Title: The Meaning of the Cross Pt 2: The Purpose of Christ’s Coming

Text: Matt 21:1-9

Date: 4-1-07.am

Passage:

Mt 21:1-9

1 And when they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them, and bring them to Me. 3 "And if anyone says something to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." 4 Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying,

5 "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold your King is coming to you,

Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, 6 And the disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them, 7 and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid on them their garments, on which He sat. 8 And most of the multitude spread their garments in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. 9 And the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying,

"Hosanna to the Son of David;

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;

Hosanna in the highest!" NASB

Introduction:

We mentioned a few weeks ago that the Old Testament as well as the New is the Story of Jesus. In the Old Testament we find the prophetic expectation and preparation for His coming. The New Testament is the story of His fulfillment of the Old. The Old Testament is essential for believers because we cannot fully understand the story of Jesus until we are familiar with what He came to fulfill and how He came to fulfill the Old. That’s what we want to talk about this morning. The meaning of the cross from Jesus’ perspective and the purpose of His coming.

First, Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness – to fulfill all that was written concerning the coming Messiah and the coming Kingdom of God in the Old Testament. Jesus made reference numerous times concerning fulfillment in relation to Himself.

At His baptism when John the Baptist was somewhat reluctant to baptize Him and felt Jesus should instead be baptizing him, Jesus said, in Mt 3:15, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." NASB Or let us do all that righteousness requires. Jesus had no sin. But he was about to begin His earthly ministry.

His baptism gave approval to John's ministry. It identified Him with the people He came to save. It also pictured His future baptism on the cross (Mt 20:22; Lk 12:50) when all the "waves and billows" of God's judgment would go over Him (Ps 42:7; Jn 2:3).

After His baptism Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. When His period of temptation was completed Jesus got word of John the Baptist’s imprisonment. The Bible says Jesus returned to Galilee and In Mt 4:13-14

13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles —

16 "The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light,

And to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death,

Upon them a light dawned."

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." NASB

Today is the day we celebrate “Palm Sunday” – the day Matthew spoke of in chapter 21 where Jesus rode into Jerusalem seated on a donkey and the crowd was shouting and waving palm branches. Jesus had entered Jerusalem before why was this time special why was it different? The answer is in the Old Testament.

Zec 9:9 (520 B.C.)

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. NASB

Jer 23:5 (627-587 B. C.)

5 "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. NASB

Jesus was and is the complete fulfillment of all the Bible.

Second Jesus was personally obedient.

We read in Heb 10:7-10: 7"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come

 (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.'"

8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. NASB

The Pharisees accused Christ of disobeying some of their man-made additions to the legal code. But He flawlessly followed Mosaic Law as given by God. This is an important distinction since Jesus cannot be called a holy and blameless sacrifice unless He was totally submissive to the Father.

Jesus prayed in the Garden that if there was some other way for Him to fulfill the Father’s will let it happen, but none the less He prayed not for His will but the Father’s will to be done and then he proceeded to allow the events leading to the cross to happen.

Third , Christ completed God's moral law. Ben touched on this last week. Through His teaching and by His example, Jesus explained that the moral law was more than just a set of rules to follow. The Father's commands are guiding principles for a successful life. Matt 5:17-20

Mt 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. NASB

When Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets what he did was make them complete and give them true meaning. The prophecies were complete because he was the fulfillment of what was prophesied. There was no one else to look forward to Messiah had come, He was here in the flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He was the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace the descendant of David.

This is the heart of Jesus' message, for it demonstrates His relationship to the Law of God. Jesus was not presenting a rival system to the Law of Moses and the words of the Prophets, but a true fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets - in contrast with the Pharisees' traditions.

"The Law and the Prophets" here refer to the entire Old Testament (cf. 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Lk 16:16; Ac 13:15; 24:14; 28:23; Ro 3:21). This expression, "I tell you the truth," points to a solemn declaration that His hearers should take note or pay close attention. It occurs 31 times in Matthew alone. (In the Gospel of John this Gr. word always occurs twice: "Amen, Amen." Cf. comments on John 1:51.)

Jesus' fulfillment of the law extended to the smallest Hebrew letter, the "jot" (lit., yod), and even to the smallest stroke of a Hebrew letter, the "tittle." In English a jot would correspond to the dot above the letter "i" (and look like an apostrophe), and a tittle would be seen in the difference between a "P" and an "R". The small angled line that completes the "R" is like a tittle. These things are important because letters make up words and even a slight change in a letter might change the meaning of a word. Jesus said He would fulfill the Law by obeying it perfectly and would fulfill the prophets' predictions of the Messiah and His kingdom. But the responsibility of the people was made clear. The righteousness they were currently seeking - that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law - was insufficient for entrance into the kingdom Jesus was offering. The righteousness He demanded was not merely external; it was a true inner righteousness based on faith in God's Word (Ro 3:21-22).

Jesus Christ fulfilled Gods Law in every area of His life. He fulfilled it in His birth because He was "made under the Law" (Gal 4:4) As a child He fulfilled it because His parents followed the rituals prescribed by the Law. He certainly fulfilled the Law in His life, for nobody was ever able to accuse Him of sin. Certainly though He did not submit to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, He always did what God commanded in the Law.

Jesus also fulfilled the Law in His teaching. It was his teaching that brought Him into conflict with the religious leaders. When He began His ministry, Jesus found the Living Word of God bound with man-made traditions and interpretations. He broke the bond of ritualistic religion and called the people back to God's Word. He opened the Word to them in a new and living way.

They were accustomed to the "letter" of the Law and not the inner "essence" of life. For example, the Israelites avoided adulterous acts in order to keep the seventh commandment. But in Matthew 5: 28, Jesus said that someone who lusts after another person has already committed adultery in the heart. The life principle here is that of purity, not ritual legalism.

Jesus said unless our righteousness exceeded that of the Scribes and Pharisees we will not enter heaven. The people listening to Jesus wondered how can we ever live up to that? We ask the same question how in the world can we live up to that? In everything in all areas we fall far short of God’s standard of righteousness. (Matt 5:20)

The Apostle Paul saw that in his own life. In Ro 7:18-20 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. (HCSB)

We are the same way. So what’s the answer to our dilemma? How can our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, if the Apostle Paul struggled with sin how in the world can I possibly overcome it? The answer is by the cross of Christ!

Finally, Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice – for us.

The cross, a hideous and cruel instrument of torture and death is an expression of God’s supreme love for humanity (Jn. 10:9-11; 15; 17-18; Heb. 12:1-2; Col 1:15-17; Gal 1:4) It is a gracious act of substitution (Isa. 53:4-6; 10; Matt. 20:27-28; Rom. 5:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; 1 Jn. 2:1-2). And sacrifice The sinless Lamb of God was the substitutional sacrifice for all mankind (Jn. 3:16; Gal 1:4; Eph. 2:1-3; 2 Cor. 4; Rom. 5).

The Law was clear death is the penalty for sin. (Genesis 2:17) God warned Adam to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would result in death. That was both physical death and spiritual death. This is amplified in the New Testament in Rom 6:23. The wages of sin is death and the Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

On the cross, Jesus became our substitute, He was our atoning sacrifice. The Old Testament sacrificial system is a picture of that fact. In the Law it is an animal that substitutes or atones for individuals. We get a clear picture of this and a preview of sorts of the cross of Christ in Lev 16. In that chapter are the requirements for the Day of Atonement. Part of those requirements include the High Priest symbolically placing the sin of the nation on a scapegoat. That’s exactly what Jesus Christ was for every believer. And through His death, He fulfilled God's lawful requirement of righteousness. It was the atoning sacrifice once and for all for the sin and the sins of all the world His righteousness which far exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees is imputed or credited to those who believe in Him.

In Ro 4:3-5 Paul wrote:

3 For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. So too our faith is reckoned as righteousness.

On the cross Jesus paid it all. He atoned for our sin, gave us access to God, and provided an example by which to live. He fulfilled all righteousness, He was obedient, He fulfilled the law and He was our sacrifice. We fulfill all righteousness when we trust Christ and by faith become part of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is imputed or reckoned to us. As believers we must be obedient always striving to obey the teachings and commands of Jesus who is both Savior and Lord. The moral law finds fulfillment in us when it becomes a part of our life, not to earn salvation, but to live a life in fellowship and pleasing to God. We live by the precepts of the Law out of love rather than compulsion. And finally like Christ we must become sacrifices, not sacrifices for sin, but living and holy sacrifices unto God which Hebrews 12:1 says is an act of worship to Him. Jesus paid it all for you are you willing to give your all for Him?