Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, March 7, 2014
They wanted a Messiah who would heal them and fed them and who was a physical earthly political Messiah.
They wanted a Messiah who came and did everything for them and they didn’t have to fulfill any demands at all.
The crowd was NOW eagerly ready to support TLJC.
There were many Jews who constantly would reject TLJC, and the FACT that the cross must come before the crown.
There were many in this same crowd who wanted to make Him king who were also the same ones that cried out crucify Him months later.
All the apostles saw His ministry from a little different perspective but in the same passages they sought to agree that they were very important to understand that they were now a new government to protect and agree.
Little did they know that in rejecting Him because He would not become their earthly king, that in their rejection of Him they were actually fulfilling the plan of God.
PSA 76:10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee;
GEN 50:20 “They meant evil against Him, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive and eternally saved.
DEU 23:5 “But the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.”
In rejecting TLJC because He would not become their earthly King they were actually fulfilling God’s plan by crying out to “crucify Him.”
We want comfort in sorrow; Strength in difficulty, Peace in turmoil. But once we’re fed we forget the source of our blessing and prosperity.
If He challenges us with some demand or sacrifice or with some challenge or effort, we rationalize why we don’t have to accept it.
It doesn’t say when they heard His doctrine but when they saw the sign which he had performed.
The Lord knew what was in man.
They wanted to use Him for their own purposes and mould Him to their own dreams.
They were waiting for their Messiah but they had their own opinion of what they wanted Him to be.
They looked for a Messiah who would be king and defeat the Romans.
They had seen what TLJC could do in this miracle and thought that this is the man who has the power that we need.
If they had been honest they would have to admit that they wanted to use Him.
When we appeal to Christ, is it for strength to go on with our own schemes and ideas or is it for humility and obedience to His plan.
Is our prayer, Lord give me the strength to continue to do what I want to do? Or Lord give me the strength to do your will?
LUK 22:42 “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done.”
This crowd is following the Lord at this moment because of what he could give them and do for them.
Give me the crown but not the cross.
JOH 6:14 “This is of a truth the Prophet who is to come into the world,” they were referring to DEU 18:15 where Moses talked about that prophet.
“That Prophet” refers to TLJC. There are three key positions in ancient Israel, that of Prophet, Priest, and King.
A prophet would hear from God and speak to the people. A priest would hear from the people and intercede for them to God. A king would, of course, rule.
Jesus fulfills all of these positions. He spoke of His own death and even of future events, like when He spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem (MAR 13:2) and of end times.
He was most certainly a priest, though not of the Levitical priesthood, but the Melchizedek priesthood. (Heb 7).
He also is the King of Kings (REV 19:16), and heir to David’s throne (2SA 7:12-16, MAR 10:47.
They didn’t think of spiritual revival or of repentance, a change of mind about TLJC.
They wanted a king to come in and overthrow the Roman oppression and feed them – this was their idea of Messiah and Christ never fit it.
Our Lord didn’t want to be crowned King until there had been a spiritual revival in Israel.
He would not be made King by force on their terms, they only wanted to make Him King on His terms.
In JOH 6:66, “Many of the disciples when He told them what He expected, when He made their demands, they turned around and walked away.”
They want one who will just do everything for them and make no demands.
The Lord I know said, “If you’re not willing to leave father and mother and everything in this world, if you’re not willing to take up the cross, you’re not worthy to be His disciple.”
2CO 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
2CO 9:15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
ROM 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
It’s a cheap price to pay for all that He has done for us.
It’s not even considered a price to pay but a response of thankfulness and gratification.
All our Lord demands is repentance, meaning a change of our mental attitude, not about sin, but about our scale of values and our commitments.
He demands a recognition and acknowledgment of our sin, not asking Him to pay for them, because He has already paid for them once and for all.
HEB 10:10 By His will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
HEB 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
HEB 8:12 For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”
HEB 10:17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
He demands us to recognize and acknowledge our sin, not to pay for them, but to agree with how to deal with them.
He wants us to acknowledge that there are times when our sins do separate us from Him, temporally, but never eternally, and then do what needs to be done to get us back in fellowship with Him.
HAB 1:13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:
And the same Lord who cannot look upon sin also said through one of His prophets, AMO 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
The Lord wants us to homologeo (1JO 1:9 – confess or simply acknowledge, that we agree with the fact that certain sins separate us from our fellowship with Him.
Not so that we can be forgiven but so that we can recognize that we have already been forgiven of them and we know that we have.
And to realize that our sins have not only been paid for, but to be in agreement of how it affects our relationship with Him.
He wants us all to have and a hunger for forgiveness.
If you’ll receive Jesus Christ on His terms by faith and repentance, you’ll know that our Lord “The soul satisfier” will meet every need of your life met because that’s the way He is.
We should be occupied with the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world and not be occupied with what other people think.
1. In Gen 4 there is the account of Abel and his lamb. Notice in GEN 4:3-7 the emphasis is upon the necessity of the Lamb.
Cain brought an outwardly beautiful offering but one that was a bloodless offering and it was in disobedience to God’s instructions.
Cain’s offering had in it nothing of confessed sin of a need for propitiation, which means to satisfy God the Father.
2. In Gen 22, there the provision of the lamb or the incident in which Abraham offers a lamb in place of Isaac.
In this incident the emphasis is not on the necessity of the lamb but upon God’s provision of the Lamb Who would take away the sins of the world.
The spiritual principle or lesson is that God would provide Himself the lamb.
God had indeed provided the lamb.
Abraham was so impressed He named the place Jehovah Jireh which means “Jehovah will provide.”
The emphasis here is not upon propitiation (like Gen 4) but upon substitution.
3. Exo 12– There is the passover lamb or the lamb slain on the night before the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
In Exo 12, the emphasis is on the slaying of the lamb.
There had to be one lamb for each family Even though the lamb was without blemish it was of no efficacious value while it was alive.
It must be slain and the blood had to be sprinkled upon the Hebrew dwelling place.
The blood covered the household from the destroying death angel.
In EXO 12:13, when I see the blood I will passover you. And, so the emphasis in Exo 12 is on the slaying of the lamb.
Because the lamb was slain, there was divine protection.
4. In Lev 16, the book of Leviticus which is filled with instructions about the sacrifices which were to be offered.
All the way through the book of Leviticus the emphasis is upon the character of the lamb.
About 20 times we are told that the Lord’s offering must be without blemish.
LEV 22:21, the lamb should be prefect to be accepted.
In Lev 16 the emphasis is also upon the complete and absolution from guilt and condemnation.
5. Isa 53 is the fifth of these lamb passages, ISA 53:6-8.
Up to this point the lamb has been an animal but now for the first time we learn that the lamb God provided for us is a person.
He was wounded us for our transgressions Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all … He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.
In Isa 53, we discover that the lamb is a person.
6. JOH 1:29, our sixth passage on the lamb, the lamb is identified as the Lord Jesus Christ.
John the baptist sees Jesus coming to him and cries, JOH 1:29.
Here the lamb is, not only a person …He is now identified as TLJC.
The emphasis in Joh 1 was upon the Lamb completely removing our sins from us.
The lamb of God is responsible for the removal of our sin, with all its ugly guilt and penalty.
7. Then in Acts 8, Philip explained to the Ethiopian that the lamb of God is Jesus Christ.
8. From that we pass now to the 8th passage on the lamb i.e., 1PE 1:18-21.
In 1PE 1:18-21 the emphasis is upon redemption through the lamb.
You were redeemed, with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.
9. In Rev 5 we see the 9th reference to the lamb is now in the throne of heaven i.e., the very throne of the universe.