The Jews had hoped for centuries for a Messianic King to come and rescue them.  They also had hopes for a suffering Servant of the Lord (prophesied by Isaiah), and they even had a vague expectation of a “son of man” who would appear at the end of the age (Daniel).  What they never fathomed, though, was that all three of these figures would turn out to be the same man!  No one ever pulled those three strands together–at least not until Jesus.

Jesus, however, not only declared himself to be the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hopes (that is, the King), but also constantly referred to himself as the divine “Son of Man” from Daniel 7.  Even more, Jesus said of the Son of Man that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), which points unmistakably to the suffering Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53:10.

Do you see what Jesus was claiming?  He was saying that he himself fulfilled–all at the same time–the roles of the Davidic Messiah, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, and Daniel’s Son of Man!  Jesus took the divine nature of the Son of Man, joined to it the substitutionary suffering of the Servant, and finally combined all that with his messianic role.  By the time Jesus finished gathering together all the threads of Jewish hope, this King was infinitely more than the earthly revolutionary the Jews were hoping for.  He was the divine Servant-King, who would suffer and die for his people to win their salvation, make them righteous in his Father’s eyes, and bring them gloriously into his kingdom. (p.94-95 “What Is the Gospel”)

If you have not read Alfred Poirier’s excellent article on receiving criticism and critique well, you need to read this article. It is the finest article on the subject I am aware of.

Mark Driscoll asks R.C. Sproul, “Does God desire all people to be saved?”

HT: JT

Think of an enormous, heavy, ponderous flywheel. That is the gospel. And once you get the gospel going, once you get the gospel moving, there is a deep understanding and a deep personal appreciation of the gospel. It has the power to carry with it incredible weight. It has the power to get things done as you attach things to this moving flywheel.

People can feel like the gospel is not close to them. But when you start talking about condemnation, or when you start talking about some of these other patterns of thought, they are very close to where people live. And so when you attach that truth to the gospel, now the gospel is doing its work in a way that is very close to where people live. This is how the gospel functions for them.

- Quotes from Mike Bullmore’s message “The Functional Centrality of the Gospel” at the 2005 Sovereign Grace Leaders Conference

As promised on Sunday, here are the links to a series we did a few years back on biblical masculinity and femininity:

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (part 1): Equal But Different (MP3)

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (part 2): The Husband’s Role (MP3)

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (part 3): The Wife’s Role In Marriage (MP3)

Ligon Duncan is a good friend of our family of churches, Sovereign Grace Ministries. He is the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi.  Enjoy listening to Mr. Duncan present the Gospel in this video.

Steve Heitland, member of the pastoral team at Crossway Church in Lancaster, gave an excellent message this past Sunday entitled, “John Calvin and the Glory of God.” For those interested in learning more about Calvin, Steve recommends several excellent resources on the Crossway Church blog here.

Reflection on pp 21-23 of Big Truths for Young Hearts, by Bruce Ware.

Our God is a talking God and has chosen to talk to us in the pages of Holy Scripture.  What an amazing truth with life-altering, life-shaping implications.  As Dr. Ware writes, “We can far too easily ignore the Bible or spend too little time reading from it.  But when we realize what it really is, we desire to spend much more time learning just what the Bible says.  Yes, it is true.  What the Bible says is what God says; as the Bible speaks to us, God speaks to us.”

What an amazing truth to consider – a holy and infinite God has made himself known to finite sinners such as you and me. One of the ways He has made Himself known is through creation (Psalm 19:1-2, Romans 1:19-20). Dr. Ware has put it this way: “We truly do learn much about God’s greatness and glory just by noticing the world all around us.” What will you notice of God glory in creation today? What will you notice that you will point out to your children?

Reflection on pp 18-20 of Big Truths for Young Hearts, by Bruce Ware.

Question: In that silly story about Jonah getting swallowed by a whale, certainly you don’t believe that really happened, do you? Was he a real man or a fictitious character to begin with? Did he really spend a weekend inside a whale? Did he really go on to preach in Nineveh?

Good questions.

Answer: Yes, I believe Jonah was a real man, a prophet, who was also swallowed by a “great fish” (whale?), who spent three days inside that fish, before eventually finding his way to Nineveh. How do I know? I know because Jesus confirms these facts by the testimony of his own mouth (Matt. 12:39-41). Jesus assumes the validity of the story, so I affirm it, too. I’m with Jesus.

Let’s try another one.

Question: Did the Genesis flood really happen? Did Noah really build an ark? Did the flood really destroy the population? Wasn’t the flood story just a rip-off from some ancient flood myth told by the Babylonians?

Let’s ask Jesus.

Answer: “And he said to the disciples, ‘… Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:22,26-27). I’m with Jesus.

Let’s turn to the authenticity of scripture.

Question: How many authors composed the book of Isaiah? Some scholars would say the book has multiple authors (2 or 3), some doubt that any of the authors could have been the prophet Isaiah himself, thereby undercutting the authority of scripture in some ways. So how do we answer? Ask Jesus.

Answer: In the gospels we see that Jesus assumes that the prophet Isaiah wrote the book of Isaiah, citing Isaiah as the single author, and alluding to no secondary authors (see Matt 13:14 and Isa 6:9-10, Matt 15:7 and Isa 29:13). I’m with Jesus.

The same works on a critical issue of personal salvation.

Question: Is Jesus really the only way to God? Aren’t there multiple paths to heaven?

Answer: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). I’m with Jesus.

That’s how it works.

Actually, consider collecting your own list of difficult questions and then go read the gospels. See if Jesus answers your questions or makes allusions that help to answer your questions. You may be surprised at what you learn.

This method of apologetics will not answer every question (I know) but it certainly helps out with some of the biggest questions.

Read the whole article here.