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Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Three – Jesus The Authentic Son

Book Reviews, , , ,

CHAPTER THREE

Jesus the Authentic Son

Although the Father chose sonship as His model for the relationship He desired between Himself and mankind, and sent the second person of the Trinity, whom He named Jesus (Yeshua), to be the human model for us, it was not cut and dried that Jesus would be the perfect Son. He had to learn to be a Son by going through all the experiences of humanity, from birth to death without failing in His submission and obedience to the Father. He had to be a perfect Son where Adam failed.

He had to be a Son in the Hebrew culture and religion into which He was born. To be a son in the Hebrew language and understanding was to “continue the house”. It was His role to continue God’s house through reproducing Himself in His disciples so that they in turn would reproduce Him in those they taught to be disciples.

Through thirty years of growing up in a Jewish home and three years of public ministry during which time He was under constant harassment from His arch enemy, the devil and those of His own people who opposed Him, Jesus never faltered. He passed every test; His love, loyalty and commitment to unity with the Father remained intake in the wilderness, during three years of scrutiny by His disciples, the common people and the religious leaders and received the Father’s wholehearted affirmation at every step along the way.

His final test was the cross. Gethsemane was the ultimate expression of His submission to the Father’s will. He passed the test and was resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit to authenticate Him once and for all as the perfect Son and fully qualified to be the sinless lamb who was sacrificed to take away the sin of the world.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or call

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

The Scriptures Have to be Fulfilled

Christian Life, , ,

THE SCRIPTURES HAVE TO BE FULFILLED

“Then He said, ‘Everything I told you when I was with you comes to this: All things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.'” Luke 24:44 (The Message).

The prophetic fingerprints of Messiah are woven into the story of a nation, the Hebrews, from its beginning as a single and initially childless couple, through the growth of this family in Egypt, their miraculous deliverance from slavery and their journey to, and life in the Promised Land.

It is a record of their chequered history as a people who persisted in rejecting their God and living in rebellion against His teachings. Their disobedience and idolatry brought them back into slavery to another wicked and idolatrous world power, Babylon, from which God again graciously restored them to their own land although it remained occupied territory under Persia, Greece and Rome.

The most important details of Messiah’s life, death and resurrection are encoded in this book, miraculously preserved and passed down over a period of four thousand years. It was written by some forty authors from every ancient walk of life and yet it is one story, a record of the Creator God’s dealings with man, and specifically the Hebrews, whom He chose to be His own people, and their response to Him.

God’s master stroke was to weave the story of Messiah into the story of His people as His signature of authenticity. What other religious book contains a signature like that – with one hundred per cent accuracy of fulfilment? Through the prophet Isaiah He claimed supremacy over the idols they so loved to worship, which were powerless to speak and act, let alone predict the future.

Apart from His resurrection, what else would have convinced His followers that He was who He said He was? For three years they had followed Him. They had walked with Him, listened to Him and watched him do miracles and interact with all kinds of people. Their experience of Him had brought the growing conviction that He was their Messiah, but the events of the previous few days blew their hopes apart. They thought they were the victims of a terrible hoax.

Jesus brought them back to the Scriptures they knew so well. He was the one of whom the writers of their sacred books had written, whose fingerprints were on every page of their carefully-copied scrolls. He took them through their Bible, book by book, and highlighted every prophecy that He had fulfilled until they were convinced beyond doubt that He was their long-awaited Messiah.

If these men, who were fearful and faithless until Jesus opened the Scriptures to them, were so convinced of His identity as Messiah and Lord that many of them paid the supreme price for the truth, can we not take their testimony at face value and trust the person and words of Jesus as they did? That conviction, empowered by the Holy Spirit who came on the day of Pentecost and took up residence inside them, energised their lives and gave them the courage to die for their testimony.

The same Jesus is Lord today and the same Spirit energises us to stake our lives and our destiny on Him because everything written about Him in the Scriptures is true.

Everything Written

Christian Life, , ,

EVERYTHING WRITTEN

“Then Jesus took the Twelve off to the side and said, ‘Listen carefully. We’re on our way up to Jerusalem. Everything written in the Prophets about the Son of Man will take place. He will be handed over to the Romans, jeered at, made sport of, and spat on. Then, after giving Him the third degree, they will kill Him. In three days, He will rise, alive.’ But they didn’t get it, could make neither head nor tail of what He was talking about.” Luke 18:31-34 (The Message).

Every belief system has a source from which it gets its information and upon which it bases its authority. For any information affecting life and destiny to be valid, it would be wise for those who receive it to ask two simple questions: ‘Who said it?’ and ‘What authority does that person have to say it?’

Jesus made some startling and outrageous claims which we must either dismiss as the ravings of a madman, or believe and receive as the truth, depending on the source and authority of His statements. There is one fool proof way of putting His words and His authority to the test – prophecy!

In the Old Testament, God used this criterion to challenge the claims of false prophets and the idols they represented. He made fun of the foolish notion that a craftsman could take a log of wood, trim it and use the offcuts to warm himself and cook his food, and carve the rest into a god and then bow down and worship it! Can people be so deceived as to think that, because they attribute characteristics and abilities to a block of wood or stone, that makes it reality?

“‘Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come — yes, let him foretell what is to come.'” Isaiah 44:7 (NIV).

“All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol which can profit him nothing?” Isaiah 44:9, 10 (NIV).

God is really smart! There is one fool proof test that authenticates His authority and His power to pull off what He claims – lay it all out in detail before it happens and then carry it out just as He said it would happen. He did not speculate, guess or prophesy in vague generalities. He set it out, step by step and then fulfilled it to the letter.

On this occasion Jesus did just that – alerting His disciples to what lay ahead for Him in the near future, drawing the spotlight onto Himself as the fulfilment of the mysterious words of the Old Testament prophets. How important this was for His disciples even though they did not get it at that moment! He was sowing the seeds of faith that would burst into life after everything that He had spoken about was fulfilled.

It is important to note that He was making no new predictions. He was drawing their attention to their own ancient, sacred writings. He was no upstart prophet. He was not only thoroughly steeped in the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, but He also knew that He was the topic and focus of everything that was written. He was sharpening their vision, so that they would know, when it happened, that He was the one of whom their Scriptures spoke.

It was this incontrovertible proof that Jesus was their Messiah that gave them the courage to stand by their witness even to the death. What fools would give their lives for a pipe dream or a hoax? Jesus said He would die and rise again, just as the Scriptures had predicted, and He did it, and they saw it and they staked their very lives on the truth.

God’s challenge still stands today. If you are going to stake your life on the belief system set up by some human being, on what authority does he make his claim and what proof can he give that his claims are authentic?

After two thousand years of trying, unbelieving people have yet to disprove Jesus’ identity and His claims, and millions down the generations bear testimony that He is who He said He is, that He is alive, and that He is perfectly capable of fulfilling all His promises just as He did when He said He would die and rise again. Our faith is based on solid, indisputable, historically verifiable truth and not on the pitiful fancies of depraved imaginations!