Transcript: The Ultimate Bible Teacher
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The Ultimate Bible Teacher (video transcript)
By David Feddes
So Jesus says, “Well, what are you talking about?” They tell him, saying, “We hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.” Jesus then says to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
After explaining this, they were walking a little further. Nighttime was coming, and they wanted to be hospitable to this helpful stranger, so they invited him to come home with them. He eats a meal with them, and as he’s breaking the bread, suddenly they recognize him. In the instant they recognize him, he’s gone. Excited, they immediately hop up and head back for Jerusalem at top speed. While they’re doing that, they say to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
When they get back to where the disciples in Jerusalem are gathered, they tell what had happened on the road and how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are the witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple, blessing God.
This ends the reading of God's Word, and God always blesses his Word to those who listen.
Why be a Christian when there are many other religions around to choose from? Why believe the Bible when a lot of people believe in other sacred books? Why trust in Jesus when many people count on other spiritual guides or people who are supposed to connect them with God? “Well, I grew up going to church” doesn’t quite cut it as far as a really substantial reason—because a lot of people grew up in different ways.
Why follow the Bible, and why follow Jesus? One could say, “Well, there are a lot of findings in archaeology that support and confirm statements made in the Bible.” You could talk about arguments for Jesus’ resurrection from secular sources and various lines of evidence for the Bible or for Jesus, and those are things worth pursuing. But I’m not going to do that in this message.
What I’m going to do simply is to say that I think we should believe the Bible because it points to Jesus, and I think we should believe in Jesus because the Bible points to him. You might say, “Huh, that’s arguing in a circle. These other religions have their founder, and then the book that came from that founder. So, if one seems to match the other, big deal.” Well, in those cases, the person produced the book while he was here on earth, so you’ve got him, and you’ve got his book.
When you think of Jesus and the Bible, the Bible is actually two major sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament consists of 27 books written after Jesus and about Jesus, explaining his life, his way of life, and the way of salvation more fully. But there are 39 books in the older part of the Bible, the Old Testament. These were written before Jesus came—many of them hundreds of years before—and they contain all kinds of things that point to him, things that Jesus himself explained.
So it’s not really so silly to say that the Bible proves Jesus to be trustworthy and that Jesus proves the Bible is trustworthy, because a big chunk of the Bible was written before the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh. When those prophecies came true, they proved the reliability of the prophecies and also proved the trustworthiness of the one the prophecies spoke about.
We want to hear Jesus, the ultimate Bible teacher, and reflect on the kind of lesson the disciples would have received on that resurrection day when he spoke to them from the Scriptures. I want to begin by saying that Jesus opens the Scriptures to us. But Jesus also does something equally important: he opens us to the Scriptures, and both of these are necessary.
He opens the Scriptures to us—he explains what’s in the Bible, and his life shows its meaning, as does his resurrection. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. That’s one thing he does: he opens the Scriptures and shows us what’s there and how it reveals him.
And as he does that, notice this phrase: “While he opened to us the Scriptures.” What’s happening to them while he’s opening the Scriptures? They said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” While he’s opening the Scriptures, their hearts are getting warmer and warmer. Something is going on, even before they realize that Jesus is the one talking to them.
The reason their hearts are warming is that he’s not only opening the Scriptures to them, but he’s opening them to the Scriptures, so they can receive what he’s saying. Later, as Jesus explains again to the gathered disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Let me pause for just a moment. The Jewish people divided the Old Testament Scriptures into three main sections: the Torah, or the Law of Moses; the Prophets, which included both the historical writings like Samuel and Kings and what we call the Prophets, because these stories were also considered prophetic in how they revealed what was going on in the reign of various leaders; and the Psalms, or the Writings, which included wisdom books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
So when Jesus explains the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms, he’s basically taking the whole of Scripture—all three major sections—and showing how they point to him.
Notice that final sentence: “And he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” So he’s opening the Scriptures, and he is opening minds. I want to look with you at some of the things Christ could have talked about. I shouldn’t just say could have talked about because some of you might be thinking, “Boy, I wish I had been there for that Bible lesson. That must have been the best Bible lesson ever given.” I’m sure it was, but don’t spend too much time wishing. If you want it, just open your Bible. Open the New Testament.
The New Testament is full of the teaching of Jesus Christ, which explains how the Old Testament was pointing to him. Whether you’re reading the Gospels or the epistles, you’re basically getting Jesus' Bible lesson. The apostle Paul, when he writes in his epistles, says, “I didn’t make this up; I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.” When you’re reading the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you’re getting, in substance, what the Lord Jesus taught. Again and again, you see phrases like “as it is written” or “thus was fulfilled the Scripture.” So, you’re really getting a lot of Jesus’ Bible lesson anytime you’re opening the New Testament.
It says that when he was explaining there on the road, and again in that room, he began with Moses. Just a few things from Moses: very early in Moses’ writings, right after Adam and Eve sinned and the serpent misled them, God makes a promise. He says, “I will put enmity between you, serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head.” So, very early on, God promises a savior born into the human race who will crush the evil one.
You read a little further, and God tells Abraham to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. But at the last minute, God says, “Now I know you will give up anything for me, Abraham.” Then Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket, which he offers in place of his son, Isaac. Very early on, you see a sacrifice where someone else dies in the place of the one who would have been condemned.
When God rescues his people from Egypt, it’s a picture of Jesus being the great rescuer from slavery. Even the Israelites would have perished if God hadn’t provided a sacrifice for them. But a lamb is killed, and they put the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their homes. The destroyer doesn’t enter their homes. In the same way, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ saves us from the destroyer.
Every year, the Israelites observed the Day of Atonement. The priest, representing the people, placed his hands on two goats—one was killed, and the other was sent into the wilderness as a symbol of sin being paid for and removed. There’s another story in Moses' time: the people sin, and poisonous snakes bite them. They are going to die unless something happens. God tells Moses to make a bronze snake, lift it on a pole, and tell the people to look at it to be healed.
It’s a strange story—what good does it do to look at a bronze snake? But God was meeting their immediate need and also pointing ahead. Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God was preparing for Jesus to be lifted up so we could look to him for eternal life.
God also told Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.” Some thought Moses was the greatest prophet, but Moses himself was told that God would raise up a greater prophet than him. Jesus begins with Moses, and that’s just a sampling from the writings of Moses pointing to Christ.
Now, let’s look at the prophets and how their writings were fulfilled in Jesus' life. Consider the birth of Jesus and the prophecies about it. It seems almost impossible that they could all refer to the same person. First, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son.” That’s an extraordinary prophecy. Then, “But you, Bethlehem, out of you will come one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” That was written 700 years before Jesus was born.
The prophet Hosea, writing centuries before Christ, says, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Isaiah adds, “In the future, he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” Do these prophets contradict each other? One mentions Bethlehem, another speaks of Egypt, and yet another refers to Galilee, which is at the opposite end of the country from Bethlehem.
But it all came true: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt to escape a threat to his life, and later settled in Nazareth in Galilee. All these seemingly contradictory prophecies were fulfilled in the same person. Isaiah also prophesied, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.”
What happens in Jesus' life? Miracles that had never been seen before. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. All these things, spoken by Isaiah seven centuries earlier, happen in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' final week, a flood of prophecies comes true. Psalm 118, written 800 years earlier, says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. With branches in hand, join the festal procession.” On Palm Sunday, people wave branches and shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” as Jesus rides into Jerusalem.
The prophet Zechariah, writing 500 years before Christ, says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, amid the shouts of the crowds. One of the Gospel writers even says that the people didn’t realize at the time that they were fulfilling the prophecies about Jesus without knowing it.
Then, of course, in those terrible and yet wonderful events of Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection, many prophecies were fulfilled. I'll just highlight a few of them—these are ones that Jesus was really zeroing in on when he was talking to his disciples after his resurrection. He said, “It had to happen this way. It had to. Don’t you know from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and then enter his glory?”
Judas, his friend, betrays him. A thousand years earlier, Psalm 41 says, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” The prophet Zechariah, 500 years before Christ, writes, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” When Jesus is arrested, all his disciples flee.
Jesus' back was whipped, his face punched, and he was spit upon. Isaiah, 700 years earlier, wrote, “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” Psalm 22, written by King David a thousand years before Christ, begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Later in the psalm, it describes events that didn’t happen much in David’s time: “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” Crucifixion wasn’t even invented at the time. The psalm also says, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” As Jesus hangs on the cross, the soldiers are gambling for his clothes.
Psalm 22 also records, “He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him.” That’s exactly how Jesus' enemies mock him while he is on the cross. The psalm adds, “My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.” A thousand years later, Jesus says on the cross, “I thirst.”
The manner of Jesus' death fulfills further prophecy. The men crucified on either side of him had their legs shattered because they weren’t dying quickly enough. They wanted all the victims dead before the Sabbath began. But when they came to Jesus, they found he had already died. To ensure his death, a centurion pierced him with a spear. Exodus and Psalm 34 had said, “Not one of his bones will be broken.” Zechariah adds, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
Isaiah also writes, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.” Jesus was buried in the tomb of the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. All these prophecies show that Jesus' death wasn’t random. The details had been foretold long before and came true exactly as predicted.
Then there are prophecies about his resurrection. Psalm 16 says, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” Psalm 22, the psalm so full of prophecies about his suffering, goes on to describe this same person rejoicing and bringing far-off nations to the Lord: “The ends of all the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.” After all his suffering, this one will bring nations to worship God.
Isaiah 53, the clearest prediction in the Bible of Jesus’ suffering and death, also says, “After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many.” This passage talks not only about his suffering but also the impact of his resurrection.
So, why believe in Jesus? Why believe the Bible? If large portions of the Bible, written long before Jesus, match his life exactly, that is an amazing thing. If your faith is shaky, these fulfilled prophecies should strengthen your trust in both Jesus and the Bible.
But it’s not just the prophecies about events in Jesus’ life. The spiritual practices and other things revealed in the Old Testament also point to him. Sabbath observance was a key marker for God’s people. It was tied to creation—God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. It was also tied to the Exodus. When God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, he made it clear that they were not to work nonstop. Because he was both the Creator and their Rescuer, they were to take a day of rest every Sabbath. It reflected the rhythm of creation and their liberation from Egypt.
Every seven years, they observed a Sabbath year when the land would rest. They didn’t till or plant; they lived off whatever grew naturally—a gift of grace for that whole year. Every seven times seven years, or 49 years, they celebrated the Jubilee, a “super Sabbath.” In the Jubilee year, all slaves were set free, debts were canceled, and people regained their family land. It was a do-over, a fresh start—a once-in-a-lifetime exodus for everyone.
These Sabbath practices were signposts, pointing forward to something greater. When Jesus came, he announced himself as the Lord of the Sabbath. He was the living Sabbath, walking among them. The first thing he said in his hometown of Nazareth was, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me to proclaim good news to the poor.” He announced himself as the fulfillment of Jubilee, where prisoners are freed, debts are canceled, and everyone gets a fresh start.
The Sabbath wasn’t just an end in itself but pointed to the reality of rest in Jesus. In him, we rest from our labors and receive salvation as a gift, not something earned through our efforts.
The various feasts also find their fulfillment in Christ. Passover celebrated Israel’s rescue from Egypt, with the lamb’s blood sparing them from death. Jesus died on the day the Passover lambs were sacrificed. Then, there was the Feast of Firstfruits, celebrated on the first day of the week after the high Sabbath following Passover. That was the day Jesus rose from the dead, becoming the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Seven weeks after Firstfruits, they celebrated the Feast of Weeks, marking the fuller harvest. On that day—Pentecost—Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit, seven weeks after his resurrection.
The tabernacle and later the temple were also signposts. These were places where heaven met earth, where God came near, and where his glory was revealed in the Shekinah cloud. It was a place of sacrifice for sin and a place of worship. God intended it to be a house of prayer for all nations, a place where people could seek him. God also said, “On this mountain, I will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples. The Sovereign Lord will swallow up death forever.”
In Jesus, heaven meets earth. The Word became flesh and “tabernacled” among us. God came near, and his glory was revealed in the face of Christ. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for sin. He announced the kingdom of God, making it possible for all nations to know God. On that same mountain, Jesus destroyed death.
It’s no wonder Jesus spoke of the temple as his body. He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it again.” And so he did. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the tabernacle and temple pointed to.
Those prophecies were sometimes hard to match to Jesus in the minds of those who witnessed events unfolding in real time. They knew some of the prophecies, but they didn’t think they fit together. There were three major figures prophesied: a king, the Messiah, the son of David, who would defeat enemies and rule wisely; Yahweh, the Lord Himself, who would come as ruler and shepherd of Israel; and a humble servant, especially in the servant songs of Isaiah, who would suffer rejection, torture, and death for the sins of others.
Isaiah 53, in particular, says, “Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” This servant didn’t sound like a king or like God in His power and majesty. So, nobody imagined that the king, the son of David, Yahweh, and the suffering servant could all be the same person. Yet, that’s how it turned out, and the prophecies themselves showed they belonged together.
Jeremiah 23 says, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: Yahweh, our Righteous Savior.” Here, the king, the son of David, is also called the Lord. So, king and God are not easily separated after all.
Isaiah 53 connects the mighty arm of the Lord with the suffering servant: “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” Then it says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. He was pierced for our transgressions.” The connection between the arm of the Lord and the suffering servant wasn’t obvious to everyone, but Jesus, in his coming, revealed that they were one and the same.
In Jesus, all the pieces come together. The Word written matches up with the Word made flesh, who suffered for our salvation. If you ask why you should believe in Jesus and not someone else, or believe the Bible and not another book, the answer is that there is no one like Jesus, and there is no book like the Bible. The match between Jesus and the Bible is unlike anything else.
The Bible begins with “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The Gospel of John echoes this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.” Jesus, when pointing to the things written about him in the Scriptures, doesn’t just focus on prophecies about a prophet, a suffering servant, or Palm Sunday. He points to the beginning: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Jesus is the Creator. He is the great “I am.”
Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I am the light of the world. I am the resurrection and the life. Before Abraham was, I am.” He is not only the fulfillment of everything God is, but also the fulfillment of everything humanity was meant to be.
In Genesis 1, God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth.” Humanity was intended to govern well on God’s behalf, to praise Him and rule over creation. But when humanity fell, it brought disorder to all of creation. Scripture says that Jesus is the second Adam: “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
The glory of Jesus is that he is not only God, but also the second Adam, giving humanity a new beginning. “If anyone is in Christ, new creation.” Some translations say, “He is a new creation,” but the original text implies more than that—Christ brings about a whole new creation. His mission is not just to save individual souls but to renew the entire universe.
God chose a people for Himself to begin this renewal project. He called Abram, but not just for Abram’s sake or for his descendants. From the beginning, God’s promise to Abram was, “In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God chose the people of Israel to bless all nations. Speaking of the coming Messiah, God says, “I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus picks up on this mission. At the end of his explanation of the Scriptures to the disciples, he says, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” His great plan for the world comes to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Jesus is not just a Jewish person for the Jews, nor just a European figure (as some artwork makes him appear). He is the Savior of all nations. Anyone can come to him, and everyone needs him.
There is no one who cannot belong to God through faith in Jesus, and no one can get to God without Jesus. Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
This is just a sample of what the disciples would have heard from Jesus that day. As he said, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Jesus is the key that unlocks it all. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Some of you might say, “Well, Jesus is the Savior, and the Bible is true. Thank you, pastor—I think we already knew that.” Well, some of you might not know that. Some of you may waver, struggle, and wonder, “Why should I believe in Christ? Why should I believe the Bible?” It is no trouble for me to remind you again why you should believe the Bible and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
There are some here today who don’t simply say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that, and it’s nice that Jesus is who he says he is, and the Bible is true.” But when you stand at a grave—that’s when it really matters. That’s when it all comes down to this: Can you believe what God says? Did Jesus rise from the dead, or didn’t he?
Most of the time, you might think, “Well, I spend an hour, maybe an hour and a half in church on Sunday—give a little, take a little. It’s nice; it doesn’t hurt anything.” But when you are standing at the edge of the grave, when you are thinking about your own destiny, that’s when the question becomes real: Can you believe the Bible? Is Jesus truly the resurrection and the life? Did he really conquer death?
That is when you find yourself standing on bedrock. This is the gospel. When the apostle Paul summarized the gospel, he said, “I want to tell you what I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” When you summarize the gospel, that is it—Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This truth unlocks everything. This is the gospel that opens the doors to eternal life. He is the one who opens the doors of our hearts. He is the one who opens the gates of heaven. Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name.
Do you want to come to the end of your life not knowing where forgiveness of sins comes from? Don’t you want to know that forgiveness of sins comes in his name? That’s the do-over that is possible. Repentance is a do-over. You get to turn away from wickedness and turn back to God. And this is only possible because Jesus invites you to do so. He says, “There is forgiveness of sins in my name. All that stuff from the past that messed things up—forget about it. Leave it with me. I’ve taken care of it. I paid for it with my own blood. Now, repent and turn to God, and every day of your life, keep turning to God and walking with him.”
Jesus is the key that unlocks the meaning of Scripture. Scripture unlocks the meaning of Jesus’ life. And together, Jesus and the Scriptures unlock the gates of heaven to all who believe in him.
Prayer
Oh, dear Lord, we thank you so much for your gospel. We thank you for your marvelous, saving death and the precious blood that redeems us from all evil. We thank you for your wondrous resurrection—your victory over death, which is just the firstfruits of the victory we will share. We thank you, Lord, that we can look forward to seeing you when we die, and even more, when you come again face to face and our own bodies are raised.
We celebrate, Lord, every Sunday, your resurrection—the first day of the week—and we celebrate afresh today, having heard the good news of your gospel, testified to in Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings, and fulfilled wonderfully in your own life. Strengthen and bolster our faith each day, that we may stand firm in you.
For Jesus' sake, Amen.
最后修改: 2024年10月17日 星期四 10:07