Post by Lee on Apr 20, 2014 15:04:48 GMT
The Porter.— “To him (the shepherd of the sheep) the porter openeth,” Jesus says. If we are justified in giving a specific application to this, we might fix on Moses as the porter in the first degree, and John the Baptist in the second degree. Both acted in the porter capacity to Christ. As regards Moses, this may not be apparent on the first suggestion, but it will be found to be true.
First, Jesus says, “He (Moses) wrote of me.” Paul says, “Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we” (Heb. iii. 5). And again, “The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ” (Gal. iii. 24). Again, “To him gave all the prophets witness” (Acts x. 43), and again, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. x. 4).
Thus Moses, in whom the Jewish leaders made their boast,—the great pioneer of the (shortly-to-be-finished) work of God with Israel, was the great opener of the way for Christ, whom they rejected. Moses expressly told Israel (Deut. xviii, 18) that God would raise them up such an one to whom they would listen (which they had not done to Moses); and in all the laws and institutions delivered by his hand there was a shadowing of the glorious realities connected with this greater “prophet like unto Moses.”
In the case of John the Baptist, the analogy to the porter is still more obvious. He stood at the very threshold of the work of Christ, calling direct attention to him, and introducing him to all in Israel who feared God. He was sent to “prepare his way.” “He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light” (Jno. i. 8), and, having done his work, he announced: “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.” He declared to them: “There standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is that coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose;—that he might be made manifest to Israel, therefore I am come baptising with water.” John’s work attracted great attention and exercised a powerful influence with the whole nation, as we saw in the chapter devoted to the consideration of that matter. To him Jesus appealed in confirmation of his own claims as the good shepherd. “Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness to truth.… He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John; the works that my Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me” (John v. 33–36). To Jesus, the good shepherd, the porter-ministry of John the Baptist (which was known to the hearers of Christ’s discourse), opened the door of the sheepfold, in which they might have recognised an incontestable evidence of his claims.
Roberts, R. (1983). Nazareth Revisted
First, Jesus says, “He (Moses) wrote of me.” Paul says, “Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we” (Heb. iii. 5). And again, “The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ” (Gal. iii. 24). Again, “To him gave all the prophets witness” (Acts x. 43), and again, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. x. 4).
Thus Moses, in whom the Jewish leaders made their boast,—the great pioneer of the (shortly-to-be-finished) work of God with Israel, was the great opener of the way for Christ, whom they rejected. Moses expressly told Israel (Deut. xviii, 18) that God would raise them up such an one to whom they would listen (which they had not done to Moses); and in all the laws and institutions delivered by his hand there was a shadowing of the glorious realities connected with this greater “prophet like unto Moses.”
In the case of John the Baptist, the analogy to the porter is still more obvious. He stood at the very threshold of the work of Christ, calling direct attention to him, and introducing him to all in Israel who feared God. He was sent to “prepare his way.” “He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light” (Jno. i. 8), and, having done his work, he announced: “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.” He declared to them: “There standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is that coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose;—that he might be made manifest to Israel, therefore I am come baptising with water.” John’s work attracted great attention and exercised a powerful influence with the whole nation, as we saw in the chapter devoted to the consideration of that matter. To him Jesus appealed in confirmation of his own claims as the good shepherd. “Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness to truth.… He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John; the works that my Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me” (John v. 33–36). To Jesus, the good shepherd, the porter-ministry of John the Baptist (which was known to the hearers of Christ’s discourse), opened the door of the sheepfold, in which they might have recognised an incontestable evidence of his claims.
Roberts, R. (1983). Nazareth Revisted