THE DI VINITY CODE
Luke 24:13-35
1. The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown, has as one of it’s claims that Jesus was really just a regular mortal, who got married to Mary Magdalene and had a child named Sophia with her, but that the Catholic Church and eventually Constantine and the Council of Nicea destroyed the abundance of writings that emphasized Jesus’ humanity and only promoted those few that stressed His divinity.
2. Well, some of us have been spending enough time on Wednesday evenings and Thursday mornings and in Sunday School examining his claims against the Biblical and historical and archeological evidence and so I am not going to take more time with that this morning.
3. Instead, I want to share with you what I have chosen to call THE DIVINITY CODE and show you the hints and clues that God has left us throughout the Bible – from Genesis all the way through to the New Testament.
• I have provided you with a list of 8 Major Hints and a few sub clues so you can later mark these in your Bibles at home.
• The way I have it marked in my Bible is to highlight Hint I and then make a marginal note for myself to go next to Hint II and then write the reference there. That way I only have to remember the first one.
4. What sparked this discovery for me is the Resurrection account in Luke 24:13-35 and especially verse 27 where Luke writes “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
• The entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – in 66 books and written in three major languages over 1600 years by around 40 authors from diverse backgrounds and on 3 continents – is all about one person, the GOD-MAN, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• And that really is what HIStory is all about – it is HIS STORY – the story of God’s action in all the life and affairs of this planet.
5. Well, let’s get started with HINT I. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 3:15
• We have here what has been called the “Proto-evangel” or “the earliest mention of the Gospel”
• Here is God pronouncing judgment on the Serpent for his part in the Fall into sin by Adam and Eve.
• Note what He says: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
• A couple of things here: First, this is the only reference in all of Scripture to “the seed of a woman” – all the other references are to the “seed of the man”. That is significant in hindsight as we recall the New Testament witness that Jesus was born of the seed of a woman – Mary – and not from the seed of any man. Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father. Second, what God is saying here is that He is going to do something about this rebellion. One will come, born of the seed of a woman, who will one day crush the Serpent’s head and in the process will be wounded in the heel.
6. Next HINT II, go to Genesis 12: 1-3
• Here we see that God is preparing a way to bring His blessing to all the families on the earth.
• He has chosen to do so through a descendent of a man named Abram (name means “exalted father”) from Ur in Chaldea – the region of modern day Iraq. Later, in chapter 17, God changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of a great multitude”.
• Now let me share with you two sub points to show how God affirmed His covenant commitment to the descendants of Abraham. FIRST, turn to Genesis 26:3-5 where God repeats the promise to Abraham’s son, Isaac. THEN, turn to Genesis 28:13-15 where he repeats it to Isaac’s son, Jacob.
7. Next comes HINT III. Turn to Genesis 49:10
• In this chapter, the aged Jacob calls his 12 sons together, each of whom would become the heads of one of the future twelve tribes of Israel, and before his death he pronounces a fatherly prophetic blessing on each one of them, stating what will come to pass through each of them.
• Note verse 10 where he pronounces the blessing on Judah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
• Here we have the first indication that the one to come will be a king and will come from the tribe of Judah
8. HINT IV – go to 1 Chronicles 17:11-14
• In this passage King David has been reflecting on the palace he was living in while the Ark of the Covenant with the 10 commandments was being kept in a tent. This troubled David and moved him to want to build a house for the Ark. But God spoke to the prophet Nathan and told him to say to David basically that He had needed no house to dwell in – neither in the past, nor now, nor in the future, but rather that He would build a house for David.
• Verse 11-14: “When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son; I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom for ever and his throne shall be established for ever.”
• Here we have the hint that the One to come will be God’s son, will be a son of David and will rule over a kingdom that will never end.
9. Turn now to Isaiah 9: 6-7 for HINT V
• To no other mere human being would ever be given the title “Mighty God”
• The last part of verse 7 underlines the fact that God will bring this about – there is nothing we can do to change it. All we can do is bring our lives into conformity with this word or reject it.
10. For the next HINT VI, go to Micah 5:2
• Here is a prophetic word from about 800 years before the birth of Jesus that specifies in exactly which Bethlehem the One to come would be born in. At the time of Micah’s writing there was only one Bethlehem - Bethlehem Ephratha, in the land of Juday.
• But in the days of Jesus there was another Bethlehem – up in the land of Zebulun, near the Sea of Galilee. God’s Word specifies that the One to come would be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, in the land of Judah.
• The passage also indicates that while he will come from Bethlehem, he did not begin there – His origin is “from of old, from ancient days”.
11. For the next HINT VII, turn back to the book of Daniel 2
• Here I am going to have to do some summarizing for you because of the constraints of time
• The book of Daniel tells the story of Israel’s captivity in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar depicting events of around 600 BC.
• King Nebuchadnezzar had a strange dream that troubled him and he called in his wise men and astrologers to interpret what he had dreamt. However, to make certain that they didn’t just make up their own concocted story, he requires that they first tell him what he dreamed, then he would know if they had the ability to also give him the interpretation.
• Their stunned response to the king is this, v. 11: “The thing that the king asks is difficult, and none can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
• The king’s response is extreme anger and he threatens to have them all put to death. However Daniel gets to hear from the king’s captain about this decree and he and his three friends seek the Lord over the matter. God reveals to Daniel what the king had dreamed and Daniel gets word back to the captain who hastily brings Daniel before the king.
• Read vss 31-35 for the dream. Then in vss. 36-45 Daniel interprets the meaning of the dream.
• Note verses 44 and 45 that “in the days of those kings (the kings of the fourth kingdom – Roman) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever…A great God has made known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain and its interpretation is sure.”
• In other words, God’s purposes will be fulfilled. John the Baptist announced the coming Kingdom and Jesus’s first message was that "the Kingdom of God has drawn near" and in Him the rule and reign of God was fully present.
12. Turn for the final HINT/CLUE VIII to Luke 1:26-35
• Here in these verses we have the fulfillment – the summing up of all the other clues and hints that have been given till now.
• Here is the announcement of the arrival of the Promised One mentioned back in the Garden of Eden – who is to be born of the seed of a woman, who will be the Son of God, who will sit on the throne of David and rule over the house of Jacob forever, whose kingdom will never end. And this shall be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and of the Most High, so that the human child will indeed at the same time be the Holy Son of God.
13. There you have the evidence.
• When he was born, wise men traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to kneel before Him and worship Him.
• When Jesus stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples in the boat worshipped Him saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
• Doubting Thomas, when he saw the nail prints in the hands of the risen Jesus, fell at His feet and worshipped Him.
• The Church-persecuting Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, fell at His feet, blinded by the light, and with trembling voice asked, “Who are you, Lord?” And that life-changing encounter transformed him into the greatest evangelist, apostle, and missionary that the church has ever had.
• In just a moment as you come to receive Holy Communion, you will have the opportunity to bend your knees and bend your heart in worship before Him.
• Those who do that, always go away changed people.
