"BEHOLD THE MAN"
“BEHOLD THE MAN”
Sunday, August 11, 2019, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
In our study of Zechariah, we are opening the Holy Scriptures to see the Prophet revealing to us Jesus Christ, the Man, the Servant, and the Lord of Hosts, the Priest and the King.
The Prophet Zechariah painted an amazing composite and complete portrait of Jesus Christ five hundred years before His actual birth! The artist who portrayed Him with such superb skill beheld this glorious King and His coming Kingdom in a series of heavenly visions. To the prophet was given angelic assistance that he might make known unto Judah---and eventually, to the entire world---the Messiah’s power, holiness, beauty, and surpassing glory.
In a dream on Saturday afternoon, the Holy Spirit instructed me again to reveal Jesus Christ as “THE MAN.” Since the Lord has been dealing with me over the past two months about knowing Christ as the Son-of-Man, I have had to search my heart to know if I know Him as “THE MAN.”
As I shared recently, I know Jesus as my Savior, Healer, Deliverer, King, Priest, Lord of Hosts, Bishop of my Soul, Son-of-God, Brother, Husband, etc. I present and teach Him in His glory seated at the right hand of the Father and the Lamb upon the throne. But I believe He wants us to know him intimately as the Son-of-Man.
Zechariah saw by vision the ministry of the Son-of-Man on earth.
As this ceremony was carried out, Zechariah was to speak unto him saying, Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
Zech 9:9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
He was born a man and was crucified a man.
Jhn 19:5Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the man!
His second coming will be announced with the sign of the Son-of-Man in heaven.
Mat. 24:30: Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The New Testament presents Jesus’ humanity. From his incarnation to his tireless healing and serving of common people, his life is marked by his connection to humanity.
Frances Metcalfe was blessed to have Jesus appear to her as the Son-of-Man. Her story: “Suddenly He appeared! I saw Him! I touched Him! I talked with Him face to face, not as a King, not as a Creator, not as the Son-of -God, but to my surprise, as the Son-of -Man! In condescension, my Lord came to me, in humility, in kindness, in tender love. As a man, I could approach Him. I could draw near Him, and not as overawed. Later I was shown how much He loves His office as Son-of-Man. Herein lies a mystery; may God open it to your heart! Oh how he loves mankind! How He delights to identify Himself with humanity! Bless His wonderful Name forever! The dear Son-of-God who became the Son-of-Man that the sons of men might become the sons of God.” (Volume 2- Ladies of Gold)
Jesus faced down his detractors whether in Galilee, Jerusalem or his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus is seen as a blasphemer (Mt. 9:3), a deceiver of Israel (Mt. 27:63), as demon-possessed (Jn. 7:20) or an agent of Beelzebub’s kingdom (Mt. 12:24). He is also declared man (Jn. 10:20), an evildoer (Jn. 18:30) and a perverter of the nation of Israel (Lk. 23:2). People accuse him of bearing false witness (Jn. 8:13 and of trying to persuade people not to pay taxes (Lk. 23:20). For the apparent sin of socializing with sinners he is called a glutton and a drunkard (Lk.7:34). Finally, his own hometown dismisses him as only a carpenter’s son (Mt. 13: 54-47).
Phil. 2:6-7: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
He was born into poor, if not desperate circumstances with a cruel king seeking his life. As a young child he lives a refugee existence and then grows up the son of a carpenter in a small village of Galilee. Nazareth is portrayed as ordinary: Can anything good come from Nazareth (Jn. 1:46)? He was far from the center of Israel’s religious and political power of Jerusalem.
He shares the life, and lot of many in Israel and among humanity, fully experiencing the joys, the hardships and every day routines of life.
Jesus’ humanity is clearly imaged in his emotional states. He experienced hunger in the wilderness (Mt. 4:2; 21:18), is angered by stubborn hearts (Mt. 3:5), feels deep compassion for the harassed and helpless crowd (Mt. 9:36, 14:14, Heb. 4:15), is moved to tears at Lazarus’s death (Jn. 11:35), becomes indignant when children are rebuked (Mk. 10:14), is joyful in the Spirit (Lk. 10:21), loves his friends and disciples (Jn. 11:3), marvels at the faith of the centurion (Mt. 8:10), sighs deeply when tested by the Pharisees (Mk. 8:12) and, weary from his journey, thirsts for water (Jn. 4:6, Jn. 19:28).
Jesus is distressed under the prospect of the “baptism” he must undergo. He is overwhelmed with sorrow in Gethsemane agonizing to the point that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. He suffered extreme physical pain on the cross and felt forsaken by God. The picture of these emotions presents a vivid image of Christ’s full humanity.
We find Jesus in the temple at age twelve amazing the teachers of the law with his insight and then returning home with his parents and living in obedience to them.
Jesus had compassion on the gathered crowd because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering…We considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…and by his wounds we are healed. (Isa. 53: 3-5)
Jesus is a true friend. In the Gospels he takes part wholeheartedly in friendship, spending time with people, eating, talking, attending and hosting parties. He is known as a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Mt. 11:19).
The Pharisees, who are scandalized by his breaking down the boundaries of purity erected by their traditions, condemn him with the words; this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
All of these meal scenes are living pictures of the kingdom’s divine offer of forgiveness and wide welcome to sinners, a glimpse of the day when Many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. (Mt. 8:11))
Jesus was a disrupter and controversial. Controversy followed him wherever he went. This is always a sign of the movement of the Holy Spirit. Not that we are to be intentionally controversial, but the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit will always be supernatural and above the understanding of the carnal mind.
When Jesus calls a disciple and says Let the dead bury their own dead (Lk. 9:60), it is a call to leave behind old family relationships and join the family of the Kingdom of God. Hosea’s description of the exodus is applied to Jesus’ return to Palestine with Mary and Joseph: out of Egypt I have called my son (Hos. 11:1).
It is not without significance that just as Zechariah crowned Jesus Christ as Behold the Man (the Son-of-Man) that Pilate in his governmental office crowned him with the crown of thorns and declared: “BEHOLD THE MAN”.
Jhn 19:5Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
Luke 11:30For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.
Likewise, at the time of His Second Coming---His multiple incarnations in the Saints as sons of God---two equally amazing and unique signs are to be given by God, according to the Scriptures.
We see that Jesus is going to appear to His own, in His own and finally with His own---in great glory and power. And we know that when he shall appear, that we shall appear with Him in glory. And we shall be called, the sons of God.
Frances Metcalfe: “Yes, I saw Him as a man, as perfect Man, the Second Adam. Not until I saw Him did I fully understand what God had meant man, made in His image, to be. Just a tender look from His eyes seemed to establish me in the grace of the pristine purity of Eve before the fall. I walked with Him through the dew-sprinkled morning, and He personally led me to the altar He had shown to me before I left the city. As we walked, He talked with me, and I lost all consciousness of a world of sin, warring in violence…I felt what St. Paul meant when he said, speaking of the Bride of Christ: I have betrothed you as a chaste virgin…As I walked with the One altogether pure, O, the beauty of the first Eve! Praise God for the incorruptible beauty of the second Eve---Bride of the Second Adam!
“Perhaps you are among those who have been wondering, waiting, longing to know more about what Jesus meant when He spoke to His disciples of the end of the age, and of its climatic portent: Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens… Or it may be you are among the blessed ones who have already caught a glimpse of His sign and have risen to follow it with joy.” (F.M.)
In obedience to the message in my dream, I give you this teaching of the Man, Jesus Christ.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Frances Metcalfe, Volume 2, Ladies of Gold – see above quotations; Dictionary of Biblical Imagery; Carolyn Sissom sermons from Zechariah
Gen 3:22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: