Jesus, The Redeemer and Messiah

John 8:2-11

Max Lucado tells a story about a conversation with his daughter Jenna. One day this 4 year old comes to him and says, “Daddy, I took a crayon and drew on the wall.” As parents, we all have been there. Our innocent child comes and confesses their wrongdoing. Max does the dad thing and says, “ Is that a good thing to do?

“No”

“What does daddy do when you write on the wall?”

“Spank me.”

“And what should daddy do now?”

“Love me.”

That’s the story of the Bible summed up in one little story. Love me in spite of my failures. That’s a plea we all make isn’t it? A plea to our Heavenly Father after we have sinned.

Today I want to look at Jesus being the Messiah. Messiah is the Jewish term for the one they expected God to send as their king and deliverer. We need a deliverer don’t we? As soon as we understand sin, we go and sin and once we do, we can’t fix it. Only God can. Listen to what I mean.

(skit)

Father, I’ve sinned.

What happens when you sin?

You have to separate yourself from me forever

What should I do now?

Love me.

I do love you, but it’s not that simple. You’ve broken THE law.

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Can’t you do something?

Yes.

When?

I’ve already done it.

What? When?

Jesus. The cross.

I don’t understand.

You will.

What does Jesus our redeemer and Messiah really mean? Let’s find out

PRAYER

I. Messiah and Redeemer

A. The Messiah

1. Messiah and redeemer are closely related, but also carry some very different aspects.

2. Messiah is one that brings hope and freedom to the repressed.

3. The Jewish people spent a great deal of time dreaming of a king that would bring them back to the glory days of David and Solomon.

4. Messiah carried with it the concept of “anointed one” and that anointing was only done by God himself.

5. Not just in the political realm, but in the spiritual as well.

6. Some of the kings were politically greater than David or even Solomon, but none of them captured the essence of “God’s king” better than David.

7. By the time Jesus came on to the scene it was almost every Jew’s dream that someone would come and set the nation free and God’s elect would again be a strong people rather than a subjugated people.

B. Redeemer

1. Closely related to Messiah was the Redeemer

2. While the Messiah was a deliverer, the Redeemer was someone who paid the price to deliver a person from an evil.

3. A redeemer would pay a ransom to free prisoners of war back in ancient times.

4. Another unique aspect of redeemer is found only with the Jews and the Jewish law.

a) READ Ex 21:28-30

b) Here we see that the death penalty could be overcome if the redemption price was able to be paid.

c) Probably not an easy task unless the owner was wealthy because most people would want justice for the lost loved one.

5. Both concepts incorporate deliverance, but from very different points of view.

II. What’s That Mean To Us?

A. Messiah

1. History of full of deliverers and redeemers, but only Jesus could bring the truest deliverance and redemption.

2. Before man sinned, we walked in perfect union with God.

3. We enjoyed the warmth of his relationship.

4. Then Satan came into the picture.

a) He destroyed the beauty that God created.

b) He defiled the innocence of man.

c) One of the worst crimes a human can do is to defile and innocent child.

d) Yet, that’s exactly what Satan did to us.

5. Where this analogy breaks down is the fact that the child has no choice, we do.

6. So we sit in sin realizing what we have lost.

7. Crying out for God to deliver us.

8. God hears our cries and sends his one and only son to set us free.

9. Just as Pharaoh couldn’t hold the Jews captive, Satan can’t hold us captive.

10. Our deliverer is too mighty.

11. We have Jesus the Messiah

12. That’s the glorious part of Jesus, but there is another, much darker part of Jesus

B. Redeemer

1. The painful part is Jesus as redeemer.

2. We willingly sell ourselves into the slavery of sin for momentary pleasure.

3. Many years ago a young man I know told me about a night that devastated him. He had just started dating a lady and they went back to her house. Well, things went much further than he ever expected and he lost his virginity. He said, as soon as it happened he freaked out. He realized what he had done and had instant shame and spiritual pain. The problem was, that there was no going back. That one night took away something he had held so dearly and hoped to only give to his wife. He could live a saintly life from there on out, but it would never be as a virgin.

4. That’s the same with sin.

a) No amount of our shame will change the fact that we have sinned.

b) Nothing we do can repair that broken relationship with God.

c) We are then slaves to sin and it’s consequences.

5. The only hope we have is that someone can pay the price to set us free.

6. The price is unbelievably high.

7. You know we think Satan set the price, but that isn’t true. God set the price.

8. Only death could pay the price for sin.

9. But death alone wasn’t enough; it had to be the death of an absolutely perfect being.

10. Jesus stepped forward and said, “Dad, I’ll pay the price for Jim.” “I’ll die so he doesn’t have to.” “My blood is pure enough.”

11. He redeemed us. He paid the ransom, and he became the ransom.

12. Jesus the Redeemer.

C. Why?

1. Do you know the one question I always ask myself as I ponder what God has done for us? Why?

2. I sure wouldn’t do what God did.

3. Not for people who didn’t care for me.

4. Not for people that I know wouldn’t appreciate the incredible sacrifice I paid for their freedom.

5. I remember my first heartbreak. Her name was Linda and we were in kindergarten together. Oh how I thought she was so pretty. Oh how I liked her so much. Oh how she didn’t return those feelings. I remember turning around in my desk and telling her I liked her and I remember her looking at me … and then flipping me off!

I. Messiah and Redeemer

A. The Messiah

1. Messiah and redeemer are closely related, but also carry some very different aspects.

2. Messiah is one that brings hope and freedom to the repressed.

3. The Jewish people spent a great deal of time dreaming of a king that would bring them back to the glory days of David and Solomon.

4. Messiah carried with it the concept of “anointed one” and that anointing was only done by God himself.

5. Not just in the political realm, but in the spiritual as well.

6. Some of the kings were politically greater than David or even Solomon, but none of them captured the essence of “God’s king” better than David.

7. By the time Jesus came on to the scene it was almost every Jew’s dream that someone would come and set the nation free and God’s elect would again be a strong people rather than a subjugated people.

B. Redeemer

1. Closely related to Messiah was the Redeemer

2. While the Messiah was a deliverer, the Redeemer was someone who paid the price to deliver a person from an evil.

3. A redeemer would pay a ransom to free prisoners of war back in ancient times.

4. Another unique aspect of redeemer is found only with the Jews and the Jewish law.

a) READ Ex 21:28-30

b) Here we see that the death penalty could be overcome if the redemption price was able to be paid.

c) Probably not an easy task unless the owner was wealthy because most people would want justice for the lost loved one.

5. Both concepts incorporate deliverance, but from very different points of view.

II. What’s That Mean To Us?

A. Messiah

1. History of full of deliverers and redeemers, but only Jesus could bring the truest deliverance and redemption.

2. Before man sinned, we walked in perfect union with God.

3. We enjoyed the warmth of his relationship.

4. Then Satan came into the picture.

a) He destroyed the beauty that God created.

b) He defiled the innocence of man.

c) One of the worst crimes a human can do is to defile and innocent child.

d) Yet, that’s exactly what Satan did to us.

5. Where this analogy breaks down is the fact that the child has no choice, we do.

6. So we sit in sin realizing what we have lost.

7. Crying out for God to deliver us.

8. God hears our cries and sends his one and only son to set us free.

9. Just as Pharaoh couldn’t hold the Jews captive, Satan can’t hold us captive.

10. Our deliverer is too mighty.

11. We have Jesus the Messiah

12. That’s the glorious part of Jesus, but there is another, much darker part of Jesus

B. Redeemer

1. The painful part is Jesus as redeemer.

2. We willingly sell ourselves into the slavery of sin for momentary pleasure.

4. That’s the same with sin.

a) No amount of our shame will change the fact that we have sinned.

b) Nothing we do can repair that broken relationship with God.

c) We are then slaves to sin and it’s consequences.

5. The only hope we have is that someone can pay the price to set us free.

6. The price is unbelievably high.

7. You know we think Satan set the price, but that isn’t true. God set the price.

8. Only death could pay the price for sin.

9. But death alone wasn’t enough; it had to be the death of an absolutely perfect being.

10. Jesus stepped forward and said, “Dad, I’ll pay the price for Jim.” “I’ll die so he doesn’t have to.” “My blood is pure enough.”

11. He redeemed us. He paid the ransom, and he became the ransom.

12. Jesus the Redeemer.

C. Why?

1. Do you know the one question I always ask myself as I ponder what God has done for us? Why?

2. I sure wouldn’t do what God did.

3. Not for people who didn’t care for me.

4. Not for people that I know wouldn’t appreciate the incredible sacrifice I paid for their freedom.

6. That’s what we did to God as we rejected his love offering to mankind.

7. And he knew it was coming!

8. Why? Why do that?

9. We know the answer. It’s found in John 3:16 For God so loved the world.

10. Jesus, the Messiah and redeemer.

11. Listen to our text story again and see the Messiah and redeemer at work. READ Jn 8:2-11

12. That’s what Jesus is willing to do for you.

13. Why? Because he loved us so.

14. Think about that as we sing this invitation song.

15. Sing “Why did my savior come to earth?”