Signs of the Messiah – The One Who is to Come

Introduction:

“Are you the One Who is to Come?” (Luke 7:20)

The Jews wanted a king who would restore Israel as a nation. Yeshu, a Galilean carpenter, was not the kind of Messiah that they wanted. “Who are you?” (John 8:25) they said, and asked him for a sign when he had only just performed many wonderful works, and the crowds wanted to make him King. But the Jewish leaders given their authority to rule under the Romans feared an uprising by the people, and the loss of their special privileges. “Show us a sign”, they said.

But they did not really want a sign. If Yeshu had come riding a horse with golden wings it might have been different! But Yeshu was the kind of Messiah foretold in Isaiah 42:2, 3a.

To John the Baptist suffering in prison he said, ‘As for a sign, you have all the wonderful works that I have just done (Luke 7:21-23), which are also foretold in Isaiah 35:5, 6a.

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ (35:5-6) – Isaiah (35:5-6)

5ལོང་བས་མཐོང་ཞིང། འོན་པས་ཐོས་པར་འགྱུར། 6ཞ་བོས་མཆོང་ནས་གར་ཁྲབ་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར། སྨྲ་མི་ཐུབ་པས་དགའ་བས་སྐད་འབོད་བྱེད།

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

 

Fulfilment

Luke the doctor tells us what Yeshu did:-

1. He opened blind eyes (Luke 18:35-43)
2. He healed deafness and muteness (11:14 & Mark 8:31-37)
3. He healed lameness (Luke 5:18-25)
4. He cured leprosy (Luke 5:12, 13; 17:11-19)
5. He raised the dead to life (Luke 7:11-15; 8:40-56; see too John 11:1-44)
6. And he preached good news to the poor (Luke 5:15 & 7:17-23).

To John and others he said, ‘That is the kind of Messiah that I am. Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.’

Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need for a doctor, but those who are sick – I came not to call the righteous but sinners – I came to seek and to save the lost)” (Matthew 9:12, 13; Luke 19:10)

Next Post – Messiah Who is The Good Shepherd

Messiah, the Teacher who was Taught

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 50:4

ཐང་ཆད་པ་ལ་ང་ཡིས་ནུས་ཤུགས་བྱིན་ཐུབ་ཕྱིར། ང་ཡིས་ཇི་ལྟར་སྨྲ་དགོས་བླ་ན་མེད་པའིི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ངར་སློབ་གནང།

སྔ་དྲོ་རེ་བཞིན་ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་ཇི་སློབ་པར། ཉན་འདོད་ཡོད་པ་ཅན་ཞིག་བཟོས་པར་མཛད།

Isaiah 50:4

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

 

Explanation

At a much earlier time the LORD had spoken to the Prophet Moses, saying, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you … And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18; see Post No.5).

In this scripture the Prophet Isaiah tells us how Messiah would be taught by the LORD.

 

Fulfilment

a. Yeshu spoke with great authority. Jews in Jerusalem, that is educated men of pure Jewish stock, asked, ‘How could that be? He’s just an untaught villager from Galilee.’ (John 7:14-17).

b. Yeshu said that he always spoke exactly as his Father had taught him (John 8:28, 29; 12:49). When was that? Doctor Luke made enquiries and found that Yeshu prayed regularly to hear his Father’s voice (Luke 5:16). In Mark’s Gospel we learn that Peter found him at prayer a great while before dawn (nam ma langs pa’i sngon du – Mark 1:35).

c. Yeshu spoke words of comfort to ordinary men who were downtrodden and struggling in their lives (Matthew 5:2-11; 11:28-30).

d. When he taught, he sat like a Jewish religious teacher. He taught –

• his disciples (Matthew 10:1-11:1);
• and worshippers in synagogues (‘du khang – Mt 4:23),
• crowds that followed him to a desolate place (Mark 6:31-34),
• the crowds, who pressed on him, from a boat (Mt 13:1, 2),
• and in the great Temple in Jerusalem (Mt 21:23; John 8:2).

 

A Master in Debate (rtsod wa)

Because of Yeshu’s good reputation, the Jewish leaders had lost authority, and wished to destroy him. So they tried to find ways to defeat him by making him ‘Defender’ in debate. Three different groups in turn acted as the Questioner (rik lam pa), while he sat in defence. But three times they were unable to answer his reply (rgol rtsod), and had to accept defeat (Mt 21:23-27; 22:15-22; 22:23-33).

Then, when Yeshu acted as Questioner, the religious experts were again defeated. After that no one dared to question him (Mt 22:41-46).

 

Authority

All authority is given to Yeshu, the Word of God (John 1:1-5). He is the Way, He is the Truth, He is the Life – all we need to know has been revealed by Him (John 14:6).

 

 

Next Post – Signs of the Messiah

 

 

Messiah who is ‘The Son of Man’

གསུང་མགུར 2:6-7

6ཛི་ཡོན་ང་ཡི་དམ་པའི་རི་བོའི་རྩེར། ང་ཡིས་རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྐོས་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཁོང་གིས་གསུངས།

7གཙོ་བོས་གསལ་བསྒྲགས་གང་མཛད་པ་ང་ཡིས། ཁྱབ་བསྒྲགས་བྱེད་ཅེས་རྒྱལ་པོས་གསུངས། ཁྱོད་ནི་ང་ཡི་བུ་ཡིན་པས། དེ་རིང་ང་ནི་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཕ་རུ་འགྱུར་ཞེས་ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་གསུངས།

Psalm 2:6-7

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill”

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

 

 

Explanation of Psalm 2

The Jews believed that Psalm 2 was a prophecy about the Messiah, whose birth came about by command of the LORD.

The LORD speaks a command (verses 7-9) to His Son, who is born, but already full-grown (v.7), and anointed (v.2) for kingship.

The LORD declares him to be king in Zion (v.6). Zion is another name for the hilltop city of Jerusalem.

The city of Zion, like all cities was impermanent and twice completely destroyed; but in later scriptures it becomes a picture of the permanent heavenly city where the LORD lives (e.g. Ezekiel Chapter 40 onwards).

 

Messiah’s Birth in Other Scriptures

a. We have already seen prophecies of his birth (Isaiah 9:6; 11:1 – Posts 6 & 7).

b. Isaiah also writes that he will have normal human birth (Is 49:1 & 5).

c. The Prophet Micah told he would be born in that part of Israel called Judah, and in the village (now a big town) called Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).

d. But Micah says his real birth was long, long before.

མི་ཀཱ 5:2

གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས། ཀྱེ་བྷེད་ལེ་ཧེམ་ཨེཕ་ར་ཐཱ་ཁྱོད་ནི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནང་ནས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཆུང་ཤོས་ཤིག་ཡིན་མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ནང་ནས་ཨིསི་རཱཨེལ་གྱི་དོན་དུ་སྲིད་སྐྱོང་གནང་མཁན་ཞིག་གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། ཁོང་གི་གདུང་རབས་ནི་གནའ་དུས་ནས་ཡོད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།

 

Micah 5:2

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

 

Fulfillment

a. Yeshu was born in Bethlehem, although it was some days of travelling to the south of his parents’ home at Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 2:1-7).

b. It was the right time for his birth. Some astrologers (skar rtsis mkhas can) from some far-away Asian country had already discovered this (Matthew 2:1, 2, 7, 16).

c. An angel announced Messiah’s birth to men (lug rdzi) who guarded the sheep in the fields around Bethlehem (Luke 2:8-16).

d. It was unknown to most people that Yeshu was Messiah. He did not call himself Messiah lest the common people rise up and make him a Hero King (dpa’ wo). He called himself ‘Son of Man’ (Luke 6:24 etc; see footnote).

e. Yeshu was popular with the people. The Jewish leaders did not want a Messiah, who was just a Galilean villager, but because Yeshu received more honour than they did, they were envious, and they had him killed.

f. After Yeshu’s death he rose to life, and said he was returning to his Father in heaven (John 20:17). He had been Son in heaven before being born as a man on earth (John 8:21-23, and 7:25-29).

g. Yeshu will certainly come again to take his kingly power and reign (Matthew 24:30; 25:31-34). Of this happening Psalm 2 verses 8-10 give warning, but its fulfilment is yet to be. It could happen any time, even now (Mt 24:36-44).

 

 

Foot note about ‘Son of Man’ 

a. This was the title that Yeshu gave himself (Luke 5:24). It was also a Jewish way of saying, ‘I am human’. He did not say, ‘I am God, and that is my power for doing these wonderful things.’

b. Although men, even his own disciples, were slow to recognize him as God, the demons, in their fear, knew very well that He was Son of God (Mark 1:24, 34; 3:11, 12; 5:1-8).

c. It was important that Yeshu became fully human. In this way he experienced temptation like any other man, but unlike any other man he remained clean. Because he had complete purity (ye shes) free from delusion (gti mug), he alone had the worth to take our suffering for us and offer us salvation.

 

 

Next Post – The Messiah Who was a Teacher