Hanukkah and the Messiah p. 3 The Forerunner of the Messiah p



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Hanukkah and the Messiah p.3

The Forerunner of the Messiah p.9

The Birth of the Messiah p.18

The Mission of the Messiah p.25

Four Messianic Studies 1



Student Name __________________________________________


Study guide begins on page 34

For the bible students of west side baptist church and the free grace bible institute
www.doctrinepastor.com
Before you begin……
If you do not know for sure about where you will spend eternity, the first issue for you is to place your faith alone in Christ alone and receive eternal life.
John 6:47 (NKJV) Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
John 5:24 (NKJV) "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
John 3:36 (NKJV) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
To believe is simply this: to be convinced that it is true. To believe in Jesus is to be convinced that it is true that He alone is the only one who can give you the gift of eternal life. Eternal life, first and foremost, means that one lives with God forever after this life is ended. Jesus Christ, who is God come in human flesh, died on the cross as our substitute bearing the penalty for our sin. When a person knows they cannot qualify for eternal life through the good works of self-effort or the rituals of any church or religion, and when a person knows that eternal life comes from believing in Jesus alone for that life, at that moment they receive eternal life absolutely free. This life can never be lost for any reason.
If you have received the gift of eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone, then before you begin any Bible study you must be sure you in fellowship with God and filled with the Holy Spirit. The method for this is to simply follow 1 John 1:9:
1 John 1:9 (NASB) If we confess our [known] sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our [known] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [any other sins we fail to recognize as sin or have forgotten about].
Failure to be open and honest in naming and citing our sins means we cannot be transformed by Bible Doctrine and advance in the faith to spiritual maturity.
John 4:24 (NASB) "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Enjoy your time in God’s Word!





Hanukkah and the Messiah

Hanukkah is a special celebration of the Jewish people. The word is also spelled Channukah and the word simply means “dedication.”


Hanukkah is known as both:


  1. The Feast of Dedication (Channukah) and

  2. The Feast (or Festival) of Lights (Hag Ha-Orim) – this is the most common term today

The timing of the celebration of Hanukkah:


In the Jewish calendar, the first day of Hanukkah is on the 25th day of the month of Kislev. In the Gregorian calendar Hanukkah may occur anytime during late November to late December.

This is a basic comparison of the two calendars, Hebrew and Gregorian.



John 10:22-39
Verse 22: This is the only place in the Bible where this Feast is mentioned. Jesus attended and taught at the celebration. We will return to briefly discuss this passage later.
The Feast of Dedication is not one of the seven Feasts of Israel mandated by the Mosaic Law.

It is a celebration time based on a historical event that happened in the intertestament period (the time between the Old and New Testaments). Nevertheless, Jesus attended the Feast and was preaching on the Temple Mount. The feast itself is not predicted in the Bible but the historical events that gave rise to this memorial celebration were.


Daniel 8:8-14: The Little Horn
Daniel 11:21-35
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (meaning “manifest God”) is the one to whom these passages refer.
Interpretive note: don’t confuse the little horn in Daniel 8 with the little horn in Daniel 7. They are two different individuals. The little horn in Daniel 7 comes out of the Roman Empire and that’s the antichrist. The little horn in Daniel 8 comes up out of the he-goat which is Greece and refers to Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

DANIEL 11 – written about 200 years before the events – gives a totally accurate and detailed history of these years under the divided Greek empire and includes an introduction to “a despicable (vile = KJV) person” in verse 21: Antiochus Epiphanes.picture prophecy charts 060


THE TIME FRAME

There are some four hundred years of history that occur between the close of the Old Testament book of Malachi and the opening scenes in Matthew, the first New Testament book. “The Old Testament closes with the people of the Jews partially restored to their land {under Ezra and Nehemiah}, but under Persian dominion. The New Testament opens with the same people greatly multiplied and dwelling in the same country, but under Roman sway, and yet with an Edomite vice-king exercising jurisdiction over part of the land”

H. A. Ironside, The Four Hundred Silent Years). The Greek Empire falls into these years.

Daniel 8:8-14
9: The Beautiful Land is Israel and this speaks of his military attacks and conquering of the nation
10: The host of heaven here refers to Israel, not angels
11: Commander of the hosts is the Lord – Antiochus made himself to be like God in his own estimation
11: removed the regular sacrifice

Antiochus stopped many aspects of Jewish Temple worship and practices including the sacrificial system


11: thrown down means “to be desecrated”: he set up an idol and sacrificed a pig in the Temple
14: 2,300 evenings and mornings

This time began with the murder of the High Priest Onias on September 9, B.C. and ended at the rededication of the Temple on December 25, B.C.


Daniel 11:21-35
21: the despicable person is Antiochus IV

The chapter discussed his ride to power, his invasion of Egypt, etc.


31: His desecration of the Temple is called the Abomination of Desolation

He set up an idol of Jupiter, Zeus Olympus, and sacrificed pigs to him in the Temple. This is recorded in 1 Maccabees 1:54-59 and 2 Maccabees 6:2-5.


Jewish resistance began in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem. Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish villages and told them to bow down to an idol, then eat the flesh of a pig – both practices that are forbidden to Jews. A Greek officer ordered Mattathias, a High Priest, to acquiesce to their demands, but Mattathias refused. When another villager stepped forward and offered to cooperate on Mattathias’ behalf, the High Priest became outraged. He drew his sword and killed the villager, then turned on the Greek officer and killed him too. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked the remaining soldiers, killing all of them.
Mattathias and his family went into hiding in the mountains, where other Jews wishing to fight against the Greeks joined them. Eventually they succeeded in retaking their land from the Greeks. These rebels became known as the Maccabees.
32-35: predicts The Maccabean Revolt which happened from167-134 B.C. Maccabee is a military nickname and means "hammer"/ "hammerer.” They defeated the Syrian forces in 164 B.C.
The Origin of Hanukkah
On December 25, 164 B.C. the Temple was cleansed and rededicated by the Maccabees.

A new feast was started and was to last for eight days just like the Mosaic Feast of Tabernacles.


At the Feast of Tabernacles lampstands are lit so they were with this Temple rededication also. The feast actually celebrates the defeat of one of Israel’s worst enemies!
Many years later the Jewish Rabbis, while under the rule of the Romans invented a story to change the basic meaning of the festival so that the new oppressors would not be offended.
The story was that when they went into the Temple for the rededication they needed to light the Menorah lamps but there was only enough oil for one day and it would take eight days to make the new special oil.
But they lighted the Menorah anyway and it “miraculously” burned for eight days until the new oil was ready. Because of its connection to the lamps with the Feast of Tabernacles, and this “miracle,” it is called the Festival of Lights and is celebrated 8 days

The festival includes much special music just like the Christian Christmas

It also includes special foods cooked in oil – like jelly-filled doughnuts!


Hanukkah and the Messiah
John 8:12; 9:5
This event occurs at the Feast of Tabernacles and emphases that Jesus is the light of the world. Three months later is Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights.
John 10:22-23
22-23: Jesus is in the Temple Compound at Solomon’s Porch.

10:24-25: He had already told them who He was and His miraculous works proved who He was but they were not believing. This is not an honest question! Probably they wanted to arrest Him there and then – but it was not His time.
The issue with these unbelievers is that they did not correctly believe in the Messiah to begin with. Jesus had repeatedly offered them not only the evidence of who He was but that faith alone in Him was required to be in the Kingdom. They rejected this reality.
The Messiah they expected was a political warrior Messiah who free them from the Roman rule just as the Maccabees had freed Israel from Syrian rule. They wanted another Maccabean revolt, a Messiah who was a “greater Maccabee.”
However, Isaiah 53 especially shows that the Messiah’s first coming was to be a sacrifice for sins, a suffering Messiah. Only afterwards – at the Second Coming - was there the Kingly rule of the warrior Messiah.
Jesus demonstrated with one miracle after another that he was the Messiah but they refused to be persuaded because He did not meet THEIR expectations. How many today believe in a false Jesus and thus do not receive eternal life!
28-29: The Messiah is the one who gives and guarantees eternal life.
30: Jesus claims absolute oneness with God the Father (of the same essence)
31-33: The Jews fully understood His claim to be God in the flesh, the Messiah
36: Jesus claims to be the Son of God in a unique and one-of-a-kind relationship with God the Father, sharing the exact same nature. Jesus is the God-man!
While the claim of the Hanukkah oil miracle is interesting, the real miracle to be celebrated is that God became man and that man was the Messiah, Jesus. He is the true light for those in the darkness of sin.
While the work of the Maccabees was wonderful, the work of the Messiah on the cross to make it possible for all to have eternal life is the most wonderful work of all. This is the true liberty! For those who believe in Him alone for eternal life, His work does not end as it with did the Maccabees (with another conqueror Rome) – it lasts for all eternity!
How should believers in the Messiah see Hanukkah?


  1. Jesus is God bringing true victory that lasts eternally while the Maccabees victory was only temporary

  2. Jesus is the true light of the world

  3. Jesus is the true Shepherd of all believers including both Jewish and Gentile

  4. Jesus alone is the one who gives eternal life as a gift and then guarantees

  5. Jesus is God come in human flesh

  6. Jesus is fully equal to God the Father and shares the same nature

  7. The Feast of Dedication reminds that as Jesus dedicated Himself to redeem us, we should dedicate ourselves as living temples to be pure for Him.


Matthew 20:28 & the Servant Candle
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Are we servants of Christ and giving our life for the service of others?
Matthew 5:14-16 & The Light
"You [believers] are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.


Beloved, YOU are the servant light in the world today. Do others see the light in you? Do others receive eternal life because YOU share it?




Me

Be the light on this festival of lights for those around you who do not yet know Jesus Christ.


Be the light also for those who, though they have eternal life, are not following in discipleship. They have hidden their light.



The Forerunner of the Messiah


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