PT-3 "Jesus: The Fulfillment of Prophecy"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2018 8:41 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus: PT-3 “Jesus:  The Fulfillment of Prophecy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:23-37

            Message of the verses:  “23  "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24  after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ’What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 “But God raised Him from the dead; 31 and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32  "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33  that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ’I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ 36  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; 37  but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.”

            I want to begin with one more thing about John the Baptist and that is that according to Acts 19:1-3 John’s ministry was well known to Paul’s hearers.  “1 It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 3 And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John’s baptism.’”

            Verse 26, “26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent,” is an important dividing line in Paul’s sermon as he readdresses the two groups in the audience as brethren as seen in verse 26.  The two groups are the Jews and the Gentiles who fear God. 

            Now as we go through Paul’s writings we see that he has his own style, and part of that style is that Paul will anticipate and then answer questions that may have been going through the minds of his listeners.  This is especially seen in the books of Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians. 

            The first question is a question that Jewish people have wrestled with from the time of the apostles until now and that is whether or not Jesus is the Messiah.  If Jesus is the Messiah, then why did the Jewish leaders not recognize Him as their Messiah?  We can conclude that Paul was listening to the sermon that Stephen gave as he gives the same answer and that is because of the hardness of their hearts.  Paul explains that “those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.”  Paul is saying that the Jewish leaders read the very Scriptures that they would fulfill because they did not understanding what they were reading, and the reason they did not understand what they were reading was that their hearts were hard.  I have heard it explained that when unbelievers read the Bible it is as if they are trying to read a book in another language, thus they cannot understand it.  The Holy Spirit, the Author of Scripture is the One who opens the hearts of believers to understand His Word, and He will open the hearts of unbelievers when they are coming to know the Lord after He gives them an effectual call. 

            The second question that Paul answers is if the Messiah was rejected, does that nullify God’s plan?  Paul replied far from it.  John MacArthur writes “Isaiah 53:3 foresaw that Messiah would be ‘despised and forsaken of men.’  (“3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”)  They hated Jesus without cause, so that even ‘though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed.’  They thus unwittingly fulfilled Psalm 69:4, ‘Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head’ (cf. John 15:25).”

            David wrote Psalm 22, and in this Psalm we can see what crucifixion was about many years before it was used.  What we read in this Psalm shows what Christ was going through as He hung on the cross, and the Jewish leaders had absolutely no problem doing this to Jesus because of their hatred for Him.  Paul talks of the aftermath of this in verse 29:  “29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.”  Jesus’ life that is recorded in the Scriptures was the fulfillment of prophecy as everything that He did while on earth was the plan of God for Him to do.  You may remember when He was 12 years old and seemingly lost according to His parents.  When they found Him in the temple He stated that He was about His Father’s business.  In John’s gospel we read at the end of His crucifixion just before He died He stated “It is finished.”  Jesus had finished His Father’s work for Him to do as those words actually mean “paid in full,” and Jesus paid in full for our sins.  Don’t be like the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus, but accept the payment that He made for you realizing that is the only way that you will have forgiveness for your sins and be born-again.

            We will continue looking at this portion of Paul’s sermon in our next SD.  I said as we began this section that it would take us a while to get through it, but remember as we look at this we are listening to the preaching of the Apostle Paul.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To think that Jesus would come to earth and die for me is more than I can understand, but I am thankful that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to understand this truth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  As I continue studying for my Sunday school lesson, my prayer is that the Lord will increase our numbers and that people will understand what this great book of Revelation teaches.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “I am come that they might have life; and have it more abundantly.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘If you had not plowed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle’?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/23/2018 9:25 AM