Messiah in His Mission

The Old Testament bears out the physical return of the Messiah, also a wonderful testimony to the consistency of God’s Word. Comparing Zechariah 12:10; 14:4 with Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:30; and Acts 1:9–12, it is obvious that the Lord’s ascension was visible, for the disciples saw Him rise, and in like fashion (Greek, tropos) the angels declared He would return. Zechariah 12:10 quotes Jehovah (further proof of Christ’s deity), "And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced" (emphasis mine). Revelation 1:7 states that Christ is the one pierced and visible to human eyes. Zechariah 14:4 reveals Christ as touching the Mount of Olives at His visible return, and the Scriptures teach that this literally corroborates the angelic proclamation of Acts 1:9–12 even to the Lord’s return to the exact location of His ascension, the Mount of Olives (v. 12). The doctrine of the physical return of Christ cannot be denied unless a denial of God’s Word also be entered.

 

Many people think that today’s natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, social/political unrest, and devastating diseases are unique to this era. Hence, we must be living "in the last days" (Acts 2:17) before Jesus’ return. Nothing could be further from the truth. To assert that "the last days" only recently began and that the present generation is witnessing never-before-seen tragedies is to believe what is historically untrue and biblically unsound.

 

In the fullness of time Messiah arrived to "confirm the covenant" by His own blood. Standing at the transition point between the old era and the new, we hear Jesus declaring, "This [cup] is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Matt. 26:28. To Jews steeped in Old Testament history and the hope of Old Testament prophets, what could this mean but that the hour had finally arrived for the new exodus, the deliverance of all deliverances? The words "new covenant" surely signify the inauguration of the new kingdom.

 

And with his stripes we are healed - Handel Messiah, Global Mission Church Choir, conductor/ Sung Hee Koo Rhee

 

 

 

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Something of a Surprise

 

Ill at ease in Herod's prison, John sent messengers to Jesus with a question: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matt. 11:3).

The question comes as something of a surprise. After all, John was one of the first to publicly identify Jesus as "the one who comes after me" (John 1:27). It was John who told Jesus, "I need to be baptized by you" (Matt. 3:14). John saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus at his baptism and heard the voice from heaven say, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17).

If anyone had known the answer to this question, it would have been John.

So what are the criteria for being a Messiah? 

Model #1: Messiah as Designated Political Activist

A Messiah is a person anointed by the Lord to perform a task

Model #2: The Human Eschatological Catalyst

The Messiah is a Davidic king who assists God in bringing about world transformation in eschatological times.

Specifically this individual must:

• be the Davidic king of an independent Jewish state, having eliminated foreign domination

• judge humanity, rewarding the righteous and eliminating the unrighteous

• help usher in an era of universal peace reflecting the universal rule of God

During this time exiles will return from the Diaspora and the righteous dead will be restored to life..

Model #3A: Saviour of Humanity

A Christ is a dying-rising saviour God-human who saves those who participate in his suffering and death.

Model 3B: The Christ as Saviour Messiah

Phase One: Saviour
Christ, a dying-rising saviour God-human, saves those who participate in His suffering and death.
Phase Two: Messiah
Christ returns to destroy evil, conquer death, and reward the righteous with eternal life. The dead are resurrected.

Scripture indicates that Jesus was not denying His deity by referring to Himself as the Son of Man. In fact, it is highly revealing that the term “Son of Man” is used in Scripture in contexts of Christ's deity. For example, the Bible says that only God can forgive sins (Isaiah 43:25; Mark 2:7). But as the “Son of Man,” Jesus had the power to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). Likewise, Christ will return to Earth as the “Son of Man” in clouds of glory to reign on Earth (Matthew 26:63-64). In this passage, Jesus is citing Daniel 7:13 where the Messiah is described as the "Ancient of Days," a phrase used to indicate His deity (cf. Daniel 7:9).

 

There are many who would claim, then, that even if Jesus did fulfill the intended conditions, that He still failed to be the Messiah as He did not establish His rule and reign. Instead, He died the miserable death of a criminal upon a Roman cross. The Messiah is supposed to reign, to restore Israel, to rule the nations with a rod of iron. How could Jesus be the Messiah if He did not do this?  This objection comes from a partial understanding of what the Hebrew scriptures say about the Messiah. Over the centuries, it became the tendency in later Judaism to focus on the triumphal aspects of the Messiah, which is understandable given the suffering of the Jewish people during their dispersion among the nations. Of course, it is also the natural tendency on the part of anybody to want to focus on triumph and victory instead of suffering or sorrow, and later Judaism's concentration on the "this-worldly" understanding of the Messiah reflects this.

Yet, we need to understand that Hebrew scriptures themselves point out that the Messiah would fulfill BOTH roles - that of a suffering servant who bears the sins of His people, and a triumphant ruler who will exercise authority over the nations and who will rule His people Israel. The Messiah indeed does have a dual-role assigned to Him in the Hebrew scriptures, and this fact, in addition to playing a rather key role in Christian theology about Jesus, was ALSO well-understood by many of the Jewish theologians and Rabbis, both before and after the time of Christ.
To assume human nature, the sinless Saviour had to choose between the only two things available. He could of either chosen the Holy, unfallen nature of Adam, or the fallen nature of Adam and all of Adam's descendants. If He had taken any other kind, it would not have been human nature at all. 

Jesus rose again to sit with the Eternal Father, as one with the Father. It’s the greatest miracle God has ever performed. God’s Son who once was dead, has risen to new life forever. This great miracle is the joyous hope for humanity. Satan thought he was the winner. While Jesus hung on the cross outside of Jerusalem, Demons were roaring in triumph... only to realize to their horror that Jesus was the winner after all. Jesus descended into the demonic world and took the keys of death and life back from Satan's own claws. Jesus gave Himself to be killed, so that He could take away the authority of Satan over mankind.

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Mission of the Messiah

The scene itself is pretty straightforward.

The scene immediately follows the calling of Matthew, where Jesus tells Matthew to "follow me." Jesus is eating at Matthew's house with the other disciples, and "many tax collectors and sinners". Apparently some Pharisees are with them, too. The Pharisees challenge Jesus for willingly keeping company with "tax collectors and sinners", two despised groups. Essentially, the Pharisees are accusing Jesus of opposing the will of God. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are misinterpreting the will of God. He says that saving sinners is of primary importance. By saying that He "came not to call the righteous, but sinners", Jesus: declares that He is the Messiah: Jesus equates God's words to Israel in the book of Hosea ("I desire mercy, not sacrifice", Hos 6:6) with His own words ("For I came..."), and identifies His personal mission with the promised saving mission of the Messiah.

1. Reminds the Pharisees that Israel's history is one of continually going astray (sinning), followed by God's saving action to restore her to righteousness (living in accord with the will & law of God).
2. Accuses the Pharisees of being self-righteous, since they see themselves as righteous when in fact all are sinners before God.

Jesus claims the words of God as His own: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6). The Pharisees would have seen this as a clear and bold claim to be acting with the authority of God, and even to be God Himself.

Taking a few steps back - the earliest prophet to Israel, Amos, states the themes that recur throughout the prophets: condemnation of immorality, warning of coming judgement, and an appeal to turn back to God, and obtain mercy. God is both holy and loving. Amos was not a priest or a "professional" prophet, so brings a layman's objectivity and straightforwardness to his message.

Isaiah covers pretty much every topic in the Bible: God's holiness, warning of coming judgement, call to repentance, vision of future blessing, messianic predictions, the servant songs, and extraordinary poetry. 

Micah predicts judgement on Judah not just because the people have turned away from God, but also because of moral consequences of that apostasy. Emphasises the need for ethical behaviour in secular life as well as religious purity. 

Zephaniah is the first prophet in Judah after a gap of more than fifty years, and he warns of the coming Day of the Lord, emphasizing that Judah will not be exempt from the judgement due to the surrounding nations merely because of its history: God's people must seek Him for themselves, not rely on their ancestors' relationship with Him. Predicts the survival of a faithful remnant when God's judgement falls on Jerusalem.

The book of Habakkuk takes the form of a dialogue: Habakkuk asks God why He allows injustice to continue in Judah. When God replies that He will end it by means of the Babylonians, He asks God how He can use those even more unrighteous as agents of judgement. God replies that all wickedness will surely be judged at the proper time. Habakkuk concludes that he can rejoice in God whatever the circumstances.

Part of Ezekiel was written before the final destruction of Jerusalem: the theme of this part is that judgement will follow sin. The rest was written after this point, and the theme is that restoration will follow. The book is punctuated by complicated, confusing and occasionally terrifying visions, and by symbolic actions on the part of the author. The overriding theme is the glory of God.

So we see that the Day of the Lord, and the Day of Judgment were dealt with as the mission of the Messiah.

Surprising as this is, it is nevertheless exactly what Isaiah had declared earlier: "A voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God' "(Isa. 40:3). It is what John the Baptist had in mind when he said, "After me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry" (Matt. 3:11). When Jesus was revealed to John on the occasion of His baptism, John declared unequivocally, "This is the Son of God" (John 1:34).

The Lord Himself taught this when He eventually came--four hundred years after the age of Malachi. Jesus had returned to Nazareth after His baptism by John and His temptation by Satan, to begin His ministry, and He went into the synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath. He was asked to take part in the service and was given the scroll of Isaiah from which He was to read the day's lesson. He unrolled it, found the sixty-first chapter and read:

"The Spirit of the 'Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18, 19; Isa. 61:1, 2).

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Mission through history

Christians throughout history have been excellent in their discoveries of messianic passages in Scripture but have been almost blind to the obvious missional characteristics of the Messiah! The missional nature of Messiah as Suffering Servant flows out of the whole Grand Narrative of Scripture. “Was it not necessary that the Messiah must suffer . . . and that repentance resulting in forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the peoples” (Lk. 24:26,46-47). The doctrines of the pre-existent triune God, His creation, man’s Fall in Adam, the redemption in Christ, and the coming consummation are all inextricably missional.  God has called His people to be a missional people, who participate in God’s very own mission. The Lord has planned that all the clans and peoples of earth will be impacted and transformed by God’s very own mission, in which His people participate.

 

In the Old Testament Jesus reveals His Father’s mission. The Father chose Abraham’s

family—the people of Israel as a people involved in God’s mission. This mission in turn leads

to Him as Messiah and from Him to mission for the new covenant children of Abraham, including

both Jews and the gentilic peoples, in Christ.

The goal of the mission of God is that all peoples become joyous and delighted worshippers of our Father through Christ our Lord.

 

 

 

Mandate versus Command

When our Lord presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, He taught a great deal about the blessings of God. His teaching was radically different from that of the Jewish religious leaders of His day. His teaching was different not as the result of a change in God’s plan, but due to the Jew’s misconceptions concerning God’s promised blessings.

Wolterstorff ties the image of God to the dominion mandate (or blessing). In other words, of all the ways in which human beings might be said to reflect or image God, that set that is “necessary for receiving and exercising the blessing or mandate of dominion” ties together those that are in fact used by ancient Hebrew writers when they expound on the idea of the image of God in man.

Covenantal pledging or promise is then the means whereby one loves what the other loves. Through His promise, God establishes the basis for a loving relationship between Himself and us.

God's promises to Abraham—physical and spiritual—became unconditional. His words, "By Myself have I sworn" (Genesis 22:16), show that the fulfillment of the promise no longer depended on Abraham. The fulfillment of the promise would now depend solely on God Himself. He unconditionally committed Himself to fulfill His promise to Abraham and his descendants.

God's promises are important

The Bible gives us our mandate.

It is very actual and relevant in our time. Stott says our mandate is found:

• in the creation of God (because of which all human beings are responsible to Him)
• in the character of God (as outgoing, loving, compassionate, not willing that any should perish, desiring that all should come to repentance)
• in the promises of God (that all nations will be blessed through Abraham's seed and will become the Messiah's inheritance)
• in the Christ of God (now exalted with universal authority, to receive universal acclaim)
• in the Spirit of God (who convicts of sin, witnesses to Christ, and impels the Church to evangelize)
• in the Church of God (which is a multinational, missionary community, under orders to evangelize until

and today's focus • in the promises of God (that all nations will be blessed through Abraham's seed and will become the Messiah's inheritance)

This is how we can tell others that they can begin an intimate relationship with Him right now. You can begin to personally know God in this life on earth, and after death into eternity. Here is God's promise to us:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Click here for an outline that gives a quick sample of some of God's grand purpose, if possible, summarized quite well.

The church is rooted in the concept of the Missio Dei, which recognizes that there is one mission, and it is God’s mission. The Missio Dei is a Latin theological term that can be translated as “Mission of God.” The word missio literally means sent. The church is not an end in itself; the church is sent into the world to fulfill the mission of God.

http://youtu.be/qSeJzuq95SA

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