Dive into an enlightening discussion that covers the key events of Messiah’s life foretold in the scriptures, showcasing how pivotal moments like His birth, ministry, sacrifice, and promised return have been meticulously woven into the biblical narrative. Discover how these prophecies offer encouragement, assuring believers of their eternal significance and His ultimate reign.
The following is a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. The Messianic thread running through the pages of the Old Testament. We’ve been thinking about it for the last few days, and today we conclude our thoughts with a big-picture summary. Hello, friend. Welcome to Grace In Focus. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. We’re delighted you’re with us today and you can know more about us by going to our website, faithalone.org. Coming up soon is our annual national conference, May 19th through the 22nd. We want you to be there with us. It’s at a beautiful Christian camp. We will be studying dispensationalism and free grace. And you can get registered at our website, all the details, faithalone.org. Now, with the Messianic thread conclusion, here’s Bob Wilkin and Philippe Sterling.
SPEAKER 03 :
So, Philippe, I thought we would kind of summarize what we’ve seen in the Old Testament Messianic thread, Christ in the Old Testament. Could you give us the big picture of what we’ve been talking about?
SPEAKER 02 :
I know an expression you used earlier was a safari. You know, we’ve been on a safari following that thread. Beginning with the book of Genesis, and for our series, we completed it with Zechariah. Of course, we actually began what Jesus had to say about it. On the walk to Emmaus with two of his disciples, you know, he talked with them about all that the prophets had said, everything that Moses and the prophets had said concerning him.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Moses would be the Pentateuch.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER 02 :
In the Torah, in the prophets, which will include the former prophets, latter prophets, the history books, as well as what we call the prophets in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, and the Psalms. So the Moses, the Torah, the Psalms, and all of the prophets, including all of the history books, it all spoke of him. Later on with the disciples in the upper room, he did the same. And I will think over that those 40 days of post-resurrection appearances involved teaching concerning all of that and concerning the kingdom. To that he will come and eventually establish that day. And the offer they will make it once again, you know, to Israel, covering everything about him in the Psalms and the prophets and the law. Of course, we see that it’s Jesus himself that really clarified all of that. Right. And that has come to us now in the apostolic body of truth that we have.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because part of the Messianic thread is looking at what the apostles say about the Old Testament. Yes. In other words, they go through and cite many of those passages. In the book of Hebrews, for example, we find a lot of that.
SPEAKER 02 :
We find some of it, however, in all… Well, from Peter himself, the first recorded sermon after Pentecost is Peter’s… In Acts 2. In Acts 2, where he goes to Psalm 16, verse 10, about that he will not surrender him to Sheol, and he will not see corruption. So a clear matter of the resurrection in the Psalms, and then picked up by Peter and developed… But of course, we picked it up initially, you know, in the book of Genesis, about Genesis 3.15. The first gospel. The first gospel there concerning the suffering and the victory of the seed of the woman.
SPEAKER 03 :
The serpent’s going to strike him on the heel, but he’s going to stomp on the head of the serpent. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
And then following it through, because the suffering is there, the glory is there, the victory. And in the book of Genesis itself, we talked about the scepter. We traced the whole idea of the scepter beginning with Genesis 49, verse 10.
SPEAKER 03 :
It wouldn’t depart from Judah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Jesus, of course, is from the tribe of Judah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. And so that prophecy, he will be picked up in Revelation 5. He is the Lion of Judah, and yet he’s also the Lamb of God. that has been slain. And yet that lamb is about to bring his wrath upon all the nations. Because he’s also a lion. Because he’s also a lion, right. And ultimately returning as king, as we saw in the book of Zechariah.
SPEAKER 03 :
So he’s a suffering servant in Isaiah 52 and 53, but he’s also the returning king who’s got a scepter and he’s going to rule with a rod of iron.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, so taking us right into the millennial kingdom, what he will do there. But we could take every book, I think, of the Old Testament, perhaps with the exception of the Song of Song, which is not clearly. Even though I think once it refers to Yah. It does say the fire of Yah. The fire of Yah and everything, which I think we can identify as Yahweh, as Jesus. Right. You know, in the pre-incarnate appearances, you know, throughout the Old Testament and incarnated, you know, for us. But we could take any book of the Bible, I think, and see the Messianic thread, you know, following that on so far. In fact, if we had the time, you know, we could have, you know, put together a wheel with every book of the Bible and spin it and see where it stops. Right. And then refer to that book and be able to pick out two or three things that it says about the Messiah.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’d be a fun thing for a Sunday school class, right? You got this wheel for all the books of the Old Testament. You spin it, whatever it comes up on, you go, okay, let’s talk about Daniel. Where are references to Messiah and Daniel?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, Daniel, we come right to Daniel 7, and about the Ancient of Days, and about the Son of Man who comes up to the Ancient of Days and is given every nation to rule over. But yet we come to Daniel chapter 9 and the whole 70 weeks of prophecy, the 70 weeks of years.
SPEAKER 03 :
They call them 77s, but 70 weeks. Yeah, that’s Daniel 9, 24 to 27. And we could do that theoretically with any book in the Old Testament, except for the Song of Songs. And yeah, I think that’s great. So this whole series, what we see in the Old Testament is basically the career of Messiah all the way from his eternality. His preexistence, his eternality. And all the way through to his incarnation, we have his ministry. We have his death on the cross. We have his resurrection. We have ultimately his return and his ruling and reigning. And I forgot to mention, of course, we have the triumphal entry in there, Zechariah 9.9. And his eternal rule and reign, Zechariah 9.10.
SPEAKER 02 :
Then his descent to the Mount of Olives is… Yeah, Zechariah 12, isn’t it? Yeah, Zechariah 14.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, 14, yeah. You’ve got the whole point that he’s going to overthrow the enemies of Israel. that he will be ruling and reigning forever. And all of that is part of the rich tradition of the Old Testament. And of course, if you’ve ever seen Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye would say, oh, that Messiah would come. And by the way, Tevye, I found out it’s from Tuv for good and Yah. So basically Tevye is God is good or the Lord is good. Yahweh is good.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Tevye is always saying, oh, the Messiah would come. Oh, the Messiah would come. And the Messiah has come. Yeah. And he’s coming again. Right. And so Israel, when he first came, they did not receive him. He came to his own and his own received him not, John 1, 11. But to as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. And so there were some in Israel that believed, and as you’ve mentioned in this series, there’s always been a believing remnant, and there will remain a believing remnant. But at the end of the tribulation, they’re going to look upon him whom they have pierced, and they’re going to mourn the fact that they had rejected him for so long. And they’re going to rejoice knowing that he is going to overthrow the enemies and he is going to deliver them. And by the way, one thing we talked about was how all Israel is going to be a believing nation at that point. I think it’s important to recognize that’s true for all of those age 20 and over, all the adults. But all of the children are not going to be believing. You know, we’re not going to expect that a three-month-old is going to be believing, or even that every child under the age of 20 is going to be believing. But what Paul says in Romans 11, 26 will be true. All Israel will be saved. All Israel is going to be delivered from Gentile domination. at Armageddon, the entire nation will go in to the Millennial Kingdom, and that will even include children.
SPEAKER 02 :
All the children, and not yet believing, will come into the kingdom and will have that opportunity.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I don’t know if you’d agree with me on this, Philippe, but in light of Kadesh Barnea, when everybody under age 20 got to go into the Promised Land, I would think that even teenage unbelievers from the millennium are going to go into the millennial kingdom, even if they’re unbelievers, if they’re part of Israel. Or I would extend that to the nations as well. Jewish and Gentile children who are yet unbelieving would still go in because if the age of accountability is 20. Now, we don’t know that for sure, but I think it is.
SPEAKER 02 :
It comes out, the age 20 comes up numerous times, even beyond the judgment consequences like Kadesh, Benir.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
This past week, I was working on my commentary that I’m, the writing of the commentary on 1 Chronicles. I was working on 1 Chronicles 27, and it made reference to what David had done in numbering the people of Israel and the discipline he came under for that census that he had done. Right. And it specifically mentions there that people under the 20 years of age were not counted in the census, implying that 20 was the age, much like we now look at the age 18. Even when there’s a draft, you’re not eligible for the draft until you turn 18 years old. So not age of accountability, I think. Good case can be made that it is 20.
SPEAKER 03 :
So what’s going to happen, as we’ve seen in this Old Testament messianic thread, is the one who has come in his first advent is coming again in his second advent. He’s going to overthrow the enemies of Israel. He’s going to establish his millennial kingdom. He’s going to rule and reign. not just for that time, but as we saw in Isaiah 9, his reign will go on forever, and his kingdom will be ever expanding, Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. So this is a beautiful study, and we would encourage everyone to do this study for yourself. If you’re teaching a Sunday school class, do a series on the Old Testament messianic thread. And if you’re not teaching a class, just do this with your family.
SPEAKER 02 :
I find it highly encouraging and strengthening my whole sense of hope. As I see this whole picture of the Messiah in the Old Testament, what has been fulfilled, what is yet to be fulfilled, I’m seeing what has been fulfilled is a guarantee of all the promises ultimately will be fulfilled. And that helps me to be steadfast, immovable as 1 Corinthians 15, verse 5. See, it says always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that my toil is not in vain.
SPEAKER 03 :
Our service is meaningful because Jesus is coming again and he’s going to reward at the judgment seat of Christ for what we have done for him. And so let’s remain faithful so that we might hear him say, well done. And in the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.
SPEAKER 01 :
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