Follow Me III: Imitating through the New Testament
We continue our series on observing and imitating Christ in this week’s podcast episode. But we specifically want to spend time focusing on observing the person of Jesus in the Old Testament.
While these images may be a bit fuzzy or blurry, we can still see Jesus. We see David writing in the Psalms, describing his worship of God the Father, or articulating his anguish. We know it is written by the pen of an ancient king. But it is written by the Spirit of the Eternal King.
We could spend a year of podcasts looking at Old Testament descriptions of Jesus, and that would be a profitable study. But we decided to focus on two passages in one episode. First John and Matthew discuss Psalm 40:6-8 and then move to Isaiah 50:1-6.
Each of the passages mentioned, and countless others throughout the Old Testament, are worthy of extensive study. Let us encourage you to scour the Old Testament this week for descriptions and depictions of our Lord.
0:00 Matthew recaps where we have been. Following involved both observing and imitating. And following must be motivated by love to Christ.
3:00 Matthew explains what is different about the depictions of Jesus in the Old and New Testaments. The New Testament could be thought of as a high-definition documentary with eyewitness testimony and expert commentary. It is a kindness of God the Father that we have four gospel accounts. Of the four, John is very unique. One unique aspects of John is that includes many of the descriptions of the inner life of Jesus’ life.
5:00 We are coming from a particular Christological standpoint. Unfortunately we do not have time to dive into why we come from that vantage point. However, if you would like to know where we are coming from and why, we encourage you to check out the books Knowing Christ and The Person and Work of Christ (both linked under Show Notes). If you have never really considered Christology, you may be surprised to find you have picked up some heresy. Matthew explains three that are prevalent and dangerous in our day.
10:00 Our approach to this episode was to examine particular descriptions Jesus Christ gives concerning Himself. With each one, we ask two questions: What do we see in the true humanity of Christ as He relates to the Father? Is it something we can imitate?
11:00 We begin with what sustained Jesus, looking at John 4:32-34. Jesus told His disciples that He had food they did not know about. He said life to Him is doing what the Father had sent Him to do. It is beyond morality. It is doing only what God the Father wanted Him to do. Can we imitate that? Yes.
14:00 What was the initiative of Christ’s life? John 5:19-20 and 8:42 gives us a look into this. This displays the perfect responsiveness of the Lord Jesus to His Father. First, we see a moral impossibility. Then we see Jesus doing not just what the Father does, but also how He does it. Can a Christian follow Jesus in this? Yes.
19:00 Matthew explains that Jesus experienced total freedom. And that freedom was total submission to God the Father. But we have an enemy who portrays freedom as the ability to do what we want. It is a lie that will lead to death.
20:00 What about Jesus’ ambition? John 6:38 and 8:29 illustrates why Jesus got out of bed in the morning. Jesus rested at night, woke in the morning, and lived every moment to do the will of God.
24:00 How did Christ prove His claims? John 5:36 gives us the answer. We see how Jesus proved His claims. He invited people to look at the work He did. We cannot say it to the same extent of Jesus, but people should able to examine our lives to see the fact that God is at work in our lives.
31:00 John and Matthew come together to recap and encourage you in your pursuit of following Jesus Christ by observing and imitating all we see of Him through the Scriptures.
Supporters
For this week's Supporter Appreciation Episode, we return to hearing the testimonies of different believers in Christ Church New Albany.
This week we hear from a matriarch of Christ Church New Albany, Mrs. Deborah Autry. Her husband, Lanny, was one of the founding pastors of CCNA.
When the church first began, Deborah was a lost, religious lady. But God drew her to Himself over the course of many months. We believe her story may be an encouragement to you.
Supporter Appreciation Episodes are small, tangible ways of showing appreciation for those who partner with Media Gratiae monthly. If you are a monthly supporter, click here for the additional content. As with everything we do, we never want finances to be a genuine barrier between out content and those who want to access it. If that's you, reach out to us at info@mediagratiae.org.
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Show Notes
Podcast Resources
Knowing Christ by Mark Jones
The Person and Work of Christ by B.B. Warfield
John 4:32-34
John 6:38
John 8:29
John 5:30-36
John 10:37-38