Copyright © 2004 S P Townsend
The Purpose and Passion of the Messiah
1. The Messiah’s Mission
Reading: Psalm 45
On these four Sunday evenings in the month of November we are going to consider the topic “The Purpose and Passion of the Messiah.” Now when speaking of the Messiah the word “passion” is traditionally taken to refer to the suffering he endured in the last hours leading up to his death. But the word “passion” in general means far more than this. It speaks of a heart set on fire. It speaks of an unswerving purpose. It speaks of dedication and determination. It speaks of deep commitment and enthusiasm. It speaks of unquenchable zeal. At Christmas time we often read those ancient, beautiful words from the book of Isaiah chapter 9 commencing, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” The passage concludes with these words: “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this; the zeal of the Lord Almighty. What I want us to think about over these next few weeks is this: what is it that God is so zealous about, so passionate about, and that His Messiah pursues with such total commitment and determination. What is the purpose and passion of the Messiah?
Why should we do this? There is nothing, nothing more important for us to do than to seek the heart of God, to learn to understand the passion that beats within His heart, and then to allow that passion to consume our hearts, minds and lives.
To help us in this search we are going to consider four aspects of the ministry of the Messiah over these four Sunday evenings:
First of all we need to be sure that we understand what is meant by this title of ‘Messiah.’ The word ‘messiah’ comes from a Hebrew word meaning ‘anointed one’. The equivalent word in Greek is ‘christos’, from which we get the title ‘Christ’. In the Old Testament prophets, priests and kings were all referred to as ‘anointed ones’, because they received a special dispensation of God’s Holy Spirit in order to fulfil their roles. Very often oil was poured on the individual as a symbol of the anointing.
The anointing involved three things.
chosen and called by God for their specific role, and set apart, or sanctified, for this purpose.
carrying out their role in God’s name and with the full weight of His authority behind them.
anointed by the Holy Spirit, and equipped by Him for the role.
As well as this general meaning the term ‘anointed one’ is used in the Bible to refer to one individual in particular, the Anointed One, or Messiah. This individual is distinguished by the fact that he fulfils all three functions of prophet, priest and king (Deut 18:17,18; Zech 6:12,13). He has a multiplicity of names and titles: Root of Jesse; David my Servant; The Branch; The Lord our Righteousness; Shepherd; Redeemer; and many more. All other anointed ones were notable for their failure to fully carry out God’s purposes; in one way or another they fell short. The Messiah alone would perfectly accomplish what God intended (Isa 63:5; Ps 40:7,8).
“He was appalled that there was no-one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him” (Isa 59:16, NIV)
Christians, of course, identify the Messiah with Jesus of Nazareth. This is the cornerstone of our faith, as expressed initially by the apostle Peter in response to Jesus’ questioning, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). This wasn’t because he worked it out for himself. According to Jesus, Peter understood this only because God himself had revealed it (Matt 16:17). You see, trying to work it out for ourselves is particularly difficult. The problem is that the prophetic writings about the Messiah and what he would come to do seem to teach mutually incompatible roles.
The Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah presented the readers with a riddle On the one hand the prophets foretold of one who would come to bring peace on earth. He will be called “Prince of Peace”, and “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isa 9:6,7). On the other hand the scriptures spoke of one who would bring war. “I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries” (Ps 89:23).
On the one hand the psalmist said that his lips would be anointed with grace (Ps 45:2). On the other hand he will “strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked” (Isa 11:4).
On the one hand God says of him, “I will appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth; I will maintain my love to him for ever” (Ps 89:27,28). On the other hand the psalmist cries out, “but you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been angry with your Anointed One … You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame” (Ps 89:38-45).
On the one hand he is anointed with the oil of joy (Ps 45:7). On the other hand he is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3).
On the one hand he is the “most excellent of men” (Ps 45:2). On the other hand he is “despised and rejected by men” (Isa 53:3).
On the one hand he is strong (Ps 89:19). On the other hand he is weak (Zech 13:7)
On the one hand his throne will last for ever and ever (Ps 45:6). On the other hand he is “cut off from the land of the living” and “assigned a grave with the wicked “ (Isa 53:8,9).
On the one hand he will come from Bethlehem (Mic 5:2). On the other hand “out of Egypt I have called my son” (Hos 11:1).
On the one hand he is described as divine (Ps 45:6). On the other hand he is described as human (Ps 45:2).
We need a key to the riddle, and the key is found in the letter to the Hebrews 9:28:
“The Anointed One was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
The Messiah would come twice. He would come once as one who would be despised, not only spurned by man but also rejected by God, cut off in his prime. He would come a second time as conquering hero, delivering retribution on the wicked and justice to the oppressed.
With this in mind, we can piece together the jig-saw puzzle and understand the mission that the Messiah would come to accomplish.
The Hebrews passage (Heb 9:28) not only gives us the key, but it also gives a clear pointer to one important aspect of what the Messiah comes to do. He will deal completely and unequivocally with the problem of evil.
The Messiah overcomes evil in three ways.
The first way is to transform evil people into righteous people. To those who are willing to change, he makes an incredible offer: to take upon himself their guilt, to bear their sentence, and to set them free to live completely righteous lives in God’s sight.
The second is to deliver final and complete judgement on all who persist in evildoing. Every single immoral thought or action will receive its just retribution.
Thirdly, he will reign justly over a world in which evil is banished and righteousness and peace prevail.
Now, just in case there is any misunderstanding, we should be clear that dealing with evil is but one aspect of the Messiah’s mission and passion. There are other aspects, which possibly in God’s order of things would be reckoned to be far more important. One day evil will be no more, but God’s purposes will continue, even as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (! Cor 2:9). But certainly the need to deal with the problem of evil in the world is one of the main reasons why the Messiah was promised.
The problem of evil occupies every book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is the biggest issue that troubles us in our personal and corporate lives. Whether it is coping with malice or deception, theft or violence, accident or tragedy, sickness or death, our hearts cry out with the unfairness of it all and our longing for it all, somehow, to be set to rights.
Evil is anything that opposes God’s purpose. It is as simple and dreadful as that. In the creation narrative we read of God speaking his word, and of his purpose being accomplished. “Let there be light”, and there was light (Gen 1:3). The very first time we read of God saying “Let it be so” and it not happening was when he expressed his will to Adam and Eve and they defied it, in Genesis chapter 3.
But they were not the first to assert their wills over and against God’s expressed purpose. There was another who enticed them, referred to in the Genesis narrative as “the serpent”, but elsewhere in Scripture identified as the devil, or Satan – The Accuser – who leads the whole world astray (Rev 12:9). It is impossible to look at the problem of evil from a biblical perspective without considering his role.
His purposes include the following.
Concerning Job, Satan says to God, “stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face” (Job 1:11). His claim is that man will only live for God because God makes it easy for him to do so – any love or obedience is only skin deep.
From the initial temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-4) to the final deception of the nations (Rev 20:7-10) Satan is bent on deceiving the world and leading it astray (Rev 12:9). He blinds men’s minds so that they cannot understand the truth (2 Cor 4:4).
Satan accuses men before God continuously (Rev 12:10). He wants men to suffer in full the consequences of their rebellion. He wants God’s plans for mankind to come to nothing.
But even more audacious is his attack on God himself. He slanders God’s name (Rev 13:6). He plans to exalt himself as God’s equal (Isa 14:13-14). You can hear his slanderous accusations against God, for they fill the minds and mouths of men to this day, for example:
“It is God who brings evil upon you. Why do you still believe He loves you?”
“God is not fully in control, and he cannot prevent the evil that afflicts you. Why do you still believe he protects you?”
The Messiah’s mission is to deal with the Evil One. A major reason for his coming is to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8) and indeed to destroy the devil himself (Heb 2:14). The very first time God spoke of the Messiah was to Satan himself, when he said, “he will crush your head” (Gen 3:15).
It is amazing that God showed his hand from the very beginning. He did not hide from Satan what he intended to do. Satan knew that God was going to send an Anointed One specifically to deal with him. From that point on Satan sought every opportunity to prevent the Messiah from achieving his ends. He tried many different ways to do this.
The Messiah’s mission is to deal with evil completely. How does he do this? We have already summarised the facts that he brings justification, judgement and jurisdiction. But his destruction of Satan and his purposes are far more thorough than even these indicate.
He demonstrated through a life of perfect love and obedience to God in the face of terrible suffering and rejection that man can fully love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. Satan said, “Strike everything he has, and strike his flesh and his bones, and he will surely curse you to your face” (Job 1:11; 2:5). Jesus proved him wrong. Even as he approached the cross he was able to say, “I love the Father, and I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (Jn 14:31).
Every time Satan approached Jesus to tempt him or to steer him off track, Jesus triumphed over him (Heb 4:15). Jesus said, “He has no hold on me” (Jn 14:30).
Satan thought he could rightly demand that the full weight of God’s wrath should descend on all who had sinned. God turned the tables on him. He says to the trembling, guilty, accused sinner, “See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you” (Zech 3:4). How could this happen? Because the Messiah himself bore our guilt and punishment. “He was pierced for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:5-6).
At the cross God allowed Satan to carry out his most evil act ever, to crucify God’s only Son, His Anointed One, the Lord of Glory. Yet the scripture says that “it was the Lord’s will to cause him to suffer” (Isa 53:10). How could that be? Because God had in mind a much higher purpose, a much greater good, that He would achieve in spite of Satan’s evil intentions. Through the cross He bestows the greatest blessing possible on men and women – the right to become the children of God (Jn 1:12). Joseph, similarly, understood this truth when he comforted his brothers with these amazing words, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Gen 50:20).
This is part of the passion that burns within his heart. He hates evil (Ps 45:7). When he finally executes God’s righteous judgement on evildoers it will not be reluctantly or apologetically. It will be with fury, vengeance and zeal. “He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty” (Rev 19:15). All of heaven will shout with praise: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are His judgements” (Rev 19:1,2). He will vindicate God’s name. Every false accusation from the mouths of demons and men attributing injustice, unfairness and unrighteousness to God will be silenced. Every act of wickedness will be avenged: every mugging; every murder; every kidnapping; every child battering; every slaughter of the innocent; every act genocide; every holocaust; every robbery; every slander; every lie; every cover-up; every selfish act; every evil thought; all greed; all lust; all pride; all self-centredness; anything that causes grief; anything that causes mourning; anything that causes broken hearts; anything that brings despair; anything that displeases Him. If it was not dealt with on the cross then it will be dealt with in the winepress of the fury of His wrath.
Firstly, Satan will be stripped of his position of power: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Rev 12:10). Then he will receive God’s just sentence (Rev 20:10).
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isa 9:6,7).
I wonder what thoughts have crossed your mind as you have listened tonight.
Maybe you have been disturbed as you thought of God’s passion to deal with evil because you know that you are not right with Him yourself. Maybe you have said “no” to God and resisted what He wants to do in your life. Maybe He has spoken to you in the past and you have turned away. If that describes you then tonight He is giving you another opportunity to come to Him, to acknowledge how far you are from Him, and to receive His forgiveness. He wants to say to you as He said to Joshua the High Priest many centuries ago, “See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you” (Zech 3:4). Will you come to Him tonight and ask Him to do that?
Maybe you are blaming God for some evil that has afflicted you, not understanding that God only allows Satan to bring evil in order to bring about an even greater good. The scripture says “where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20). God wants to pour out His grace into your life – all the undeserved blessings He makes freely available through Christ – but maybe you are blocking the channel by blaming Him for what has happened. If that describes you then pour out your heart to Him tonight – “surely He has born our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa 53:4). “Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).
Maybe as we read those words of Jesus, “I love the Father, and I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (Jn 14:31), you realised that this passion for God’s will and purpose does not burn so brightly in you heart. Daniel 12:3 says “Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars for ever and ever.” Do you long to be one of those? If so, then God wants even this evening to pour out His love, His passion, into your heart by the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to do this – He is longing for the opportunity to set your heart on fire for His glory.
Copyright © 2004 S P Townsend