Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Ultimate Substitution
In sports you often see a fresh player substitute in for a tired player, or a better player substituting in to finish the game; well, we have the Ultimate Substitute available to us.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01:Let's go to Exodus chapter 12, right? The Passover. A common picture that we're all familiar with because we take communion. Communion grew out of Passover. Why were they to keep Passover annually? I mean, what was the core purpose of Passover? You know, you'd take the little kids, you'd go through the whole Passover meal, they were involved. You'd teach them, the Father would teach the children everything about the Passover. Why were they doing that? To remember. To remember. To remember. To remember what? To remember what God did to deliver them out of Egypt. It's the great picture of redemption in the Old Testament, right? But all that looked forward to what?
SPEAKER_02:All that looked forward to our Passover. 1 Corinthians 5. Who is our Passover? Christ. The Messiah. See?
SPEAKER_01:And so when we take communion, you know, it says, you know, this cup, you know, is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of in remembrance of me. We take the bread and we say, This bread broke, you know, it's for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Remember. See, the nature of communion, when we take communion, what we're supposed to be doing is remembering. Because it grew out of Passover, and that's what they were supposed to do. Remember. And it's telling us something too. It's telling us, you forget. You forget. You forget. Because the life, your life is going on. You're out there in the world, you're doing this, you've got your job, you got your kids, you got all this stuff. It's all the time, it's all it never quits. And what do you do? You forget. What do you forget? The most important thing in the world. That you can't operate on any other basis than the shed blood, the life of Christ given for you. He's the one who, by his grace, has given you life. And he's the one who keeps giving you life if you keep on depending and trusting in him for every day, right? So, what do we need to do every morning before we go out and do anything? Go back to the foot of the cross. We need to remember. We need to remember. Because we tend to forget, and then we're off on our own, doing our own thing. Just living in our own flesh, causing lots of problems, being frustrated and stressed, and all the things that come with it. So going back to the foot of the cross. Exodus chapter 12, verse 1. Here's where we see the picture. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. This is going to be like in April on our calendar when we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, Easter. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their father's household, a lamb for each household. Now, if the household is too small for a lamb, then he's the he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them, according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Now here we go with the lamb again, right?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, like, did it do anything wrong? No, it's innocent.
SPEAKER_01:It's an innocent, and here's the thing: it's not just any animal. Keep that in mind. This is a specific animal that God targeted and created to use for this purpose, and we're going to talk about why. Your lamb shall be in, first of all, unblemished. That's a requirement. Couldn't have any injuries. See, an injured lamb is not worth as much as an uninjured lamb, is it? So people might be like, well, I'm just going to use this injured one over here, you know. God says, no.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_01:You take the best. You take the best. By the way, if you if you some people think, oh, I'm going to make a sacrifice to God, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and they give some used thing or whatever away, whatever. God's not interested in used stuff. He wants you to actually sacrifice something, something that costs you something. We're not really we're not built that way.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'll donate this thing even though it doesn't, you know. Have you ever thought about did that require anything really of you? Because if it didn't, you didn't make a sacrifice. Sacrifice means what? It it impacted you. I always say it this way, it impacted your wallet. That's a real sacrifice. But if it didn't, uh it's not.
SPEAKER_01:Your lamb shall be unblemished, so it's got to be the best of the best. Male, males were more valuable than females for breeding reasons. A year old, one year old. So in the prime of getting ready to breed. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Okay. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month to watch over, keep it separate. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. What? I mean, this innocent animal is unblemished, male, just one year old, just on the prime of life. Yeah, well, what did this all look forward to, by the way?
SPEAKER_02:What did John the Baptist say? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's who the Lamb looked forward to. Unblemished, without sin. Male. In the prime of life. One year old. In the prime of life.
SPEAKER_01:Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts on the lintel and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roast it with fire, both its head, its legs, along with its entrails in entirety. It's an entire sacrifice. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Complete consumption. Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, your stab in your hand, you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am Yahweh, and the blood is a sign for you on the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day is to be a memorial. You keep it as a feast of the Lord, you remember, as a permanent ordinance, because why? Because it looks toward the substitutionary death of the Messiah who would give his life to pay for the sins of the world. Lastly, Isaiah 53, and this is where we'll talk a little bit about the Lamb and why the Lamb was chosen. But all these are messianic links in the Old Testament pointing to Messiah to teach us about justice and God's desire to have restitution. Substitution that leads to restitution. How does a man get right with God? Through God's system of restitutionary justice.
SPEAKER_02:That's how. Isaiah 50. Well, we're going to start in 52, right? 52, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01:Behold, my servant will prosper. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so notice that's added, just as many were astonished at you, leave off my people. That's not in the original text. So his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand. Now he's introducing a figure in Isaiah called the suffering servant. Okay. Now, Christians, for their first twelve hundred years of church history, presented this as a picture of the Messiah, Jesus, right? And they would present this to Jews, the Jewish people. Jews who were unbelievers, they say, Well, what about Isaiah 53? I mean, the suffering servant, I mean, Jesus, he went through all the things that are described here in chapter 53. Uh so why aren't you believing Jesus is the Messiah? So Rashi, one of their rabbis, came along and he, you know, after 12 centuries of this dealing with this, you know, Christian argument, this polemic for Jesus being the Messiah, they said, We're sick and tired of this. So Rashi, smart as brilliant rabbi as he was, said, No, no, no, the suffering servant is the nation Israel. And that's been the official Jewish interpretation down to this day, to avoid the idea that this is actually talking about their Messiah. So they say, Israel is suffering on behalf of the sins of the nations. They're the suffering servant. It's a suffering nation. Um, but well, let's read on. 53, who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. You know, when Jesus came into the world, he wasn't a Greek Adonis. He wasn't a, I don't know, Tom Cruiser or whatever, you know, with these great looks.
SPEAKER_02:He wasn't anything to look at and be attracted to in that way.
SPEAKER_01:He was just your average Joe. Verse 3, he was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, and not even someone you want to look at. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Now there's Israel. We. That's Israel. Israel's not the suffering servant. Israel's the one who did not esteem this, esteem the suffering servant. Surely our griefs he himself bore. Now, what is what concept is that? We're talking about atonement, restitution. Isn't that the concept of substitution?
SPEAKER_00:He bore our griefs. Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.