The One
Passover/Resurrection Day Message 2009
MMin Kevin “Oriyan” Phipps

     In these difficult days, many people are looking for a way out of the difficult situations they find themselves in. Some are experiencing financial burdens and are looking for a bail-out. Many more are spiritually bankrupt and need a stimulus plan to jump start the economy of their soul, to get them on the way to freedom from sin before God forecloses on their life and they find themselves on the street of hell. 
     There is One who has the power to do this, and it is my intention this week to tell you about Him. In a world where the dollar has less and less value, it is nice to know the reality and power that still exists in the One. He goes by many names, but for this lesson, he will remain the One.
 
 He is a descendant of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya’akov.
 He is a descendant of Y’hudah
 He is a descendant of David
 He is filled with the Holy Spirit
 He is from Beit-Lechem
 He is the Son of God
 Bears God’s name
 He is born of a virgin.
 He is called Emmanuel, “God with us”
 He is adored by many, including kings and nations
 He is announced by a predecessor
 He is a prophet like Moshe
 He binds up the brokenhearted and proclaims liberty to captives
 He heals many
 His ministry is in the Galil (Galillee)
 He is tender and compassionate
 He will judge according to truth
 He is meek  
 He is without sin
 He suffers for other’s sins to make them righteous
 He is a priest
 He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey
 He comes to the Temple with authority
 He is hated without cause
 He is rejected by his own people
 He is rejected by the Jewish leaders
 He is plotted against by all nations
 He is betrayed by a close friend.
 He is sold for 30 pieces of silver.
 He is struck on the cheek.
 He is spat on.
 He is mocked.
 He is beaten.
 His hands and feet are pierced.
 He is thirsty during His execution and given vinegar to drink.
 None of his bones are broken.
 He is considered a transgressor.
 He would be buried with the rich.
 He would be raised from the dead.
 He ascends to the heights to sit at the right hand of God.
 He is the cornerstone of the body of Believers.
 He is sought after and accepted by Gentiles.
 He is king.
 He defeated the Adversary.
 He will be King.
 He will rebuild the temple and reign from His throne.
He will have dominion.

    The entire description of the Messiah that I have just given is completely from the Old Testament. It is this picture of the Messiah that led those Jews who did see Him as the Messiah to do so. It is this picture of the One who would come to take away the sins of the world that we have today to know that Yeshua truly is the Messiah. What few Believers seem to realize is that without the Old Testament prophesies concerning Messiah, there is no basis for belief in Yeshua as the Son of God and Redeemer of mankind. There were three men who were crucified on the same day at the same place and in the same way as Yeshua. Only He was the Messiah because He fulfilled prophesies concerning his life and death, which were made hundreds and even thousands of years before He did. We have talked about how the Holy Spirit indwells people to enable them to do the same things that He did. What no one can duplicate is the fulfillment of Messianic prophesies they way Yeshua did.
So Yeshua is the Messiah. What does that mean to us today?

    You killed the author of life! "But God has raised him from the dead! Of this we are witnesses.  And it is through putting trust in his name that his name has given strength to this man whom you see and know. Yes, it is the trust that comes through Yeshua which has given him this perfect healing in the presence of you all. "Now, brothers, I know that you did not understand the significance of what you were doing; neither did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die. "Therefore, repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be erased; so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord's presence; and he may send the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that is, Yeshua. He has to remain in heaven until the time comes for restoring everything, as God said long ago, when he spoke through the holy prophets. For Moshe himself said, 'Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You are to listen to everything he tells you. Everyone who fails to listen to that prophet will be removed from the people and destroyed.' Indeed, all the prophets announced these days, starting with Sh'mu'el and continuing through all who followed. "You are the sons of the prophets; and you are included in the covenant which God made with our fathers when he said to Avraham, 'By your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.' So it is to you first that God has sent his servant whom he has raised up, so that he might bless you by turning each one of you from your evil ways." [Acts 3:15-26]

 Yeshua was sent to turn us from our evil ways. This is repentance. As we remember what our Messiah did for us on the cross, we must realize that He did not suffer, so that we can live life our way. In any criminal court case, there are two parts to the trial. The first part is to decide guilt or innocence. If guilty, the trial proceeds to the second part and that is the sentencing to decide what penalty there will be for the guilt. Based on the laws of Torah, we are all guilty. All that remains is the penalty for our sin, which is death. Sometimes, in a court case a high official can step in and provide a pardon for the guilty. All this means is that the penalty is removed, and the only time a pardon will be given is if the official believes, based on conduct since the crime, that there has been sincere repentance and the crime will not be committed again. It would not make sense for someone to receive a pardon and commit the same crime a second time. What if, instead of a pardon, the governor’s son comes in the court room and tells the judge to set the guilty free and pass the sentence on him instead. Now, the sentence is not just nullified, but someone else is suffering for what the guilty did. Let’s assume the guilty is you. Now let’s assume that the governor’s son not only took the penalty for your crime, but every crime you commit after that is added to his sentence. If you do a crime that is deserving of death, it is he, not you who will die. How would this effect your life? Only the truly hardened heart, gripped by the clutches of Satan, would not care that their crimes or sins cause suffering on someone else, in which case the pardon would not be available to such a person.
 The penalty for sin is death according to Scripture, and sin is defined by Yochanan/John as transgression of Torah. So it was our lack of Torah observance which sent Yeshua to the cross in the first place. Why would we continue to do what the Son of God died for? He did not die to free us from Torah, but from the death that results from our disobedience. He came as a man to teach us how to properly interpret and live Torah. He died to enable us to live Torah free from the penalty of our transgressions. He gave us the Spirit to further teach us the ways of Torah and enable us to perform it along with God’s will for our lives. If we have no desire to live according to God’s ways, we continue in sin, and I don’t see a just God allowing anyone to misuse His grace and live a life patterned after the evil that sent His Son to the execution stake. Such a person is cut off from His grace.

    Yeshua continued traveling through town after town and village after village, teaching and making his way toward Yerushalayim. Someone asked him, "Are only a few people being saved?" He answered, "Struggle to get in through the narrow door, because — I'm telling you! — many will be demanding to get in and won't be able to, once the owner of the house has gotten up and shut the door. You will stand outside, knocking at the door and saying, 'Lord! Open up for us!' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from!' Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you! you taught in our streets!' and he will tell you, 'I don't know where you're from. Get away from me, all you workers of wickedness!' [Luke 13:22-27]
 
Because of our lack of God’s Word in our lives, many Believers today are spiritually bankrupt. Faith in the One who has gone before us and provides for us the keys to the Kingdom of God and the wealth therein, is not a momentary decision, but a lifelong process. Yeshua invites us to follow Him in all things, the moment we put our nets down and heed His invitation, we are no longer bound by the ways of the world, and thus become a new person. However, we will spend the rest of our lives following our Messiah and learning how to be the person He has made us to be. His death on the cross enables us to fall without fear of the penalty of our failures, which is truly something to celebrate and by thankful for, but we must also get up and keep going on our journey of righteousness in order to have the relationship with God that He desires to have with us. Yeshua is the One who has loved us more than we can imagine, and He is the One who we go to, to learn the one way, the one truth, and the one life that only comes from the One who is shown to us throughout the entirety of God’s Word.

The following is a list of Scriptures used in the list of qualifications for the Messiah:

B’resheet/Genesis 3:15; 12:3; 21:12; 49:10
Sh’mot/Exodus 12:46
B’midbar/Numbers 24:17-19
D’varim/Deuteronomy 18:15,18
Sh’mu’el Bet/2 Samuel 7:12-13
Yesha’yahu/Isaiah 8:23; 9:5-6(6-7); 11:1-5,10;  28:16; 35:5-6; 40:3-5,11; 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:6; 53:2-3,9-10,12;  61:1; 63:3,5
Yirme’yahu/Jeremiah 23:5-6
Tehellim/Psalms 2:1-2,7; 16:10; 22:8-9(7-8), 16-17 (15-16), 34:21(20); 69:5(4), 22(21); 72: 10-11; 110:1,4; 118:22-23
Mishlei/Proverbs 30:4
Mikhah/Micah 4:14(5:1)
Z’kharyah/Zechariah 6:13; 9:9; 12:10
Mal’akhi/Malachi 3:1