Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program on today's edition.

Speaker 3

Of Pathway to victory, verse 21 says, Jesus said today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Yes, he said, I am the Messiah.

The only way you're going to understand who Jesus Christ is and the way he appears now and how he's coming back again is to understand his role as Messiah.

Speaker 4

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, throughout history, Jesus Christ has been known by many names and titles, but perhaps the most widely disputed is his role as Messiah.

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains what this sacred title really means and how Jesus the Messiah should impact our lives today and in the future.

Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Speaker 2

Dr. Jeffress thanks David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I don't know about you, but my vacation time is limited. And when Amy and I decide to take a break from the daily demands, we're determined to invest our vacations in a way that fosters refreshment at every level. I'm sure you measure your time carefully too.

Well, along these lines, I'm urging you to join us on the life-giving Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. The dates are May 5th through 16th. Over the course of 11 days, you'll get to see magnificent sites where Bible history unfolded. You'll connect with God in the beauty of his stunning creation, and you'll laugh and bond with other believers. Don't delay. Reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org.

This is one of the very first times to tell you about the companion book I've written for our brand new teaching series on Bible prophecy. It's called Jesus Revealed in the End Times. Look, a study about the last days should include details on the major events that will occur. But too many books on Bible prophecy do so while missing the major point. The primary focus of Revelation and all the books that precede it is the future appearance of King Jesus, who is coming soon to reign over all the earth. Christ's second coming should not strike fear, but peace and joy for all who know him.

Let me send you a hardbound copy of my brand new book, Jesus Revealed in the End Times. I'm happy to do so when your request comes with a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Now it's time to get started with today's message with the second study in my teaching series. I titled this message very simply, Jesus the Messiah.

Speaker 3

Tim Gagnon is known as the Fire Painter. He travels to churches throughout America giving powerful sermons about Jesus Christ while at the same time painting works of art. And he does it with his paintbrushes on fire. The Fire Painter. His latest project is called the Illuminated Messiah Bible. Tim Gagnon has read through each of the 66 books of the Bible and he found a word image that described Jesus Christ in each of those 66 books. And in his Illuminated Messiah Bible, he has a different picture of Jesus for each of the books. When you put those pictures together, they form an image of Jesus on the cross.

Now, I think Tim Gagnon is on to something. If you search through the Bible, it certainly has the cross of Jesus Christ as central. The Old Testament looks forward to it, while the epistles look back. Jesus' work on the cross was central to his plan and purpose for God. But it doesn't stop there. The fact is, Jesus didn't spend a lot of time on the cross. He died for our sins, was buried, rose again, and on the third day, he ascended into heaven. And guess what? He's coming back again one day. That's why, quite frankly, you could have an image of Jesus wearing a crown that would have just as been as accurate as Jesus on a cross. The most foundational role that Jesus Christ represents is that of Messiah.

Tim Gagnon said the theme of the Bible is Jesus as Messiah. We're in a new series we're calling Jesus Revealed in the End Times. I've never seen this done before, nor have I read of it being done before. Anytime we talk about Bible prophecy, it's usually in terms of events: the rapture, the tribulation, the second coming, the millennium, and so forth. But really, Bible prophecy is not so much about events as it is about a person. I could have subtitled this series, "In the End, It's All About Him." And that's what revelation is. It is the unveiling, not of an event, but of a person—the unveiling, the apocalypses of Jesus Christ. The only way you're going to understand who Jesus Christ is, the way he appears now, and how he's coming back again is to understand his role as Messiah.

Now, when we talk about Messiah, what do we mean by Messiah? Messiah is a transliteration for the Hebrew word "mashiach." Its New Testament equivalent in Greek is "Christos." By the way, remember, Christ is not Jesus' last name; it's his title. He is the Christos, he is the Mashiach. The words both mean the same thing: the anointed one. Write it down: Messiah means anointed one. To anoint somebody in the Bible is to select a person for a special purpose and then give him a divine enablement to carry out that purpose. Anyone who is anointed in the Bible has a unique purpose and a unique power to fulfill that purpose.

By the way, did you know you're anointed? If you're a Christian, God has selected you for a unique purpose. We all have the same general purpose—to glorify God and to point people to Jesus Christ. But we have a unique purpose for fulfilling that general purpose. God will give you a certain passion and he'll give you a certain power to achieve his purpose. Where do I get that? Philippians 2:13 states, "It is God who is at work within you, giving you the desire and the power to do his will." If you want to know what God's unique purpose for your life is, ask yourself the question, "What am I passionate about? What need do I see in the world that God wants me to fulfill?" God does that for every Christian. Discover what your passion is and then what your unique gift is—your power that God gives you.

One way to know what your gift is is to ask yourself, "What do I do that seems to come easily? What do I do that when I do it, other people say, 'You were born to do that?'" If you want to know your unique purpose, you'll find it at the intersection of your passion, your gift, and God's eternal purpose.

Now, in the Bible, there were people—men and women both—who were anointed by God. In Exodus 30, we see the anointing of Aaron as high priest by his brother Moses. In 1 Samuel 16, we have the anointing of David as king over Israel by the prophet Samuel. In 1 Kings 19, Elisha was anointed by Elijah as the next prophet. And then, of course, ultimately, there is the anointing of Jesus Christ. Jesus was chosen by God for a unique purpose. His purpose was to serve as a prophet, a priest, and a king. A prophet was one who spoke God's word; a priest was someone who reconciled God and man. Jesus did that through his sacrificial death. As a king, he would rule over a kingdom. Jesus fulfilled some of these aspects of these roles in his first coming, but they will be ultimately fulfilled at his second coming.

Now, what is the evidence that Jesus is that anointed one that people had been waiting for? Remember, there were many people before Jesus was born on earth who claimed to be the Messiah. There were many during his lifetime who were false Christs, Antichrists. And so it will be in the future. What is the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah? Here are just a few.

First of all, consider his place of birth and his connectivity to David. The Bible was clear in the Old Testament, in Micah 5:2, written 700 years before Christ's birth, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Why was Bethlehem selected? Because it was the city of David where David was born. So Jesus would be born the Messiah in Bethlehem. But he also had to be connected in his lineage to King David. 2 Samuel 7 was an Old Testament prophecy that it would be one of David's descendants who would sit on the throne of David ultimately and rule the earth.

Now, that is why the Gospels go to great lengths to show Jesus' genealogical connection to King David, both through Joseph and through Mary. But there's a problem with Joseph. Joseph had King David as his ancestor, and the Bible shows how it started with David all the way down to Joseph. However, between David and Joseph, there was an ancestor of Joseph's named Jeconiah or Jehoiachin. He was an evil king of Judah, and God got so angry with Jeconiah that he pronounced a curse on him. That curse is found in Jeremiah 22:28-30, where God said, "Jeconiah, because of the evil you have done, not one of your descendants will sit on the throne of David. Not one of your descendants will be the Messiah."

Now, that presents a real problem. How could Jesus be the Messiah if in his ancestry he had this, what one person called the knot on the family tree, Jeconiah? Every family has one. For David, it was Jeconiah. He would have been disqualified. But Joseph was not his natural father. He escaped that curse of Jeconiah through the virgin birth. Jesus didn't have two earthly parents; he had one, Mary. She too was related to David, but not through Jeconiah. That's just a little extra; we usually save that for Christmas. But it's interesting to note that Jesus was connected, just as the Bible said he needed to be, to King David.

Secondly, consider the testimony of John the Baptist. The Bible prophesied that there would be a forerunner to Jesus who would announce his arrival. The angel, remember, in Luke 1, appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and said, "Your son is going to be that forerunner." Through the many years, our orchestra has had to learn "Hail to the Chief" when various presidents have come to visit with us. Whenever you hear the song "Hail to the Chief," you know the president has arrived. Well, John the Baptist was the human version of "Hail to the Chief." He was the sign that the Messiah was here.

In Luke 1:17, it says, "It is he who will go as a forerunner before the Messiah in the Spirit and the power of Elijah." What is it that John the Baptist said when he first saw Christ? "Behold, the Lamb of God. He's here who takes away the sin of the world."

Consider also, thirdly, the claims of Jesus himself. One of the things you hear from liberal theologians all the time is that Jesus himself never claimed to be the Son of God. They say that's something that happened hundreds of years after Jesus died, that people tried to claim he was the Son of God. No, throughout the Scripture, he claimed to be the Son of God. Consider Luke 4, for example. When Jesus began his ministry, he went to his hometown of Nazareth and went on Saturday to the synagogue, as was his custom. Jesus regularly went to the synagogue to worship God.

You know, there's a good word for us today. We're experiencing what many people call the de-churching of Christians—Christians who are disconnecting from a church, thinking they really don't need the church to worship God. I mean, think if anybody should have been exempted from attending weekly worship, it would have been Jesus. He could have easily said, "When the rabbi was up there talking, I've heard all of this before. I know all of this because I wrote all of this." He could have said, "I don't need other people to worship God. I've got my little place out there in Mark 1 where I go to worship God and pray by myself every morning." But he didn't do that. Even Jesus, the Son of God, needed the spiritual energy that came from being with other believers.

If regular worship with other believers was a necessity for Jesus, how much more important is it for you and me? So he went, as was his custom, to the synagogue. Since he was the hometown boy who had come back, they let him read the Scriptures as part of the service. They handed him the scroll of Isaiah, and he turned to Isaiah 61. This is the scripture that he read: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

With that, he sat down. The people began to whisper, "Did you hear what he just read? Do you think he thinks he's the...?" And before they could complete the thought, verse 21 says, "Jesus said, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" Yes, he said, "I am the Messiah." They understood what he was claiming. In fact, they got so angry that they tried to drive him over a cliff and kill him right away. But it wasn't his time to die.

Consider what John the Baptist said. Consider what Jesus claimed. Here's another claim of Jesus: what he said to the Samaritan woman in John 4. The woman at the well, remember, she said to Jesus, "Messiah is coming. He who is called the Christos, the Messiah. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us." And Jesus told her plainly, "Lady, I am the one who spoke these words. I am he."

Consider the confession of the apostle Peter. Remember in Matthew 16, Jesus got his apostles together. It was kind of a focus group, and he asked them, "Who are people saying that I am?" They said, "Well, there are all kinds of opinions out there, Jesus. Some say you're a prophet; some say you're Elijah reincarnated." But then Jesus said, "Who do you say that I am?" Remember Peter's words? He wasn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he got this. He said, "You are the what? The Christos, the Messiah, the son of the living God."

Think about the affirmation of Martha in John chapter 11. Martha was upset because her brother Lazarus had died. They had sent word to Jesus, but Jesus didn't come when Lazarus was sick; he waited until Lazarus was dead. She said, "If only you had come, Lord, sooner, my brother would still be alive." Jesus said to her in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even if he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe?" Notice three times he says, "Believe, believe, believe." There's an inseparable link between belief and salvation.

Belief is not just assenting to certain facts about Jesus—believing he was the Son of God who died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again on the third day. Even the devils, the demons, believe those things, but they're not saved. No, that word "believe," when Jesus said, "Do you believe, Martha?" means to depend upon, to bank upon, to put your whole weight upon. That's what it means. What are you banking on? What are you trusting in to get you into heaven when you die? If you're depending on your good works, your church membership, and maybe a little bit of Jesus, you're going to split hell wide open when you die. It is only by totally believing, totally depending upon Jesus Christ to be your Savior that guarantees your salvation.

"Yes, Lord," she said, "I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world." Another claim of Jesus involves the rebuke of the Pharisees. Remember in Daniel 9, we have an unbelievable prophecy written 700 years before Christ. It gave the time frame in which the Messiah would come. Gabriel said to Daniel, "From the time that the command goes to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah comes is presented will be 483 years." You can do the time study of that to the date from the time that that decree went out in the Old Testament to go back and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah was presented riding in on that donkey into Jerusalem on March 30th, AD 33. It was exactly 483 years.

But then Gabriel said, "After that, Messiah will be cut off," a reference to his crucifixion. Remember that last week of Jesus' earthly life? He came into Jerusalem to the shouts of "Hosanna! Hosanna!" The Pharisees were angered and rebuked Jesus for not rebuking his disciples for claiming that. Soon those hosannas would be turned to "Crucify him!" and the Pharisees led the charge to crucify Christ with Roman cooperation. Why did they want to crucify Christ? Here's the point: they didn't nail Jesus to a cross because he was teaching people to turn the other cheek. That's not what got Jesus in hot water; it was his claim to be Messiah.

In addition to the rebuke of the Pharisees, consider the evidence from the book of Revelation. Nine different times in the book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to as the Christos, the Christ. Just consider three of these passages: Revelation 1:1, "The revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christos, Messiah, which God gave him to show his bondservants." Or Revelation 11:15, "The angel proclaims the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his what? Christos, Christ, Messiah." Revelation 12:10 states, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our Lord and the authority of his Christ have come." Jesus is the Messiah.

Now, just don't think the messiahship of Jesus has to do with what he did in the past; it is also found in what he is yet to do. Jesus has promised two things, and this is the promise related to the future Messiah: a king with a kingdom, a king with a kingdom. That is the promise that is yet to be fulfilled. Every kingdom has to have a king. Let's break that down for a moment. First of all, to have a kingdom, you have to have a location for the kingdom. There has to be a location, and there is actually an earthly location for the coming kingdom of God.

Now, this is where people get all mixed up. Some people would say, "Well, the kingdom of God is not a literal kingdom; it's a spiritual kingdom. It's not on earth; it is in people's hearts." Now, if that were true, then Jesus should not have misled his disciples. If people were thinking the wrong thing about a literal kingdom, he could have straightened that out. In Acts chapter one, remember, before he ascended into heaven, the disciples said, "Lord, are you not at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He could have clearly said, "At that time, boys, you've gotten it all wrong. You've misinterpreted what I've said these last three years. There's not a literal kingdom coming; it's a spiritual kingdom in your heart." But he didn't do that. When they said, "What about the kingdom?" Jesus said, "It's not for you to know the time of the kingdom. It's coming; I'm just not going to tell you when." But there is a coming kingdom.

Speaker 2

There's much more to this conversation with Jesus and the disciples that I want to show you. But at this very moment, let me pose a personal question. When you ponder what's ahead in God's timeline for the future, do you harbor a sense of fear or does your heart quicken with a sense of excitement? Many Christians are secretly hoping they miss out on the second coming of Christ, because the very thought of him breaking through the clouds causes panic.

Well, in my new teaching series and in my new book, I'm offering a radically different approach to prophecy. I want you to see the end times through the lens of Jesus Christ. As you shift your focus in this way, you'll stop fretting about the apocalyptic events and you'll begin drawing near to the one who is authoring your future. I'm prepared to send you a copy of my brand new book. Again, the title is *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*. This is a hardbound and more than 200-page book, so please be generous when you determine the size of your gift.

All to say, I'm going to send you my book when you give a generous gift in the amount of your choosing to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now in closing, let me thank our Pathway partners and all who give generously to support Pathway to Victory. Global forces are flexing their muscles, terrorists are violating innocent countries. We live in precarious times and people are living in fear.

But when you give to Pathway to Victory, God is using your generosity to share the good news of Jesus Christ all around the world. Thank you for responding today.

Speaker 3

David.

Speaker 4

Thanks Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory or when you join our team of Pathway partners, you're invited to request a copy of the brand new book from Dr. Jeffress called *Jesus Revealed in the End Times*.

Here's our toll-free number, 866-999-2965, or visit us online at ptv.org. When your gift is $100 or more, you'll receive not only the book, but also the complete collection of audio and video discs for the *Jesus Revealed in the End Times* teaching series. Plus, we'll include the study guide, which is perfect for a Sunday school class or small group Bible study.

One more time, call 866-999-2965 or find us online at ptv.org. You could also write to us. Here's that mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you back Wednesday for part two of the message *Jesus the Messiah* right here on Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 1

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory and we're so glad you're here.

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To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.