Moses the Prosecutor

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 5 as we continue our verse -by -verse study through the

Gospel of John. Today we're going to be finishing John chapter 5, Lord willing, by looking at the subject of Moses the

Prosecutor. Moses the Prosecutor is the title of today's message.

One of the things that almost all of the New Testament writers choose to include in their writing, of course under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, is that Jesus Christ is in the

Old Testament. This is not something that is only brought up once or even twice by the

New Testament writers, but just about all of the New Testament writers make it a point to tell us that Jesus did not enter into existence in the manger in Bethlehem.

Jesus did not enter into existence through the virginal conception in his mother's womb.

But all of the New Testament writers make a point to let us know beyond doubt that Jesus pre -existed

Bethlehem, that he pre -existed creation, in fact that he has always existed as the second person of the

Trinity. And so, if we step back and we think about the implications of just that fact, before we read today,

I just want us to consider this. We often use this phrase when we're out evangelizing, we'll talk about what the

Bible is. I've heard Brother Mike in his open air preaching make this statement many times when we go out together.

He will say this is the Bible, and he'll say this Bible was written over 1 ,500 years, written by over 40 different authors, written in three languages.

And yet, it has the same message from beginning to end, and that message is redemption through Jesus Christ.

Now I'm paraphrasing you brother, I think I got it close enough, right? But if you think about that 1 ,500 year line, and that is about how long it took from the writings of Moses, which would have been around 1 ,445

B .C., somewhere around in there, to the time of the last writing of the New Testament, which would have ended somewhere around the year 70, maybe a little after, maybe a little before.

I tend to believe it all happened before 70, but even if we push it out to 90 at the latest, with John living possibly to then, we have a period of about 1 ,500 years of biblical writing from Moses to the last writer of the

New Testament. And you understand that the life and narrative of Jesus only comes in at the very last part of that 1 ,500 years.

Jesus was born somewhere around the year 6 B .C., we know this because of the fact that Herod was still alive,

Herod died in 4 B .C., we know the wise men came to him, there was about a two year period possibly from the time

Jesus was born to the time the wise men came, somewhere within two years, because we know Herod sent the soldiers out to kill every child two years old and younger, based upon the time discerned him by the wise men.

So, we imagine Jesus was born around 6 B .C. So, when we consider that timeline, and I wish

I had a white board, I'd draw it out for you, if you start with Moses, and you go all the way to the writings of the

New Testament, most of that 1 ,500 year period, Jesus was not on the earth.

Most of that 1 ,500 year period, Jesus was not incarnate.

The incarnation takes place in time. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He would redeem those who are under the law and give them the adoption of sons.

That took place in a specific time, in the city of Bethlehem, 2 ,000 years ago.

But before that, Jesus Christ is present in the

Old Testament, and we're going to see today, in the reading of the words of Jesus Himself, to deny

Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is to not understand the Old Testament.

To deny that Jesus Christ was present in the Old Testament means that you have rejected what those

Old Testament writers wrote. In fact, Moses will testify against you,

Jesus said. Moses will be the prosecutor who stands before the tribunal of God, and He will testify against you if you have rejected the

Lord Jesus Christ, having read what He wrote. So let's stand together and read the text.

This, again, is the final portion of what we call the apologetic discourse of Christ, where Christ is defending

His own authority to an audience of Jewish people, many of which were

Jewish leaders. And we come to verse 41. Jesus said,

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me. If another comes in His own name, you will receive him.

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only

God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you,

Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed

Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

I don't even feel like I need to preach. We just let the words of Jesus rest in our hearts.

Such a truth. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your Word. Now, as we seek to give an understanding of it,

I pray, Lord, that You would keep me from error. For, O God, You are worthy of all glory and shame on all who would proclaim anything false in Your name.

So, Lord, for the sake of Your name and Your people and my conscience, may You keep me from error.

May You open the hearts of Your people to better understand this text. And, Lord, may this text lead us into the truth that You have written

Your Son into all of the Old Testament so that we would not miss Him. And those who do miss

Him do so not just out of ignorance, but out of rebellion and defiance. And, Father, I pray for those who are here today who may not yet know the

Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come together to worship You, but also,

Lord, we seek to evangelize any who has not trusted in Christ to say that today be the day of salvation.

And we ask, Lord, that You do what only You can do, and that is to open hearts, change hearts, give the gift of Your Holy Spirit, and,

Lord, draw them to Yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Gospel of John is written quite differently than the other three

Gospels, and that's something that has not escaped the notice of scholars. Most scholars identify the first three

Gospels as the synoptic Gospels, meaning that they give the same story from three perspectives, but synoptic means to see together.

But John's Gospel is distinct. John comes not to tell a different story about Jesus, but to tell the stories about Jesus that the other

Gospels didn't, to fill out those stories and to express the things that the other

Gospels did not say. Not to say that John doesn't include some things that they do. Certainly he does, but much of what he includes they did not.

And this is one of those discourses which is unique to John. Jesus has gone to Jerusalem for a feast.

There is a man there who is by the pool of Siloam. He has been sick and ill for 38 years, lame, unable to walk.

He can't put himself into the water where it was believed if you got into the water you would be healed. He couldn't even put himself down into the water for healing.

Jesus comes up and says, Do you want to be healed? Yes, I want to be healed. Rise, take up your bed and walk. He picks up his bed, he goes and walks.

And God be praised, this man is healed. But the audience of people who were watching this man carry his mat, the

Jewish audience were offended that he was carrying his mat on the

Sabbath. And so they challenged him, Why are you carrying your mat on the Sabbath?

And he said, The man who healed me, he told me to do this. So now they go to Jesus. There's more to this story, but we've heard it, we've talked about it the last few weeks.

So jumping ahead a little bit. They're now challenging Jesus. They're challenging his authority, his right to do what he has done, because he's done it on the

Sabbath. And Jesus begins to defend himself against their accusations.

That's why I call this the apologetic discourse. The apologetic discourse means Jesus is giving a defense.

He's giving a defense for his authority. He is giving his defense of working on the

Sabbath. He has not broken God's law because he has done an act of necessity and an act of mercy on the

Sabbath. That is not breaking the law of God. And he is defending himself because he is, in fact, the very

Son of God. He says that he has the authority to do what he has done, and he has the authority to judge and to give life.

Two authorities which, if you step back and think about it for a moment, belong only to God. God is the judge, but Jesus says the authority to judge is mine.

It's been given to me. God is the one who gives life, and Jesus says just as the Father has life in himself, so too has he granted the

Son to have life in himself. So he has the authority to judge. He has the authority to give life.

He has declared himself the Son of God, and they recognize that in doing so he was making himself equal with God.

So they said for this very reason they wanted to kill him. Verse 19, for that very reason they wanted to kill him, because he made himself equal with God.

So Jesus has defended himself. He's defended his authority. He's defended his ability to give life.

And last week we saw that Jesus called three witnesses to stand, as it were, in this tribunal, and he says the

Father has witnessed for me, and he has given me three witnesses. Remember the Old Testament required two or three witnesses to affirm something as legally true.

He says God has given me three witnesses. First he has given me John the Baptist, who you all believe is a prophet.

John has come, and what did John say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said there is the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John pointed to Jesus. He was

Jesus' first witness. But Jesus said it's not only

John who bears witness of me, but it's also my works that bear witness to me.

I come and I do things that no one has ever done. I do things in a way that no one has ever done. I claim an authority that no one has ever claimed.

Remember Jesus said how easy it is to say to someone their sins are forgiven. It would be easier to say that than to say rise and walk, rise and walk.

And the man would rise and walk, and Jesus had that authority. He had the authority to give healing. He had the authority to forgive sins.

He had all authority, and his works testified to who he was.

But the third witness, and this is where we left off last week, and I said we were going to move into it this week.

The third witness of the Lord Jesus Christ is the witness of the

Scriptures. Notice again verse 39. We left off here last week.

He says, you search the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

Now if you have a King James Bible, the King James Bible says, search the

Scriptures. It's in the imperative. Search the Scriptures because in them you think that you have eternal life. But the modern

English that we use, the English Standard Version, some of you use the New American Standard, some use the NIV, it comes in the indicative.

You search the Scriptures. And whether it is in the imperative or the indicative is not clear in the

Greek, and so I do tend to think that what Jesus is saying is you search, I think the indicative is actually correct here, because in this particular sense

Jesus is saying, you're the ones who are always looking in your Bibles. You're the ones who've memorized great portions of Scripture.

You are Bible people. And yet, even though you are

Bible people, thinking that in the Scriptures you have eternal life, yet you have not recognized that it's those very

Scriptures that testify to me. You search the Scriptures and yet you do not see what the

Scripture is really about. And remember, the Scriptures that he's talking about is the

Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. You understand he's not talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

He's not talking about Acts, Romans, or Corinthians, or Thessalonians, or Timothy, or Titus.

All of those would not be written for another few decades. In fact,

Jesus would have died somewhere at the beginning of the 30s, and the first writing of the

New Testament would have occurred somewhere, and this is an opinion based upon evidence.

It's not an ignorant opinion, but it's my opinion based upon internal and external evidence. First writings of the

New Testament would have been somewhere in the mid -40s. I think it was James, somewhere around 44. That puts

James pretty early. But I think it fits internally and externally, there's evidence for that.

First writings of Paul, in my opinion, would have been in the book of Galatians somewhere around 47, 48.

Because I believe it happened prior to the Jerusalem Council, which happens in Acts 15. That would have been somewhere around 49, 50.

So this is where we begin to compile our evidence when the New Testament was written. One thing we know for sure, when

Jesus was talking, there weren't no book of Romans. When Jesus was talking, there wasn't a gospel of Matthew.

So when Jesus says, you search the Scriptures, He's talking about Genesis through Malachi. He's talking about the

Old Testament Scriptures of the Jewish people. We have 39 books in our

Old Testament. The Jews have 24. You say, why do we have all those extra? We don't have any extra.

We just number them different. They don't have 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd

Chronicles. They just have Kings and Chronicles. They don't have 12 minor prophets. They just put them all together.

There's one set of prophets. When you read the Old Testament in the way the

Jews compile it, they order them differently. But it's all the same writings. It's called the

Tanakh, the Torah, the Netavim, and the Ketavim. It's the Old Testament writings. The law, the writings, and the prophets

Jesus would often refer to. And so that's the Scripture that Jesus is talking about.

When He says, you search the Scriptures, He's saying, you search from Moses to Malachi. Because in them you think you have eternal life.

But it is they that bear witness about Me. This is

Jesus' message to them. And He's making an interesting point. I'm going to quote here

Jameson Frost Brown, which is one of the very popular, it's a free commentary.

You can get it anywhere. It's a one volume commentary. But they make an interesting point at this verse.

They say, Jesus is showing honor to the Scriptures as bearing witness to the truth.

So Jesus is saying something positive about the Scripture here. This is important because there's so much today.

There's so many questions that people will bring up about the Scriptures. And people want to question the authenticity of the

Scriptures. People want to question the accuracy of the

Scriptures. People want to question whether or not what the Scripture says is true. Jesus believed in the truth of the

Scriptures. And He affirmed it by saying to the people, these Scriptures testify of Me.

Jesus is actually confirming again for us the truth of the

Old Testament. That the Old Testament is not just a book filled with fables and stories made up by a

Jewish committee. You know, there's actually a hypothesis among scholars. It's called the documentary hypothesis.

Which says Genesis through Deuteronomy, the first five books of the Bible, weren't written by Moses. But they were written by a committee.

Four different groups came together. It's called the JDPE groups.

Four different groups. And those four, if you've ever read, in fact, if you've ever read Jordan Peterson. He's not a

Christian scholar, by the way. Even though he talks a lot about the Bible. Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist.

Jordan Peterson, if you ever hear him talk about, I've read his book, 12 Rules for Men or something, whatever it was.

And I remember reading in the book, he kept talking about the Yahwist and the others.

The Yahwist is one of the four groups. And I said, this dude accepts the documentary hypothesis. He doesn't believe

Moses wrote this. You know who did believe Moses wrote it? Jesus, that's right.

And I'm going to agree with Jesus rather than Jordan Peterson. I'm going to agree with Jesus because Jesus said

Moses wrote about me. Which tells us Moses wrote. And it tells us what

Moses wrote was right. Because the Lord of Glory, the one who was actually there at creation, the one through whom all things were created, said it.

So I can trust the Old Testament. And I can trust that Moses actually did write the books that are attributed to him.

And that's the other thing Jameson Fawcett Brown said. Not only is he showing honor to the scriptures as bearing witness to the truth.

But he's opposing the idea that someone can rest in the scriptures without having him as the main subject.

No one can go to the Old Testament and find their rest in the scriptures without Christ being the subject.

If Jesus Christ is not the lens through which we read our

Old Testament, we will inevitably come to the wrong conclusion. Some people say, oh well you shouldn't do it that way.

You should go back and read according to the historical grammatical principle. That's a principle of hermeneutics.

I know that. We've taught that. Mike and I have taught hermeneutics here together. And when we teach hermeneutics we teach the grammatical historical principle.

Meaning you read according to the grammar and the history. But yet at the same time we also have the benefit of what's called progressive revelation.

Which means that when I read Genesis and I read

Romans, Romans interprets Genesis for me. I don't have to wonder what it meant in Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 when it says

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Because I can go to Romans 4 and the Apostle Paul tells me that what that means is

Abraham's faith brought the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to Abraham himself.

And if I don't interpret it that way, I am going to interpret it wrongly. Because the

Holy Spirit has given me a way in which to interpret my Bible. And that is through my

Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, this should not be controversial among Christians.

But unfortunately for some it is. For some it is. Jesus Christ is the lens.

He said so. You read Moses and you don't find me, you didn't understand Moses. You read

Moses and you don't come to the conclusion that I am who I say I am, then Moses is going to testify against you.

Alright, so having established now we're back to verse 41. We're going to work our way through the text.

Jesus has established his threefold witness. His threefold witness is John, his works, and the

Scriptures. Jesus has made his defense. Now he's going on offense. Jesus has made his defense.

He's given his apologia, his defense. Now he's going on offense. And Jesus is going to offer up two witnesses against his opponents.

Two witnesses against his opponents. Here are the witnesses. I'll put them on the screen. The first one is their hearts.

The second one is their hero. Their hearts is verses 41 to 44.

Their hero is verses 45 to 47. These are the witnesses. You know, because like in court, first you give your defense.

Then you may come and give your testimony, your offense. Now Jesus is going from the defense to the offense.

And now he's going to come at these men and he's going to say, here's the real problem. The problem is your hearts and your hero. So let's look first at their hearts.

Verse 41, Jesus said, I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from only

God? Now, what is Jesus saying here? Jesus is addressing the fact that the men who are attacking him, the men who are coming at him, the men who are saying that he is deserving death, back at verse 19, they wanted to kill him, that they in fact were the ones whose hearts were wicked.

Verse 41, Jesus says, I do not receive glory from people. Now, that does not mean that Jesus never had anyone give him praise or glory.

He did. I mean, we think about the several times that that happened through the life of Christ, when people would come and praise him.

I mean, throngs of people followed him. But what Jesus is saying in verse 41, is that was not what he was seeking.

And he's juxtaposing himself against his opponents. Verse 41 and verse 44,

I believe, are a juxtaposition. Verse 41 is Jesus saying, I am not seeking or I don't receive glory from people, but you receive glory from one another.

You receive glory from one another. And that's the difference. Jesus was doing what?

Seeking to glorify his Father. Everything Jesus did, he pointed to the Father. He pointed to the power of the

Spirit. But these men sought glory for themselves.

They sought glory for their own name. And Jesus is addressing the problem with their heart.

Notice 42 is really the big issue. He says, you do not have the love of God within you.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine? To say to somebody,

Remember, these Jewish people, these leaders, especially the Pharisees and the scribes, many of them had memorized whole long portions of Scripture.

Some had memorized the entire Old Testament Scripture. They had devoted their life to the law of God. They were considered to be the most religious people in the land.

And Jesus says, you do not have the love of God in your heart. How frightening it is to consider the fact that someone may spend their whole life being religious and not have the love of God in their heart.

How sad it would be to be the person who hears, depart from me,

I never knew you. But Jesus tells us there will be people on that day who come to me and say,

Lord, have we not done many mighty works in your name and done miracles in your name and cast out demons in your name?

And I will look at them and I will say, depart from me, I know you not. It is not enough to have religious affections.

It is not enough to darken the door of a church. We must have a changed heart.

We must have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we must love God. Jesus said in 1

Corinthians 16, if you do not love Him, you are not saved.

And He just told these people they are not saved. You do not have the love of God in your heart.

I just can't, I can't fathom that reality.

But isn't it so obvious when we look out at the state of the modern church that this same accusation that the

Lord Jesus Christ is leveling against His Jewish opponents could be leveled against so many in the modern church who are very religious but do not love

God. Remember when

Paul was in Athens and he walked around and he looked at all their statues and then he found the one to the unknown

God? What did he say to the people at Mars Hill? I can see that you're very religious.

You even have a statue to an unknown God. But this God you do not know, I proclaim to you. And he went on to proclaim the

Lord Jesus Christ. This moment in the discourse would have been the moment where their hatred of the

Lord Jesus Christ would have become incensed. How dare you tell me I don't love

God? But Jesus knew their hearts.

And He knew that with all their religious expressions none of it was done out of love for God.

Verse 43. I've come in my Father's name and you do not receive me.

If another comes in his own name you will receive him. Now we don't know exactly who

Jesus is referring to here specifically or even if He is specifically speaking of a certain person.

We do know that there were many false teachers who were received by the Jews, many false messiahs that were proclaimed to believe to possibly be the

Messiah. It could be one of those or it could be all of those. Jesus' point is this. You accept men with no credentials.

You accept men with no witnesses. I have come with the witness of John with the witness of my works and with the witness of the word of God and you reject me.

But other men come with no credibility with no credentials and you welcome them. This is the man who comes with the false flattering words and the church has received them but a man comes simply preaching the word of God and he is rejected.

You've all probably seen the picture online of the two lines and one line says tickling the ears, telling them what they want health and wealth and prosperity and that line is long.

And then over here it just says expositional preaching and there's one guy standing there with his arms out because no one wants to come.

You will welcome the one who comes in his own name but you will not welcome the one who comes in the name of the Lord. That's the heart of the unconverted man.

By the way, that's their heart. Their hearts are unconverted. That's the problem. The unconverted heart can be very religious but it doesn't love

God and it seeks its own glory. Hear that again. The unconverted heart can be very religious but it doesn't love

God and it seeks its own glory. Again, verse 44. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that comes from the only

God? You are seeking glory from one another. You are seeking to pat each other on the back and tell each other how great you are and how wonderful you are but you're not seeking the glory of God.

Again, Jesus is coming at them directly. It's no holds barred.

The gloves are off. This is bare knuckle brawl. I'm going to tell you what your problem is. Your problem is you don't love

God and your hearts are cold and dark and far from Him and your problem is you want glory for yourselves and not glory for Him.

That's what Jesus is saying. When I read this,

I have an odd illustration and I want to share it with you. I hope it makes sense to you because it's one of those illustrations that comes from my life and maybe it will make sense.

I think it will. Y 'all know we have our karate program here at the church and I've been in karate for over 30 years.

I started in 1994 and over the years

I have spent time in training with men who have various levels of degrees of belts and everything else and one thing

I started recognizing years ago is just how much karate people like to congratulate one another and how much they like to glorify one another and I would go to these seminars and I would see them start passing out promotions and this one would promote this one and he'd turn around and promote the other one and they would ride the promotion train while everybody's going around promoting everybody else.

I saw a guy one time, normal karate belt's two and a half inches wide. I saw a guy whose belt was five inches wide, gold plated, couldn't even tie the stupid thing, had tassels hanging off of it and he walked around, his whole body was all broken up, couldn't get nowhere, but he had this giant belt he couldn't barely hold up and I just got to thinking how silly we are when we want the glory of men.

We want somebody to bow down to our big golden belt. Well I know y 'all don't all do karate so maybe that don't make sense but you know that's in just about every culture of men.

There's some way that men want glory from other men. They want to be spoken well of, they want to be lifted up, they want to be glorified, they want the accolades of men and Jesus said the problem is you don't want the glory of God.

Pharisees had their phylacteries, those things that held the scripture. He says you make your phylacteries broad and your tassels long.

You come into the city and people blow their horns when you're coming and they announce your arrival and yet you don't love

God. Jesus is getting to the heart of the issue and the heart of the issue is the problem.

Their heart was the problem. Now their heart witnesses against them.

That's verses 41 to 44 but beginning at verse 45

Jesus now says but also your hero witnesses against you.

Now who was their hero? Moses. Moses would have been the hero of the

Pharisees. He was the one who gave them the law. He was also the hero of the Sadducees. The Sadducees did not believe the whole

Old Testament. In fact they didn't believe in resurrection, they didn't believe in the supernatural angels and things like that but they still held to the law of Moses because the law gave them social accountability, order and authority.

So even though they didn't hold to the supernatural they still held to the value of the law.

So Jesus with an audience, certainly of Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees and others says

Moses your hero is actually your prosecutor. The one you put your hope in is actually the one who's going to stand up and testify against you.

Look at verse 45. He says do not think that I will accuse you to the Father.

Why? Why doesn't Jesus accuse them to the Father? Because he doesn't need to. Because the accusation's already been made.

The prosecutor has already spoken and the prosecutor is Moses himself.

He says there's one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

Can I say this about that? Moses is one of the most important figures in history.

Moses wrote those first five books of the Bible. The only part he didn't write I would argue probably be the end of Deuteronomy because it talks about him dying.

Hard to write after you die. I believe Joshua probably finished

Deuteronomy to tell of Moses' death. Moses gives us the law which points us to Christ.

First use of the law according to the Apostle Paul. It's a schoolmaster. Shows us our sin.

Points us to the Savior. Because you can't keep the law yourself. You've got to have a

Savior who kept the law for you. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. So I say this to you today.

If your hope is set on Moses, you're lost. If your hope is set on the law, you're lost.

And that's Jesus' point. He says here, he says, you think I'm going to accuse you?

I'm not going to accuse you of the Father. There is one who accuses you of Moses. You set your hope on him. And guess what?

The only hope you have in him is the dreadful assurance of your own condemnation.

The law condemns. And you all know this. You walk through the law and you tell me it doesn't condemn you.

I mean how many times from this very pulpit have Mike, Andy, and I, and other preachers come and said, look at the law and compare it to yourself and you will find yourself wanting.

Have you ever told a lie? Yes, then you're a liar and you deserve the condemnation of God. Revelation 21 .8 says all liars will have their place in the lake of fire.

So what are you going to do, liar? Better have a Savior. Jesus said if any man looks at a woman to lust after her, he's committed adultery with her in his heart.

What are you going to do, adulterer? Stand before God and plead your goodness? You better not. Because if you stand before God and plead your goodness, you will find yourself condemned before that holy

God that Andy was talking about in Sunday school. That holy God will not be trifled with on the day of judgment.

You'll receive forgiveness because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ or you will stand in the condemnation of your own sins and there will be no middle way.

There will be no purgatory. There will be no other direction. There is a broad road that leads to destruction and a narrow road that leads to life and that narrow road is the

Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses will not help you.

Moses will only condemn you. Verse 46,

For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me. Now, one of my favorite things to do and one of my favorite things to teach and unfortunately time is fleeting today but I've taught it in the past and I'll teach it again in the future.

But I love to walk through the Old Testament and show the

Lord Jesus Christ. I love it. One, it's amazing.

It's encouraging. But it's also the right way to understand it.

And what I wanted to do for you today just as a reminder because we are going into the Christmas season. Brother Mike will be preaching next

Sunday so this is technically my Christmas message. Well, no, I guess I get to do the Vesper service but that will be short.

It's my last real sermon before Christmas. I want to at least remind you how you see

Jesus in the Old Testament. What does Jesus mean when He says if you believe Moses, you believe me? What does

He mean by that? You remember when Jesus was on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples who couldn't recognize

Him for whatever reason. Jesus was unrecognizable to them but then Jesus explained to them from the

Scriptures. This is in Luke chapter 24. It says in Luke 24 that Jesus explained to them from the

Scriptures all the things that were about Him. Beginning with Moses, He interpreted them, the

Scriptures, the things pertaining to Himself. Luke chapter 24. How do we see

Jesus in the Old Testament? There are three ways. Three ways that we see Jesus in the Old Testament. The first way is through what we call types and shadows.

The second way is what we call prophecies. And the third way is pre -incarnate appearances.

Now again, this could be a whole lesson. I'm going to shorten it, simplify it. But understand, we could do this for weeks to walk through these.

What is a type or a shadow? A type is a reference of something in the

Old Testament that has a specific fulfillment in the New Testament. The word type is actually used in the

New Testament. You don't have to turn there. But in Romans chapter 5, verse 14, it says this.

Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type.

Greek word tupos, that's where we get the word type. Who was a type of the One who was to come.

Literally, the Apostle Paul says Adam was a type of Christ. Now how was

Adam a type of Christ? Adam, created by God, had no sin when he was created.

And he represented humanity. And he fell. And he brought us with him.

We are in Adam from birth. What does 1 Corinthians 15 say? In Adam all die.

Jesus comes and Paul says he is the last Adam. He is the second.

And there's only two. There's the first Adam who came and brought death. And then there's Jesus who came and brought life.

And if you are in Christ, guess what? Your sins are forgiven. Your righteousness is secure.

And you are adopted into the family of God. You who were estranged because of your sin have been brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's what happens when we go from being in Adam to being in Christ. That way

Adam is a type of Christ. There are many other types of Christ in the

Old Testament. The Passover Lamb is a type of Christ. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says

Jesus Christ is our Passover. You say, how is Jesus our Passover? Well, let me think about it.

There is this lamb whose blood is shed. Its blood is then put over the doorpost and the lintel of the house so that when the judgment of God makes its way through Egypt, the judgment of God passes over that house because it's protected by the blood.

When we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood covers us and we are saved from the wrath of God.

The manna from heaven is a type of Christ. Jesus is going to say this in John 6. He says the manna that fell from heaven,

I am the bread come down from heaven. The rock in the wilderness that gave

Him the water, the Apostle Paul says that rock was Christ. The high priest was a type of Christ.

Melchizedek, the priest of Salem was a type of Christ. Some people believe that was actually Christ, the pre -incarnate

Christ. I tend to believe it was a type of Christ, not necessarily pre -incarnation. But either way, we know that represented the priestly order of Christ because Hebrews tells us

He's a priest according to the order of who? Melchizedek, because He's not a Levite. He's a lion from the tribe of Judah.

But He comes in as a priest, how? By the order of Melchizedek, appointed by God as a priest.

The whole sacrificial system pointed to Christ. Even that ram caught in the thicket when

Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. And God said, touch not your son.

And he saw the ram. That was Jesus, the substitute for Isaac, who later would substitute for you.

All of this points to and pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the

Sabbath day, according to the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2 .16, it says in Colossians 2 .16,

let no one judge you according to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, for these things are a shadow.

The word shadow is skia in Greek. It means that which is cast by something else, right?

The shadow is cast when the light hits the real thing, it casts a shadow. It says that was a shadow, but the substance, the real thing is

Jesus. Your rest comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what your Sabbath is. It is the person of the

Lord Jesus Christ. You rest in him. Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We could do this all day, guys. The ark was a shadow, a picture.

And I haven't left Moses yet. We didn't get to all the rest. I'm just showing you this is all in Moses.

Everything I just said comes from Genesis through Deuteronomy. That's just types and shadows.

Now think about the prophecies. What's the first prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ? Genesis 3 .15.

Right after the fall, right after mankind brought sin into the world,

God looks at man and he gives them a promise. He says one is going to come from the seed of the woman and he's going to crush the head of the serpent.

The serpent crusher will come. The seed of the woman. And in the fullness of time,

God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law and give them the adoption of sons.

The serpent crusher is the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses also talked about a prophet who will come.

He said there's a prophet coming like me. God's words will be in his mouth. Listen to him.

That's Deuteronomy 18 .15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me among you from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. All of the

Old Testament leaders, all the Old Testament prophets pointed forward to Jesus that one fulfillment, that final fulfillment of that one who would come.

Remember when the woman at the well said, or rather not the woman at the well, the men who came to John, they said, are you the prophet?

Are you this one? And he said, no, I'm not. I'm the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the path of the

Lord. He's coming. And the axe is laid at the root of the tree.

Finally, the pre -incarnate appearances. We call these

Christophanies. A Christophany is when the Lord Jesus Christ manifests prior to the incarnation.

These would have been appearances, but not incarnations. There is a difference. When Jesus came in the incarnation, he took on flesh as a man, and literally humanity and divinity were joined together in the hypostatic union.

It was a miracle, and it was distinct from all of the other appearances of the

Lord Jesus Christ. But he did appear in the Old Testament as a man. Probably the most famous time is in Isaiah 6.

I know this isn't in Moses' writing, but in Isaiah 6 it says, Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon his throne, high and lifted up.

Well, in John chapter 12, John actually tells us he saw Christ. He saw Christ.

That was who was seated on the throne. So we know Christ appeared in the Old Testament, no doubt.

But if we do go back to Genesis, and we want to see this in Moses, probably the most clear time was the time when those three men came to eat with Abraham underneath the oak trees at Mamre, and one of those men was the

Lord. The two angels who were with him went on to Sodom to save Lot.

But you know what Genesis chapter 19 says? Listen to this.

This is verse 24. It says, Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the

Lord out of heaven. So you have the Lord on earth standing next to Abraham, and from heaven the

Lord rains fire. This is an early veiled reference to the

Trinity, because we have the Lord and the Lord. But Jesus is there.

By the way, when people say, Oh, Jesus is too kind to judge. He wasn't too kind to judge Sodom. He wasn't too kind to let the smoke and fire and flame of their iniquity burn and rise from the earth.

The Lord Jesus Christ was there. The Lord Jesus Christ was there. You know, there's no section of the

Bible which is more attacked than the first five books. If you read scholarship and you read especially critical scholarship, you will find over and over and over again,

Moses didn't write it. Moses wasn't the author. Moses is not the one who put this together. Moses wasn't even literate, you'll hear people say, as if they could know.

Certainly he didn't spend 40 years in the education of Egypt.

Certainly he couldn't have written. That would have been foolish to believe such a thing, right? No, but all of that to say, we have the word of the

Lord Jesus Christ, which confirms the words of Moses, which tells us this very thing is true.

If you do not believe his writings, you won't believe in Jesus. But if you do believe in Jesus, you'll believe what

Moses said about it. So my question to you today, my question to you is simple.

Do you believe what Moses said about Jesus? Or will Moses be your prosecutor?

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your truth. And I pray, oh God, as we consider the writings that give us the words of the

Lord Jesus Christ, which point us to the writings of Moses, let us, Lord, remember that all of the Bible is about Jesus.

And may it be, oh God, that for the believer today, that they are encouraged and affirmed in their faith, ready yet again to walk a week following the

Lord Jesus Christ. And for those who do not know Christ, whether they be young or old, whether they be man or woman, whether they be visitor or even member,

Lord, if they do not know Christ, for whatever reason, Lord, I pray that today would be the day of salvation.