in verse 31, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

Every Synoptic carries this line of thought. 

Jesus asks the question about those on the outside of their group, “Who do people say I am?” Jesus wants them to communicate the rumors that surround his identity.

The disciples then start naming names: John the Baptist risen from the dead, Elijah, or one of the other prophets, come back. 

Then the question moves from those on the outside to those on the inside, “Who do you say I am?” The question is personal. Jesus isn’t asking what others believe his identity to be, he wants to know from them, those that have heard the teachings, have seen the healings, the exorcisms, the miracles, who are they, his disciples, saying Jesus is?

“You are the Christ,” comes the response. There it is, the answer. We’re then told that Jesus tells them not to tell anyone, but in Matthew we’re given a little more of Jesus direct response to the answer. Jesus says to Peter’s answer the question, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 16:17)”

The answer comes by revelation. It is not something that Peter decided to believe, but believed because he was responding to the Father’s revelation of who Jesus truly is. He is the Messiah spoken about through the Scriptures. He is the one prophesied about who would come as a prophet like Moses through David’s line. 

And it is a blessing to understand this truth: Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

But what does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ, the one whom generations of Israelites have been looking forward to? Peter has his idea, but so do others. It’s one thing to realize that Jesus is the Christ, but what does it mean to Jesus.

We’re told in verses 31-32, what Jesus means by Christ, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. (v.31-32a)”

No parable, no riddle, no story to examine to get the deeper meaning. Jesus speaks plainly, Jesus’ understanding about the Christ, is that his mission is to die and be resurrected. Jesus’ identity as the Christ, flew in the face of the people of his day. Which can be seen in Peter’s response. The one who saw Jesus for who he was, the Christ, turns around and reject’s Jesus’ understanding of what that means. We’re told by Mark that, “… Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. (v.32b)”

Peter rebuked Jesus for Jesus’ understanding of who he was. Peter didn’t want a Christ who would die and resurrect, that wasn’t his answer. Peter’s answer was a christ who would conquer enemies and build an eternal Davidic kingdom where all other nations would bow down. Jesus’ identity didn’t fit Peter’s answer.

So Jesus has to rebuke Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. (v.33)”

Peter had made it to a point where he understood Jesus was the Christ, but he hadn’t grasped what that meant. He had a demonic view of Christ, a christ that was less than the scope of God’s plan. A christ who would be of no use to the work God in saving humanity. Peter’s christ, was a shadow of the true Christ that Jesus identified as. 

Because of this, Jesus had to teach his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (v.34-38)”

A christ like Peter’s, was focused on trying to save one’s self, but losing out in the end. Jesus’ understanding of the Christ, was to have followers who would lay down their lives for his sake, so that they may receive his eternal life. Peter’s christ is short sighted, Jesus as Christ is eternally focused.

What happens next places eternity into the foreground. Jesus invites three of his disciples to come with him to a mountain. We pick up what happens next in verse 2 of Chapter 9, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. (v.9:2-8)”

Peter, James, and John are given a glimpse of Jesus’ eternal identity for themselves. And again, Peter is rebuked, this time from the Father. He’s told, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 

Peter, stop thinking you know, stop thinking your christ is right, know the Christ that Jesus says he is, and do what he says. It would take a while but Peter would finally understand. In this second letter, Peter would write of this very moment, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. (v.1:16-18)”

Peter would come to accept Jesus’ identity as the Christ, not his own version. This who thing about Jesus’ identity puts John 3:16-18 into perspective, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (3:16-18)”

We are to believe in the Son, as who he states he is, not as we have decided he will be. When we answer the question, we must embrace Jesus’ understanding, and reject all others. It’s the difference between the godly answer, and the demonic.

But that isn’t the case for so many. Too many people are Peter, believing their own christ. And over the next three weeks, we’re going to look at several answers to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am,” and see how they do not line up with Jesus’ identity.

But for now, I want to challenge you, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Are you believing that Jesus is just a good teacher? Are you believing that he died for you, and that was it? Are you believing that he doesn’t matter? Jesus doesn’t identify those ways. He identifies as the God and Creator of the world who wrapped himself in human flesh to pay sin’s price that we could not pay. He died to break the power of death over us, and raised us to eternal life. Anyone who puts their trust into who Jesus’ identifies as lives no longer for themselves but for God. They pick up their cross daily and follow him wherever he leads, and look forward to the day when he returns to set the world right. Believe that identity of Jesus, because all the rest fall short and are just a shadow of the real thing. 

This week, I want you to write down your answer to the question, “Who do you say Jesus is,” then over the course of the next four weeks, as we examine other answers see if there are places where you have a misaligned view of Jesus. 

Let us be a people who do not follow a christ of our own making, but the one true Christ, Jesus the risen Savior. Amen.

2 Samuel Series - Week 24: The Messiah in and Through Samuel

 To the Jewish religious leadership, Jesus said this, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. (Jn 5:39)”

As disciples of Christ, we need to understand that the entire Word of God displays the Word of God. Every book contained within the Bible, points us to the ultimate revelation of Jesus the Savior. So the books of Samuel, are not just the story of the end of the Judges era, and the rise of the monarchy, but rather a transitional period where God honed in on the work he had been doing since before the creation was spoken into existence.

At the end of summer 2023 we were finishing up our series in the book of Judges. We did this by looking at the book of Ruth, because without Ruth, you end with a sour taste in your mouth from Judges. The book of Judges ends on a single defeated line, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Jdg. 21:25)” Since it ends on such a sour note, we walked through Ruth, because Ruth ends on a upbeat note, as it looks forward to the offspring to come.

So the story contained in Samuel, doesn’t start with First Samuel 1:1. It starts many books before. In fact, the books of Samuel, do not just start in Ruth or even Judges, but have their roots in the very work God had begun to do in since Genesis 3. 

Today, we’re going to walk through God’s overarching plan to bring salvation to the world, and see how the books of Samuel, and David himself, work within that plan. We’re going to look at four aspects that relate to how Samuel fulfills, continues, and sets up the future of God’s work.

The first aspect is: The linage of the Messiah. 

God’s salvation work begins with these words in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

At Adam and Eve’s fall, God set in motion the work of bringing back humanity from eternal death. That work was going to be done through the seed of the woman. Her offspring would be the one who would break the power of sin and death that was brought on by Adam’s sin.

So God starts working. Through Seth, down through Noah, then focusing on Abraham’s family, who birthed the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, as the Israelites wandered the wilderness because of their own sin, God spoke through their advisory Balaam, who prophesied to them, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. (Num. 24:17)” The focus of God’s work narrows from a nation to a king who would eventually rise up in Israel, and that king will be the crusher spoken at the fall of humanity. 

Then Israel takes the land of Canaan under Joshua, but the Judges, whom God would use to fight off threats to his people, became increasingly corrupt. This led to a civil war within the nation. The very fabric of God’s chosen people was being ripped to shreds, and the we read those sour words on the last line of the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Jdg. 21:25)”

But there is hope. As the people of Israel were doing what was right in their own eyes, a Moabite woman, an outsider, chose to follow the God of Israel, and at the end of her story, we read, “Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. (Ruth 4:11-12)”

The work of God narrowed once again. From the whole world, to the tribe of Israel, and the town of Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah. Then we open the pages of Samuel. Samuel isn’t like the judge before him. From his youth he speaks the words of God boldly and carries himself with godliness. Yet, the people reject him and the Lord, and desire a human king like the nations around them. Though this isn’t God’s intention, he had already been working to bring about his king to the throne. 

Yet, when we meet Saul, he is not the offspring of Ruth, nor from Bethlehem. We quickly realize, as we watch him descend into ungodliness and madness, that he is not the king, the offspring we had been looking forward to.

It is then we meet David, the ruddy you man. He is the offspring of his great grandmother Ruth, and he is from Bethlehem. Finally, we have seemingly come to the offspring prophesied by God himself at the judgment of Adam and Eve. We watch his story play out and as we come to Second Samuel, David is finally established, and we get the crescendo to all of God’s work through human history to save this creation, and yet, God says this to David in Second Samuel 7:12-17, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”

Wait, so David wasn’t the offspring we had been waiting for. In fact it won’t be his son either, because God’s word implies a linage of kings who will rule on David’s throne. But as we continue the story, we get to the prophet Jeremiah, who, in his day, saw the throne of David break against the might of Babylon. But through Jeremiah, God said this of the throne of David, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. (Jer. 23:5)” So the offspring of the woman, the king on David’s throne has not yet come. 

Then the man Jesus storms onto the scene almost five hundred years later. He dies, and raises from the dead, and as his disciples go out to spread the message of Jesus’ resurrection, Paul recounts the story of the offspring, “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. (Acts 13:21-24)”

Jesus is the fulfillment of the offspring of Eve, down to Ruth, down through David. Through both his adoptive father, Joseph, and his biological mother, Mary, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s lineage to bring about the salvation humanity desperately needs.

The second aspect is: The look of the Messiah.

When God removed the throne from Saul, he sent Samuel to look for the next king. Samuel was led to the family of Jesse, who’s sons were tall and strong. Any one of them would had the look of a king. Yet, As Samuel peered at the first of these sons, he had this encounter with God, “When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.’ 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.' (1 Sam. 16:6-7)” Through all the sons, God told Samuel they were not the one. Then, the last forgotten son came in from the fields, and we’re told, “And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he. (1 Sam. 16:12)”

True this young boy was handsome, with nice looking eyes. But he was ruddy, with red skin baked by the days spent out in the fields. To look at him, there was nothing special about this young man. But God knew what lay underneath.

Years later, as the prophet Isaiah would speak of the offspring of David to come, he wrote these words of God, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. (v.53:2)”

David looked like some rednecked kid, that wasn’t important enough to his father to be invited to share in the blessing of Samuel. Just like his ancestor, David’s offspring, would have nothing about him that would cry out, “HERE’S THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!” And so, to most, Jesus was just another Jew born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. In fact, Nathanael had an offhanded remark about this very thing, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (Jn. 1:39)” There was no majesty about David, nothing that would make you think, that he could be king. The same could be said about Jesus. Yet after his execution, this son of David, rose from the dead, and is now adored as the Savior as his people recognize that his majesty is that of God himself.

The third aspect is: The Pre-Incarnate Messiah Appears within Samuel.

This is the smallest of the aspects as it is only one moment in time. It happens in the last chapters of Second Samuel. We’ve gone over that chapter. David’s pride and self-satisfaction in himself, has allowed Satan to to gain a foothold and incite him to take a census. God allows this to happen, yet when the numbers come in, David realizes he has sinned. A diving judgment restrained by God’s mercy occurs, and yet, 70,000 men still die from a pestilence that ran through Israel.

As David watched the angle of the Lord carry out the judgment of God on so many because of his sin, he cried out to the Lord for more mercy. It is this angel of the Lord, who appeared to Hagar in the wilderness (Gen. 16), who called to Abraham from heaven (Gen. 22), who called to Moses out of the bush (Ex. 3),who led the Israelites out of Egypt (Jdg. 2), who caused Balaam’s donkey to turn in fear (Num. 22), it is this being, whom the writer of Jude says was the Lord Jesus himself (Jude 1:5) in his pre-incarnate form, stands, carrying out the judgment of God in front of David. 

It’s a blink and miss it moment. But it’s a moment where we glimpse Jesus’ pre-incarnation work, and it’s in judgment. The action of judgment that the pre-incarnate Jesus is taking in the last chapter of Samuel, gives more weight to Jesus’ words in John 3, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. (v.3:16-21)”

Jesus, in his pre-incarnate form, carried out the judgment of God. Yet when he came to us, and clothed himself in humanity’s flesh, his purpose was not to condemn to judgment, but to set us free. Yet, there is judgment on the horizon when Jesus returns and sets all things right once again. We read this in Revelation 19:11-16, “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” We live, as David did, in a time where the mercy of God restrains the judgment of the Lord Jesus. So now is the day when we should seek him in his grace and mercy, because there will be a day when it’s too late.

The fourth aspect is: The Messiah Through David’s Poetry.

Last week we walked through David’s final poetic and prophetic words. One part of those words were David’s own recognition that his poetry was used by God to communicate prophetic words (2 Sam. 23:2).

When looking at the book of Psalms, and its 150 songs, there are about 75 attributed to David. Out of the 150, there are 25 Psalms that are directly linked to the Messiah’s work. Out of those, 7 are written by David himself.

These are the topics that David wrote about his future offspring and Savior of the world:

Concerning his brith, that God was his Father in his childhood (v.22:9), and that he would be called by God from the womb (22:10). 

Concerning his name, he would be called Lord and King (v.110:1a), and a priest like Melchizedek (v.110:4).

Concerning his ministry, infants would praise him (v.8:2), he would reveal the Scripture (v.40:7), he would do the will of God (v.40:8), and he would be angered at the ungodly practices of the Jews (v.69:9).

Concerning his betray and death, he would experience feeling forsake (v.22:1b), he would be in constant prayer (v.22:2), would be Despised and reject by his own (v.22:6), he would be mocked (v.22:7), and a part of that mocking, it would be said of him, “Let God save him” (v.22:8). Blood and water would pour out from him (v.22:14a), his bones would be out of joint, but not broken (v.22:14b), he would cry in thirst while dying (v.22:15; 69:1-3), and given gall mixed with vinegar (v.69:21). Evil people will watch as he dies (v.22:16a). His hands and feet will be pierced (v.22:16c), people will cast lots for his garments (v.22:18), but he will be recognized as the sacrificial lamb (v.40:6-8a). He will be hated and rejected without cause (v.69:4), yet that rejection will be for the plans of God (v.69:7). He will be rejected by the Jews (v.69:8a), and his own family (v.69:8b), and his heart will be broken for them (v.69:20).

Finally, concerning his resurrection and exaltation. First, he would be resurrected (16:9-10a), and his body would not see death’s corruption (v.16:10b). He would ascend to heaven (v.68:18a), where he would be gloried in the presence of God (v.16:11). He would be proclaimed and praised (v.22:22), and finally, he would give gifts to his people (v.68:18b).

These are what David prophesied about the Messiah, whom God would bring about as an offspring of David. And if you heard and thought, that sounds like Jesus, you’re right. The Psalms of David are realized in the person and work of Jesus. This is one part of why we can trust in the word of God, because it has been fulfilled in our Savior, the Lord Jesus. 

More than Thirty-two references over seven psalms, that God spoke prophetically through David concerning the offspring that was spoken about in Genesis 3, who would come into the world to bring it back to God. And Jesus fulfilled them, and many others.

This is where the books of Samuel fit within the work of God. They are a fulfillment, a continuation, and a future look at the Lord’s work from the time of humanity’s fall, to the coming of the Messiah in Jesus, the son of David.

My challenge for you this week, is to read these Psalms of David and see yourself in the plan of God. Look what God has done, and see what God has left to do. There isn’t much left until the return of Jesus. So where are you in that work? Are you at work, serving Jesus until he calls you home or comes back? Each of us should be about our father’s business everyday as we wait for the final fulfillment of his work.

Let us be a busy people, who are growing in our faith, and pointing others to Jesus’ life. Amen.