04.01. Finding Christ in the Shadows

Finding Christ In the Shadows

Colossians 2:17 AUDIO LINK http://www.exposingtheword.com/SHADOWS/MP3s%20Shadows/1%20Finding%20Christ%20in%20the%20Shadows.mp3

    If someone today asked you to go the airport to pick up a friend whom you had never met you might ask them how you would know them. If they said it was man, that would narrow it to about ½. If they said it was a man who was above 45 years of age that would narrow it further. You might say something like. Do you have picture? If they give you a picture you could find them in the crowded airport. The picture is not the real person it is only an image of the person. We use picture to identify criminals, lost persons and others.

Artist since the beginning of civilization have used all kinds of medium to paint, sculpt and otherwise create images of men and animals. They have painted portraits in all different types of paint, made busts and heads of clay, granite, bronze and other things. These give the image of the person who was the model for the project. Rulers have set up statues of themselves all over the lands they rule. Remember when the statue of Sadaam fell in Baghdad. It was not Sadaam who fell but only his image. Images are used to identify in many ways. You may have heard of the man who robbed someone and then backed out and drove away. The only problem was he left his calling card behind to identify him. He backed into a snow bank and left the imprint of the cars tag in the snow. They read it and arrested him. I speak of these things to open up the subject of how we were to recognize the Messiah. Today we begin a journey into the Bible in a way that I have never ventured before. Colossians 2:16-17 "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."

    Colossians 2:17 "These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ." God’s Word This series will give us ways that we will know the Messiah better. The Old Testament is filled with things that spoke about what the Messiah would be and how He could be recognized. There are some things that we need to understand as we enter this study.

I- Ways God Revealed Himself to Men:

It has often been said that men would not know God at all except for the self revelation of God to men. The religions of the world illustrate this. Men trying to find God is like a blind man trying to paint a self portrait. He cannot see himself as he really is, he cannot see the mistakes he is making and the picture will never be a true image. Salvation is understood that it is God who painted the picture and not men. Many times men cannot see the things he need too because he is looking at the obvious. Let me illustrate. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were camping. They’d gone to sleep beneath the night sky, when Holmes awoke and shook his companion. "Watson, look at the sly and tell me what you see." "I see millions of brilliant stars," Watson answered. "And what does that tell you?" "Astronomically, it tells me that there are countless galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically speaking, Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, I see that god is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. And you, Holmes?" Holmes paused, "What I see, Watson, is that someone has stolen our tent!" (Readers Digest, September 2003, p 107) How do we know God? How can we see Him? How can we see the obvious? God revealed himself to men, men did not find, discover or invent God. How did He do it? Hebrews 1:1-2 says, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." God revealed Himself in many ways before the ultimate revelation through Jesus Christ. He intended from the beginning to bring about the ultimate revelation of Himself by Christ. John 14:9 "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"

    How would we know the Messiah? Certainly one way was by the fulfillment of prophecy. Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

    The Scripture are full of revelations of what the Messiah would be like and do. Notice what Jesus said in John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. In addition to prophecy there is another way that the Messiah was foretold. These are known as foreshadows, types, figures among other things. Our text says that the things that happened in the past were a shadow of things to come but the body that cast the shadow as Christ. The NJKV says in Colossians 2:17-18 "which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

    There are many places in the Scriptures that talk about the pattern, examples, figures, shadows and types of the Old Testament that picture for us Messiah. Hebrews 10:1 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

II- Mystery in Shadows:

    Many places in the Bible it is said that God hide the things now revealed to us in our time. We have the advantage and privilege to look back in our age at both the shadow and the substance. We look at past events and can see their fulfillment in Christ clearly. Ephesians 3:4-5 "Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit."

    Colossians 1:26 "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints."

    If you would allow the analogy. They mystery was like a hidden treasure. It was hidden but the treasure map was filled with clues that were there to reveal the hidden treasure. The Bible was full of hidden clues in types of the Messiah.

    These shadows are found in animals, people, events, acts, worship offerings and sacrifices, holy days, the tabernacle, titles and other things.

III- Some Important Things About Shadows:

    As we advance through this series I must point out some important things about the shadows that we will look at to see Messiah.

    Shadows are never as clear as the body that cast them. A shadow will not always give us every detail. The shadows purpose was to show Old Testament era people Christ. Their purpose was also to show New Testament (apostolic) era saints who the Messiah was. Let me illustrate this. Moses we will find later was a type of Christ. The New Testament saints looked for a prophet like Moses. John 1:21 "And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No."

    The foreshadows will be to reinforce and confirm to us who Jesus and is. We will see from these foreshadows that the coming of Christ in the way that He came was God’s plan from eternity and was not an afterthought. Someone said they were sort of a prescreening of the one to come. One warning that we must heed is that we do not make the shadows our object of worship. We do not worship the day, the altar, or anything other than the one who cast His shadow. We do not worship things or works made by our hands. This also points out for us the thought that I think we need to leave with and that is that salvation is not found in types. The Old Testament sacrifices were are a foreshadow. Notice what is said in Hebrews 10:1-2 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins." If the foreshadow here which was the sacrifices could have brought salvation they would have not had to be offered again. Christ was offered only one time forever. He is the one in whom there is salvation.