The Ministry of Jesus, Part 3: His Saving Death And Resurrection

The word-and-deed ministry of Jesus culminates in his saving death and resurrection.

Act One: Jesus Prepares for his Death

Mt 26:1-4: Jesus predicts his crucifixion one last time, and the Jewish plot to kill Jesus is set in motion
Mt 26:5-13: A woman anoints Jesus in Bethany
Mt 26:14-16: Judas agrees to betray Jesus
Mt 26:17-29: The Last Supper
1. It is depicted as occurring in the middle of the Passover meal.
2. Parallels between this Passover and the First
  1. A sacrificial meal prior to the great Exodus event
    1. Word + Deed + Word
  2. Blood to initiate a Covenant
    1. Blood of Passover lamb sprinkled on door posts
    2. Also, later, the blood of the covenant sprinkled on the people (Exod 24).
  3. Redemption = deliverance or release from slavery.
3. Through the symbolism and words of the Last Supper, Jesus teaches his disciples (and us) rich theological truths about the nature of his “death” (obedience unto death).
4. First, Jesus’ death is deliberate
  1. Jesus is in full control and knowledge of what is about to unfold, and he is going to the cross intentionally and deliberately.
  2. He is not merely a passive victim of his enemies.
  3. Jesus’ death is the culmination of a life of obedience to the Father.
5. Second, Jesus’ death is delivering
  1. It delivers a definite people, all those whom the Father gave him.
  2. Verse 28: “This is my blood … poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
  3. Forgiveness (remission) of sins = the Exodus, when the Hebrews are delivered from their slavery in Egypt and brought out by God’s mighty hand.
  4. Exodus 6:6-7: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.”
  5. Not only a definite purpose, but a definite scope: “For many” (limited atonement)
  6. Isaiah 53:12: “Therefore I will give him the many as a portion” (CSB).
  7. This indicates Jesus’ consciousness that he is “the Servant of the Lord” (Isa 42:1; 49:6; 52:13; 53:10-11).
6. Third, Jesus’ death is covenantal
  1. Verse 28: “This is my blood of the covenant.”
  2. Jesus is picking up language from two OT passages:
  3. Exod 24:8: “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.’”
  4. Jesus’s death inaugurates the New Covenant
7. Fourth, Jesus’ death is eschatological
  1. It looks ahead to the banquet as a covenantal fellowship meal (v 29).
  2. V 29: “… until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
  3. This presupposes his resurrection after his death.
  4. Also demonstrates that his death has an eschatological aim.
Mt 26:30-35: Jesus’ prediction of the disciples’ failure
Mt 26:36-46: Jesus’ anguish and surrender in the garden
1. Verses 37b-38: “He began to be sorrowful and troubled” … “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”
  1. Troubled = in anguish, perturbed, unsettled, at a loss
  2. He must drink the cup, the anguish of hell
2. Verse 39
  1. “Going a little further”
  2. He has a mission that he alone can fulfill
  3. The disciples cannot share the burden with him
3. Connections
  1. Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane links back to his temptation in wilderness
  2. Although Satan isn’t mentioned in Gethsemane, his presence is implied
  3. Links back to Adam in the garden
  4. Satan as intruder into garden (Judas and the Jews armed with swords and clubs)
4. Doctrine: Christology in narrative form
  1. He is true God and true man
    1. Incarnate Son
    2. As true man, he has human emotions and human will
  2. Why both natures?
    1. Jesus doesn’t bear impersonal consequences of sin
    2. Rather, he is enduring the personal wrath of God
    3. The Father “strikes the shepherd” (v 31)
    4. The cup of wrath is from his Father (v 39)
  3. The Son’s Submission
    1. Not as the eternal Son but as the incarnate Son
    2. Active and Passive Obedience as man
    3. Christ as Second Adam
Mt 26:47-56: Jesus’ betrayal and arrest

Act Two: Jesus is on trial and is condemned to death

When: Early Friday Morning
1. Two part trial
  1. Before the Jewish Council
  2. Before the Gentile Governor (Pilate)
2. It is one trial – with one result – Jesus condemned to death
3. But the second phase (before Pilate) was necessary because the high priest did not have power of capital punishment.
4. So they had to convince Pilate to do that part for them.
Mt 26:57-68: Jesus before Caiaphas and the Council
1. Headline: Jesus is on trial before the Jewish council, is asked to reveal his identity, and is condemned to death for it.
  1. This is the culmination of the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees that we have been watching since Matt 9:3.
2. Why did the Jews condemn Jesus to death?
  1. At first, it might appear to be his claim to be able to destroy the temple and rebuild it.
  2. But that was only a preparatory charge that led to the real issue – his identity as the Messiah, the Son of God.
  3. It is only when he answers Caiaphas’ question in the affirmative and goes on to claim to be the exalted Son of Man that Caiaphas charges him with blasphemy.
  4. Up till now the Jews have been very critical of Jesus because of his stance of authority over the law and his rejection of the traditions of the elders.
    1. Authority over the temple and critique of the Jewish authorities’ administration of the temple is the peak of this battle of wills.
    2. “By what authority?”
  5. But even that is not the fundamental issue.
    1. Behind all of that lies the more fundamental issue of Christology.
    2. Who is this man?
    3. He is the God-Man!
  6. Verse 64: “From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
    1. The vindication of the rejected Son of Man (Psalm 110:1 + Daniel 7:13-14).
    2. When? Resurrection and Ascension? AD 70? Parousia?
    3. Best answer: Resurrection and Ascension (= Exaltation)
      1. The parallel in Luke removes ambiguity:
      2. Luke 22:69: “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God,” quoting only Ps 110:1 (no mention of clouds of Dan 7).
      3. Matt 28:19: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
  7. Up till now, Jesus has kept his identity as a Messiah largely a secret.
    1. Why? Jewish misunderstanding of a political deliverer.
    2. But now he reveals it.
    3. Paradoxically, he reveals it at the moment of his greatest weakness and suffering.
    4. To show that he is a suffering Messiah who came to save his people from sin.
Vv 69-75: Peter’s denial of Jesus
Mt 27:1-10: Judas and the Thirty Shekels of Silver
1. Matt 27:9-10: “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.’”
2. Zech 11:13: “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ — the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.”
  1. Zechariah is a shepherd/prophet who is rejected by the Jews like Christ.
  2. The value they put on his labors was a paltry sum (30 shekels).
  3. The low monetary value that the Jews placed on Jesus is similar to the low value they placed on Zech’s ministry. This is indicative of the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as Messiah.
  4. The Jews hated Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Jesus because of their stern warning of coming judgment on Israel.
3. However, just as Jeremiah and Zechariah also prophesied coming restoration (the potter can remold the clay), so does Jesus (build the temple in three days).
  1. In spite of the impending end of Israel, God is preparing to remold Israel.
  2. The purchase of the potter’s field is like Jeremiah’s purchase of a field right during the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 32:6-15). It is a sign of hope – a coming restoration under a new covenant.
  3. Mt 27:7: The Jews used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. Looks ahead to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the new Israel.
Mt 27:11-26: Jesus Before Pilate
1. Pilate’s role is theologically significant.
2. Concluding narrative transition: 27:26: “Then [Pilate] released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.”
3. Jesus is “delivered over” 3x
  1. Judas delivers Jesus over to the Jews (26:15, 45).
  2. The Jews deliver Jesus over to Pilate (27:2, 18).
  3. Pilate delivers Jesus over to be crucified (27:26).
  4. Key word has deeper significance, as proved by fact that Jesus predicts it (17:22; 20:18-19; 26:2).
  5. That tells us a number of things:
    1. Jesus’ death is precisely God’s sovereign will and purpose.
    2. There is divine justice at work in this. Jesus is “delivered up” by God.
    3. The fruit of this is that through his death and resurrection, the kingdom is going to be inaugurated.
4. All the humans in this story (Judas, the Jews, Pilate) were acting sinfully, but God was at work at the judicial level.
  1. Acts 2:23: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
  2. Acts 4:27-28: “For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”
  3. Jesus was ultimately “handed over” by God himself.
  4. Our sins were imputed to him, and he received the punishment we deserved.
  5. Contrary to the intent of the human actors, God is actually at work in salvation and judgment, bringing good out of evil and transmuting shame into glory.
5. The interrogation before Pilate
  1. Pilate is convinced that Jesus is innocent of the charges of the Jews
    1. V 22: Jews: “Let him be crucified!”
    2. V 23: Pilate: “Why? What evil has he done?”
    3. V 24: Hand washing
    4. V 25: Jews accept guilt
  2. Yet, Pilate still brings down the gavel and pronounces Jesus guilty and sentences him to scourging and execution by crucifixion.
    1. Why? At one level, to show his wickedness and rejecting Christ.
    2. But at another level, he is acting in the role of God himself!
  3. Pilate’s intent vs. God’s
    1. The innocent (Jesus) is condemned to death so that the guilty (Barrabas) may go free.
    2. Pilate recognizes that this is wrong, unjust.
    3. God lets the guilty go free because he has condemned the innocent Christ in our place.
    4. It is “unjust” in a sense, but mercy is unjust.
    5. And it is the satisfaction of divine justice that leads to mercy for us.
    6. Substitutionary atonement
    7. The gospel on full display – the innocent one is condemned that the guilty might go free.

Act Three: The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus

Act 2 (trial) is over, and now we begin Act 3 (death)
1. Mt 27:26: “Having scourged Jesus, [Pilate] delivered him over to be crucified.”
2. What ensues is torture, public humiliation and shame, and mockery.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
1. Vv 27-31: Mocked by the Roman soldiers: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
2. V 33: Golgotha, Place of a Skull
  1. Outside the walls of the city, unclean
  2. Execution place, lots of skulls there
3. V 34: Jesus refuses bitter wine.
  1. He is determined to take up his cross.
  2. And obediently endure suffering with full consciousness.
4. V 35a: Jesus is crucified (Ps 22:16)
5. V 35b: The soldiers cast lots for his garments (Ps 22:18; cp. John 19:24)
6. V 36: The soldiers sit down and keep watch
  1. Setup for reversal of opinion:
  2. “Truly this was the Son of God” (v 54)
7. V 37: The inscription with the charge against him: The King of the Jews.
  1. That was the charge – he claimed to be a king.
  2. Interpreted in an anti-Roman, nationalistic sense.
8. V 38: Two robbers crucified with him.
9. Vv 39-44: Derided by the passersby, Jewish leaders, robbers
  1. Jewish counterpart to the mocking of the Roman soldiers
  2. Same word “mock” used
  3. Fulfillment of Ps 22:6-7, 12-13
  4. “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!”
  5. “If you are the Son of God, come down now from the cross” (cp. Satan, Matt 4:3, 6).
  6. “He saved others; he cannot save himself.”
  7. “He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”
  8. “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires [delights in] him” (Ps 22:8; cp. Matt 3:17; 17:5). For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
The doctrine of the text: The Crucified King, or Kingdom through Cross
1. Ironic acclamation of Christ as the King
  1. V 29: Soldiers: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
  2. V 37: Inscription: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
  3. V 42: Jews: “He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross …”
2. Yes, he must be raised and exalted to fully exercise his kingly power
  1. Nevertheless, his suffering on the cross is the means to that end.
  2. He cannot be exalted as king unless he is first humbled – also as king.
  3. The crown cannot come apart from the cross.
  4. A king who endures being misunderstood, reviled, mocked, and derided out of love for his people and in order to accomplish their salvation.
3. He is reigning from the tree
  1. No one has ever seen a king like this.
  2. He does battle with the forces of darkness.
  3. He lays down his life for his people.
4. Kingdom through cross
5. Everything the mockers say is, at a deeper level, true.
6. What this moment reveals about who Jesus is.
  1. This has been the question: Who is he?
  2. Yes, he is the Messiah – but what kind of Messiah?
7. Here, at the very moment of his greatest shame and rejection and being misunderstood, the true nature of his kingship shines out most brightly.
8. V 42: “He saved others …”
  1. Reference to his healing miracles
9. V 42: The Jewish mockers ask Jesus to come down from the cross “and we will believe in him.”
  1. But if he had done that, he would have failed in his mission as the saving king.
  2. It is precisely because he did not come down from the cross (even though as the Son of God he was able to), that we are saved and enabled to believe in him.
10. We know that, were it not for God’s grace opening our eyes, we would have joined the mockers
  1. “Faith sees and understands that Christ’s cross is truly the throne from which he is ransoming his people from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God” (Jeremy Treat, The Crucified King, 107).
The Death of Jesus
1. The events
  1. v 45: Darkness over all the land
  2. v 46: Cry of dereliction
  3. vv 47-49: He is calling for Elijah
    1. He is the Son of God calling out to his Father for deliverance.
    2. But bystanders think he is a mere man asking for help from another mere man.
  4. v 50: Jesus cries out with loud voice and expires
  5. John 19:30: “It is finished!”
  6. v 51a: Curtain of the temple torn in two
  7. v 51b: Earthquake
  8. vv 52-53: OT saints raised - only Matt records this
  9. v 54: Centurion: “Truly this was the Son of God!” - Reversal from when soldiers were mocking
  10. vv 55-56: The women looking on from a distance
2. Cosmic, apocalyptic signs
  1. The Day of the Lord
    1. Isaiah 13:9-10: “Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.”
    2. Joel 2:1-2, 10-11: “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! 10 … The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. 11 … the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”
    3. Matt 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.“
  2. Pitch darkness “over the land”
    1. Exodus 10:21-22: So dark it could be felt.
    2. Deut 28:29: Curse of covenant: “You shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness.”
    3. Hell: Jude 13: “for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever” (cp. 2 Pet 2:17).
  3. Shaking of the earth
    1. Haggai 2:6: “Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land” (also vv 21-22).
    2. Old creation being shaken and turned back to chaos.
    3. Just as the light of day one (Gen 1:3) is reverting back to “the darkness was over the face of the deep” (Gen 1:2).
3. The cry of dereliction
  1. The cosmic, apocalyptic events were a sign of the inward suffering of his human soul.
    1. HC #44: “Christ my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, on the cross but also earlier, has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment.”
    2. Christ is experiencing the wrath of God, the darkness of being abandoned by God.
    3. But he is submitting to this voluntarily, in total obedience to God.
      1. And so the Father continues to be well-pleased with him.
      2. The Father-Son relationship was not ruptured
    4. Vos: “Just when he drank the bitterest aspect of this death in obedience and suffering, he was for that reason an object of greatest good pleasure to God, a sacrifice of sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord” (Reformed Dogmatics 558).
  2. But it was not permanent.
    1. He knew he would be delivered and raised from the dead.
    2. Christ as man takes up David’s cry as a man in Psalm 22:1.
    3. The other 5 allusions to Psalm 22 in the crucifixion narrative suggests that the whole Psalm is in view, not just v 1.
    4. The cry of dereliction did not go unanswered: Psalm 22:24: “He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.”
    5. Not a cry of absolute despair; he still addresses the Father “My God.”
  3. Two hints of apocalyptic deliverance and blessing
    1. Temple curtain torn in two (v 51)
      1. Old temple on the way out
      2. The new temple is emerging, unfettered access to presence of God
    2. Resurrection of the OT saints (vv 52-53)
  4. Christ suffered exclusion from the presence of God in order to secure for us resurrection life and unlimited access to the presence of God.

Act Four: The Risen Lord

Four Key Figures
1. First, the Women
  1. Gospels note that women played key role
  2. Why?
    1. Continuity of the body of Jesus. The women saw his body go from the cross to the tomb (Mk 14:47: They “saw where he was laid”) to being alive
    2. There was no mistake: They saw him die; they saw where he was buried; they didn’t go to the wrong tomb.
    3. Also, they were the ones who first learned of his resurrection and told the disciples.
    4. This refutes the “disciples stole body” narrative (27:64; 27:13).
2. Second, the Angel
  1. Called “the angel of the Lord”
    1. Links back to the birth narrative
      1. Mt 1:20, 24
      2. Mt 2:13, 19
    2. Christomorphic angel
  2. Descended from heaven
    1. Came and rolled the stone
    2. Appearance like lightning and clothing white as snow
  3. The guards overcome with fear
    1. The contrast between the angel and the soldiers
    2. The angel is a soldier of a higher order
      1. Often has a sword in his hand
        
        Num 22:23, 31
        
        Joshua 5:13-15: The commander of the army of the Lord
  4. The words of the angel to the women – two main points:
    1. Vv 5-6: Confirmation that Jesus had been raised
      1. The “Word + Deed + Word” pattern
      2. Jesus gave the word ahead of time
        
        Three passion predictions (16:21; 17:23; 20:19)
        
        27:63: “After three days I will rise.”
        
        He went to his intense suffering knowing full well that it was temporary and would be reversed in three days
      3. The angel gives the word after to confirm the correct interpretation of what they are witnessing:
        
        The earthquake
        
        The stone rolled away
        
        The empty tomb
    2. V 7: He is going before you to Galilee - preparing for the Great Commission
  5. The response of the women: Fear mixed with great joy
    1. Why fear? Because heaven has broken in – supernatural reality
    2. The angel is not Christ but represents Christ
    3. Fear in Bible is often used in sense of reverence and worship
3. Third, the Jews
  1. Ironically, the very act of sealing the tomb just adds to the evidence that Jesus was miraculously raised from the dead.
  2. Satan’s attempts to destroy the king and his kingdom always backfire.
  3. France: “They held all the cards of earthly power, including access to the Roman governor, but despite all their efforts they could not contain the Son of God” (1092).
  4. France: “Their careful plans to get rid of the new Galilean movement have unraveled, and they are left with an embarrassing failure to explain” (1104).
4. Fourth, the Risen Lord Himself! (vv 9-10)
  1. The resurrection is the vindication of Jesus’ rightful messianic authority
  2. Contested kingship from the get-go
    1. 9:3: “This man is blaspheming.”
    2. 12:14: After healing man on Sabbath, “the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.”
    3. 12:22-24: The Pharisees: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
    4. 21:1-16: Triumphal entry; cleansing temple; indignant: “Do you hear what these are saying?”
    5. 21:23-46: “By what authority?”
  3. By raising him from the dead, God the Father has vindicated his Son’s kingship
  4. The kingdom that was “at hand” in the ministry of Jesus has now arrived.

Systematic Theology

Christology
1. True God and True Man
2. Jesus possesses both divine and human natures.
3. As man, he possessed a true human soul and human emotions, demonstrating his anguish and sorrow in Gethsemane.
4. As God, Jesus is in full control and knowledge of his impending death, going to the cross intentionally and deliberately, not as a passive victim.
5. Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God incarnate.
Soteriology and Ecclesiology
1. As the God-man
  1. Jesus’ death-and-resurrection is the powerful divine work of delivering, saving, and forming a people, just like at the Exodus, where God delivered the people from slavery, and formed them into his holy nation.
  2. Jesus’ death inaugurates the New Covenant, drawing from Old Testament language (Exodus 24:8; Jeremiah 31:33–34; Zechariah 9:11).
  3. Jesus looks ahead to the banquet in his Father’s kingdom, the ultimate eschatological aim of his new exodus work of redemption.
2. Ecclesiology
  1. The powerful result of Christ’s saving death-and-resurrection is the formation of his church.

The Exodus as a Type of Christ’s Saving Death-and-Resurrection

Passing Through Judgment
1. The Red Sea was simultaneously salvation and judgment (Exod 14–15).
2. Israel “passed through” on dry ground — a redemptive passage.
3. But the Egyptians were overwhelmed — a judicial death.
4. The water therefore functions as a boundary between old and new creation.
5. Death to the old life in bondage, entrance into a new existence as God’s liberated people.
Emerging into New Life
1. Israel emerges on the far side as a newly constituted people, singing the Song of Moses (Exod 15).
2. The event is not complete until they stand on the far shore — the analogue of resurrection life.
1 Corinthians 10:1–2:
1. “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
2. The sea crossing is thus a baptismal passage — dying and rising as a corporate people.

Christ’s Redemptive Exodus

Luke 9:31 — The Exodus He Was to Accomplish
1. Jesus’ ἔξοδος at Jerusalem is his passage through the waters of divine judgment, culminating in resurrection.
2. His death corresponds to Israel’s descent into the sea; his resurrection to their emergence on the far side; his ascension to their inheritance in the promised land.
3. He thus fulfills in his own person the entire Exodus pattern — the true Israel, leading a new covenant people through judgment into life.
Romans 6:3–4 and Colossians 2:12
1. Paul carries this forward: baptism unites believers to Christ in both death and resurrection — our participation in his exodus.
2. “We were buried with him by baptism into death … that we too might walk in newness of life.”
3. Baptism is sign and seal of our Red Sea crossing in union with the crucified and risen Lord.

Eschatological Fulfillment — New Creation and Inheritance

The Exodus pattern (bondage → judgment → deliverance → inheritance) reaches its eschatological completion in:
1. Death and resurrection of Christ – the definitive passage.
2. Gift of the Spirit – the pillar of cloud and fire now internalized.
3. New creation inheritance – the heavenly Canaan (Heb 4; Rev 21).
4. Exod 3:7-8, 12 (burning bush): “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Meredith Kline described this as the “ordeal–vindication pattern.”
1. Judgment ordeal (the cross)
2. Vindicatory deliverance (resurrection and ascension)
3. Through that ordeal, Christ “passed through the waters of the covenant curse and emerged in the glory of the new creation.”
The Exodus redemption was complete only when God’s people stood alive on the far shore, praising God.
1. Likewise, Christ’s saving work includes both the cross and the empty tomb.
2. Together his death+resurrection constitutes the New Exodus.
3. The Messiah passes through judgment into resurrection glory, thus securing for his people deliverance, new life, and the inheritance of the new creation.

Isaiah 40–66: The New Exodus Pattern

Deliverance through the Servant
1. Isaiah 40–55 recasts Israel’s return from Babylon as a second Exodus, this time led not by Moses but by the Servant of Yahweh.
2. Isaiah 40:3–5 opens with a wilderness cry—“Prepare the way of the Lord”—explicitly echoing Exodus journey imagery.
3. Isaiah 52:11–12 speaks of a departure from Babylon “not in haste”—a deliberate reversal of the first Exodus but fulfilling its pattern.
The arm of the Lord
1. Exod 6:6: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.”
2. Deut 4:34-35: “Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.”
3. Isa 51:9-11: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
4. Isa 52:9-10: “Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
5. Isa 53:1-5: “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions.”
6. John 12:37-38: “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’”
The Servant as the Agent of Redemption
1. The Servant restores Israel (Isa 49:6) and brings justice to the nations (42:1–4).
2. Yet the decisive moment is Isaiah 53, where the Servant bears the people’s sins, is “cut off from the land of the living,” and yet “prolongs his days” (53:8–10).
3. His suffering is substitutionary (“he bore the sin of many”) and effective, achieving forgiveness and covenant renewal.

Jesus’ Appropriation of the Servant–Exodus Theme

The Passover Context
1. The timing of the Last Supper during Passover deliberately identifies Jesus’ imminent death+resurrection as the New Exodus—liberation from the tyranny of the devil through the blood of the lamb.
2. “Behold the blood of the covenant” (Exod 24:8) → “This is my blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:28).
The Phrase “Poured Out for Many”
1. “For many” recalls Isaiah 53:11–12: “He bore the sin of many … he poured out his soul unto death.”
2. “Poured out” echoes Isa 53:12 and the blood poured at covenant inauguration (Exod 24:8).
3. Jesus brings together Passover, Sinai, and Isaiah 53 to form a single picture of redemption and covenant inauguration.
The Servant as the New Moses
1. Just as Moses mediated the first covenant through blood and led Israel out of Egypt, the Servant-Messiah mediates the new covenant through his own blood.
2. His death is the Passover sacrifice
3. His resurrection is the crossing into new creation.
The Redemptive Outcome
1. Forgiveness of sins and covenant ratification (Isa 53:5–6 → Matt 26:28).
2. Outpouring of Spirit (Isa 44:3 → Luke 24:49; Acts 2).
3. Restoration and inheritance for the new Israel (Isa 54–55 → Luke 22:29–30; Acts 13:32–34).

The First Exodus: The Kingdom Pattern Established

God’s Holy People
1. Israel is redeemed from Egypt to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6).
2. The Exodus is not merely liberation but kingdom formation — the creation of a covenant people under divine rule.
God’s Holy Realm
1. The goal of the Exodus is dwelling with God (Exod 25:8: “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst”).
2. The tabernacle is the earthly replica of the cosmic temple, the realm where God’s glory-presence rests among his people (Exod 40:34–38).
3. Hence, the Exodus brings into being the archetypal kingdom structure: God’s redeemed people in God’s holy presence, enjoying covenant fellowship under divine law.

Isaiah 40–66: Promise of a New Kingdom Exodus

The Collapse of the Old Kingdom
1. Because of Israel’s sin, the land (God’s realm) is defiled, and the people are exiled.
2. Yet Isaiah envisions a new act of royal deliverance, a “way in the wilderness” (Isa 40:3; 43:16–21), when Yahweh himself will lead his flock home.
The Servant as the Royal Deliverer
1. The Servant both bears sin (Isa 53) and restores the kingdom order: he secures their forgiveness and justification, gathers Israel, and becomes “a covenant to the people, a light to the nations” (Isa 42:6; 49:6).
2. The outcome of the Servant’s work is Zion renewed, described in royal and temple terms: God reigns, his glory fills the city, and the nations stream to it (Isa 52:7–10; 60:1–3).
The Kingdom Re-Creation
1. Isaiah replays the Exodus pattern in eschatological key:
  1. Deliverance from bondage (52:11–12)
  2. Forgiveness of sin (53:5–6)
  3. New Covenant (42:6; 49:8; 54:10; 55:3; 59:21; 61:8)
  4. Resurrection (53:10-12)
  5. New Creation (54:1-12; 55:12-13; 60:1-2; 62:1-5; 65:17; 66:22)
2. This is the inauguration of God’s reign, not merely return from exile but the re-creation of the holy people in the holy realm.

The Gospel Narratives of Jesus’ Saving Death and Resurrection

The Kingdom Announced
1. Jesus’ public ministry begins with the declaration, “The kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43).
2. His healings, exorcisms, and forgiveness enact God’s royal authority breaking into history.
The Kingdom Accomplished — the Redemptive Exodus
1. At the cross and resurrection, Jesus accomplishes the Exodus (Luke 9:31):
  1. Passover — liberation from bondage to sin.
  2. Covenant blood — ratification of the new covenant community.
  3. Resurrection — entry into the new creation, the true promised land.
2. In these events, God’s rule is inaugurated in power:
  1. The King triumphs through suffering, the serpent’s head is crushed, and the new humanity is constituted around the risen Lord.
The Kingdom as New Temple Reality
1. The resurrection appearances, culminating in the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2), are the temple-filling of the new covenant people.
2. Christ’s body is the new temple (John 2:19–21); the church, indwelt by the Spirit, becomes the dwelling of God with men (Eph 2:21–22).
3. Thus, the resurrection inaugurates the temple-kingdom of the age to come within history.

Table: Exodus Typology

In each stage, the divine purpose is the same — to form a holy people, dwelling in God’s holy presence, within God’s holy realm.

The first exodus prefigured it in typological form
The prophet Isaiah looked ahead to a new exodus through the Suffering Servant
Jesus accomplished the new exodus at Jerusalem through his cross and resurrection.

Theme	First Exodus	Isaiah’s Prophecy	Gospel Fulfillment
Deliverer	Moses, servant of God	The Suffering Servant	Jesus, the Messiah
Redemptive Act	Deliverance through the sea	New Exodus - “the arm of the Lord”	Death and resurrection
Covenant	Sinai covenant by blood	This is my covenant (Isa 59:21)	New covenant in his blood
Presence / Temple	Tabernacle glory	Zion restored	Spirit-filled temple (the church)
Kingdom	“Yahweh reigns” (Exod 15:18)	“Your God reigns” (Isa 52:7)	“The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15)