The Revelation Of The Christ Series

The Revelation of the Christ

John 18: Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people.

. . . the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.” 22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. 23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Matthew 26: Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered. 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?”

“We’re missing one piece of the puzzle, one key piece of evidence” the investigator said, as they were looking for the murderer of the young girl. In the case of Jon Benet, investigators had found a ransom note, but they never could conclude who actually did it. Modern TV shows have done a fantastic job of being able to get the public involved and intrigued in these modern day “who dunnits?” Sometimes the police and the media work together toward a common purpose - to find out who did it. Although the hype has somewhat died down now, just as in the Chandra Levy case, imagine if they ever came out with clear cut evidence who did it! Wouldn’t it be satisfying to the media and police, and even to us - to find out the truth.

These cases of Jon Benet and Chandra Levy have only gone on for several years. JFK has gone on for decades. Imagine a bigger and more important puzzle trying to be solved - not for just a few years or decades, but for centuries! If you think about it, that’s kind of what the coming of the Christ was like. The promise of a Christ was made right after the fall in Genesis 3:15. For hundreds of years, the Holy Spirit had dropped hints and more hints about what the Christ would be like. Back in Moses time, they simply knew that a Savior would come who would be like Moses, a man with a closer relationship to God than other men - who would speak to God one on one. (Deut. 18:15) The longer time went on, the more specific these promises became. For instance, Isaiah had some very in depth predictions -

Isaiah 9:7 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 Counselor, 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 and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

From these predictions, the people looked forward to a king being born - a ruler who would govern in some way and bring peace - descended from David’s line, born of a virgin - true God and true man. However, David and Isaiah also predicted some seemingly strange things about this king -