Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 2 | Date: April 22, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Turn in your Bibles with me, if you will please, to John chapter 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1. And then once you have found that, put your finger there or put a marker there and turn to Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

We’re making our way through this long series on the Bible story of salvation, trying to show, one, that it is a gospel-shaped story about Jesus that we find in the Bible, and to find, next, that there are a number of themes that carry that story through the Bible. We’ve seen a good number of those themes, but we certainly can’t go too long before we have to pick up this theme of the Messiah. And in turn, that theme, we can just barely scratch the surface of it. I think we’re going to take three or four weeks on this theme of the Messiah. Even so, we’ll just be scratching the surface of it. But that’s our theme for today: the Bible story of Jesus, but specifically this Messiah theme that we find in the Scriptures.

Let’s begin with Psalm 2:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, “You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are those all who take refuge in him.

And then over to John chapter 1. I’ll begin reading with verse 40:

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are thankful so much for this book that tells us of our salvation in Christ. We are so thankful for Christ in whom we have this great salvation. Lord, our hearts have been blessed to look through this book and to learn of Him and all the various aspects of His beauty and glory. And we pray that You would minister by Your Spirit, minister Your word to us again today. Direct our attention to the Lord Jesus. Give us a greater faith in Him, a greater appreciation for Him, that we may rejoice in the salvation we have in Him. We pray in His name. Amen.

The Messiah Theme

Well, as I mentioned, our theme for today and for the coming weeks of this study will be the Messiah. We’re looking at the Bible’s story of salvation, specifically now how that story is carried with this Messiah theme that runs through the Scriptures. The word Messiah, as I’m sure you’re aware, simply means “anointed one.” It’s actually a transliterated word that we have from the Hebrew. The Hebrew simply means “anointed one,” and sometimes in the Old Testament it’s translated that way, “anointed one,” and sometimes it’s used as a proper name, “Messiah”—same word and brought into English simply as Messiah. In the Greek, the same Hebrew word Messiah is “Christ.” Anointed one is simply the idea.

And all of that is pointing back to the Old Testament where we have essentially three offices in the Old Testament that were entered upon anointing, a ceremonial anointing. There’s the office of prophet, the office of priest, and the office of king, and each of them were brought into office by this ceremonial anointing with oil. And so then those who were prophet, priest, or king were referred to as the “anointed one.”

And all of this came in the Old Testament to point forward to a prophet par excellence, a priest par excellence, a king par excellence, an anointed one above all other anointed ones, the Messiah Himself. And so it came to be used in this technical sense. “Anointed one” in a general sense could refer to any of the kings, any of the prophets, or the priests, but it came to be used in this proper sense, in a technical sense of this anointed one to come who would be the great prophet, the great priest, the great king. And particularly in the Old Testament, it was this aspect of His kingship that is prominent in Old Testament prophecy.

Now, to do this properly, we should take lots of time to look at many of the different passages. We can’t do all of that in these morning services, and it might even get tedious to do it. What I want to do this morning is just give you a sampling running through of the Old Testament of this anticipation of the Messiah who is to come. As we know, it is fulfilled in Jesus, and we’ll get to that when we look at the New Testament fulfillment.

Anticipation Of The Messiah In The Old Testament

But let’s look at some of the passages in the Old Testament where this is anticipated. There are some passages—and it might be surprising to note that in the Old Testament it’s really just a handful of passages—that use this term Messiah in the proper sense, the proper name, the anointed one par excellence.

We have one here in Psalm 2. In verse 2, you might have noticed it as we read through: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed [his Messiah] saying, ‘Let us burst their bands asunder, let us cast his cords from us.'” And then God responds in verses four through six: “He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. He will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my king on my holy hill.'” So we have the Anointed One, the King, and God Himself speaking of Him, speaking of Him with reference to the nations who rebel against Him.

And then we have, in verses 7 and following, the King Himself, the Messiah, speaking of what God the Father had promised Him: “I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give the nations as your inheritance.'” All these nations in rebellion, God says to Messiah, “I’ll give them to you and they will be yours and you’ll rule them with a rod of iron. You’ll dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” So we have this anticipation of the Messiah, this anointed one, and this is one of the more prominent passages that specifies the coming Messiah in Psalm 2.

Because some of you take notes and want these details, I’ll mention just in passing—I won’t take time to turn—but I’ll mention some of the other prominent passages that deal with this specifically. Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27, again mentions the anointed one. 1 Samuel 2 and verse 10—some people have debated this, whether or not it’s a specific reference to the Messiah. I believe it is, where Hannah, in her prayer of praise, says, “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed.” And so we have it again. Psalm 132, verses 10 and 17, speak pretty clearly of the Messiah, the anointed one as well.

An interesting occurrence of it is in Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and following, where we have the Messiah Himself speaking and speaking of His anointing. There in Isaiah 61, verses 1 to 3, Messiah says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” You might recall in Luke chapter 4, that is the passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth and claimed to be the fulfillment of it.

So we have a handful of passages in the Old Testament that specifically mention God’s anointed who is to come. And then in John chapter 1, as we have read, we find a record of it as it begins to unfold in the New Testament and the announcement that this Messiah is Jesus. Andrew says to Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote.

All right, so much for the passages that specifically mention this Messiah. Of course, the Old Testament theme of the coming Messiah is much bigger than just those verses that specifically mention Messiah, the anointed one to come. And actually, as I’ve mentioned I think before in this series, the theme begins in Genesis chapter 1. There, Adam and Eve are created in God’s image, as God’s vice-regents to rule over creation—kings over creation—to rule reflecting God’s own rule over the created order.

Of course, it ended in failure, but immediately we’re given hints that this purpose of God to bless the world through His Messiah is not going to be met with failure; it will find success. And so we find immediately in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, the promise of this champion who will come, the seed of the woman who will come. God says to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he will bruise your head.” That is, this male descendant of the woman’s seed will bruise the head of Satan. And the idea then is that this kingship that has been relinquished by Adam and Eve in their failure to obey God will be picked up; it will be successful, and it will be successful through the coming of this champion of the woman’s seed who will come. And He will rule, and He will succeed where Adam has failed.

Well, what we know so far then in Genesis chapter 3, just reading the story from the beginning, what we know so far is that Eve will have a descendant who will succeed where Adam failed. That’s about all we know so far. But then the story begins to unfold through the Old Testament. And again, we’ve seen some of this throughout the series. We find it picked up just in a hint of a way in Genesis chapter 9, after the flood, where Noah gives prophecy concerning his three sons. And he says of Shem, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem.” Some kind of hint that this blessing, this purpose of God, is going to be fulfilled through the line of Shem.

We turn a page in the Bible, we come to Genesis chapter 12, and here we have a descendant of Shem by the name of Abraham. And God makes multiple promises to Abraham: “I’ll bless you, I’ll make you a blessing.” Most prominent among it is this promise that God, through Abraham and through his seed, will bless all the families of the earth. And that promise is made in Genesis 12; it’s made again in Genesis 18. It’s made again in Genesis chapter 22, chapter 26, chapter 28, repeated to Isaac and Jacob. This is prominent: in Abraham’s seed, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And there’s just the hint in that promise as well, that the promise will be fulfilled through a kingly, a royal seed of Abraham. Nations will come from him. And God specifies in chapter 17 of Genesis and elsewhere that kings will come from Abraham. And that is to say then now, a royal descendant of the seed of the woman, the seed of Shem, the seed of Abraham—a royal descendant will rule and bring blessing to the nations.

Let’s look at one in Genesis chapter 49. I don’t know if this is one that we’ve seen yet in this series. I may have referred to it; I don’t think I’ve had you turn to it. In Genesis chapter 49, you’ll remember the setting here. We’re in Egypt. Joseph has been sent ahead by his brothers in slavery to Egypt. He’s risen to prominence. Now we find him as second to the king. There’s been the family reunion. The family is now reunited with him in Egypt. Jacob, his father, is old and basically on his deathbed, and he gives in chapter 49 a blessing to his children, each of his sons. And in this, he gives something of a prophecy of what each will be like. Notice in verse 1 of Genesis 49: “Jacob called his sons and said, ‘Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the latter days [in the days to come].'” And he begins with Reuben and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, and so on.

But in verse 8, we find this messianic theme picked up again: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s cub.” Keep that in mind: a lion’s cub. “From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him?” And then verse 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, until to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”

So Judah will be prominent among his brethren. He’ll rule over his enemies. There’ll be a scepter that belongs to him, a ruler’s staff that belongs to him. And those of you who have different translations may have noticed that it was read a little bit differently in the middle of verse 10. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a ruler’s staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him.” Or if you have another translation, it says, “until he comes to whom it belongs.” I think that is the better translation. Or some of you will notice in your translation, it takes it as a proper name, “until Shiloh comes.” There are some varying ways that you can read the Hebrew there. But the general sense is the same: that there will be a prominence given to Judah, he will be the ruler, a royal scepter will belong to him, and obedience will come to him from all other sides. So now the blessing comes from the woman’s seed, through Shem, from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of Jacob’s sons it will come through Judah. He will be the one prominent.

Maybe we shouldn’t take the time, but you’ll want to note, at least those of you who are taking notes, in Numbers chapter 24, we have Balaam’s prophecy. You remember this pagan prophet who’s asked to give a curse against Israel? He can’t do it, and he can’t do it again, and he can’t do it again. And then a fourth time, he’s giving another prophecy that, by this time, Balak, the opposing king, just doesn’t want to hear. And he gives another prophecy here in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: “A star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” So here we have a prominence given to some son of Israel coming, a star rising out of Israel, and he’ll rule over all of his enemies.

Let’s take the time to look at Deuteronomy. This is important for a separate reason, or a very distinct reason. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Here you remember Israel is on the border of the promised land. They’re about to go in and take the land that was promised to them. And Moses has been preaching to them—that’s the book of Deuteronomy—renewing the covenant with them, reminding them of their responsibility to obey God and find blessing. And he warns them in this passage, “Don’t be looking to fortune tellers. You don’t need it because a prophet will come.” The Lord your God, beginning with verse 15, Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen.”

Now, I think we have here the beginnings, the foundation of the institution of the prophets or the prophecy that we find running through the Old Testament. But there’s something specific about this verse. It says “prophet” in the singular. I’ll raise up a prophet to come. And this verse, this prophecy, gave rise to the expectation of the prophet par excellence who would come. And you find it reflected in the Old Testament. Isaiah speaks of the nations waiting for his law, the servant coming to bring God’s revelation climactically. So here we have then a prophecy of the Messiah coming as the great prophet par excellence. A king, but also a prophet.

And then, of course, one of the big passages in the Old Testament, one that we’ve seen before—I don’t think we have to turn to it now—in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where David wants to build a house for God, and God says in response, “You won’t build a house for me, Solomon will do that; you won’t build a house for me, I’ll build a house for you.” And there’s the intended pun: that David wanted to build a palace for God, a temple for God, and God in turn will build a house that is a dynasty for David. “And your son will rule on the throne forever, and I will call him my son. I will be a father to him.” And this idea of the king as God’s son now becomes a theme added to it, that it will be a Davidic son, a Davidic king who will come, and this Davidic king will be God’s son. He will be the Son of God.

Well, that kingship theme that is born in 2nd Samuel chapter 7 is picked up and expanded and the flames of it are just fanned then throughout the Psalms and the prophets—that this great son of David, David’s greater son, will come and he will rule and he will have a kingdom that is marked by peace and prosperity and righteousness. We find all kinds of details given to us in the Psalms and the prophets that we can’t look at in detail at all. But just recall, if you’ve read through the Old Testament at all, you recognize the prophecies of God coming to reign, God coming to rule, the prophecy that this Davidic son will come, the prophecy that he will be born in Bethlehem, and so on.

The Psalms and the prophets pick that up and the promise grows and escalates. We find it in Psalm 89 celebrated; Psalm 132 that I mentioned earlier celebrates the Davidic promise as well. And we come to passages like Psalm 2 that we’ve read earlier, where God looks at the nations in rebellion and God chuckles at them and says, “You’re not going to succeed, and you’re not going to succeed because, and precisely because, I have set my king on my holy hill and my anointed will succeed and he’ll dash the nations like a potter’s vessel.”

We find it reflected, if you’d like, in Psalm 72, where the psalm of the Davidic king will come and he will have his enemies bow before him. And specifically it says, “his enemies will lick the dust,” echoing Genesis chapter 3, where God says to Satan that he’ll crawl on his belly and eat dirt. The enemies of Messiah will lick the dust. In Micah chapter 7, verse 17, off in the future, he tells us the enemy nations will submit to the Lord and they will lick the dust like the snake.

Let’s take the time to look at Psalm 110. Psalm 110. This is one of the most prominent psalms. It is the psalm that is most quoted in the New Testament—quoted and referred to many times over. A Psalm of David. And here David speaks and says:

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of your power. In holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. he will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Here it pictures the anointed of God coming, doing battle against his enemies, successful over all of them, defeating them, and then refreshing himself with a drink from a cool spring afterwards.

Another thing that is particularly important about this psalm is what we find in verse 4: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'” So we have the Messiah, who is king, is also a priest. And as we learned from Deuteronomy, also a prophet. But here, specifically, it is a king-priest who is promised. Now this is revolutionary, and the New Testament writers pick this up. I’ll just mention it quickly in passing, but this is revolutionary because the Messiah is to come from the tribe of Judah. Priests come from the tribe of Levi. And now we are told that the Messiah will be not only king from the line of Judah, but he’ll also be a priest. Implicit in that is a prophecy of the eventual obsolescence of the Levitical priesthood. Another priest, a priest of another order, a priest from the line of Judah. No longer a priest from the tribe of Levi. In fact, he’ll be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews picks that up in a particularly pointed way.

But here we have that prophecy of the success of God’s king, his anointed coming. He will also be a priest to represent God’s people to Him. Again, notice in Psalm 110 the theme of this anointed one being a warrior king, coming as an avenging judge, and the eventual defeat of all of the wicked—all of this reflecting and echoing, at least, Genesis 3:15 and the defeat of Satan.

Well, this picks up and goes on through the Old Testament. Let me just call a few more to your remembrance. If you’ve read through the Old Testament, you’re familiar with these. Isaiah picks this up many different times. Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14: he’ll be a virgin-born son. Matthew picks that up, of course, in Matthew chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 9 is the famous Christmas prophecy of the child who will be born, the son who is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will reign because the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it.

Another prominent way that this is reflected in the Old Testament is Isaiah chapter 42 and following. Isaiah, in the following chapters of Isaiah, we have this “servant of the Lord” theme. Here God’s anointed is referred to as “my servant.” The servant of the Lord theme—so God’s servant will come and accomplish God’s purpose. Now that servant of the Lord theme in Isaiah is so prominent that I’ve decided, I think, to come back to that, and we’ll look at that separately another time.

But we find it in Jeremiah 23, where David will come. David will shepherd God’s people, or a branch from David will come. Ezekiel chapter 34, again, David will come. David will shepherd my people. Ezekiel 37, again, it’s David will come. David will be king over God’s people. And in Daniel chapter 7, we have this prominent prophecy that Jesus picks up all the time, this prophecy of the Son of Man who will come. He comes on the clouds, stands before the Ancient of Days, and he receives rule and right to rule from the Ancient of Days, and he exercises his dominion over the earth. This title, the Son of Man, in Daniel chapter 7, is the title that Jesus picks up and uses of himself most commonly, more than any other designation. And in fact, you’ll remember at his trial before Caiaphas, the high priest, he acknowledges that he’s the Son of Man who will come on the clouds. And in response to that obvious claim of messiahship, the high priest tore his clothes and said that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy.

Well, that from Daniel chapter 7. I’ll just read this from Hosea chapter 3, verses 4 and 5. This is a prophecy of what will take place after Israel’s time of forsakenness and after their time of unbelief: “The children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. Israel will seek David their king and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.”

Well, that’s not even scratching the surface, but it’s a quick thumbnail sketch of the kinds of prophecies we have of the Messiah who will come, promised in the Old Testament. And throughout, we have this promise of a coming king, a universal reign, a reign that is marked by righteousness, a reign that will be marked by peace, never can be opposed successfully. He’ll destroy his enemies, he’ll restore his people, and he’ll bring all the nations to worship him.

Well, there are many other terms that are used to describe the Messiah in the Old Testament. It’s not always the “anointed one” per se. As we saw, that’s only a few times specifically. But other messianic terminology—you remember in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God promised that David’s son would be God’s son, that he would be king. And so the Son of God theme becomes a messianic theme. It comes on to take other connotations as well in Jesus, but the Son of God is the king. The king will be God’s son, the chosen one, the servant of God, the branch of David, the servant, the king, the holy one. Sometimes it’s David who will come. Sometimes it’s David’s son, it says, will come. And sometimes it’s just the broad promise of God’s coming rule or his coming kingdom that we find through the Psalms and the prophets.

And in fact, the Old Testament closes with a promise of the Messiah. I want you to look at the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. Malachi. This is chapter 3—I’m sorry, Malachi chapter 3, verse 1: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

Chapter four, verses five and six: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Back up to chapter 4, verses 1 and following:

Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

Notice the expression in verse 2, “the Sun of Righteousness”—S-U-N—the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You wondered why you sing that in the Christmas carol: “Hail the Sun of Righteousness, risen with healing in his wings.” This is it, and Charles Wesley picked it up rightly here from Malachi chapter 4, a prophecy of the Messiah who will come. And in fact, verses 5 and 6, as we’ve said, prophesy not only the Messiah to come, but a messenger coming before him. Here called Elijah, we find in the New Testament is, in fact, John the Baptist. You’ll find another one similar to that in Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 3 as well.

So God has promised his anointed one who will come; he will triumph, he will accomplish God’s purpose both in judgment and in salvation, and he will bring it all to climax—God’s rule to climax—when he comes. And this is just the whole fabric of the Old Testament. These are not just selected prophecies. One of the dangers of approaching it the way I have this morning is that you’ll think it’s a prophecy here and a prophecy there and a prophecy somewhere else. The fact of the matter is this is the fabric of the entire Old Testament. It is written to tell us that Messiah is coming to redeem his people. And that is the theme driving the Old Testament Scriptures from Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 onward.

The promise grows and expands. A champion will come. He will have the scepter. He’ll be from the line of Judah. He’ll be a king from Abraham. He’ll be the servant of the Lord and so on. And on it goes through the Old Testament and it is right to say that the theme—the theme of the Old Testament Scriptures—is simply: He’s coming. He’s coming. He’s coming.

In fact, in recent years, Old Testament scholars have begun to demonstrate in a rather thorough way how even the arrangement of the Old Testament canon was made as it is in order to reflect this messianic hope. The Jewish Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, our Old Testament—it’s the same books, but the Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament canon is a little bit different. And in each of the sections of the Old Testament arrangement of the canon, there are these seams showing the messianic hope, bringing it again at the end and starting it up again with the next and so on. And even with the arrangement of the Psalms, with the five books of the Psalms—these collections are not just thrown out in any order, but they’re collected with various themes running through the Psalms and from each of the five books of the Psalms. And it’s this theme of the Messiah that runs throughout. This is the anticipation. This is the theme of the Old Testament: He’s coming. He’s coming. He’s coming.

Jesus Is The Messiah

And of course, we come to the New Testament then, if we turn the page, and we find the theme is very simply: He’s here. He has come and his name is Jesus. And that is what gives Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1 the enormous significance that it has: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham.” Here it is all coming down, God’s promises coming good in the arrival of Jesus.

We turn the page and we read, “He’s born King of the Jews.” We turn the page again and we have someone saying, “We have found the Messiah.” We turn the page again and we find the people clamoring, “This is the prophet that we’ve been told will come. Look at what he is doing. Look at his miracles. This must be that prophet who is to come.” We turn the page again and we find the disciples acknowledging and affirming their loyalty to Jesus: “You are the Christ [you are the Messiah], the Son of the living God.”

The whole New Testament then—and we’ll see this in the weeks to come—the whole New Testament is given simply to that proposition: that Jesus is the long-promised Messiah, the long-promised hope that God would send his servant, his Messiah; he would be prophet, he would be priest, he would be king, and he would bring God’s purpose in judgment and salvation to grand culmination.

In fact, if the whole New Testament is given to that proposition—He’s here—the whole rest of history, since New Testament times, has been to carry out his messianic purpose. And so the Gospels tell us He’s here. The epistles unpack the significance of Him and His work. The book of Acts records for us the carrying of that message from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth, and that is what is continuing today until finally we have what is recorded for us in the book of Revelation, where Christ comes again in climactic victory and culmination of the kingdom of God.

So from creation onward, God is directing all of history to accomplish his purpose, and it is a purpose that will be accomplished through his appointed Messiah. And so he promises he’ll send a champion from the seed of woman. He promises he will send a son from the line of Abraham. He promises he will send a ruler from Judah whom all the people will obey. He promises that he’ll send a star from Israel who will crush all of his enemies. He promises that he’ll send a prophet par excellence who will bring the revelation of God to us. He promises that he will send a king who will exercise God’s reign the world over. He promises that he will be a priest-king who will represent God’s people to Him. And he’ll be a king to whom all of Israel and all of the nations will render obedience and reverence and bow before Him.

And in fact, not only is this a repeated promise over and again, the Old Testament tells us all about him as well. He tells us what family he will come from. He tells us through which descendants he will come from. He names the ancestors ahead of time. He tells us where he will be born. He tells us in advance all about him. He tells us about his virtuous life, his miracles; tells us about his death and his betrayal; tells us about his resurrection and his reign; and it portrays him with just extended illustrations of what he will be like. He will be like a judge. He’ll be like a king. He’ll be like a prophet. He’ll be like a king, a priest. He’ll be like Adam. He’ll be like David. He’ll be like Jacob. He’ll be like Isaac. He’ll be like Jonah. He’ll be like Judah. He’ll be like all of these to show us what he will be like and what he will do.

And of course the Psalms celebrate his kingship in advance over and over again. And in order to keep that promise, God gives children to barren women. God gives a child to a very old barren woman. And to keep the promise, God gives us a Judah. He calls out a Ruth. He raises up a David and even frustrates a Herod in order to keep his promise. And reading that story through from beginning to end, you cannot miss this great sense of anticipation: He’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming. Until at last, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law.

To establish his kingship and his right to rule, he goes to the cross, bearing the sin of his people, absorbing the curse to himself, conquering their enemy, rising from the dead in triumph, with now right to rule over all. Until finally, one by one, he is calling us into his kingdom, transferring us out of the kingdom of darkness into his own kingdom. And at last, he will come again to gather all things unto himself and bring that kingship and God’s rule to fruition. And that, in a nutshell, is the story of the Bible: God’s promised Messiah, successful in his work, bringing about God’s purpose in salvation and in judgment.

Lessons To Take Away

As I say, that’s just such a brief overview, but there are some lessons before we come back to it next time. Some lessons we can take away, I think, from it:

1. God keeps his promises. We’ve seen that in the coming of Jesus. He has proven it over and again with such abundance, with so many repetitions, and in so many seemingly impossible ways that we can bank on his promises. God keeps his promises.
2. God is sovereign over all circumstances. His purpose is never frustrated. There is never really any kind of challenge, even though it may seem so from our standpoint. But God keeps his promises precisely because he can and because he said he would.
3. Jesus Christ is his promised Messiah. He’s the only Savior that God has appointed. God will have you, and he’s offered terms of peace, but only through his Son, who has accomplished the salvation that he promised.
4. Jesus Christ is the one who will judge. Jesus Christ is God’s promised Messiah. For, through him, God’s purpose will be achieved. We needn’t fret. God has promised that his rule will extend the world over. It’ll be marked by righteousness and peace, and it will be successful through his appointed Messiah.
5. This same Christ, promised and delivered and successful, will come again. The same Christ, promised and delivered and successful, will come again and he’ll bring all of God’s purposes to a grand culmination, saving and judging.
6. For those of us who have learned to bow before this king, what a wonderful prospect we have. To share with Him in His rule and to share with Him in His glory.
7. For those who have still refused Him, what a horrible prospect of judgment you have. This is God’s King. We may bow before Him and He will have us, but if we refuse Him, God has said he will judge his enemies and dash them in pieces.

Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we thank you for this, another reminder of our great Savior. You’ve promised that he would come. You’ve sent him. How we long to see him again. We thank you, Lord, for your grace in bringing us under his rule. We’re thankful that he has exercised his kingship over us. We’re thankful that you have brought us in submission to him. Lord, help us to see ourselves as his subjects, that we may serve him faithfully until he comes again. We pray in his name, amen.