First the Question: From the first chapter of Matthew to the last chapter of Revelation, there are FIVE different groups or classes of people that are addressed. True or False?
Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 8-21-2011
Question: Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! Of COURSE!! We had a very large number of responses. Out of the 824 responses we received 100% of you got it right! Therefore,
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 10 of 12
THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED
In the very first chapter of the Gospel of John, in John 1:10-11, we read that Christ was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. “He came unto His own (world) and His own (nation) received Him not.” This is confirmed in John 12:37-40, “But though He (Christ) had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not in Him: That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report?...Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He (God) hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”
With these statements concerning Israel’s unbelief and blindness, quoted from Isaiah 6:9-10, let us think of another prophecy concerning Israel’s rejection of their Messiah. We quote Psalm 118:19-24, “Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The Stone Which the Builders rejected is become the Head of the Corner. This is the Lord’s doing: it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it.” The Lord Jesus quoted part of this in Matthew 21:42.
In Matthew 26:24 we have the words of the Lord Jesus, “the Son of man goeth, as it is written of Him.” Again we have His words in John 3:14, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so ‘must’ the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:15). In Acts 4:25-29 we learn that the rulers of this world, who crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Corinthians 2:8), who killed the Prince of life (Acts 3:14-15), did none other things than God’s hand and God’s counsel determined before to be done.
It is both interesting and significant to observe that the truth of Matthew 21:42, recorded by Matthew near the end of Christ’s life on earth, concerning Israel’s Messiah being rejected by Israel, is recorded in the very first part of the first chapter of John even before one thing is said about the ministry of the Messiah, Who is introduced to Israel by John the Baptist as “The Lamb of God Who beareth away the sin of the world.” (John 1:11-12. and John 1:29). This may explain why in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, very much is said concerning the ministry and message of John the Baptist, but NONE of these three writers mentions that John called the Lord Jesus “The Lamb of God.”
Let’s consider the statement in John 1:11, that Christ came unto His own and His own received Him not, together with Acts 13:29, “when they (Israel) had fulfilled all that was written of Him they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a sepulcher”. “All that was written of Him”. In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, more than ninety times we read such expressions as, “that the Scriptures might be fulfilled,” “that the Word of the prophets might be fulfilled,” “as it is written” “it is written”…“all that prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25), “all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27-44).
When we say that Christ’s own received Him not and then read several times that many Jews believed on Him before His death and resurrection, and that thousands of His own received Him after His death and resurrection (Acts 2:41, and Acts 4:4, and Acts 5:14, and Acts 6:7, and Acts 9:42), we should know that John 1:11-13, like Romans 11:5-15, refers to something MORE than acceptance or rejection of Christ by individual Jews. John 1:11 should be studied with Acts 5:29-32 and Acts 13:46. And of course John 1:11 should be carefully and prayerfully studied with John 12:37-41, which should cause EVERY Christian to break forth with the Apostle Paul and say, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past‑tracing‑out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor?” (Romans 11:33-34).
Note in Acts 3:12-17 that God was willing to charge Israel’s great crime of slaying the Son of God to ignorance. This is explained in Matthew 12:32 and by the prayer of Christ on the cross for Israel (Luke 23:34). Hear this most important statement in Acts 3:18, “Those things which God before hath shown by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled.”
So as we read Christ’s statement in Matthew 26:24 and John 3:14 and this statement in John 12:27, “for this cause came I unto this hour,” let us think also of the statement in Acts 2:23, that God’s only Begotten Son was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
The day on which the Lord Jesus Christ, Who knew no sin, was made sin, that believing sinners might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21), the day on which God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all (Romans 8:32) thereby providing “so great salvation” (Hebrew 2:3), was “the day which the Lord hath made”…“we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:124).
Some years after the Lord Jesus appeared once and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26), and, by the Grace of God, tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9), the Apostle Paul said to the Jews in their synagogue, “Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead: and this Jesus Whom I preach unto you is Christ (Messiah).” (Acts 17:3).
From what we have said we should better understand the words, “according to the Scriptures,” when we read in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 that the Gospel, by which believing sinners are saved, is the truth that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day. We are told in plain language, in Romans 4:23-25, that any sinner who believes God and receives Christ, believing that He (Christ) was delivered for our sins and raised again for our justification, will receive, by Faith….without works, the Divine, perfect, unimpeachable righteousness of the righteous God.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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