TRUE AND BETTER: CHRIST IN ALL OF SCRIPTURE
Genesis 1:1-2 (BSB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:26 (BSB)
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness…”
John 1:1 (AMP)
In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being.
John 1:4 (NLT)
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
John 1:5 (NKJV)
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:6-7 (NIV)
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.
John 1:9-11 (NIV)
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:17 (NIV)
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:17-18 (NIV)
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Revelation 22:3-5 (BSB)
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
TRUE AND BETTER: PROPHET
Prophet Defined: Deut 18:18 (ESV) I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
John 7:16 & John 8:28 - Jesus was God’s messenger
Prophet Par Excellence - He is the perfect fullness of the prophetical role
JEREMIAH: HISTORY
2 Kings 21:1-16 (NLT)
Mannaseh “did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. He rebuilt the pagan shrines his father, Hezekiah, had destroyed. He constructed altars for Baal and set up an Asherah pole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them. He built pagan altars in the Temple of the Lord, the place where the Lord had said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever. ”5 He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. 6 Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire. He practiced sorcery and divination, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in the Lord’s sight, arousing his anger…Manasseh led them to do even more evil than the pagan nations that the Lord had destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land.” 10 Then the Lord said through his servants the prophets: 11“King Manasseh of Judah has done many detestable things. He is even more wicked than the Amorites, who lived in this land before Israel. He has caused the people of Judah to sin with his idols.12 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with horror. 13 I will judge Jerusalem by the same standard I used for Samaria and the same measure I used for the family of Ahab. I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down. 14 Then I will reject even the remnant of my own people who are left, and I will hand them over as plunder for their enemies. 15 For they have done great evil in my sight and have angered me ever since their ancestors came out of Egypt.” 16 Manasseh also murdered many innocent people until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he caused the people of Judah to commit, leading them to do evil in the Lord’s sight.
JEREMIAH: LIFE
2 Kings 22-23
2 Kings 23:10 (NLT)
Then the king defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, so no one could ever again use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire[a]as an offering to Molech.
The people RETURNED TO THEIR TRUE HEART POSTURE, unimpressed and unwilling to return to God. Jeremiah’s ministry, Jeremiah’s purpose, was one of calling the people of Judah, the Jewish people, back to relationship with God.A
Picture of Jeremiah’s Proclamations
Israel is a Harlot - Return
The Fear of God is Not In You
You Cannot Cleanse Yourself
See What You’ve Done
You Don’t Care; You Lust After Sin
Look at the Foolishness of Your Worship
Why do you beautify your way to seek love?
What You’re Doing is Obvious
Why Do You Gad About to Change Your Way?
You Have Polluted the Land
Return to Me
“True confession, unfortunately, is a harrowing and humiliating experience, and thus seldom encountered, whether in individuals or nations.” (Harrison)
Jeremiah 25:3 (NIV)
For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
Jeremiah 5:1 (NKJV)
“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem;
See now and know;
And seek in her open places
If you can find a man,
If there is anyone who executes judgment,
Who seeks the truth,
And I will pardon her.
God continued to search and look for one man who executes judgment and who seeks the truth – and finds only the One Man, Jesus Christ. He is the One Man who can save.
The Man of Sorrows lamented for all mankind, suffered the wrath of God, and was resurrected in glory for our redemption.
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the IMAGERY or PROPHECY of Jeremiah:
Jeremiah speaks of God as a foundation of living water - Jesus proclaimed that those who are thirsty may come drink from Him
God told Jeremiah he personally would be saved, delivered, and redeemed - made complete by the finished work of Jesus on the cross
Jeremiah begins speaking of a NEW COVENANT, the one Jesus would come to institute- And there’s more: Jesus as the Branch of Righteousness, the yolk of slavery exchanged for the light & easy yoke of Christ, the stumbling block, fisher of men, lost sheep
Jeremiah was yielded to the Word of the Lord and Jesus WAS the Word of the Lord
Jesus was all Jeremiah was and more: fulfillment of Jeremiah’s heart, hopes, dreams, and declaration
JESUS: TRUE AND BETTER (JESUS IN ALL OF SCRIPTURE)
How did Jesus not just FULFILL prophetic vision but stand as a TRUE & BETTER PROPHET than the great prophet, Jeremiah: How, not in just the events or words of Jeremiah but in the LIFE of Jeremiah, can we see Christ typed and foretold?
1 - Consecrated from the Beginning
Jeremiah 1:4-5 (ESV)
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Revelation 13:8
Jesus: “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
2 - Walked In God’s Anointing
Jeremiah 1:17-19 (NKJV)
Therefore prepare yourself and arise,
And speak to them all that I command you.
Do not be dismayed before their faces,
Lest I dismay you before them.
For behold, I have made you this day
A fortified city and an iron pillar,
And bronze walls against the whole land—
Against the kings of Judah,
Against its princes,
Against its priests,
And against the people of the land.
They will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you.
For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”
Acts 10:38
God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit
3 - Sent to a People In Drought
Jeremiah was sent to a people in physical drought and Jesus went to a people in spiritual drought (400 silent years)
4 - Called for Relationship vs. Ritual
Jeremiah railed against ritual without relationship.
Jesus called out the Pharisees for even tithing on the dill and mint - being careful to follow religious protocol - yet being far from God in heart.
Jeremiah 9:23-24, ESV
Both called for relationship as the foundation for walking after God: To “truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love”
John 17:3 NIV
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
5 - Was Attacked & Found Fixed in God’s Word
Jeremiah describes the loneliness and crushing of his task, as many violently reviled and scorned him - “Every one of them curses me” - and comes out the other side fixed in God’s
Word: “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart - For I am called by Your name”
“I have said that Jeremiah lets us into a secret. His outer life, consisting in his perpetual faithful ministry, was to be accounted for by his inward love of the word which he preached….It is a very different thing from saying, ‘Thy word was found, and I did admire it,’ or ‘Thy word was found, and I did criticise it,’ or ‘Thy word was found, and I did divide it and make a sermon of it.’” - Spurgeon
This can be contrasted with the Temptation of Jesus by the devil, in which Satan attacks him with twisted Scripture, and Jesus responds with the Word alone
6 - Rejected by Hometown
Luke 4:24, NIV
The men of Jeremiah’s hometown dealt treacherously with him and did not accept his ministry, while Nazareth likewise rejected Jesus, of which Jesus famously said: “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
7 - Accused and Betrayed
Religious leaders accused Jeremiah of false prophecy, while Judas and the Pharisees accused Jesus.
8 - Lamented for Jerusalem
The LAMENTING PROPHET
Jeremiah 9:1 (BSB)
Oh, that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jesus’s lament:
Luke 13:31-35 (ESV)
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
9 - Proclaimed About the Temple
Jeremiah 7:11 (ESV)
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.
Mark 11:17 (ESV)
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
10 - Foretold Judgement & Fall of Babylon
Jeremiah 50 - Jeremiah prophesies fall of Babylon
Matthew 24 - Jesus speaks of the end
Revelation 18:2 - spiritual Babylon which will fall in the end (Revelation 18:2)
11 - Imaged as A Lamb for Slaughter
Jeremiah 11:18-20 (NKJV)
18 Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings. 19 But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”
Jesus was a lamb for slaughter - Acts 8:32
12 - Scourged, Mocked, and Derided
Jeremiah 20
John 19 - Jesus scouraged, mockery, derision
13 - Thrown into the Pit and Came Out Again
Jeremiah 38, Lamentations 3 - a place of great suffering and sorrow, brought out in care and honor
Jesus thrown into the pit of God’s wrath and brought out in resurrection
14 - Proclaimed the New Covenant
Jeremiah 31
Jeremiah 35:18-19 (NKJV)
18 And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you, 19 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.” ’
The Israelites had a covenant with condition, but Rechabites received a covenant with no condition.
Desolation upon Judah - no one was coming to rescue!
But Jesus perfectly took the toll of judgment and desolation upon Himself
Jesus was the fulfillment of the New Covenant, the finished work of the cross fulfilling the condition for wrath and judgment poured out on sin. That iniquity that could not be scrubbed off has been made white as snow through the Man of Sorrows, King Jesus.
LESSONS FROM THE PROPHET:
Invitation from the Man of Sorrows…
1 - Faith and Obedience is the Way; Idolatry & Sin Paid Once and For All
ii. “The book ends the way God intended it to end, with the kind of unresolved anguish we have come to expect from the Weeping Prophet. Yet Lamentations was never intended to have the last word.” Ryken
2 - Grappling with Call - Jesus’s Way is Surrender
Jeremiah extensively grappled with his calling, yet found His rest in God.
Jesus grappled with the cup, but said Your will not mine be done.
I have come for this purpose.
“Jeremiah did not cease preaching, but with very little result. We need not wonder at this. The visible success of a faithful preacher is no test of his acceptableness before God. There are times when the Holy Spirit Himself seems to work in vain, and the world seems given up to the powers of eveil. True, even then there is a ‘silver lining’ to the cloud, if we have faith to see it. There is always a ‘remnant according to the election of grace;’ and there is often a late harvest which the sower does not live to see. It was so with the labours of Jeremiah, who, like the hero Samson, slew more in his death than in his life...” - Pulpit Commentary: Introduction to Jeremiah
3- Invitation to the Backslidden
“Our lives are in the Bible, and we do not understand them until we find them there.” - Packer
4 - Find Rest for Your Souls
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
Matthew 11:29 (NKJV)
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.