Law & Grace - Gospel of the Kingdom/Substitution-Old Testament
Vern Peterman · Sep 11, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926246527058

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we look at the passage today, this is the 10th anniversary to the day of the attack on the Twin Towers and the concurrent attacks at two other places. And certainly, it's a time that we should remember and consider. It's also an appropriate time for us to put the focus, I think, where it belongs, that as believers we have a special focus of prayer that perhaps the rest of our country doesn't necessarily have. I would encourage you, as the entry in the bulletin has, to consider 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4, that it's an opportunity for us to pray for our leadership. looking forward from here on to have the right spiritual perspective on things. So I would encourage that. Now, Randy read the passage for us that will be in the midst of our study here.

The word that is translated gospel in the New Testament It's a compound word literally meaning good message. And that word has been conveyed in the past as simply meaning good news. And that's not a bad way to carry it across. And if you're wondering what all those critters are in the picture, those are ganoos. Anyway, sorry about that.

We find the word gospel, as you might notice, only in the New Testament. The word pair good news, however, is found in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament, often associated, not always, but often associated with telling about a spiritual truth. And that is in fact the use of the good news, the gospel, in much of the Bible, Old and New Testament. Telling the good news, passing along a message that is a spiritual truth.

We want to talk about two Gospels. We presented this last week and we'll continue on with that theme. Two Gospels that span from Genesis to Revelation. The two Gospels that begin in the book of Genesis continue as two threads throughout much of the Bible on into the book of Revelation, even into some of the very last chapters of Revelation.

As we will see here this morning, when Abraham says that God will provide the lamb, when Isaac asks, where's the sacrifice? God will provide the lamb. That is looking to this gospel of substitution. Christ died in our place. When Jacob is blessing his sons and, in fact, giving prophecies about the future of their tribe and those of their tribe. He says of Judah, his one son Judah, Judah, your father's sons, that is, all the other tribes, the descendants of those sons, will bow down to you. You, Judah, will be the leader of all the other tribes.

That finds fulfillment in the book of Revelation in two different ways. One, Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah in Revelation, the very last book. Christ is called to the very last chapter of Revelation, the last chapter of the whole Bible. He is called the Lamb.

Do you know that when we are in the new heavens and new earth and this present heavens and earth is over, which could be as soon as 1,007 years from now. Christ will be the Lamb. Christ will forever be the Lamb. We won't remember all the things that bothered us and distressed us here on earth. All the concerns, those will be gone. But we will remember forever that Christ is the Lamb. Christ is the Lion of Judah.

That's the Gospel of the Kingdom. And he is God's lamb, the gospel of substitution, the one who took our sins upon himself. The gospel of substitution is that Christ died in the place of every single human being on the planet for all of time. The sins that I should have paid for, the sins where the price of that payment was due to me, He took upon himself. He died in our place.

That's the gospel of substitution. You will find the phrase gospel of the kingdom right in the Bible and it's three times in the book of Matthew. We'll see it again as we continue our study of Matthew. The gospel of substitution is a phrase you won't find but it's a teaching you will find. The gospel meaning good news and substitution. Christ died as our substitute. He died in our place. That gospel of substitution is the gospel that Christ died in our place, it was begun to be told about in Genesis, it continued to be told about all the way to the book of Revelation.

The gospel of the kingdom is that Christ will reign over Israel and the entire earth for a thousand years as the last of all earth times. Everything, as we said last week, on this present earth will be summed up in Christ. Everything will be summed up in Christ. The gospel of the kingdom is that Christ will reign on this earth as the last of all earthly times on this present earth. on this present earth there will be a new heavens and new earth.

The earth will in many ways be restored to its original fertile and productive state. Israel as a nation and as a people will be the gateway for everyone else to come to the Messiah. It says that in the Old Testament that ten Gentiles will grab one Jew and say, take me to the Messiah. The gospel of the kingdom is primarily what the people of Israel need to know to enter and to do well in that coming kingdom.

That's the reason for the two different gospels. The question for both gospels is what do you think of Christ? The big question of the gospel of substitution, that is where Christ died as our substitute, do you believe God about Jesus Christ's death for your sins, his burial, and his resurrection?

That's the big question. Do you? Okay? That's the big question of that gospel. The big question of the gospel of the kingdom is, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ that is the Messiah? And that question is a first priority for Israel. Two gospels, different audience, a different question about who Christ is.

The gospel of Jesus Christ dying as our substitute in place of us. centers on his first coming. That is the time when he died in our place for everybody on the planet. He died for all of our sins and was buried and rose again. That was what he accomplished in his first coming.

The gospel of the kingdom on this earth, this present earth, is about Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus Christ in his second coming. That hasn't happened yet. He will reign as the king of Israel and the king over the whole earth. His title will be the king of Israel over the people and the land of Israel and he'll be a king of kings and lord of lords over the Gentiles and the entire rest of the earth.

This is a silver bowl that was discovered some decades back It has an inscription around the rim in cuneiform writing. It is about Artaxerxes I. He is the Persian ruler who commissioned both Ezra and Nehemiah to go back to the promised land. Very interesting. that after the Babylonians brought the Jews to Babylon, the Persians were the next empire to be brought in. They believed as a religious belief that you should not take people away from their homeland. Isn't that interesting? So in fact, that religious belief, which is one of the main points of doctrine in the religion of the Persians, sent the Jews back to their homeland.

Now, why do I bring this up? At the edge of this silver bowl that you see in front of you, the translation of the cuneiform goes like this, Artaxerxes, the great king, king of kings. So that phrase, king of kings, is an ancient one. And one, in fact, that was well understood, that if you were a king over multiple nations, a king over a great number of nations, you are called king of kings.

That title is not only on the bowls, but also in Ezra 7.12. Now, the next question we run into is, who is Christ when? Who do you say that I am? This is a question that Christ had the first three Gospels. All three of them ask this question. It is Christ, in fact, who asked the question.

Let's get this insight from Matthew 4.23. That is before the Sermon on the Mount that we've already begun studying. It says there, and this is about two and a half years before the crucifixion. So get the time frame. Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

And Matthew 9.35, right after the Sermon on the Mount, says something very similar. Here's the key, and this is not on your handout. Christ's healing of diseases and curing of illnesses had to do with his second coming and the gospel of the kingdom. It was to announce his qualifications as the Messiah who would come. It was not to announce his qualification to die as our substitute. If you want to take a look at that, Isaiah 35 is one of those Old Testament passages that testifies to that.

The preaching the gospel to the poor is also found in Isaiah 61.1, okay? So the healing that Jesus did, whether of disease or injury or whatever kind of illness, was related to his second coming and his qualifications for the gospel of the kingdom, not for his qualifications for the gospel to die as our substitute. Here in Matthew 16, and this is the point that Randy read for us here, Matthew 16 15 through 17 About a year.

So this is a this is a year and a half after he began preaching the gospel of the kingdom He that is Christ speaking to his disciples alone not to others Christ speaking as disciples said To them, but who do you say that I am? He had previously asked who do other people say that I am now. He says who do you say that I am? Now the first response to that, Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ. That is the official title for the Messiah. You are the Messiah. This has to do with his second coming. This is about the gospel of the kingdom. You are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. That's another name for Simon Peter. Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." So Jesus asked a question, Peter gave a very good answer, and Jesus commended him for it.

Now brace yourself. How about the next question? The Gospel of Substitution. Let's see how Peter does. Matthew 16 21 through 23 just a few verses later from what we just read. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples they must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised on the third day. That is the gospel of substitution. He died in our place, was buried and rose again. A different gospel and Raises different questions. So, how did Peter respond? Did Peter come up with a commendable response? Oh, that's great that you're going to die for us.

No. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord. This should never happen to you. So Jesus goes, Right on, Peter. Right? No. But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."

Wow! How did he get it wrong so quickly? He got the other answer so very well. What's the matter here? Peter understood the gospel of the kingdom quite well. He didn't understand, much less believe, The gospel of substitution that Christ died in my place. Here a year before Jesus began telling the disciples. Here is a year before he's going to be crucified. He begins telling them about that he is going to die in their place and be buried and raised again. Are they going to understand within that next year? Are they going to get it? The answer is no. The disciples will all freak out. They will all go bonkers. Even Peter, who is here rebuked by the Lord, will pull out his sword. And I don't know whether he did it intentionally, or whether in his awkwardness he just missed, or whether it was a little dark that night. but he cut off the high priest servant's ear there in the Garden of Gethsemane. Right?

After a year he didn't get it. And as far as we can tell, none of the other disciples did either. So it's clear at this point, a year before the crucifixion, it's clear at this point, after a year and a half of hearing the gospel of the kingdom, That Peter doesn't understand the Gospel of Substitution. Does he understand the Gospel of the Kingdom? Apparently so. Does he understand the Gospel of Substitution? Absolutely not. And not even a year later does he understand the Gospel of Substitution.

That Christ would die in my place. They are two very different Gospels. And one of the evidences that we have is the Apostle's understanding at this point. The Disciple's understanding. Now, we're going to step through the Bible beginning right back at the beginning here in Genesis, out of our Bible book case, the very first book. Let's go there.

Genesis 3.15 is where we're going to start.

Now, Genesis 3.15 is where Adam and Eve have chosen to sin. And right before this verse is the place where Eve asks Adam, Adam, do these fig leaves make me look fat? Right? That's the place.

And it's shortly thereafter that the Lord pronounces to them these words. This is what the Lord said to the serpent. And by the way, the Lord had asked Adam a question, asked Eve a question. He didn't bother asking the serpent any questions. Why? One reason, if the serpent answers, he's going to lie anyway, right?

But the Lord says to the serpent this, I would put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He, that is the seed, will bruise you on the head. It will be a fatal wound. You won't come out well from this. and you shall bruise him on the heel. It will indeed be a wound, but it won't ultimately be fatal. Why?

Because Christ is resurrected from the dead. It is the first indication in Scripture that Christ would die on the cross and put Satan in defeat, and though wounded for our transgressions, would live beyond it. Christ's own strategy here is to send the Savior, Jesus Christ, who would be wounded in our place, wounded for us, wounded as a substitute for us. From the earliest times then, after that time, to the time of Israel's sacrifices, a sacrifice was made in anticipation of Christ giving his life as our substitute.

Here is the account of Cain and Abel in pictorial form. Why was Abel offering a sacrifice? It was a sacrifice to look ahead to Christ's sacrifice. When Noah and his wife, three sons, and their wives, the eight of them, got off the ark, what did Noah do? He offered a sacrifice to the Lord in anticipation of that sacrifice of Christ.

You have There on your slide set, in your handout, Genesis 22, 7-10, the Gospel of Substitution, there. And I won't go over all of it, but this is where Abraham is told to offer up his son Isaac. And as Isaac says, you know, where's the lamb for the offering? His answer, God will provide for himself the lamb. God will provide the lamb. He trusts that to the Lord. Later on, as Abraham was about to carry this out, the angel of the Lord came and said, Stop!

And Abraham noticed that there was indeed a provided lamb, a ram in the thicket, that he took and sacrificed instead. And it says there, as we have underlined, blue here on the slide, Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of the gospel of substitution, in the place of his son, anticipating the death of Christ, our substitute. The Passover lamb, later on in the account in Exodus, as the Israelites were just about to leave, the Passover lamb was a substitute to die in place of the firstborn. That idea of sacrifice as a substitute is carried on throughout the sacrificial system.

Some years back, now we studied Isaiah 52.13 to 53.12.

I don't expect you to read this here, which is why we'll put it in the larger text. And we won't go through it in detail here. But we will point out this. And that is from 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, which presents the basic gospel, the gospel to be believed. It says this, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. Now, let me pause there.

The three things to be believed about Christ that Paul lays out here in 1 Corinthians 15 are also prophesied In Isaiah 53, 700 years BC approximately, and it's this, Isaiah 53 verses 4 and 6, verse 8 and verse 10 and 12 said that there would be God's representative, God's lamb who would die in our place, die for our sins. Isaiah 53 9 says that he was buried. just like the Gospels record, and just like Paul lays out here in 1 Corinthians 15. And finally, Isaiah 53, 10, and 12 says that Christ was raised. The three things to be believed in order for someone to be saved were revealed in the Old Testament centuries before Christ came. and is revealed here by the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. Precisely the same thing. Nothing missed, nothing left out. Even Paul says here that it's to be believed, and that is also what Isaiah 53 says. It's to be believed.

Now, for the gospel of the kingdom. We talked about the gospel of substitution. Now for the gospel of the kingdom in Genesis. Okay, so here we go. The first thing to let you know is that the gospel of the kingdom was first implied when God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 12. And he said, he promised about a land that I will show you.

So Abraham hadn't seen it yet. And then later on in chapter 15, we showed this map as we did last week. This is the land that Israel will have during the coming millennial reign, all the way from the Mediterranean up to the Euphrates River, covering several countries now that are antagonistic to Israel. A much greater area of land than Israel has at this point in time.

So that's promised in Genesis 15. 15 verse 18, if you want to look it up for yourself. But here's the focal point prophecy. Towards the end of the book of Genesis, Jacob, in his last days, is putting a blessing on each of his sons. And on Judah, he says this in Genesis 49.8, Judah your brothers shall praise you your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies your father's son shall bow down to you That is you'll be the one in power and authority all the other tribes will bow down to you You will have the place of authority But let's look at that Judah your brothers will praise you your hand will be on the neck of your enemies What does he mean?

When the Messiah comes, He will have dominance and absolute control over the enemies of Israel. When Christ comes again, He will come at a time when Israel will be desperate. See, right now we have all these countries who are threatening Israel. Israel will get to a place of desperation. They will have Gentile nations from different directions all converging on Israel and ready to take them out. It'll be Iran's dream come true. Christ will put an end to all that. At the moment when Israel is thinking, we are done, they will see their Messiah come. and fight for them in a way they could never fight for themselves.

Psalm chapter 2 is a description of that. Now I have on here Armageddon, because that's the term that people have come up with. This Armageddon is the one mentioned in the book of Revelation. Bruce Willis will have nothing to do with it. And it also will have very little to do with asteroids, I'm quite sure.

But when Christ comes again, There will be an eight-stage campaign as the Bible describes it. We typically call it the Battle of Armageddon. A campaign is a better way to put it because there will be eight stages of this campaign fighting in different places in Israel and the Middle East. It will culminate in Christ's feet coming on the Mount of Olives as is prophesied in Acts 1, 1-11 and Zechariah 14, 4. Christ's feet will land on the Mount of Olives. That will be the last stage of the campaign of Armageddon when Christ will defeat the enemies of Israel and wipe them out.

Oh, there won't be any battle, really, because how will He wipe them out? With the word of His mouth. He will speak, and that will be the end of it. That day could be seven years from now. He will defeat the enemies. And do you know what's going to happen?

Massive numbers of the people of Israel, most of whom are now atheists or agnostics, massive numbers of them will say, that is my Messiah. That is my Messiah. and they won't care about Bruce Willis. The next part of this is Judah, and this is verse 9, Judah is a lion's whelp, a lion being a symbol of power, understood even in our own culture, from the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, that is the lion from the tribe of Judah, Revelation 5.5, who dares rouse him up? Once you have gotten the attention of the Lion of Judah, you are in trouble. And that's what's going to happen to the Gentile nations who attack Israel. And Jesus won't be threatened. They can't shoot missiles at him. And all he will do is speak and they will be shattered. And that time could be close before the end of this decade. Could be. Now, I have a little question for you. When a lion couches, is this what it looks like? Probably not. Anyway, okay.

The last one, verse 10. The scepter, which is a symbol of kingship, shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff, also a symbol of kingship, from between his feet until Shiloh. Now, this is important. Shiloh is what is transliterated, that is the sound of the word, in many of our Bibles. The meaning is the one to whom it belongs. So let me put it this way. Until the one to whom it belongs comes. David was the one who was promised to have a descendant. Israel continued to have kings reigned that were of the line of David. When Jesus comes again, he will be of the line of David. And he will have the scepter, and he will have the ruler's staff, and he will be in charge. And he will call the shots, all of them.

Can you imagine what it's like to go to court when the judge knows everything that happened and everything that you thought. Are you going to be able to get off on a technicality? I don't think so. Not going to work. There will be absolute justice. Nobody getting off with people thinking, boy, the justice wasn't served. Not at all. Oh, one other thing.

The first verse we look at, verse 8, says that Israel will bow down to this descendant of Judah, the Messiah. The last verse, to him shall be the obedience of the people. The peoples, plural, that is the Gentiles. So verse 9 says he will be the king of Israel. Verse 10, excuse me, verse 8 says he'll be the king of Israel. Verse 10 says he'll be the king of kings and lord of lords.

Now, you have on page 2 of your handout this timeline. I'll go through it bit by bit. Following the prophecy about Judah that we just looked at, which comes at about this time, and you have that marked on your handout. Following that, In 2 Samuel 7, 8-17 and 1 Chronicles 22, 6-16, King David, about 1000 BC, was promised that one of his descendants would reign on his throne and over his kingdom forever. That's Jesus in his second coming as a part of the gospel of the kingdom. Following that, Psalms and most of the prophets foretold conditions and particulars about the coming reign, yet now still coming reign of the Messiah. See, we say Christ, that's from the Greek Christos, which means anointed. We say in the English form, Messiah, the Hebrew would be Hamashiach. That also means the anointed one. They both mean anointed.

I have it here marked in the solid red line for the prophets, if we included the Psalms, it would in fact extend that line even further. But for centuries it was foretold, after the promise to David, that a descendant of David would come. And even subsequent names are given. Finally, we have this one that's on your timeline. This last one relates to the next couple of slides here. Very interestingly, We at Christmas time look at here's Mary and here's Joseph and here's the baby Jesus.

What's very interesting is that the angel who appeared to Joseph told Joseph that Christ would be the one who would die in place of as a substitute for the people of Israel. The gospel of substitution is what Joseph was told. Let's see how this comes out. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, the gospel of substitution. He will die in their place. So Joseph was told the gospel of the kingdom. This baby, this baby that's about to be born, will die for the sins of the people. Though lesser known, the ancient rabbis called the Messiah who would suffer as a substitute for us all, they called him Messiah ben Joseph, Messiah son of Joseph, after the suffering of Joseph, the son of Jacob.

Now, the Gospel of the Kingdom in Luke 1, 30-33. So the angel, this is the angel Gabriel, said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom. So Mary was told the gospel of the kingdom with regards to this infant. Joseph was told the gospel of substitution.

Isn't that interesting? The rabbi spoke of the long-promised Messiah who would be the long-reigning king of Israel as Messiah ben David. Messiah, son of David. So the question, what do you think of Christ? is a biggie. We return to that here. The big question of the gospel is substitution. Do you believe God about Jesus Christ's death for your sins, his burial, and his resurrection? And the big question of the gospel of the kingdom, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is, that he's the Messiah? And that question is a first priority for Israel.

The questions about Christ are, in fact, different. But now I have some questions for you. They're not in your handout. And we won't answer them till next week. But I want you to think about them. Okay, first question. If a Jewish person believes in just one of the two Gospels, is that just fine? Is God satisfied and everything's good and well? Does a Jew have to just pick one? And that's okay. Next question.

Why did Jesus tell his disciples, Matthew chapter 10, not to go to the Gentiles with the gospel of the kingdom? Don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Don't go out of the land of Israel. Only tell the gospel of the kingdom, which they obviously understood, Don't tell it to the Gentiles. Tell it only to the Israelites here in this land, right here where we're in. Do not go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Why did Jesus tell his disciples not to go to the Gentiles with the gospel of the kingdom? Stop at the edge of Jewish land. That's a funny looking stop sign, isn't it? And finally, is your identification with Christ part of the gospel of substitution or in addition to it? Is your identification with Christ part of the gospel of substitution or in addition to it?

Three questions. Just three. Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage that you have in fact begun to make some clarity here that what we may have blended together in our thinking as one gospel certainly does appear to be two different gospels and in fact it's clear that Peter at one point understood the gospel of the kingdom well and yet had no understanding for quite some time, for some number of months of the gospel of substitution, that the Lord that he would rebuke would be the one who would die for his sins. And Lord, we pray as we continue through here for increasing clarity, for clarity of understanding, and we pray for insight into these questions we've been left with too. We pray these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.