What Do You Know About Jesus?

Note: This transcript was made automatically from the class recording and lightly edited. Comments and questions from the class are not always clearly audible. Words in [brackets] are uncertain.

I had interacted with some of the kids at school this week and every time they have a test coming up you can just kind of feel their attention level rising. You know, they talk about what they have going on. This test or this quiz is coming up and it’s going to affect their grade because they haven’t studied or because they’re not ready or they don’t feel up to snuff that day, but I put on there that this is a pop quiz, but it’s not really a pop quiz. It’s a kind of a general knowledge thing, and the gist of the, I guess the thrust of the class is that if we’re going to call ourselves after Jesus, the Christ, we really ought to know something about Him, and we need to know what God has provided for us.

He’s provided a lot in His Word, and He’s told us a lot about what He intended, and what He has done, and what Jesus should mean to us, and that’s worth looking at, and contemplating, and remembering, and rehashing, if you will.

Let’s begin with a prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You for this morning, and thank You for Your Word and for Your Son. We’re grateful for so many things that you provided and we ask that you continue to provide each day the things that we need and we look to you for our sustenance and our very being.

We know that we continue on and have what we have because of you. We ask that you grant to us all to be laboring and busy in your service to reach out to others and to strengthen and encourage one another and go about doing good as your son Jesus did. We ask that you would help us to look always to His example and the things that we can do that we will do for your cause and for your glory. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

So I’m going to flip back over to page one here. In prophecy, what do you know about Jesus? And there’s many, I don’t know, 300 plus prophecies about Jesus in the Word of God. And so this is but a small sampling of what we could know or ought to know, really, about Jesus from prophecy. Isaiah 7, verse 14 says what? It should be fairly familiar to us as a significant prophecy, a Messianic prophecy.

Okay, there shall be a sign given unto you. He will be born of a virgin. And what? And His name will be called Emmanuel. Which is what? Anybody know what the word Emmanuel or the name Emmanuel means? God with us. That’s right. So to whom would Jesus be born? He’d be born to a virgin. And it’s important that we think about that in proper terms and words mean things. A virgin.

Would not normally, of course, be able to have a child, but in this case, Jesus would be born to a virgin, and some do a dishonesty to the translation of the text, improperly translate the text, and say, a young woman. Well, young women have babies all the time. That’s nothing unusual there. There’s no sign, no significance to that, but to a virgin, yes.

What about chapter 11, verse 1 of Isaiah? Less well-known, but does pertain to through whom Jesus would arrive in the world or to whom He would be born. Isaiah 11, verse 1, I think, says that a rod shall come out of the stem of Jesse. A rod shall come out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

So, Jesse is the father of David. And he is often called, Jesus is often called, the son of David, right? And so we know of the promises that God made to David. Some of them were dual prophecies pertaining to Solomon and Jesus. But nevertheless, the kingdom that would be secure, the kingdom that would last, that would stand and would be of the line [Lion?] of David, well, these were many times, many times, dual prophecies there pertaining to Solomon and Jesus. And of course, in the first sense, the immediate sense, with Solomon, these things were but a shadow, a foreshadow of what would come in the kingdom and person of Jesus.

What about 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 13 and 16? Is that an example of like what we’re talking about here? 2 Samuel 7, verses 13 and 16. He shall build a house for my name. And that emphasis there is He. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

And that does pertain to the son of David immediately. I will be his father. He shall be my son, God says, through the prophet. And if he committed iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with stripes of the children of men. So you go on down to verse 16.

Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. So like I said, this is pertaining to both Solomon and the final or complete or I guess more real significant son of David, Jesus Christ himself.

What are some of the things that Matthew chapter 1 tells us about those through whom Jesus came into the world? Matthew chapter 1, verse 1 begins how? He says, yes, it does say, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And it goes on and lists the genealogy of those through whom, significantly for the Jews, these would be known names, researchable names in the genealogical records of the temple, verifiable all the way back to Abraham. So, he would be known to be a Jew himself. He would be known to be of the lineage of Abraham. He would be known to be that finally significant seed of Abraham. That seed that would bless all the nations of the earth. Any thoughts?

We, in understanding just this much about Jesus, can dispel a lot of false notions about Israel today, can’t we? Just knowing what we ought to, from the New Testament, Galatians chapter 3, for instance, the seed is Christ. The seed of Abraham is Christ, ultimately, and summed up, focused on and summed up, I guess, if you will, again, And in the person of Christ is this seed promise given to Abraham, fulfilled there. Question number two, where would He be born? Okay. Bethlehem is known as the city of David. The city of David. Number three, why did Jesus need to come? And this is kind of more of an involved question than the other two here, but why did Jesus need to come?

Why did God send His Son? You could add John 3, verse 16 right there and kind of give me an answer, right? Right away. Or, God so loved the world, right? That is why God sent and gave His only begotten Son.

John chapter 1 talks about the creation, talks about the existence of man, and the way that we exist because God made us, and nobody exists, John chapter 1 says, without the one that made us. We all exist because of Him.

In John chapter 1, verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He was born in Bethlehem and He needed to come because we needed salvation. Genesis 3:15 says what? I will put enmity, this is God speaking, I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. Who is He talking to? Adam and Eve are there, but He’s talking to the serpent, right? That’s the devil. And He says, To the serpent, you know, he pronounces the punishment there. He says, on your belly you shall go, but I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. And He’s going to do what? You’re going to bruise His heel, but He’s going to bruise your head. And I may have that backwards, but that’s what it says. Genesis 3:15, the crushing of the head of the serpent under the heel.

So to speak, of the seed of woman. And this is to deal with the problem of sin that is now, Genesis 3, come into the world. Any thoughts? This is really significant because a lot of people don’t even think this far in looking at the Word of God and understanding why we needed a Savior to recognize some things or they’ll start listening to the words of men as opposed to what the Word of God actually says, and then get off track. But Jesus needed to come to save people from their sins. Provide a way for sin to be dealt with. Yes, sir?

Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I would add to that we are shown here, Genesis 3, how Satan operates. Yeah, right. Yeah, from the beginning. Yeah. Right. And that enmity has not gone away. It’s, it’s being delegated. He dealt with, but it’s not gone away. And even in Luke chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4, we see His direct interaction with Christ and the temptation. And we see how that Jesus dealt with it. We see how we ought to deal with it, being informed as we are of how Satan operates and how he wants to do what he wants to do, how he does go about that.

But we are in need of remembering the example of Jesus. We’re in need of remembering why humanity is in the state that it’s in. We need to remember it. Yes? I think that when you get into this, it’s humans, because we’re apparently not able to take care of sin without Jesus. We’re kidding.

Right. And I’m able to forget that it’s faith, and if we lose the sight, forget tangibly. We’ve got to see things. We’ve got to touch it. I can’t visualize it. But if you have faith, and you read and you trust what you’re reading, then you’re going to conclude that you just depend upon your faith and He’s going to help.

Even though you may not feel it, you may not touch it, you may not see it. But we forget that’s the truth. It is there, and it’s hard for humans to grasp that. It is hard. Because of the way that we normally progress through life, and the way we normally learn things, the way we, you know, through our experiences.

And we depend on our experiences, in a lot of cases too, to be able to build to other experiences. But yeah, when it comes to religion, there is, I mean, there’s biblical examples that talk about this, that Gideon, that, I mean, there’s no way he should have been reasonably, we think, asked to do what he was asked to do, reduce his army from 10,000, 40,000 to 300.

I mean, what sense does that make? I mean, it doesn’t make sense in the traditional sense, but it makes sense because he needs to learn to rely on God. And we all need to learn that lesson. Rely on God. God has never failed in His promises. He never fails to do what He says He’s going to do.

We learn to rely on Him when He says, I will take away their sin. When I will embrace them. When I will hold them. I will not let harm come to them. We need to learn to accept that and live according to that faith. And that means a lot of times going against the flow of the rest of humanity. We are going to be opposite the direction that they’re going. We’re going to be going upstream.

We need to accept it and believe it. We can accept it, but we may not really believe it. Yeah, and it takes time. That’s right. That’s right. It takes some real effort to not just accept, but go beyond and operate according to that which we have learned, assented to.

So we implement this by going each day and remembering to acknowledge God as the giver of all the good and perfect gifts. We go each day and we acknowledge that we depend on God. We remind ourselves, like I said, we need to remember it in order to operate that way.

So, yes, it is something that we learn, hopefully, and our faith grows stronger, and we’re more and more able to rely on God, which we have to do anyway. But a lot of people don’t realize it. What about number 4 here? What do the titles of Isaiah 9:6 indicate about the scope of Jesus’ work and how broadly does or would He benefit humanity? So Isaiah 9, verse 6 is another familiar prophecy about the titles that Jesus would bear, and He shall be called what?

All right. The child is born, the son is given, the government shall be upon His shoulder. Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Very good. What does that indicate, though, about the scope of Jesus’ work?

It covers just about everything. Yeah. The names are just given to anybody. They’re specific, outstanding, uplifting names. Right. I’ve been getting these ginger chews and they got the Prince of Peace brand on them. What does that mean? Well, it’s supposed to. I think it inspires some faith in the product, but the relevance is, of course, that this does pertain to the very Son of God Himself in this verse. And those words, as we pointed out, mean things, and it does mean that if there’s going to be any peace, He’s going to be the center part of it. If there’s going to be any real tranquility, It’s not really any at-restness. It’s going to be because Jesus is at the center of it. He has called so many things right here in this verse, but yes, the scope is very broad. It pertains to so much of what mankind yearns for, needs in life, expects and labors for in life.

But the deep questions that we ask, God has all the answers, and they are summed up in the person, really, of Jesus Christ. Any thoughts about this verse in addition to what we said? All right, number five, for whom did Jesus come? Isaiah 53, verses 2 through 10.

Okay, Jesus says, I came to seek and save the lost, right? As for whom He came? What does he say in terms of a physician? They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick, right? So he came to seek and save that which is lost as a savior. He came to heal those that needed to be healed spiritually, and that is all of humanity.

[He?] came to accomplish certain things according to the will of God, and specifically what is said there in Isaiah 53. He says he is bruised for our, is that the next word? He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace is upon Him.

That first person, plural, possessive pronoun, our. That means that we are included. We are a part of it. You and me. We are included with the words of Isaiah. Our iniquity. He is bruised. And our cause. We played a big part in the cause for His suffering.

That’s why Jesus came. Someone had to suffer and die. Someone needed to do that, be that perfect sacrifice for the propitiation, the satisfying of God and justice. What about number 6? What was fixed or improved in Jesus becoming flesh? And we’ve already looked at Isaiah 7:14. What about chapter 40, verse 5?

Isaiah 40, verse 5. Now, some of Isaiah 40 is actually talking more directly about John the Baptist. You’ll notice verse 3, “…the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Well, that’s a direct prophecy about John the Baptist.

Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Verse 5, “…and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” Now this is what John would be doing, but what do we read about him doing in Mark chapter 2, and Mark chapter 1, and John chapter 1?

What we read about John the Baptist doing early in the Gospel accounts, John, I think he actually uses the word, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That’s what John was doing, was proclaiming the coming of the Son of God, and proclaiming that this is the one that I’ve been telling you about when Jesus came on the scene.

This is the one I’ve been telling you about that you need to listen to. I’m not worthy to adjust or loosen His shoe’s latchet. I am not worthy to even hold a candle, be in the same room with, so to speak, this great one.

This is the one you need to listen to. This is the very Son of God. That was John’s role and function. And this is what’s pointed out in Isaiah 40. Here in verse 5, why was it necessary or what was improved by Jesus becoming flesh? And some other verses popping into my head now that I wish I’d put down there, but any thoughts? Y’all might come up with the same ones I’m thinking about. Okay. Okay. Okay. That’s a great point.

In looking at the Son of God, and something the apostles were able to experience firsthand, being with Him for so much time, and even after the resurrection, our hands have handled of the Word of Life. John says later on, our eyes beheld His glory. We were part of this. We experienced Him in the flesh. There’s a lot to that. I don’t want to take away from that at all.

And the words of the prophets that Hebrews quotes, he is not ashamed to call us brethren, looking at it from the other perspective. And Philippians chapter 2, what do we read about? He humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant, or the nature of a servant.

And being found in fashion as a man. This is some of what, like I said, I wish I’d put down there, but these things are appropriate. It was fitting and it was desirable that all these aspects should be observed. These details should be fitting. Hebrews chapter 11 further makes, chapter 1 further makes the point that there was nobody else. No, no angel, no other part of creation.

No individual, except for the Son of God, could do what Jesus did. It was just fitting that… Did I say that right? I don’t mean to say that Jesus was part of creation, but He is God Himself, the Creator.

But Jesus is fitting the one, Hebrews chapter 1, the one, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, not in the sense of being a created being, but in the sense of no one else. There is a uniqueness to His position, His authority, and His role.

What about Psalm 2 and verse 7? Okay, and people were coming up with theories like that in the first century. And the Gnostics, before the New Testament was even finished being penned, so to speak, the Gnostics were promoting ideas that, you know, there was evil inherent in the flesh, and it’s being said, only spiritual things could be good, and so God sent His Son. It’s true, but God sent His Son, and He was separate from the flesh, and that’s why the word immaculate becomes so important. He’s separate from the flesh, and so when He hung on the cross, that’s their theory, was that He was not there in the flesh. He was only there in some other visible form.

But yeah, that is just something that men have come up with. So yeah, the Psalm 2 and verse 7 just reiterates what I mentioned from Hebrews chapter 1. Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And looking at the question, what we find in being fixed or improved is kind of the idea in Hebrews.

Things are better now because of Jesus. Things are better. It’s a better situation because of what Jesus has done, the roles that Jesus has taken on, as opposed to the way things were done under Moses. Things are much now better under Jesus. Fixed, improved, better in Jesus, even regarding His flesh because, yes, it’s tangible. Yes, people could see it and know.

Yes, even the Romans had to acknowledge that there was a body. They took it down off the cross and it was placed in a tomb and it was guarded. It was there. They would attest to this. They would be able to show through their records and their assignment of personnel. Everything about it was just completely normal as far as the physicality was concerned until, of course, He wasn’t there anymore. And they couldn’t account for that, except for…

Just the way that it’s recorded. He rose from the dead. What was fixed and improved by Jesus becoming flesh? Well, He had always existed. John chapter 1, verse 1, right? He’d always been around. He’d always been watching. He’d always been upholding all things by the word of His power. Hebrews 1, right? But in coming in the flesh, what did He do? What was He able to accomplish here? Well, He was able to die. That was what He accomplished.

But he interacted with a great many people during his life as well and was able to persuade them of what God’s will was and came to mediate this new law, provide it as a permanent replacement for the law of Moses and other means of approaching unto God.

So this is the way, John chapter 14. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by Him. What did Anna and Simeon say about Jesus that would bear contemplation? Luke 2, verse 25 to 38.

And this is all in reference to what was known in prophecy. And it was still prophecy, even though He had already been born now. But it was still prophecy that He would do the things that they said He would do. What did they say He would do? Luke 2. Okay. All right. Okay. Again, another example of God always keeps His promises. Yes. What did they say about what Jesus would do? He was set for the rise and fall of who? Many in Israel. Okay.

So it bore contemplation. I’m sure Mary would ponder these things in her heart about the things being said about her son, that, of course, she already knew things were peculiar. She already knew it was a unique situation. But she pondered the things in her heart, and she would have a lot to be able to say about these things later on.

Any other thoughts about the words of prophecy and what we should or do know about Jesus? Like I said, there’s over 300 prophecies, so a lot of things we could talk about. All right, the next section is the arrival of Jesus. Who heralded Jesus’ birth? I didn’t put the scriptures down for these, but okay, there was an angel, and then all of a sudden there was a host of angels, right?

And they did proclaim what was happening or what was about to happen and what should be gone and witnessed by the shepherds, where they should go and how they should be able to find Him. Who saw fit to worship Him? Okay, the wise men did come and worship Him, and it’s hard to know, of course, what they knew specifically, except for in their own words, they came, and before the court of Herod, they gave some explanation for their arrival, right? They said, we have seen His star in the east, right?

But that was deception. Yeah, he really showed his true colors when he started murdering babies. So, yes. So, not Herod. He didn’t really see fit to worship Jesus. He wanted to secure his own position of power. We, the rich, I’m sorry, the wise men that came from the East, they wanted to worship Him, and they called Him what? The King of the Jews, right? And that’s something that would be significant later on, that title. It would hang above Jesus as He died on the cross.

Who sought his life? Well, that would be Herod. And who listened to God and provided security for Jesus as a child? Well, that would be Joseph. Joseph was spoken to in, I think, dreams, and told, at least on one occasion, spoken to in a dream, and told, go down to Egypt, flee, and keep the child secure there. And then he was told in the dream to return.

I believe, when those that sought the child’s life were dead, which was about two years later, I think. When did the family return to Israel? We talked about that a couple of years later, Samaria, Nazareth. They came back there and settled in that vicinity. And how did John prepare the way of the Lord?

We talked about that a little bit. He spoke to the people and he spoke in such a forceful and clear way, in a way that they could not misunderstand what He was getting at. There was something significant happening and they should not be sitting idly by and letting things just continue on the way they are, but they ought to be zealous about the will of God. And that’s what He prompted the people to be interested in what God would tell them through His Son.

What about number 7? What transpired when Jesus was about 12? Okay. They were able to journey as a family. We think of maybe a caravan type situation coming down through Samaria from Galilee. And I said Samaria before, but it was actually Galilee, wasn’t it? Number 5 there.

They came through Samaria and went down to Jerusalem and were able to worship there, but as they did so and got started on the way back, they realized that Jesus was not with them any longer, and they had to turn back, and when they got back, they found Him at the temple.

And he was having spiritual discussions with the doctors of the law, asking them questions and giving them competent answers. Any thoughts? Yes. Jesus was buried with her then. Did He learn this from the difficult times of Jesus? Probably both. But we’re told that at least she was a deeply thinking person. And that I think Luke 2 is telling us about Jesus beginning to realize who He was, you know, progressing in life at least.

At this point, he is able to say, I’m going to be about my Father’s business, in verse 49 there. Even at 12, he knew who he was. He is assigning himself on a course of submission to the will of God.

Yes, right here in Luke chapter 2, verse 49 specifically. I’m going to be about my Father’s business. I’m not going to pursue a regular course in life that a Jew born in my station would normally go. He is busy about His Father’s business. And that will bring Him to the cross and to the ascension.

Right. But He’s able to start. Yes. I actually studied that part of it. That right there, and that, I mean, as a human, like we are, should give us a lot as a human to live sinners. As a human.

And we can’t, but we don’t have another thing. But we know that God knows that because He gives us mercy because we can’t wonder what we have. You know, there’s times when I’m glad the apostles surrounded Jesus. I can identify with them in regard to some things. At times I might be as zealous as the sons of Zebedee, but there’s other times when I might be a little bit more doubting like Thomas, or I might be more looking at my failures than I ought to be like Peter did sometimes. But regardless, all of these individuals looked at and they followed the example, imitated, as much as they could, Jesus. I mean, that’s why they were chosen, and that’s why they were able to reach out and relate to so many other people as well.

You know, Paul even said, be followers or imitators of me, as I am of Christ. We all look to follow after that one, and He did suffer in all points. He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.

So, good point to make that Jesus experienced the same things in the flesh. John chapter 4, He was wearied as He sat at the well. We don’t just get wearied unless you are in the flesh. We might feel it more suddenly as we get a little bit older or whatever, but the experiences are there.

We experience this tiredness and this weariness because we are in the flesh. And Jesus was no different. Any thoughts? All right. We’ll get started the ministry this evening, I guess.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!