Carpenter Diem (Because Jesus Was a Carpenter and Is Now Preparing a Home for His People)
The resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ, is crucial to the Christian faith. In Luke 24:13-35, we read of the resurrected Savior walking the road to Emmaus. This specific geographical reference reminds us of the absolute accuracy of God’s Word in all areas. In verse 27, Jesus begins to teach from the Old Testament; He not only walked the talk but also talked the walk! This passage does not reveal the exact Scriptures Jesus employed to teach these journeying believers, but we do know that He fulfilled the entire Old Testament (Matthew 5:17,18). Fulfilled prophecy is one of the major reasons that we can be certain that our faith in Jesus is not misplaced. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Daniel 7:9-14 speaks prophetically of the Tribulation, a time yet future when God will move directly against the evil that dominates earth. In verse 13, we find the evocative designation “the Son of man.” The New Testament clarifies that this is Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:13, 14:14). In fact, “the Son of man” is Jesus’ favorite self-designation, one He uses of Himself over eighty times in the Gospels. He uses the title fourteen times in the book of Mark, including in Mark 10:45, the theme verse of this Gospel: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus’ humanity is absolute; while retaining His full divinity, Jesus was born, grew, worked, ate, drank, became tired and slept, and began a traveling ministry. He knows exactly what human life is like, and He reminds us that He knows. Jesus has already moved powerfully against the evil on earth by coming here, living, dying, and living again. We can be certain that He knows personally about each of our hardships.