Review and Explanation: Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to provide a Virgin-born Deliverer as part of His plan to restore the earth as a place where His rule is fully honored and obeyed. In addition to Deliverer, Jesus is also prophesied to be King and Priest and Prophet. See earlier posts from this week for brief explanations of each of these.
Throughout the NT, we find numerous references to the roles played by the promised Virgin-born Deliverer applied to Jesus. None of the Apostles or their associates have any trouble seeing the various roles combined by their fulfillment in Jesus. The Gospel of John, for example, portrays Jesus as both King and Priest while laying special emphasis on Him being the Prophet. John carefully and methodically builds the case for Jesus as the Prophet is fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18:15-22. John even quotes Jesus Himself saying over and over, in various places and to a variety of people, that the words He speaks are not His own, but words given Him to speak by the Father. For example, at the end of John 12, Jesus said:
"If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me" (12:47-50)John also records both the first and last signs Jesus gave to authenticate that His message was from God. The first sign was turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. The last and greatest sign was His resurrection from the dead. In between, Jesus performed many other authenticating signs. In chapter 20 near the end, John indicates there were too many to include in his Gospel. John even quotes Jesus' enemies, the chief priests and the Pharisees, acknowledging the overwhelming amount of authenticating evidence that Jesus was the Prophet: "What are we to do?" They asked. "For this man performs many signs" (John 11:47). The amount and frequency of signs that Jesus did to authenticate His being the Prophet ends up portraying unbelievers as foolish and even willfully hardhearted in their rejection of Jesus. In John 9, the man who was healed of congenital blindness practically mocked the Jews who seemed unable to make the connection between his healing and the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18. The Jews stated: "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from" (9:29). To which the formerly blind man replied:
"Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing" (9:30-33).In tomorrow's blog, I will try offering a catalog of references from the Gospel of John to Jesus being the Prophet. In the meantime, we continue taking note of how indispensable Jesus is to God's plan to restore the earth as a place where His rule is fully honored and obeyed. Jesus is the One who knows the Father and what He requires for entrance into His kingdom. Jesus knows what values and lifestyle choices will pay off in the long run in relation to experiencing the blessings of God's kingdom to their fullest. Jesus not only knows these things, like the Prophet that He is, He has faithfully communicated all we need to know to make good and wise choices for how we live here and now.
Reflection Questions: How familiar are you with Jesus' teaching about the issues you face in life? What steps do you need to take to grow in your awareness and understanding of the Father's plans, purposes, and prescriptions passed through Him? What specifically do you need to change to bring your life into alignment with Jesus' teaching? How obvious is it that you value Jesus and His teaching as something that comes to you from God the Father?
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