WHAT IS YOUR CHRISTIAN POINT OF VIEW

Jesus and His Mission on earth

Jesus knew that he was sent by the Father. Because of this mission in a human body Jesus spent many times in prayer.

What was the mission? Well clearly his mission was to do the will of his father, not what the Jews were expecting from him because their hope was the restoration of Israel by the Messiah. “They were hoping that God would intervene to defend them and liberate them from their oppressors and restore them to their rightful place as redeemed people.” (Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, by Christopher Wright).

According to Zechariah 9: 9 – 13 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword.”

That was their hope at the time of Jesus, primarily on the restoration of Israel, Jesus purpose was to save mankind and bring them into relationship with God. Where the first Adam failed the second Adam came to succeed. Jesus came as a servant to serve his father. In Luke 9:22 Jesus said “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” The word suffering and servant wood came together in a key saying of Jesus in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” P. 159. (Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, by Christopher Wright)

Here we see Jesus as the servant of the Lord who came to give his life for others. It is also clear from Isaiah 53 that the Servant would suffer and die, and his death would be as a sacrifice for the sin of many. Luke 4:18 -19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

So there is definite continuity between Israel as the servant and the figure who appears to be an individual. The servant now has a mission to Israel. It is the servant of God who will accomplish the restoration of the servant Israel to God. P.168 (Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament, by Christopher Wright)

Jesus said I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel in Matthew 15:24, but later in Matthew 28:19 we found the great commission declares by Jesus to go and make disciples. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

In Acts 1:8 Jesus said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” That was the mission.