This evening, I’d like to take a look at, in Daniel, and in other portions of Scripture, the Lord has given different names which refer to parts of His character. And we’re going to be taking a look at those, some of those this evening. And so before we begin, let’s just bow in prayer.
Father, I pray that You just speak to us through Your Word this evening. And Father, I pray that You would help us to look at Your Son and realize what Your Word tells us about Him. Help us to realize all the precious things that He has done and is doing for us, and the promises that have been fulfilled and are going to be fulfilled through Him. Lord, speak to us through Your Word this evening, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Jesus is often given names and referred to with characteristics that apply to who He is, why He came, and what His ministry is. And this evening, I want to just take a look at some of these terms and look at some Bible verses that deal with these.
The first that we want to look at is the fact that in the Hebrew word for Christ is the Anointed One, is what it means. And it’s also used in the Hebrew word, Mashiach. And King David also was called the Anointed One of Israel as the King, but he was a type of the coming Messiah, but nothing like Jesus in the sense, Jesus came sinless and all-powerful to set us free from sin.
As I mentioned last Sunday afternoon, there’s 158 Jewish rabbinical writings of the past, and there are 456 separate Old Testament passages referred to the Messiah in the Messianic times and the Messianic Kingdom. And the One who is coming is referred to by the following terms that we’re going to be looking at this evening. The first we’re going to be looking at is that He is the Promised Seed.
Genesis 3.15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise or crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
And it’s interesting, Jesus is referred to as the seed, not one of many seeds. And Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, and all mankind flows out of them.
But there was coming a seed of woman. Now if you look at genetically speaking, the man is the one that gives the seed. The sperm comes from the man and impregnates the woman.
But Jesus is referred to as the seed of woman. And this is because He was not, His Father, He came from the Father in Heaven. And He is part of the Trinity, and He did not have an earthly Father.
In Genesis 12.1-3 it says:
Now the Lord hath said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And the reason that they would be blessed is because it was through the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the Messiah would come, that Jesus would come.
Galatians 3:16
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
He saith not, and to seeds of many, but as of one, had to thy seed, which is the Christ.
Hebrews 11.17-19
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
And again it’s referring to the Messiah.
Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in figure. And he was a figure of the coming Messiah. He was a type of Christ.
And that Christ would willingly lay down his life for us. The second word that is referred to, that refers to Jesus, is the word Shiloh. Who will come.
Genesis 49.8-12
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise:
thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;
thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp:
from the prey, my son, thou art gone up:
he stooped down, he couched as a lion,
and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come;
and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine,
and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;
he washed his garments in wine,
and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 his eyes shall be red with wine,
and his teeth white with milk.
We learn in the above verses that the tribe of Judah will never cease to exist as a people. And that Judah will have a government of its own until the Messiah comes.
The Targum of Anecholos reads until the Messiah comes, and the Jerusalem Targum reads until the time that King Messiah shall come. The word Shiloh is a follow up to the one who has the scepter, and should be read until he comes to whom it, the scepter, belongs. And so we see that Jesus is referred to as Shiloh.
He is the one that will bear the scepter. He is the one that shall come to rule and reign and establish his kingdom upon the earth for a thousand years, the Messianic kingdom as we talked before on Sunday. But also he shall come to rule and reign forever in the new heavens and the new earth.
So we see that the term Shiloh, when you see that, or Shiloh, is referring to Christ.
The third that we want to look at is the star who comes out of Jacob.
In Numbers 24, 15-19:15 And he took up his parable, and said,
Balaam the son of Beor hath said,
and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
16 he hath said, which heard the words of God,
and knew the knowledge of the most High,
which saw the vision of the Almighty,
falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
17 I shall see him, but not now:
I shall behold him, but not nigh:
there shall come a Star out of Jacob,
and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel,
and shall smite the corners of Moab,
and destroy all the children of Sheth.
18 And Edom shall be a possession,
Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies;
and Israel shall do valiantly.
19 Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion,
and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.
And we know that, as we studied on Sunday afternoon, the Lord, when he returns to redeem his own, shall come and establish his kingdom, and shall judge those, the quick and the dead, at the end of the millennial kingdom, when the second resurrection occurs, the resurrection of those that are resurrected to judgment. This view was still evident among the Jewish people at the time that Bar Koba revolted in 132 AD.
His full name was Simon by Koba, which means Simon the son of the star. And many of the Jewish people thought that he was the one that was coming, but he was not. As a matter of fact, he led a revolt against the Roman Empire, but he was not the Messiah, nor was he the star that was spoken of here in scripture.
The fourth thing that we see that Jesus is referred to is the seer. And who will be like Moses? In other words, who will be the prophet like Moses? Who will be the one that’s like Moses? Moses himself said that there would be one that would come after him.
In Deuteronomy 18,:15-19, it says,
15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; 16 according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. 17 And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
The word prophet, which appears twice in the above verses, is placed in the emphatic position in the Hebrew, in front of the Hebrew verb.
It is a single person that is intended, not a line of prophets. And so it’s speaking of a specific person. And this prophet is going to come, and he’s going to be like Moses.
Well, what did Moses do that was different even from all the other prophets? Well, Moses led the people of Israel out from under the bondage that they found themselves in under the Egyptians. Jesus, when he comes, shall come as a prophet after Moses. He shall come to fulfill the word and proclaim the word of the Lord.
And he shall come to lead his people out of bondage, out of the bondage that is to sin.
It says, John 1:45
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And so, they were seeing in Jesus the fact that he truly was the one that was spoken of that would be a prophet after the prophet of Moses and all the other prophets had spoken of his coming.
John 6:14
Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, the prophet that should come into the world.
Acts 3.23-26
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. Like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel to those that follow after as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers. Saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
And so we see that the Lord said that he was going to send the seed of Abraham that would come and bless the whole world, that through the seed of Abraham the world would be blessed. No other prophet fulfilled that, but Jesus did. Because he truly came as the seed.
Not one of many, but the one. The fifth thing I want to look at is that he is called the son of David. And this is important as well.
Psalm 89.20
I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him.
And remember that God called David. The people had chosen Saul because they wanted a king like the rest of the world.
God wanted a king who was a man after his own heart. And he would be a man after his own heart. And he would be, in that sense, a type of the coming Messiah.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill all the purposes and will of the Father. And he came to fulfill the promises that had been given. And he came to fulfill the agreement that had been made before the foundations of the world and how man could be redeemed out of the depth of his rebellion, which God knew we would be involved in, if he gave us the ability to choose whether or not to follow him.
But yet he made a means by which we could be redeemed out of that rebellion and out from under the control of sin. And that was through the Messiah, the seed of David.
Psalm 89.24-29
But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted.
Just a pause there. The term horn, whenever you see that in the Scripture, it means power.
In other words, the Lord’s position and power, Jesus’ position and power would be exalted.
I will set up his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore. And my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever. And his throne as the days of heaven. Psalm 89.34-37 says, My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Once I have sworn my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven.
God promised David that out of his seed would come this Messiah. And we know that Jesus was from the lineage of David, came from the line of David. And that this was fulfilled when Christ came.
Psalm 132:.11
The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David. I will not turn from it. Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
Matthew 1:1
The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David and the son of Abraham.
So we see that Matthew, when he lays out the genealogy of Jesus, says that he is the son of David and the son of Abraham. We’ve just been talking about that he’s the seed of David and the seed of Abraham.
And also it’s interesting to note, one of the books in the New Testament, we refer to as the New Testament, that often times when Jewish people begin to read it, we would think this is really boring stuff a lot of times, reading genealogies. But I want to tell you, in listening to testimonies that have been given, one for Israel by Jewish people that have come to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and acknowledge him as the Messiah that was promised of God to take away the sins of the world, one of the things that causes them to realize it’s true is when they begin to read these genealogies. And they see that Jesus fulfilled all that the prophet said of being the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, and it has the whole line down to Jesus.
And it talks about the fact that he came to be this promised Messiah.
In Matthew 22, 41-46 we read,
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord? Saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make of thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither dare say any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
And Jesus understood that the Pharisees had a belief system that really was tainted by their own desires for leadership, and they really didn’t want to acknowledge the power of God. And much like the Sadducees who didn’t want to acknowledge the power of God either.
So we see that he is the seed that was promised, the seed that was promised way back in Genesis, the seed that was promised to Abraham, the seed that was promised to David. The sixth thing that we see is he is called the Sprout of the Lord. Now what do we mean by this? Let’s take a look at some verses.
Isaiah 4,:2
In that day should the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
In Isaiah 11:1- 2
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, in the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. And we see that this branch, this sprout or root, this coming out of the root, and out of the stem of Jesse.
And we know that David came out of Jesse, and he, as we just saw in the previous reference, was in the line of Jesus.
Isaiah 53: 1-2
Who hath believed our report, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
And when Jesus came, the average people listened to his teachings, but the spiritual leadership should have known who he was, totally ignored him and denied him. And they weren’t drawn to him. But yet he was the one that had been promised, and he was God come in the flesh, and the Messiah that would come to redeem mankind.
Jeremiah 23:5-6
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell safely, and this is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness.
Now I want you to see in those two verses a number of things.
First of all, he’s called the righteous branch. In other words, he came out of the line of David. He sprang forth out of that line.
He is a king that shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice. Where? In Israel? No, in the whole earth. Has there ever been a king of Israel that has executed judgment and righteousness in the whole earth? There hasn’t.
This is speaking of the Messiah. He’s going to come, and when he comes, there’s going to be judgment and righteousness in the whole earth. I want you to stop and just think for a moment what that means.
If you look at our unrighteous, ungodly world, and see how that, even if you just look at what’s currently happening in politics in our nation, even in our state, how that people speak unrighteously, and try and manipulate, and distort, and lie instead of speaking truth, and deny truth. Well, there’s coming a day where this one, this king, this root of Jesse that will be a branch that will come out of the line of David. He shall rule and reign with righteousness throughout the whole world.
That has never happened, but it will happen when Jesus comes and rules. Zechariah 3.8 Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth my servant, the branch.
And we see here that in Zechariah, he’s talking about how the ones that were in leadership in Israel, the people look at them, and they wonder at them, and be marveled at their leadership, but there’s coming one that is going to be the Lord’s branch, and he is going to rule in true righteousness, and in true judgment as we saw in the previous verses from Jeremiah.
Zechariah 6:12 says:
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh 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.
Now we were studying earlier about the fact that the Messianic temple that’s going to be built, and which Jesus will rule from during the millennium, is going to be built by the Lord.
It’s not going to be built by men. And in Ezekiel, as we’re studying in Ezekiel, we see that that’s the case. And this man, once again, is referred to as the branch.
And why is he the branch? Because he flows out from all the promises that are given. He flows out from the Lord. He comes from the part of the Trinity, and he comes out of that root.
Revelation 5:5
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And in the book of Revelation, the one who is enabled to come in power and bring final judgment upon the earth and bring righteousness to the earth is this one who is the root of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the branch.
Revelation 22:16
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
And so the Lord himself tells us that these things that he is referred to by the prophets and referred to in the scriptures, that is him.
The seventh thing I want you to see, he’s the stone the builders rejected. And this is important because he’s often referred to both in the New and the Old Testament as this stone. Isaiah 8.14, And he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both houses of Israel, for a djinn and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Now, what is both houses of Israel? It would be the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. He’d be a root and a stumbling block to them. He’s a stumbling block to those that do not see who he is and accept him.
And they stumble over him. The unbelieving Jews today still stumble at who Jesus is. They don’t want to acknowledge he’s Messiah.
And so he becomes, instead of the cornerstone of their salvation, he becomes a stumbling block that causes them to fall because they will not accept him. Isaiah 28.16, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste. Now, if you build a building, one of the things you want to have is a true cornerstone.
I remember a building that we built a number of years ago that we didn’t build, but we were working on putting windows in it and the foundation was not laid straight. It was laid crooked and it was laid improper. And so you couldn’t get your bearings off the foundation.
And so when the building went up, it had all kinds of problems. Walls were going up crooked. Things were going out of place.
And it was all because it started with the foundation. If the foundation isn’t right, the building won’t be built properly. Well, Jesus is the chief cornerstone.
He lays out a true means by which that foundation can be laid. Psalm 118, 21-26 I will praise Thee, for Thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner.
This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, that is, Hosanna. I beseech Thee, O Lord, O Lord.
I beseech Thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.