Jesus
Page 45
9. Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).
10. Matt. 28:19.
11. Mark 16:15.
12. Luke 4:18–21 NIV.
13. 1 Chron. 23:30 NLT.
14. Mark 1:35.
15. Mark 6:46.
16. Compare Job 38:1 with Genesis 3:8.
17. Matt. 4:23–24 NIV.
18. Luke 7:19.
19. Luke 7:22.
20. The Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakot, trans. Cohen, 182 (see chap. 8, n. 67).
21. Jer. 31:33 NIV.
22. Luke 6:43–44.
23. Matt. 25:40.
24. See John 5:19, 30 (paraphrased); 15:5.
25. E. Stanley Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person (Nashville: Abingdon, 1972), 11.
26. Matt. 25:40.
27. Luke 11:20 NASB.
28. Matt. 6:10.
29. Matt. 28:18.
30. Pss. 10; 10:16–18; 11–13; 22:2–28; 44:4–5; 74:12–13; 93:1–2; 95:3–7; 96; 99:1–5; 145:1–13; 147–49; Isa. 40:10–11; 52:7–10; Jer. 31:10–12; Ezek. 34:2–31; Zech. 14:5–9.
31. Ps. 2:1–9; see also Pss. 22; 72.
32. Ezek. 10–11; 43:1–5; Zech. 8:3–8; Mal. 3:1–5; Dan. 7.
33. Zech. 9:9–11.
34. Isa. 53; Zech. 13:7.
35. Isa. 54.
36. Isa. 55.
37. Isa. 59:16 NIV.
38. Isa. 53:1–2 NIV.
39. Luke 4:19.
40. Rev. 5:10.
41. 1 Peter 2:9.
42. Gen. 1:26–28.
43. Read the wording of Acts 1:1 carefully. There, Luke indicated that the book of Acts was the continuation of Jesus’ acting and teaching through His church, as it proclaims that “there is another King—Jesus” (Acts 17:7).
Chapter 10: Jesus: Healer and Miracle-Worker
1. John 1:14.
2. Matt. 17:1.
3. Ex. 24:16.
4. Isa. 4:5 NIV.
5. Note that the first action on this mountaintop is focused on Jesus, not on any other heavenly or divine presence. The text simply states that “he was transfigured” (metamorphote). The Greek suggests a change in form but does not specify what exactly is transformed. Obviously there are some physical manifestations of this change. Matthew’s description echoes several other biblical images that appear when heavenly beings made themselves known to humans (Ps. 104:2; Dan. 10:5–6; Matt. 28:3; Luke 24:4). Matthew noted that Jesus’ face “shone like the sun,” a detail that would also remind Jewish readers of Moses’ experience on Sinai, where Moses’ own face shone with the reflection of the glory he had witnessed on the mountain (Ex. 34:29–35). Unlike Moses, however, Jesus’ facial illumination was not a reflection. It was a revelation of His divinity and glory. Likewise there was no other heavenly being around who “bedazzled” Jesus’ clothes. The dazzling whiteness came from Jesus Himself.
6. For David Martin’s “The Restored Face” see “The Transfiguration: The Restored Face,” in his Christian Language in the Secular City (Aldershot, UK: Ashgatem, 2002), 77–78.
7. Malachi 4:5 explicitly states that Elijah will return before the final day of judgment. Deuteronomy 18:15–19 makes the less precise promise of the return of a prophet like Moses.
8. Matt. 17:4.
9. Matt. 17:5.
10. Ex. 13:21–22; 33:9–10; 40:34–38; 1 Kings 8:10–11.
11. Matt. 17:5.
12. Matt. 3:17.
13. Deut. 18:15.
14. Ex. 20:18–21; Deut. 4:33; Heb. 12:18–21.
15. Matt. 17:7.
16. Matt. 17:9.
17. Josh. 4:1–7.
18. Josh. 4:7.
19. 2 Cor. 3:18.
20. Matt. 17:15.
21. Matt. 4:23–24 NIV.
22. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey [December 1787], trans. Robert R. Heitner (New York: Suhrkamp, 1989), 364.
23. Luke 4:39.
24. Luke 13:10–17; Matt. 12:22–32; 17:14–21; Mark 9:17–26. For a detailed discussion on this point, see John Christopher Thomas’s The Devil, Disease and Deliverance: Origins of Illness in New Testament Thought (Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2010).
25. Acts 10:38; emphasis added.
26. 1 John 3:8; emphasis added.
27. Granted, Galatians 3:14 is explicit about which part of the promise believers receive now (as opposed to the time of eschatological consummation). It is the Spirit. Yet believers live in the presence of the future. Thus the Holy Spirit, whom Paul elsewhere identifies as the down payment on our future inheritance in the kingdom, is given to us now. And the Spirit still heals today, though He doesn’t always cure, as we will see later.
28. Deut. 7:15.
29. Ex. 15:26.
30. Ps. 103:2–3.
31. Prov. 3:7–8.
32. Prov. 4:20–22.
33. John 5:14; 9:1–2.
34. Luke 13:10–16.
35. Interestingly, healing and forgiveness are often coupled together in Scripture (2 Chron. 7:14; Ps. 103:3; Mark 2:9–11).
36. Witherington, The Christology of Jesus, 94. N. T. Wright notes that “there was no single monolithic and uniform ’messianic expectation’ among first-century Jews” (The New Testament and the People of God, vol. 1 of Christian Origins and the Question of God, 307).
37. Luke 7:21–22 NIV.
38. John 7:31 NIV.
39. This teaching comes from Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum in The Life of the Messiah from a Jewish Perspective: Complete Series Recorded Live at Chafer Theological Seminary (DVD) (San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2008).
40. Matt. 12:22–23.
41. Luke 5:17 NLT.
42. Interestingly, the Jews who rejected Jesus’ claims to messiahship couldn’t deny His miracles. So the rabbinic tradition alleges that He was a magician and a false prophet.
43. For a technical discussion on the relationship between Jesus’ exorcisms, His battle against satan, and the kingdom of God, see Craig A. Evans, “Exorcisms and the Kingdom: Inaugurating the Kingdom of God and Defeating the Kingdom of Satan,” in Bock and Webb, eds., Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus, chap. 4, 151–79 (see intro., n. 3).
44. Acts 9:34.
45. John 14:12; Mark 16:15ff (though some scholars question if this text is part of the original). We see examples of Jesus’ ministry of healing through the disciples all throughout the book of Acts.
46. Isa. 53:3–5 NIV.
47. Matt. 8:16–17.
48. 1 Peter 2:24.
49. Matt. 12:28 NIV.
50. Luke 4:24–27; Matt. 4:23–24; Mark 1:15; Luke 11:20.
51. Acts 2:22 NIV.
52. The best volume on miracles is the two-volume treatment by Craig Keener, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011).
53. John Wimber, Power Evangelism (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), 91.
54. In Jesus Manifesto we demonstrated that eternal life does not simply point to longevity but to a certain kind of life. It means divine life, which is Christ (1 John 5:20).
55. John 1:4.
56. John 3:15.
57. John 4:14.
58. John 5:40.
59. John 6:35, 48.
60. John 8:12.
61. John 10:10.
62. John 11:25.
63. John 14:6.
64. John 17:3.
65. John 20:31.
66. For details on the spiritual meaning of the temple of God from Genesis to Revelation, see Viola, From Eternity to Here, pt. 2 (see chap. 1, n. 59).
67. John 1:14; Ex. 40:34.
68. John 20:22–23.
69. Mark 14:58 NIV.
70. 1 Cor. 3:6–17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:4–9.
71. 2 Chron. 7:1–3.
72. Acts 17:24; Heb. 8:2; Dan. 2; Isa. 66; Heb. 9.
73. Matt. 6:10.
74. N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, vol. 1 of Christian Origins and the Question of God, 299ff.; Simply Jesus, chap
. 12 (see intro., n. 6).
75. Witherington, The Christology of Jesus, 94; Psalms of Solomon 17 in Psalms of Solomon: A New Transaction and Introduction, by Heerak Christian Kim (Highland Park, NJ: Hermit Kingdom Press, 2008), 18–21. In addition to these signs, as I have learned from Arnold Fruchtenbaum, many rabbis believed that the Messiah would return the urim and thummim, the ark of the covenant, and the shekinah glory. While this represents later rabbinic tradition, some scholars believe it reflects first-century Jewish thinking as well.
76. Frank developed this thought in his book From Eternity to Here (see chap. 1, n. 59), saying, “From the very beginning, a battle has raged over the land of Canaan. Satan’s intention has always been to rid God’s people from the Promised Land. The reason is simple. In the Bible, Canaan represents the building site for God’s house. If the Enemy could keep God’s people out of the land, God cannot have His home. On the other hand, if God can bring His people into the Land of Promise (Canaan), then God has His building site. And in a sense, He possesses the whole earth. The Scriptures are fairly clear on this. Throughout the Bible, whenever God’s people were standing on the building site (Canaan), God was called the ’God of heaven and earth.’ But whenever God’s people were taken out of the building site, He was simply called ’the God of heaven’ (Gen. 14:1–19; Josh. 3:11–13; Ezra 1:2; 7:12, 21, 23; Neh. 1:4–5; 2:4; Dan. 2:18, 28; Matt. 11:25)” (181–82).
77. N. T. Wright develops this idea in his books Jesus and the Victory of God, vol. 2 of Christian Origins and the Question of God; The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is (2011) (see intro., n. 19); and Simply Jesus (see intro., n. 6).
78. Matt. 9:6.
79. Matt. 23:37ff.; Luke 13:34ff.; John 1:11.
80. Jeremiah had long before prophesied that this would happen ( Jer. 7:3–15).
81. Rev. 21–22.
82. Zech. 3:8; 6:12–13.
83. Zech. 8:18–19; Mark 2:18–20.
84. Andrew Murray, The Spirit of Christ (New Kingsington, PA: Whitaker House, n.d.), 17.
85. Mark 6:48–51.
86. For more on this, see Leonard Sweet, Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1994) and The Jesus Prescription for a Healthy Life (see chap. 3, n. 12).
87. This story comes from Nels Ferré’s son, Fred Ferré, who spoke to a group of theology students about his father. With thanks to Wayne Brouwer and Schuyler Rhodes for Fred Ferré’s story. See “The Road Ahead,” SermonSuite, January 8, 2012, http://sermonsuite.com/content.php?i=778028410&key=S1xyzSsxogdm0pai.
Chapter 11: Jesus: Teacher and Preacher
1. Blaise Pascal, The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal, trans. from the text of Auguste Molinier by C. Kegan Paul (London: George Bell and Sons, 1905), 224–25.
2. Luke 8:1–3.
3. Matt. 4:17.
4. Luke 10:38–42.
5. Mark 4:1–2.
6. Matt. 4:17; Luke 8:1.
7. Heb. 4:4 NIV.
8. 1 Cor. 15:3–9.
9. Or as a modern translation puts it, “Christ was a historical person whose biography was already determined before he was born” (Friedrich von Schelling, The Philosophy of Art, ed. and trans. Douglas W. Stott [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989], 59).
10. Mark 6:35.
11. 2 Kings 4:43.
12. Matt. 5:1–12.
13. Psalm 49:4 esv.
14. Thanks to Christine Sine for first making this connection.
15. Luke 22:20 NLT.
16. John 7:22–23.
17. Hyam Maccoby, “The Leper and the Pharisee,” in his Jesus the Pharisee (London: SCM, 2003), 40–42.
18. Mark 2:27.
19. Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:22.
20. See, for instance, theNIVrenderings of Matthew 5:18, 26; 6:2, 16; 8:10; 10:15, 23, 42, et al. See especially Matthew 5:21–48 (nkjv). Also in John, Jesus used, “Amen, amen, I tell you” (two amens instead of the one found often in the Synoptic)—see, for example, the nab renderings of John 1:5; 3:3, 5, 11; 5:19, 24, 25.
21. John 14:9.
22. John 14:11.
23. John 8:28.
24. John 5:43.
25. Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:22.
26. Jose A. Pagola, Jesus: An Historical Approximation (Miami: Convivium Press, 2011), 233.
27. Matt. 12:11–12.
28. Mark 6:3.
29. Mark 6:1; Luke 4:16.
30. Luke 4:21.
31. The people in Jesus’ hometown were so astounded that they remarked, “Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3 niv).
32. Matt. 12:7 NLT.
33. Luke 4:29.
34. John 7:5.
35. Mark 15:43–46.
36. Acts 1:13–14.
37. Mark 7:7 niv; Matt. 15:9 NIV.
38. Matt. 23:2.
39. See Frank Viola’s “Diary of a Desperate Woman” (audio), April 2009, http://ptmin.podbean.com /?s=Diary+of+a+Desperate+Woman, for a novelized version of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus in John 4.
40. 1 John 3:23; 4:2–3; 5:1.
41. Gal. 2:20.
42. Luke 10:29.
43. Ralph Lewis, “The Triple Brain Test of a Sermon,” Preaching 1 (September/ October 1985): 11.
44. Jonathan Sacks, The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011), 253.
45. Luke 17:21. Some translations render this “among you” or “in your midst.”
46. 1 Cor. 15:21–28; Matt. 16:28.
47. Leslie Houlden mentions this in Companion Encyclopedia of Theology, eds. Peter Byrne and Leslie Houlden (New York: Routledge, 1995), 178.
48. Mishnah, Tohoroth 7:6.
49. See Luke 14:15–24.
50. John 10.
51. Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging, rev. ed. (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2002), 109. Manning continues: “God pazzo d’amore and ebro d’amore (’crazed with love’ and ’drunk with love’—Catherine of Siena) is embodied in Jesus dwelling within us.”
52. Mark 1:40–45.
53. Luke 11:37–38.
54. Compare Mark 6:30–44 with Mark 8:1–10.00-01_Jesus Theography FP.indd 390 8/10/12 1:32 PM
55. See Mark 8:17–21.
56. “Midrash Pesher” refers to a way of interpreting biblical stories. Many of the ancient types of teaching were passed down to modern times. The major example is that of the acronym PaRDeS, representing the first letter of the four basic types of Jewish exegesis used during the first century. These methods were Peshat (simple), Remez (hinting, intuitive), Derash (complex), and Sod (secret). You can see all of these somewhere in Jesus’ teaching. For example, in remez, or hint, a teacher would use part of a Scripture passage, assuming the audience knew enough of the story to deduce for themselves fuller meaning. Jesus liked this technique and used it often, letting those in authority fill in the blanks. When the children sang Hosanna to him in the temple and the Sadducees demanded Jesus quiet them, He quoted Psalm 8:2 (NIV): “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” We wonder why they got so angry at Jesus, but the next phrase in the psalm that is only hinted at in Jesus’ response gives the reason why children and infants would praise—because the enemies of God would be silenced (Ps. 8:2). In other words, Jesus didn’t say it directly, but in citing this text Jesus hinted that the chief priests were God’s enemies.
57. For Ben Witherington’s marvelous portrayal of Jesus as a “sage,” see his Jesus the Sage (see chap. 6, n. 46). See also Craig Keener’s superb book The Historical Jesus of the Gospels.
58. John 1:38.
59. John 11:25.
60. Ralph L. Lewis with Gregg Lewis, Learning to Preach Like Jesus (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), 23: “For all practical purposes, with most of His listeners, Jesus had to start from scratch.”
61. John 1:14, 18.
62. Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1932), 5:18.
63. Mark 14:61.
64. Mark 2:23–28; Matt. 12:1–8; Luke 6:1–5.
65. Mark 8:27 NIV.
66. Matt. 5:47 NIV.
67. Matt. 16:26 NIV.
68. Mark 2:8 NIV.
69. Matt. 17:25 NIV.
70. Luke 10:26 NIV.
71. Conrad Gempf, Jesus Asked: What He Wanted to Know (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003).
72. Lewis, Learning to Preach Like Jesus, 28.
73. Jesus was asked 183 questions in the Gospels, and He answered just 3 of them.
74. Tom Hughes, as quoted in Don Everts and Doug Schaupp, I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008), 54.
75. Mark 8:29.
76. See Eberhard Jüngel’s thesis in God as the Mystery of the World: On the Foundation of the Theology of the Crucified One in the Dispute between Theism and Atheism, trans. Darrell L. Guder (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 10–11, where he wrote, “The art of speaking does not result in something different from itself; instead, its effect consists of the fact that the person addressed and the result of what is said are both drawn into the act of speaking.” Jüngel calls this a “perlocutionary-attractive act.”
77. Mark 4:34.
78. Matt. 13:35.
79. John 6:26.
80. Mark 4:34 NLT.
81. Mark 4:10.
82. Marc Bregman, quoted by David Halperin, “Talmud and Taekwando,” Journal of a UFO Investigator, January 11, 2011, http://www.davidhalperin.net/tag/sugya.
83. Mark 7:17, 20–23.
84. Matt. 13:51.
85. Luci Shaw, “Reversing Entropy,” Image 41 (Winter 2003): 96.
86. Matt. 13:11–12 NLT.
87. Robert Johnston’s dissertation on Tannaitic Parables (Robert M. Johnston, “Parabolic Interpretations Attributed to Tannaim,” PhD diss., Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1977) is a masterpiece on this subject.
88. John’s gospel is famous for not including any parables. But what are the Good Shepherd (John 10:1–18) and the True Vine (John 15:1–8) but parables or allusions to parables?
89. As quoted in Eileen Egan, Such a Vision of the Street: Mother Teresa, the Spirit and the Work (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1986), 413.
90. Luke 10:21 NIV.
91. Matt. 25:40.