In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of the ministry of Jesus and how it is still relevant today. He references the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue, proclaiming his anointing to preach the Gospel and bring healing and deliverance to the brokenhearted and captive. The preacher emphasizes the weight of evidence in the scriptures that point to Jesus as the Messiah and the fulfillment of prophecies. He urges the audience to take note of the scriptures mentioned and study them with an open heart, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth.

With Art Katz and Paul Gordon. Hello, welcome to Ben Israel again. My name is Art Katz. And I'm Paul Gordon. It's good to have you back. We want to remind you of the substance of last week's talk, which was about the nature of prophecy. We kind of suggested the enormous importance of perceiving what it is that God has inserted in his word. I think this week, Paul, we might like to more closely examine the area of greatest controversy in prophecy, and that, of course, is prophetic word that deals with the advent, the coming of the Messiah. Yes. Why don't we start in the Hebrew Scripture, in the book of Daniel. Okay. We ought to talk a bit about the birth conditions that had to take place before the the establishment of the validity of the Messiah could be made. And the Messiah, as we know in the Hebrew Scriptures, had to fulfill a number of prophecies, of utterances concerning where he would be born, where in time, and at what time, the born of a virgin. Very simple. Let's start in the book of Daniel. You know, I just thought to suggest this. How about if he got a pad of paper and a pencil? You know, if this were a cooking show, and there were recipes going forth, a lot of women would be busily taking down the concoction. But I tell you that what's being discussed today is far more important than a recipe. I would say without reservation, it's a matter actually of life and death. Jesus said, if you will not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins. And I don't think that there are many opportunities afforded, people who aren't ordinarily church or Bible connected, to have a presentation of this kind made. I want you to take a moment and grab a piece of paper and a pencil, and take down some of the Scriptures that are being cited today, and then study them again at your own leisure. We also know the beauty of how God works in revealing his word to us through the Holy Spirit, knowing that as these things are jotted down, and at your own leisure, you go through these and pray, Lord, if these be true, show this to me with an honest, searching heart, and God's Spirit will reveal his word. We know this for a fact. What's the first Scripture that you intended speaking about? Daniel. The book of Daniel? Right. The 26th chapter, or the 9th chapter in the 26th verse. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Now, what's the importance of that verse, Paul? What does it establish? Well, the importance is that the Messiah would be cut off before, or he would be killed before, the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary, which must refer to the temple, would be utterly destroyed. Now, when did Jerusalem suffer such destruction, and when was the sanctuary destroyed? It was in 70 A.D., when Titus came through, Titus and the Roman armies. Then the Messiah must be cut off and die before this event. Right, it talks about the people who would follow. That's an enormous statement, and I'm sure that there may be some Jewish viewers or others watching us today that will say, well, you're reading out of a Christian Bible, and that's a slanted translation. So I think I want to take a moment to read the same Scripture out of an edition called the Harkovei edition of the Holy Scriptures, published by the Hebrew Publishing Company in New York, and it reads in the book of Daniel, the same ninth chapter, that the, know that therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed the prince shall be seven weeks, and during three score and two weeks it shall be built again with street and trench, even in troublous times, and after three score and two weeks shall the anointed be cut off. Anointed, by the way, is in Hebrew, Mashiach, or Messiah, and there shall be none to succeed him. And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. So although there was a variation of one or two words, in substance nothing is really changed in these editions, and we find that to be consistently true in all of the enormous prophetic Scriptures. Well, if Jesus isn't the Messiah, who could he be? All right. The Messiah must be cut off before the destruction of the city and the temple in 70 A.D. Right. What other enormous prophetic clues does God give in the sketch that only one person could fulfill in time, place, and history about the birth of this Messiah? Well, this place of birth would be one. I think it's in the prophet Micah that this enormous clue is given, and it's strange that this is sung about in Christmas carols in that season, many references to Bethlehem. Little town of Bethlehem. Oh, little town of Bethlehem. But the Scripture reads in the fifth chapter, the second verse, But thou Bethlehem afraid of, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, who is to be ruler in all Israel, whose goings forth have been from old and from everlasting. It's quite a mysterious Scripture that speaks of one who is to come forth, to be born out of a town, who is to be ruler in all Israel, yet his goings forth have been from old and from everlasting. Something eternal. What chapter and verse is this? Micah, the fifth chapter, and the second verse. You know, there's another issue that's, of course, the one that's caused so much consternation throughout the ages, and that's the issue of Jesus, or the Messiah, being born of a virgin. And in Isaiah, in the seventh chapter of Isaiah, 14th verse, Isaiah says, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. You know, in this whole issue of the word, the use of the word Alma, the Hebrew word Alma, it can mean virgin, or it can mean a young maiden, right? There's another word for virgin, Bethlehem, and of course, many people render this young maiden. But, you know, when Isaiah talks about the Lord himself shall give you a sign, what kind of a sign is it if a woman bears a child? Well, it's evident that the New Testament writers believed that the birth of Jesus, which is recorded in the Gospels, was the fulfillment of that particular scripture, because we read in that first chapter of Matthew, in the 22nd verse, Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. You know, another thing too, we know back in the book of Genesis, the first book, when the bride was being selected for Isaac, Rebecca, Rebecca herself, in Genesis 24, 24th chapter of Genesis, in the 23rd verse, Rebecca is described as Alma. Now if Rebecca, the bride of Isaac, was described as Alma, it couldn't mean anything else but virgin. She was pure, and holy, and virginal. Well, I know that this is an area of keen controversy, and we're only just touching on some aspects of it. Perhaps on another time we'll look in greater detail, but if we had to rest an entire case on a single scripture, it would be a dubious case. Oh, yeah. But the fantastic thing is that there are over 300 scriptures that give in exquisite detail the circumstances of time, place, birth, condition of life, suffering, rejection, and all of the things which only one could fulfill throughout all of history. That's right. Now, Jesus himself alluded to these scriptures, and Paul, I'd like you to speak of the one in Isaiah, an enormous messianic passage in the 61st chapter, which has long been recognized rabbinically as messianic prophecy, and to which Jesus himself referred in the course of his ministry. Where is that found now in Isaiah? That's in the 61st chapter, and the first verse, in Isaiah, prophesying the word of the Lord. But the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Well, this is an enormous description of the essential ministry that the Messiah must perform. Right. And you know that there's an episode described in the Gospels that would make any man of integrity and intelligence to stagger and to gasp, because the Jesus who is described there comes one day, as it was his practice, on the Shabbat, to come into the synagogue of his community. And it says, there was given to him the scrolls to read, even as is practiced this day. There was delivered unto him in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, in the 17th verse, the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the scripture which you've just read, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me, that's the characteristic of the Messiah, anointed, to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. And I tell you, precious people, that this ministry is still going on, and that we ourselves, Paul and I, are fruit of the Messianic ministry. We had this word preached to us. Light came to us. We who are brokenhearted were healed. We who are captives were set free. Amen. And then it reads that he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. I suppose it is that because he read these verses with an authority beyond that which is given to men, and then he made this enormous statement, and he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. That's a powerful statement. Jesus took this enormous Messianic prophecy and claimed in the hearing of Jewish men in the synagogue to be the fulfillment of that which was read. You know that there are other enormous scriptures that the Messiah must fulfill, which was, I think, less known to the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus than what we've just read. And there's a reason, I think, why men would not be as familiar with them, because they describe things which are not pleasant to be understood, let alone to see fulfilled. They have to do with the Messiah that must suffer, that must experience rejection, that must die. Let's begin to look at those, Paul. In the Hebrew scriptures, what would you say is the most profound description of these events to be found in the prophets? Well, of course, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah is the most powerful chapter of prophetic utterance concerning the suffering of the Messiah. And then also Psalm 22. Let me begin with the 53rd chapter. You can read from the 22nd Psalm. All right. It's a chapter, I think, which significantly begins with this verse, Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? It's not enough merely to read these things and to discuss these things. The reality breaks forth when we believe these things. And the third verse speaks of one who is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. And surely, of course, that must be an acute form of suffering to be rejected. It's a form of suffering which is not unknown to Jewish believers, for many of us have, in more modest ways than the Messiah himself experienced, that suffered the rejection of men, even of our own families. Here's one who came, the Son of God, and suffered the rejection of his own people. And I don't think that any man can begin to suggest the acute grief that that must have occasioned the God of the Jews himself, who acknowledged that he was the King of the Jews, where it says, Surely he hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him, stricken and smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement or the penalty of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. I know many times when I've read these scriptures to those who have never before heard them, they said, where in the New Testament are you reading? And I have to remind them that this is out of the book of Isaiah. And the Psalms continuous, although I say continuous, though the scriptures were given earlier than Isaiah, I think perhaps a thousand years before these scriptures were written. Or King David wrote these. King David spoke also of these same events. About a thousand B.C. How is that, Paul? Well, in the sixth verse of Psalm 22, before we talk about the suffering, the Psalm says, But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. That speaks of absolute rejection. And in the sixteenth verse, David says, For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they've pierced my hands and my feet. Did you get to that part where he looks down upon his bones, they stare up at him? Oh, yeah, right. That's a beautiful portion. Let me just read, Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the mist of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they've pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare at me. That's fantastic. Now, we spoke about prophecy being God's facts inserted throughout his Word through various writers over a course of time, but given in explicit detail. This detail is enormous, and it suggests a form of suffering and death, which could not have been known in the time of David, which was a characteristic, of course, of Roman civilization. And there is no way that a man could have foreseen such a detailed kind of a death, which the Messiah himself experienced. What an enormous clue, given in the Psalms. And it brings us mindfully back again to, of course, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, where another scripture is given in great detail. In that ninth verse, it says, And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he hath done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. He made his grave with the wicked. And we know that Jesus was crucified between two criminals, and with the rich in his death. And we know that it was Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man who took the body of Jesus and buried it in his own tomb, still to be seen in Jerusalem, as we ourselves have had the privilege of visiting it. Enormous details. Can you imagine the garden area around the tomb that we visited? Can you imagine, as it is today, what it must have been like in the day of Jesus? What beautiful, sumptuous grounds it must have been? That the evidence is still there, that we can see things which were spoken, and that are alluded to throughout the whole of the scriptures, is an enormous weight of evidence that men cannot discount. You know that there are yet prophecies that deal and speak of the events that we're mentioning now, that are yet to be fulfilled. For example, isn't there something in the book of Zechariah that speak about this form of suffering and death, of having to be pierced in hands and feet, of being wounded, that has not yet been fulfilled and will come as a shocking realization to those who shall be alive in that hour? Can you find that, Paul, in Zechariah, the twelfth chapter? I know it speaks of a time that's not yet taken place, but of course it speaks of when all nations shall come against Jerusalem to destroy it. We can almost see the prophetic stage being set, and Israel becoming something of an irritant and a bone in the throat of nations, that world peace somehow devolves upon the events which are being worked out in that section of the world, and perhaps the events will someday reach that fever pitch, when, as the scripture describes here, the nations of the world will come upon Jerusalem to destroy it. And I think that however wonderfully Israel has been established and has survived the attacks of its enemies in recent years, that when this event comes, it's going to find itself stretched out beyond its own resources, its own ability to save itself. Only God will be able to save it in that day. This is the point, too, where there's going to be a great separation. There are going to be people looking at this person with great joy, and there are others going to be looking at him with a great weeping and a gnashing of teeth, because of the rejection that they should. Why don't you read from that twelfth chapter of Zechariah? What is it, the tenth verse? Well, let's start with the ninth verse. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Now we know that at this point, all of the nations of the world have not yet been raised against Jerusalem. Israel's fought in various wars, but not against all nations. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. You know, Paul, that not too long ago, God gave me the opportunity to visit a Jewish community in Mexico. I didn't quite understand the purpose until the last day of my visit there. It was to speak to the rabbi of that Jewish community. And when I came into his study, I had no intention of what I should speak, but the Lord directed me to this particular passage in Zechariah, with which he was not familiar. And I said to him, Rabbi, who is it that can alone save Jerusalem from its enemies? He said, only God can save it. And I said, who is it who can pour out the spirit of grace and of supplications? He said, only God can pour out spirit. And we continue to read on there, and they shall look unto me, it says here in this Hebrew edition, for everyone whom they have pierced, and yet for everyone is written in italics, which means that it's not in the original manuscript. They shall look unto me, whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. I said, Rabbi, of whom does this speak? And he was, frankly, perplexed. And I try to suggest to him that it speaks of one whom we personally have come to know, and that the knowledge of him was available also, that he need not wait until these events take place, that his heart should be gripped by this woundedness to see one whom we had relegated as not being our own to be indeed the one who did come to suffer and die, that the sins of Israel might be put away. That must have been a powerful statement for him. You know that in the 13th chapter, it continues, it says, where did you receive these wounds in your hands and your feet? And the answer is, these are the wounds which I received in the house of my friends. What a powerful clue given in the book of Zechariah, not yet fulfilled, but which hearkened back to this whole tapestry of minute detail given to us in the Psalms, in Isaiah, in Zechariah, that we might have a growing picture of a Messiah who had to come suffer and die. Where is it, Paul, in the New Testament that Jesus himself alludes back to the Scriptures which we ourselves have been discussing? Oh, that's in Matthew, right? 16th chapter of Matthew. We read in the 21st verse of that 16th chapter, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. There's a must that accompanies the Messianic role, a fulfillment that had to take place if one is truly the Messiah of Israel. You know, we were reading also in that 24th chapter of Luke, I think a while back, in the 45th verse. Why don't you read that? Again, I think we discussed that a couple of shows ago, where Jesus was talking to his disciples after his resurrection. And open he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and said unto them thus it is written. You know, Paul, I think it may be a good idea if we just backed up a bit and began this was the 44th verse. Why not read from that? Okay. And he said unto them these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then open he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and said unto them thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Beginning at Jerusalem. Right. The things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses that behoove the Christ to suffer, the Messiah to suffer, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached. You know, the Scripture says that it pleased God by the preaching of this gospel to save those that would believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. These things must be fulfilled by a Messiah that are written that repentance and remission of sins should be preached. Precious people, if you can believe these things now and receive the work of this Messiah who suffered and died, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, you can receive today such blessing of God as men cannot describe. We pray that your hearts are opened, that you're receiving this word and believing. Let's conclude with prayer, shall we? Precious God, in the wonderful name of the Messiah Jesus, let your word go forth by the Spirit to be quickened in hearts that they might believe, that they might receive life abundantly and eternally, for the Messiah Jesus' sake, amen.