Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / Jesus Christ in the Old Testament | Mark 12:35-37 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

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Jesus Christ in the Old Testament | Mark 12:35-37 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series) · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  I encourage you to meet me in the Gospel of Mark in chapter
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  12, please. And today our portion will be
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  two verses that we trust will suffice.
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  And our understanding of this brilliant passage Mark 12, verse
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  35. And as Jesus taught in the
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  temple, he said, How can the scribes say that the Christ is
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  the son of David, Dave himself in the Holy Spirit Declared the
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  Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your
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  enemies under your feet. David himself calls him Lord.
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  So how is he his son? And the great throng heard him
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  gladly. Lord, bless the reading and the
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  preaching of your word. Bless our hearts, and receiving
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  and applying it open the eyes of our hearts.
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  Oh, Lord, even as we hear what you have to say.
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  May it wash away all troubles, all fears, all anxieties, all
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  indifference. It may affordify our faith
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  afresh. We ask these things in the name
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  that is above every other name, the living name, the name of
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  Jesus Christ. Amen.
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  I hope you remember what we've been discussing the past few
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  weeks, where there have been a series of interrogations that
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  Jesus experienced. We saw the Pharisees with the
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  Herodians approach Christ following them.
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  We saw the Sadducees the same day, and following the Sadducees
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  we left off with the scribes who came to Christ as well.
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  But after those questions were without any effort really were
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  answered by Christ, these groups now stood stupefied in the
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  presence of the wisdom of God in the person of Jesus.
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  And now the tables are about to turn because Jesus has his own
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  question. He has this question now that he
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  is going to target towards these religious leaders.
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  And the essence of this question deals with the true identity of
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  the Messiah that has been promised from of old as revealed
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  in the scriptures. And the reason why the Lord
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  asked this question is because the contentious religious
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  leaders not only prove their ignorance of the general
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  application and understanding of the Word of God, they missed
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  what the Messiah was all about and who he would be.
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  And so Christ now wants to really expose the underlying
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  issue of the hostility of these men.
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  He's now going to get to the centre of it.
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  The the real reason why they approached them with such
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  aggression and abuse is because they do not understand what the
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  Bible has to say about the Messiah.
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  They are sorely ignorant, and Christ is about to reveal that
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  and compound that yet again. And reading this exchange and
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  Mark, as you just did with me, we see that the format of Jesus
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  teaching here seems to be general, like he's just sharing
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  it to whoever is there. But when you read it from
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  Matthew's account, he targets this question toward the
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  Pharisees. He's speaking to them.
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  Now why is he doing that? Because if there was anyone who
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  should have understood the prophecies and the descriptions
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  of the anointed One who has to come the saviour of the people
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  of Israel, it was the Pharisees. There was if there was anyone
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  who was supposed to get it, it was this band of men.
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  But unfortunately that wasn't the case.
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  Instead, they're abusing the very one who fulfilled them.
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  And Christ is about to challenge their faulty thinking Yet once
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  more, and what we see here is Jesus going to the Old
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  Testament. He is going to go to the Hebrew
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  Scriptures to make his case. And when you hear this teaching
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  today, you're going to feel as though there's been a golden a,
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  a glistening nugget that's been placed in your hand that we get
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  to look at and enjoy. But it's much more than that.
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  This passage that you and I are holding in our hands is a key.
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  It's a key that should encourage you and I to unlock a world of
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  treasures. The world that I speak of is the
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  Old Testament, and the treasures that I'm referring to are the
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  vast pictures and prophecies concerning Jesus Christ of
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  Nazareth. And that's where we're headed
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  today. You and I are just going to have
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  a glimpse of this world of where we might have overlooked Christ.
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  And my my simple prayer in today's message is that there
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  would be this heightened reverence for the word of God,
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  that your heart would be stirred to see the divine authorship of
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  this book and how it has in fact been given to us by the
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  Almighty. And that you would relish in it,
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  and you would rejoice in it, and more than that, you would submit
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  to it to a greater degree. And so let's do that.
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  Together. We come back to our text in
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  verse 35. And before the Lord does
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  anything, he acknowledges that the scribes believed and taught
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  that the chosen one of God would in fact be the descendant of
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  David. So we don't have to turn that.
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  But when you read the same account from Matthew's
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  perspective, Jesus asked the question to the Pharisees.
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  He says it this way. What do you think about the
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  Christ whose son is he? And the Pharisees rightly answer
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  the Son of David? They weren't wrong in their
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  answer, but they were not entirely right.
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  Because what the Lord is about to now convey is that the
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  Messiah is more than just a descendant of David.
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  He's more than just a son of David.
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  He is the Lord of David. And the way he's going to do
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  that is by going to one particular Psalm.
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  You should be familiar with the Psalm.
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  You know why? Because it's the most referenced
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  and alluded to Psalm in the New Testament, Psalm 110.
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  And Christ quotes the first verse of that Psalm to make his
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  point. And it's a brilliant point.
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  But I want to pause here before we explore his exposition of
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  that verse. Pause for a moment and consider
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  this. Jesus is asking a question,
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  right? The past few Sundays we've been
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  exploring questions asked to Jesus and how he would answer
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  them. But the Sanhedrin, the spiritual
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  Supreme Court of Israel's day, when they asked their questions
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  to Jesus, did not do so from a pure heart.
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  They wanted to trap Jesus. They wanted to find evidence to
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  arrest Jesus. But now when Christ returns the
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  question, he does not have the same intent.
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  Yes, he's going to he's going to expose their ignorance, but not
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  so that they can be red faced and mortified.
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  When is this question asked again?
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  When you read your Bible zoom out from time to time.
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  Remember, we are at the final moments before Jesus is
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  arrested, put on trial, and then nailed to a cross.
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  We're in that that last week of his earthly life.
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  And so we know that in just a couple of days things are going
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  to change drastically. In fact, this is Jesus's last
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  face to face conversation with the religious leaders before his
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  trial. This is it.
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  And when you consider that truth with what we learned last time,
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  you have a brilliant revelation concerning the heart of Christ.
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  What happened before Jesus asked this question?
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  Well, ascribe asked him a question.
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  What's the most important commandment?
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  Jesus answered it, and this was the response of the man he He
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  acknowledged it, and Christ says to him, Look at verse 34 of Mark
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  12. And when Jesus saw that he
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  answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the Kingdom
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  of God, and after that no one dared to ask him any more
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  questions. So time is running out.
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  And yet we also see, at least from 1 scribe, a level of
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  humility and hunger. And I believe these things
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  reveal something about Christ asking this question and giving
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  the answer the way that he did. I can say with confidence, and I
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  hope you agree with me, that Jesus is teaching here is a
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  final opportunity for his enemies to come to the truth.
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  Time is ticking, and there is a blossoming of humility from at
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  least one of their band members. And here's Christ now,
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  responding from a place of love, opening their eyes to the truth
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  of who the Messiah is and who he is, I'm sure, with the hope that
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  they would hear it, understand it, and give themselves to it.
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  This is the love of Jesus Christ on display right here.
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  This is what we see about Christ, his love, even for his
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  enemies. You know what they've been
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  trying to do on this day? Corner him, Embarrass him more
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  than that, find a reason to arrest him, and how does he
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  return the favor? His response was to give him
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  another chance, by opening their eyes to see the truth, not just
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  in the Word, but the truth Incarnate right before them.
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  And the way he's going to do that is by going to this text
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  that we're going to explore together.
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  What do we read here in our text to get together in verse 36?
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  David himself in the Holy Spirit declared.
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  The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your
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  enemies under your feet. I know we want to get to Psalm
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  110, but I have to acknowledge something else here.
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  Forgive me. Do you see how Jesus
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  acknowledges the authorship of the Bible?
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  What does he say? David himself?
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  That's the human composition in the Holy Spirit.
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  That is the definition of divine inspiration.
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  And So what you have here is exactly what the apostle Peter
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  builds upon in his second epistle when he says the
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  following. For no prophecy was ever
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  produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were
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  carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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  That's the consensus of the Bible.
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  Jesus affirmed it. The apostles that he's trained
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  taught it that yes, men were used to write the Bible, but God
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  was the one who was guiding them and inspiring them and
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  protecting them from error. So what we have here, yes, has
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  been written by man, but there is an agent behind them, and
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  that is God himself. Here's what we have, Psalm 110.
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  David wrote it. That is huge because you have
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  people today who want to say that David didn't write this or
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  try to twist it concerning David, that it was not written
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  by David but written for David. And I'll get to the reason why
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  that's important to distinguish. It's important to establish what
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  Listen Psalm 110 and you can get there if you want early.
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  I didn't not going there yet, but you can prepare Psalm 110 is
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  a messianic Psalm. In other words, it is a piece of
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  work that prophecies of the Messiah, the Anointed 1, the
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  chosen One that is to come to bring deliverance to the people
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  of Israel. And ultimately, if you
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  understand the wider scope of prophecy to the world.
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  And the reason why that is important, again as I mentioned,
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  is because people try to dismiss it because Christ fulfills Psalm
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  110. Now how do we know Psalm 110 is
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  about the Messiah? Very simple.
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  You don't have to jump through many hoops.
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  Some would say this is a Psalm written by Abraham's servant,
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  like desperate attempts to try to make this not about Jesus
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  Christ. Some would say again that this
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  was composed to declare about David.
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  So when it says, the Lord said to my Lord that second Lord is
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  David, this is about David and his covenant with God.
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  Well, you're going to have problems there.
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  Do you know why? The reason why we know that this
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  is the Messiah being spoken of here is because of the content
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  of the Psalm. You have a king who's going to
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  not just rule in Zion, but rule from Zion.
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  You have a king who also listened to.
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  This is a priest, and not just a priest, He's a priest who will
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  have his priesthood and function and an operation for eternity.
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  No other person fits that description of a kingly priestly
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  role apart from the Messiah, apart from the one that not just
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  David but others before and after him declared about the one
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  who is to come. He is going to be a king, but
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  he's also going to be a priest. That was illegal in the Old
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  covenant. If anyone attempted to do that,
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  they were severely disciplined by God.
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  But we now have this description of one who is not just only
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  going to be a king and a priest, but he's also going to be
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  exalted and praised by God himself.
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  So he's approved in that function.
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  So right there that ends the argument.
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  This Psalm. Psalm 110 is messianic.
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  Now you can turn there. So let's turn to Psalm 110.
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  And I want you to see something, because the Greek version of
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  Psalm 110 here doesn't read in the same way that the Hebrew
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  version does. And that's what we have in Psalm
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  110. What we have in the Gospels is
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  the Greek translation of it. But look at Psalm 110.
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  First verse a Psalm of David the Lord says to my Lord, set on my
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  right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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  Notice that the first mention of Lord is different than the
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  second one in terms of spelling. If it's capitalizing your Bible,
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  then you understand this. I hope that that is a reference
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  to the covenant name of God. This is God's personal name,
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  Yahweh, and the second mention of Lord is not the same.
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  It's a more general term, one that can be granted to a human
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  authority. So you have Yahweh says to Adon
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  or Adonai and that word Lord. The second mentioned simply
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  means master, and you have people in the Bible as examples
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  who are granted that a term of respect.
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  You're the master. You are an authoritative figure
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  in my life, so I will call you Lord.
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  So you have Yahweh, God's personal name speaking to
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  another figure, distinct figure and addresses him as master.
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  This is this is important to make it distinguished about
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  because it can cause a lot of confusion otherwise.
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  Now Jesus doesn't go further in the Psalm, right?
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  He just he just sticks with verse one because verse one has
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  enough to challenge the wrong thinking of his foes.
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  And why is he mentioning this? It's very simple.
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  In verse 37, Mark 12, he says David himself calls him Lord, so
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  how is he his son? Do you understand the question?
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  If this is a messianic Psalm and they've already established that
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  the Messiah is going to be a son of David, then how is it that
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  David can call his son his Lord? It's very simple.
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  David's son, naturally would be inferior to David in terms of
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  honor and rank. I was talking to my dad about
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  this last night and I said dad not in terms of human dignity
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  and value. We're the same in that.
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  But because you're my dad, you have greater honor, you have
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  more authority. And so if David's son is in that
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  way inferior, then how does David dare to call him his
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  master? Do you understand?
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  Not what Jesus is trying to convey.
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  Now it goes even deeper than that.
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  If David is the king of Israel, which he was, then there really
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  isn't anyone else from a human standpoint, that is above him.
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  He holds the highest position of authority known to man, at least
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  in this realm. And so for him to call anybody
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  his master implies that this person holds a position that's
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  not in this world or not of this world.
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  Let me make that case further. Go to Psalm 89 with me.
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  Here's another Psalm concerning David but his covenant with God
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  and his descendants. Look at Psalm 89, verse 20, just
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  to make sure that we know that this Psalm is in fact about
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  David. Psalm 89 and we can go to verse
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  20 to get that clue. I have found in David my servant
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  with my holy oil. I have anointed him.
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  Now. Why don't we just read on to the
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  rest of it? So that my hand shall be
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  established with him. My arm also shall strengthen
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  him. The enemy shall not outwit him,
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  the wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him
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  and strike down those who hate him.
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  My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in
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  my name shall his horn be exalted.
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  I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the
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  rivers. He shall cry to me.
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  You are my Father, my God and the rock of my salvation.
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  Pause. There's a misconception among
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  Christians that when Jesus came, he introduced us God as Father.
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  No, he didn't. God is referred to as Father in
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  the Old Testament as well. You just saw one example of it.
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  The difference is now the fatherly relationship with God
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  has now been extended to the Gentiles.
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  That's the difference. Look at verse 27.
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  This is the part that I want to mention.
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  And I will make him the first born.
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  Who's him? That's David.
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  I will make him the first born. I'm hesitant to throw a lot
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  here, but I'm going to do it and it's recorded so we can revisit
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  it if it's too much, just to chew on it more.
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  Was David the first born among his family?
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  So why is he called the first born here?
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  Because the Bible's Dictionary is different than ours.
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  First born in many cases in the Bible refers to preeminence, not
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  order of chronology coming into existence.
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  You know why that's important? Because your friendly
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  neighborhood, Jehovah's Witness will use Colossians to say Jesus
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  is the first born. He's the first created thing.
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  And so they'll say that Jesus was created and then through him
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  everything else was created. But you have to come to Psalm
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  89, verse 27, to show them that first born doesn't need to mean
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  first to come into existence. It can also mean preeminence to
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  be above, to be elevated. And this is what we're being
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  told about David. He will be the first born, and
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  the second part reinforces that truth.
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  And I will make him the first born, the highest of the kings
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  of the earth. So David is not just king, he's
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  the highest of the kings of all the earth.
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  And yet, in Psalm 110, and speaking about his descendant,
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  he refers to the Son of David as what, my Lord?
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  How you're the king that's king above all the other kings on the
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  earth. Who is this son who by just
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  nature is inferior? Who is he for you to say that he
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  is your master? And the answer to that is when
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  you look at Psalm 110, that this Lord of David's is no ordinary
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  Lord. He's an otherworldly king and
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  the makeup of that king is described in Psalm 110.
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  Let's read, it's very brief and you will understand exactly why
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  David said what he said, because by the Spirit he had this
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  revelation. Verse 2.
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  The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty sceptre rule in the
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  midst of your enemies. Your people will offer
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  themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments.
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  From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be
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  yours. The Lord has sworn and will not
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  change His mind. You are priests forever after
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  the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand.
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  He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath.
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  He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with
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  corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the
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  wide earth. He will drink from the brook, by
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  the way. Therefore, he will lift up his
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  head. When you read this, you realize
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  that the composition, the makeup of this king is something beyond
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  human. You realize that he has been
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  invited and summoned to sit at the right hand of God.
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  You realize that he's not just going to be a ruler, he's going
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  to be a priest. And not after the order of
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  Aaron. Hebrews tells us that the order
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  of Melchizedek, which is another sermon for another time, is
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  superior to that of Aaron, because the priest of Aaron died
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  and replaced the other. But when it comes to this
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  priesthood, we read what you will be priest.
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  How long? Forever.
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  So he's a human ruler over a human government.
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  Yes, he's been elevated to sit by the hand of right hand of
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  God, but he's also eternal. He doesn't cease to live.
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  He doesn't just rule in Zion, he rules from Zion.
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  And though you are convinced, I'm sure, that there is
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  something supernatural about this person, you come to verse 7
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  and you realize what? That he drinks by the brook,
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  denoting what? That his activity is still human
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  like. And this is who no other than
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  the person of Jesus Christ. And if you're not convinced of
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  that for whatever reason, realize that Jesus, in the final
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  book of this library of Holy Scripture, in the final chapter
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  reinforces and builds upon what he taught here in Mark 12.
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  Go to Revelation 22 and see it with your own eyes in verse 16.
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  I, Jesus, have sent my Angel to testify to you about these
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  things. For the churches, I am the root
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  and the descendant of David the bright morning star.
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  I'm not just the descendant of David.
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  I'm the root. I was before David and I came
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  after David. If the Messiah, the Christ is
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  David's son, why does he call him Lord?
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  Jesus answers it because he existed before David.
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  He created David, He made the covenant with David.
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  And at the perfect time, according to Galatians 4/4, he
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  came into this world born of the flesh, specifically from the
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  line of David, the root and the descended.
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  Notice that he didn't say I was the root and the descendant of
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  David. He says I am the root.
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  I am the root and descendant of David.
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  For him to say I am the root, I get it.
• 23:38
  But for you to say in the present, I am the descendant.
• 23:41
  You know what that means? Revelation 22.
• 23:43
  Is Jesus on earth or is he in heaven?
• 23:46
  Oh, please answer, yes, he's in heaven, right?
• 23:49
  He's in heaven. And yet he can say I am still
• 23:52
  the descendant of David. You know why?
• 23:55
  Because he's still in the flesh, glorified.
• 23:59
  That's why. He can say I am the descendant
• 24:00
  of David, because yes, he did take on flesh, but he also
• 24:05
  resurrected in the flesh. We don't believe in a spiritual
• 24:07
  resurrection. No, no, no, no.
• 24:10
  He rose bodily, he rose bodily, and he's returning bodily.
• 24:16
  We're not waiting for an invisible return.
• 24:18
  Every eye will see him and they all recognize that he is the
• 24:23
  root and descendant of David. So Jesus, just with one verse,
• 24:29
  shows these men that the Messiah that they claim to be
• 24:33
  anticipating is more than a man just from one verse.
• 24:37
  From one song he stumps them and shows them and shows us that the
• 24:43
  Messiah, who is to come from a prophecy that's been written
• 24:47
  hundreds of years before Christ time, is in fact divine.
• 24:53
  He holds a dual nature. He took on flesh.
• 24:56
  And when you read the character of Christ, the interactions of
• 25:00
  Christ, the acts of Christ, you will be amazed to realize that
• 25:04
  he is no mere ordinary man. He proved it with his life.
• 25:08
  And remember, I told you that this Psalm would would be like a
• 25:11
  precious jewel deposited in our hands and we would look at it
• 25:14
  and enjoy it. But it's more than that.
• 25:16
  It's a truth that opens up our eyes to a world ready to be
• 25:21
  explored concerning greater revelations of Christ,
• 25:24
  specifically in the Old Testament.
• 25:26
  I feel bad for Christians who do not engage with the Hebrew
• 25:29
  Scriptures for many reasons. Let me tell you one of them You
• 25:33
  will not know the depth of the New Testament without it, you
• 25:36
  won't. You always limit yourself as
• 25:39
  long as you treat the Old Testament as second to the first
• 25:44
  or the new. Rather, you can't do that.
• 25:46
  It's the foundation upon the truths that you and I enjoy and
• 25:49
  I've been saved by in the New Covenant, and I just want to
• 25:52
  take this time we we could stop here and just rejoice in in
• 25:55
  Jesus wisdom and his understanding of the Word being
• 25:58
  the Word Himself. But I just want to just take a
• 26:00
  little trip with you and just travel through a few of the
• 26:04
  neighborhoods and the streets, so to speak, of the Old
• 26:07
  Testament, to open your appetite and to see that Christ is
• 26:13
  everywhere, everywhere. He's everywhere.
• 26:17
  And I'm sure many of us, because many of you here love the word
• 26:19
  and you know the word, you can, you can shoot off references of
• 26:23
  the Old Testament that speak of Christ.
• 26:24
  But I even want to explore the things in the places where we
• 26:27
  might have not seen him, but he's there.
• 26:28
  He is there. So let's just do that.
• 26:31
  Right. Let's do that.
• 26:32
  This Sunday, Jesus was born where Bethlehem was, that not
• 26:39
  prophesied by the prophets. It was Micah prophesied in Micah
• 26:43
  5/2 that he would be born in Bethlehem.
• 26:46
  But I want to remind you today again, we're just just having a
• 26:49
  sample. I want to remind you there was
• 26:52
  another significant boy who was born in Bethlehem.
• 26:59
  And when you understand his birth, the way the scripture
• 27:02
  mentions it, you'll realize that though it was a historical
• 27:05
  distinguished thing, it in fact carries prophetic weight.
• 27:11
  And I hope that cheers your heart to see Jesus even there.
• 27:15
  OK, let's do it. Genesis 35.
• 27:17
  I'll wait for you. Genesis 35.
• 27:32
  Genesis 35. We're reading up here Rachel,
• 27:36
  who is pregnant with Benjamin, but his name wasn't given yet.
• 27:42
  She had a very difficult labour and we read about here in verse
• 27:45
  17 of Genesis 35. And when her labour was at its
• 27:50
  hardest, the midwife said to her, do not fear, for you have
• 27:54
  another son. And as her soul was departing
• 27:58
  for, she was dying. She called his name Benoni, but
• 28:04
  his father called him Benjamin. Benjamin.
• 28:09
  So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath,
• 28:14
  that is, Bethlehem. This points to Jesus because
• 28:22
  admit Rachel's deadly discomfort.
• 28:24
  She chooses in her anguish, almost as a pathetic memorial,
• 28:33
  to identify this boy as Ben Oni. You know what Ben Oni means, son
• 28:38
  of my sorrows. And right there, Jacob, his
• 28:45
  father interjects and says no, no, no, no, no.
• 28:48
  He's going to be called Benjamin.
• 28:50
  Benjamin. You know what that means, son of
• 28:53
  the right hand. Some of you already got it.
• 28:58
  And this boy who was once been Oni and then became Benjamin,
• 29:04
  was born where Bethlehem, the one you and I worship, was born
• 29:12
  in Bethlehem. And he was destined for sorrow
• 29:16
  and suffering to the extent that, according to the Gospel of
• 29:21
  Luke, his earthly mother would have a sword pierced through her
• 29:26
  soul. She would be in anguish,
• 29:29
  according to Simeon's prophecy, based on the destiny that this
• 29:33
  boy would fulfill. And Isaiah tells us in fact that
• 29:37
  he was a man of what sorrows? But what happens after his
• 29:43
  atoning death? After his atoning suffering, the
• 29:49
  Heavenly Father summons him, and he says, what in Psalm 110 sit
• 29:55
  where? At my right hand?
• 29:59
  And he did so by way of resurrection and ascension.
• 30:04
  So even in a brief glimpse of the birth of one of the sons of
• 30:09
  Jacob, do you have prophetic perfume sprayed on it where you
• 30:14
  have the Son of sorrows who would be the son of the right
• 30:18
  hand and he was born in Bethlehem?
• 30:23
  Is there more? A lot more.
• 30:24
  How much time do you got? So much more.
• 30:28
  One of my favorite truths about Jesus in the Old Testament in a
• 30:30
  non obvious way is with the cities of refuge.
• 30:34
  The cities of refuge were designated by God in the old
• 30:37
  covenant for the people when they entered into the promised
• 30:40
  land. There were six of them, and they
• 30:43
  were set apart by God as a means of grace for the one
• 30:47
  specifically who committed manslaughter involuntarily.
• 30:51
  So the one who accidentally killed someone else with no
• 30:54
  premeditation, with no envy or history of hatred in his heart,
• 30:57
  could flee to one of these cities.
• 31:00
  Because in that law you also had God giving the right to a
• 31:04
  relative to avenge the blood of the one who was murdered by
• 31:09
  getting the one who did kill him.
• 31:12
  So these cities of refuge that have been placed strategically
• 31:16
  throughout the promised Land in a way, by the way, that wherever
• 31:21
  you are in the Promised Land, you can have access to it, no
• 31:25
  matter where you're parked, no matter where the sin was
• 31:27
  committed, you could find a nearby city of refuge.
• 31:31
  You know what? That's a picture of Christ.
• 31:34
  That no matter where you've gone with your sin, no matter how far
• 31:36
  you are from hope and refuge, you can find it in Christ.
• 31:40
  But it's more than that. So this man, who may be in a
• 31:43
  workplace or maybe with with without attention or care in the
• 31:48
  home, kill someone, was called to not delay, but flee to flee
• 31:56
  to any of those cities of refuge.
• 31:58
  It's also a picture of you not delaying coming to Christ the
• 32:02
  moment that you've been made aware of your sin.
• 32:04
  You are not to be slow in running and throwing yourself at
• 32:09
  the foot of the cross. So this man was to flee, and
• 32:14
  once he fled and hid behind those walls, he had the council
• 32:20
  and the elders of that city determine his case.
• 32:26
  And if he was proved in fact to be innocent, he was safe from
• 32:32
  the avenger as long as he remained in the city of refuge.
• 32:37
  Also another picture of Christ. You want to be safe.
• 32:41
  You have to stay in Christ. So much to say about the City of
• 32:45
  refuge. But there's one particular
• 32:48
  verse, because you might think to yourself, well, OK, so if I
• 32:51
  do this and I, I leave, I flee. I'm also walking away from my
• 32:56
  home. I'm walking away from my
• 32:59
  livelihood. I'm walking away from my
• 33:01
  inheritance. I'm making a new way of life in
• 33:04
  this strange place. Yes, I'm grateful that it
• 33:07
  protects me. But is there any way for
• 33:09
  somebody who has fled to any of these cities to be free, to be,
• 33:14
  like, really free, and to go back to his life upon one
• 33:19
  condition? I'm not going to give you the
• 33:22
  answer. You got to turn there if you
• 33:23
  want to see it in Joshua Chapter 20.
• 33:27
  If you're more interested in the city of refuge than you were
• 33:29
  before you came in, look at Joshua 20 verses one to six and
• 33:32
  its totality. But let's just for the sake of
• 33:34
  time, look at verse 6, Joshua 20, verse 6 and he being the
• 33:48
  one, the manslayer, he shall remain in that city until he has
• 33:53
  stood before the congregation for Judgement.
• 33:56
  Check this out until the death of him who was high priest at
• 34:02
  the time. Then the manslayer may return to
• 34:08
  his own town and his own home to the town from which he fled.
• 34:14
  You would think that this was written in the New Testament.
• 34:18
  It's not. It's in the Hebrew scriptures.
• 34:22
  There's very little written about this, and I wonder why.
• 34:26
  There's a lot of hush concerning this and I have a feeling,
• 34:32
  especially from non Christian writers and theologians, this
• 34:36
  shows us so clearly that there is something about the death of
• 34:40
  the high priest that carries substitutionary merit for the
• 34:46
  one who has committed involuntary murder.
• 34:51
  How? What does the death of the high
• 34:53
  priest have to do with me? Who has committed a sin?
• 34:56
  Yes, accidental and allowing me to go free.
• 35:00
  You hit a wall with your understanding, but that wall is
• 35:03
  broken down when you understand the person and role of Jesus
• 35:05
  Christ and listen, put that in your arsenal, please.
• 35:14
  Because the friendly neighborhood Jewish person who
• 35:16
  is serious about their faith will often criticize the
• 35:19
  Christian and their core belief that there is one who has been
• 35:23
  sent by God, who laid down his life so that through his death
• 35:28
  and resurrection we might receive freedom from sin,
• 35:31
  freedom from the wrath to come. And with that criticism comes
• 35:36
  slander, that's unjust, that it's cruel, that's barbaric.
• 35:41
  You believe in human sacrifice. And I say, have you ever read
• 35:44
  Joshua chapter 20, verse 6? Because in the Law of Moses,
• 35:50
  apparently the death of the high priest grants freedom for the
• 35:55
  manslayer. You know what that means?
• 35:57
  Jesus coming dying on the cross for the sins of man is not
• 36:00
  contradictory to what the Old Testament has to say.
• 36:03
  It's consistent. You see the same truth here.
• 36:07
  Yes, it's a breath. Yes, it's a whisper.
• 36:10
  But when you understand a new covenant, it's a megaphone.
• 36:15
  And here we are missing these things because I'd rather be
• 36:18
  John than Joshua. Oh, you're missing out on John
• 36:23
  because you're not reading Joshua.
• 36:26
  So we even see here that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of
• 36:32
  this shadow. But can I tell you something?
• 36:34
  He's not just a fulfillment of the shadow.
• 36:35
  He's a greater than anything that you find in the Old
• 36:37
  Testament. And even in this, yes, you have
• 36:40
  a high priest who dies and allows a manslayer to go free,
• 36:44
  but this is a sinful sin. Infected High Priest.
• 36:50
  And though his death for some mysterious reason does grant
• 36:54
  liberty, it's only for accidental sin.
• 37:00
  You know why Jesus is better? It's even for sins that you've
• 37:03
  committed on purpose. It's not just for involuntary
• 37:07
  things that you've done, it's even for the things that you
• 37:09
  have premeditated that you've consciously said.
• 37:11
  I'm going to do this knowing that the Word says this, and
• 37:13
  I've been taught otherwise, even for those sins.
• 37:16
  The death of the High Priest can cover you and set you free.
• 37:19
  He's greater than the high priest of the covenant of old
• 37:23
  because he's a greater high priest.
• 37:24
  And his covenant is greater in ways that you can't even think.
• 37:28
  That we are granted truths to. Meditate on it, though, we see
• 37:31
  through a glass dimly. Crisis everywhere, crisis
• 37:35
  everywhere. Let's consider a final thought.
• 37:37
  So I don't keep you too long. Yeah.
• 37:40
  Let's go back to Mark 12. What's happening in Mark 12?
• 37:45
  You're going to go to Mark 12, but I'm going to take you
• 37:48
  somewhere else in a moment. What have we been studying the
• 37:52
  past few weeks? The grilling examinations
• 37:58
  against Christ by various groups from all angles.
• 38:02
  The Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, the scribes.
• 38:06
  And again, the timing of these examinations is important to
• 38:09
  identify the full prophetic significance of it.
• 38:13
  This was during the final week where Jesus was prepared and
• 38:18
  being prepared to lay his life down as what?
• 38:21
  The Passover lamb ultimately right?
• 38:23
  And what's happening around them.
• 38:25
  That same week where Jesus dies, the Passover feast is being
• 38:29
  celebrated and you have on that week people coming in with their
• 38:33
  lambs and having them checked out and ensuring everything is
• 38:37
  put into place. For that 14th day of the first
• 38:41
  month of the religious calendar, they could honor the Passover
• 38:46
  feast. Can you just imagine the site
• 38:49
  here? You have Jesus in the temple
• 38:51
  going back and forth with these religious groups and all around
• 38:54
  them you hear the bleeding of sheep, the hustle and bustle of
• 38:59
  another festival. And I want you to see the
• 39:04
  original instructions for the Passover and how it parallels
• 39:08
  with Christ's experience, even in what we've been studying in
• 39:11
  this chapter the past few Sundays.
• 39:13
  This is our final text that we're going to explore.
• 39:16
  It's an Exodus 12. Look at it with me, please.
• 39:20
  Exodus 12, it will be worth it. Look at verse three of Exodus
• 39:30
  12. This is the institution of the
• 39:37
  Passover feast, and it says here tell all the congregation of
• 39:41
  Israel that on the 10th day of this month, keep that in mind.
• 39:45
  The 10th day of this month every man shall take a lamb according
• 39:49
  to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.
• 39:53
  And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and
• 39:56
  his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of
• 39:59
  persons according to what each can eat.
• 40:01
  You shall make your count for the lamb.
• 40:03
  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.
• 40:09
  You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
• 40:11
  Verse six is important. And you shall keep it until the
• 40:15
  14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the
• 40:19
  congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight
• 40:24
  Israel. This is a feast that you will
• 40:28
  hold on to for generations. Here's how you're supposed to
• 40:32
  observe it. On the 10th day of this month
• 40:34
  you are to go out and select a lamb, and you are to ensure that
• 40:39
  that lamb is without blemish. And on the 14th day you are to
• 40:43
  kill the lamb. So there is an interval period
• 40:45
  of four days that every household is to hold this lamb
• 40:49
  in possession before they sacrifice it.
• 40:56
  Why not just get it on the 14th day and kill it on the 14th day?
• 41:00
  Why get it on the 10th day, Hold on to it to four days and then
• 41:03
  kill it? The context suggests this as the
• 41:07
  strongest reason why verse five tells us that that lamb should
• 41:12
  be what without blemish. I am persuaded the reason why
• 41:16
  they were to hold on to it for 10 days was so that they can
• 41:18
  inspect it from head to toe. Think about how much depended on
• 41:27
  the lamb being without blemish. The Destroyer, according to
• 41:31
  Exodus 12, was ready to sweep over the land of Egypt and
• 41:33
  destroy the first born of every living thing.
• 41:37
  And the quality of that lamb would determine whether or not
• 41:41
  that Destroyer would pass over those homes.
• 41:45
  So imagine that was applied to you as an Israelite of that
• 41:48
  time. Here you are.
• 41:50
  You select a lamb. And you know, four days from
• 41:52
  now, this lamb must be without blemish if it's supposed to be
• 41:57
  honored by God Almighty, what are you going to do those four
• 42:00
  days? Oh, you're going to protect that
• 42:01
  lamb. And you're going to look through
• 42:04
  it and you're going to look in the ears and you're going to
• 42:06
  flip it over and look on the belly and you're going to
• 42:09
  examine and inspect it because you want to ensure this thing is
• 42:12
  right. And on the 14th day, if it
• 42:18
  passed the test, it would be an acceptable sacrifice.
• 42:22
  What was happening to Jesus before he would ultimately go to
• 42:26
  the cross. You've been studying it these
• 42:28
  past few Sundays, one religious group after the next, examining
• 42:33
  him. By what authority do you do
• 42:38
  these things? Pass the test?
• 42:43
  Should we pay our taxes to Caesar or not pass the test?
• 42:50
  How does the resurrection work? If a woman marries several men,
• 42:54
  whose husband will she have? And who will have the wife pass
• 42:59
  the test? Which out of all the
• 43:02
  commandments is the greatest pass the test and no one asked
• 43:10
  them the question afterwards. Finally these Jews bring him
• 43:14
  before a gentile named Pilate, and Pilate examines him, and in
• 43:20
  Luke 23 verse 4 this is what he confesses.
• 43:24
  Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds.
• 43:26
  I find no guilt in this man. So in the same time where those
• 43:35
  Passover lambs were being inspected and examined, you had
• 43:39
  the Lamb of God from heaven undergoing the same thing.
• 43:44
  And what was discovered of him? No sin, no wrong, no error, and
• 43:51
  he would satisfy the one who demanded A spotless lamb for the
• 43:56
  sins of mankind. Where is Jesus?
• 43:59
  Everywhere. Everywhere.
• 44:03
  I hope something in your heart was lit ablaze from this brief
• 44:08
  study. We have a living God.
• 44:11
  This book is a living book. It scares me in a good way.
• 44:16
  I get scared from it because after all these years of reading
• 44:19
  it day after day after day, it never fails to bring me to my
• 44:22
  knees and to show me you don't know anything you think you do.
• 44:29
  And I want to tell you today that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of
• 44:33
  God. And I want you to see the
• 44:35
  response of these people in our final verse of Mark 12, verse
• 44:38
  37. David himself calls him Lord.
• 44:41
  So how is he his son? And the great throng heard him
• 44:46
  gladly. That's a sad response.
• 44:54
  They heard him gladly. In other words, they enjoyed his
• 44:59
  mastery over the Scriptures. They enjoyed how he was able to
• 45:04
  defend himself and shut the mouths of those who claim to be
• 45:08
  experts. You know, it's possible for
• 45:12
  after a sermon like this or an Old Testament study, for people
• 45:16
  to hear it gladly. And that's it.
• 45:20
  What should have happened? Or they should have realized
• 45:24
  this is the one that the scriptures pointed to.
• 45:27
  This shouldn't 'cause just rejoicing.
• 45:29
  It should have encouraged repentance.
• 45:32
  But it didn't. It was just an intellectual
• 45:35
  stimulation. It was just something that
• 45:38
  impressed them. Is that how you heard the sermon
• 45:41
  today? Oh wow.
• 45:43
  I never thought the cities of rest.
• 45:44
  You've only that was something else.
• 45:46
  Oh wow. Yeah.
• 45:47
  I don't really know the Old Testament as much as I thought.
• 45:49
  That's not the response Christ wants from you.
• 45:52
  Yes, you should be moved by the word of God, but you should be
• 45:54
  moved by the God of the word, and you should want to love him
• 45:59
  and surrender to him. And as a precious brother prayed
• 46:01
  earlier, if you don't know him, do you realize what you're
• 46:03
  dealing with? Do you realize that this was not
• 46:07
  compiled in two years by one author, but the cross references
• 46:12
  that we just did? There was from multiple authors
• 46:15
  over a span of 1500 years? This book is not just one book.
• 46:19
  It's a library of books. Three different languages,
• 46:25
  different continents, 40 different authors, 1 consistent
• 46:29
  theme. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
• 46:32
  world. What are you going to do with
• 46:34
  that? But what are you going to do
• 46:36
  with what you just heard? Doesn't it at least cause you to
• 46:40
  be like, whoa, So you're telling me that Jesus fulfilled things
• 46:44
  from thousands of years ago, that those authors were actually
• 46:46
  pointing to him, That he didn't just show up on the scene as a
• 46:50
  moral teacher and die to martyrs, death, and Christians
• 46:52
  just appreciate him? You're telling me that he's
• 46:54
  something more? I'm telling you he's more.
• 46:56
  What are you going to do with that?
• 46:58
  Are you just going to hear it? Gladly.
• 47:00
  Oh, that was nice. He was very passionate, the way
• 47:02
  he shared those truths. You're missing it.
• 47:06
  You're missing it. And I would be a fool.
• 47:09
  And I'm going to stand before the living God if I presented in
• 47:11
  such a way. Oh, here's a nice little
• 47:14
  collection of thoughts. Did you like it?
• 47:15
  Oh, good, Wonderful. I'm compelled to tell you.
• 47:19
  I just told you about the truths of God, and that demands a
• 47:22
  response from you. You need to deal with that.
• 47:26
  You need to now make a decision. What am I going to do with this
• 47:29
  Christ that in an hour I've been told about in a way that can
• 47:34
  only be deemed as supernatural? I didn't write this.
• 47:39
  I'm just the one who deliver the mail.
• 47:41
  So what are you going to do with that?
• 47:42
  Are you going to just brush it off like these people did?
• 47:44
  The great Throng heard him gladly.
• 47:46
  And it was just another Sunday. I hope that's not how you
• 47:50
  respond. I hope you at least endeavor to
• 47:52
  say, OK, I have to do something with this.
• 47:54
  And I'm going to do my personal investigation myself.
• 47:56
  You do it. You do it now.
• 47:59
  You examine the Lamb of God. You search for error in this
• 48:02
  book. He authored it.
• 48:04
  You look at his person. You look at his character.
• 48:06
  You look at his dealings with man.
• 48:08
  You look at his commentaries and his description and his and his
• 48:12
  revelations about our world, our universe, and I can guarantee
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  you that if you do so with an honest heart, you will realize
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  that this is no ordinary man and this is no ordinary book.
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  I've done my part today, and I pray.
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  I pray. Really.
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  I hope you hear my love. I pray that you would do yours
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  if you do not know Him. Believers, I pray that you just
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  love him more than you did when you walked in today.
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  Let's ask him to help us do that.
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  Lord, we thank you and we love you and we worship you and we
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  exalt you. You are the name that is above
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  every other name. You are the centerpiece of this
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  word. You are the darling of the
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  universe. You are the one in whom every
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  person will see and behold, and every knee and tongue will
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  confess that Jesus Christ is in fact Lord.
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  But, Lord, we don't want to wait until that day until we
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  acknowledge it. We want to bow our knees today,
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  and we want to realize, and we want to acknowledge.
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  And we want to tell you that we believe that you are the
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  Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the only
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  way to heaven. And Lord, if there's even one
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  person who has not made that confession yet, the same grace
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  that you show to those Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians and
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  scribes by giving them a chance through the Word to see the
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  truth so that they can be saved by the truth.
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  We pray that people would register the same thought and
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  heart that you have that you had for them is for them as well.
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  Lord, we ask that on this day, as we fellowship in a moment,
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  that we would celebrate the truth that we are in.
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  You saved us, and we have the truth, and we're in the truth.
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  And there's more truth to explore and there's more depths
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  to discover. Thank you, O God, that every
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  week you remind us that you are eternal.
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  And there's no time in this life, even in eternity, that we
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  will arrive at where we say we figured it out.
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  Thank you, oh God, for being a mighty God and for showing us
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  that you are indeed splendid, glorious, majestic.
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  We pray in the name of the one that we just heard about Jesus.
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  Amen and Amen. Let's worship him.
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  That's all I can say. Let's stand and worship the
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  living Christ. He's alive.
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  He's alive.