Title: Jesus Is . . .The Fulfillment of Prophecy
Series: Who Is Jesus? (Sermon # 2)
Text: Luke 22:37
Date: March 2, 2008
COPYRIGHT © Joe La Rue, 2008
INTRODUCTION
A. An interesting thing about predictions is that they are very often wrong, even when they are given by so-called prophets and seers. Consider, for example, two well-known psychics’ predictions for 2007:
1. On Jan 4, 2007, the Associated Press carried a news story detailing the predictions of Jane Doherty, a self-proclaimed psychic and the author of the book, Awakening the Mystic Gift. She correctly predicted that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would still be together by the end of 2007. However, she also predicted that Rudi Gulianni would be the Republican nominee for president, and Barack Obama would be out of the race by the end of 2007.
(http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=websites&id=4906023 (last visited Feb 25, 2008)).
2. Television psychic Sylvia Brown, who appears regularly on the Montel Williams show, fared even worse. On the December 27, 2006 airing of Montel, Sylvia made her predictions for 2007. They were all wrong. Every last one of them. For instance, Ms. Brown predicted that a tsunami would cause flooding in the United States in 2007. No such flooding occurred. She suggested that a tsunami might hit New York City. It didn’t. She said that there would be a major volcanic eruption in Mexico. There wasn’t. She said that she worried about some type of terrorist attack involving trucks and trains in the United States. None occurred. All told, Sylvia Brown made 13 concrete predictions for 2007 on the December 27, 2006 episode of Montel, none of which came true. Yet she is regarded as an accurate psychic.
(http://www.progressiveu.org/192215-alleged-psychic-sylvia-brownes-2007-predictions-success-rate (last visited Feb 25, 2008)).
C. Of course, the best known psychic-predictor of modern times was Jean Dixon. She rose to fame by predicting in 1956 that the winner of the 1960 presidential contest would die in office, and when President Kennedy was assassinated, her popularity was assured. Of course, what was overlooked was the fact that she had also predicted that Richard Nixon would win the presidency in 1960, not JFK. Undaunted, Ms. Dixon convinced herself and the rest of America that she was a modern-day prophet. Every year until her death in 1997 she would issue her list of predictions for the coming year. Most people assume that most of her predictions came true. The reality is that most didn’t. For instance, she predicted that World War III would begin in 1958 and that the Soviets would land the first man on the moon. She predicted that the first George Bush would beat his challenger, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas. For 1997, the final year of her life, she predicted that actor Alec Baldwin would become terribly ill, comedian Ellen DeGeneres would have a run-in with the Secret Service when she crashed the presidential inauguration; and a plane would crash in late October. None of these things occurred. Yet she is regarded as the greatest of the modern psychics.
(http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9701/26/dixon/ (Last visited on Feb 25, 2008)).
D. Standing in stark contrast to these modern prophets are the prophets of the Bible. Time after time the biblical authors said that something would occur; and then, it occurred, exactly as they said. This fact lends great weight to the argument that the Bible really is true, and really can be trusted. We will more fully explore this topic in a few weeks when we talk about evidence for the trustworthiness of the Bible. This morning, though, we are going to consider one particular type of prophecy—what is known as messianic prophecy. This is the prophecy given in the Old Testament, long before the birth of Jesus, relating to the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed Savior, that God promised to send into the world. Look with me at a single passage from Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is speaking, and He says:
“Everything written about me by the prophets will come true.” (Luke 22:37, New Living Translation).
E. Jesus had a very real belief that (a) he was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy; and (b) that what had been written about him must come true. And the early church shared that view: they believed that the life of Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.
F. We know from the discoveries of archeologists that the writings of the Old Testament, together with their prophecies, were completed several hundred years before Jesus’s birth—all scholars agree on that fact, whether they are Christians or not. So there’s no chance that prophecies were added after the fact. Therefore, the messianic prophecies are very important; for, if they were fulfilled in Jesus, and no other, than it makes sense to conclude that He was the promised Savior.
G. Trans: So this morning we shall consider: was Jesus the fulfillment of prophecy?
I. JESUS PERFECTLY FULFILLED THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES ABOUT THE COMING MESSIAH.
A. When we examine the evidence, here is what we find: There are over sixty concrete prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah. And every one of them was fulfilled in the life of Jesus. So, what are these prophecies? We don’t have time this morning to look at all of them, so a few of the more important ones will have to suffice.
1. First, the Messiah Would Be Born at Bethlehem. The Old Testament prophet Micah, writing some 700 years before the birth of Christ, wrote: “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2, New American Standard Bible). Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, that was written. And the New Testament tells us that, through a quirk of fate—or, I suggest to you, through God’s providence—Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The Roman governor had commanded that all his subjects go to their ancestral home-town for a census, and since Joseph was from Bethlehem he and Mary journeyed there. And while they were there, Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-20).
2. Second, the Messiah Would Be Preceded by a Messenger. The prophet Isaiah, also writing some 700 years before Jesus’s birth, wrote that the Messiah would be preceded by a messenger, calling the people of Israel to repentance (Isaiah 40:3). That is precisely what we find with regard to the ministry of Jesus. Shortly before he began His ministry, John the Baptist began to preach and to call the people of Israel to repent. In fact, John identified himself as being the fulfillment of this prophecy (John 1:23).
3. Third, the Messiah Would Enter Jerusalem on a Donkey. Zechariah had prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Zech 9:9). In fact, Jesus did just that on Palm Sunday (Matt 21:1-5).
4. Fourth, the Messiah Would be Betrayed By a Friend. Psalm 41:9 said, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.” (Psalm 41:9, NASB). Of course, that’s exactly what happened with Judas—he was at the last supper, he took the piece of bread from Jesus and ate—and then, he went out to betray Jesus to the Jewish leaders. (John 13:21-30).
5. Fifth, the Messiah Would Be Betrayed for Thirty Pieces of Silver. In Zechariah, God said that He was valued by His people as worth thirty pieces of silver. (Zech 11:12-13). Sure enough, when Judas asked the chief priests, ‘What are you willing to give me to betray Jesus,’ they offered him thirty pieces of silver. (Matt 26:15).
6. Sixth, the Thirty Pieces of Silver For Which The Messiah Would be Betrayed Would Be Thrown in God’s House, and Used to Buy a Potter’s Field. Perhaps this is one of the strangest of the prophecies: after telling Zechariah that the Jewish people would only value God as worth thirty pieces of silver, God told Zechariah to take thirty pieces of silver and “throw it to the potter.” (Zech 11:13). Zechariah saw a potter sitting in the Temple, so he took the silver and threw it to him. Some 500 years later, Judas would be paid 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. But then, he would feel guilty and would return to the priests, trying to undo what he had done. The priests refused, and Judas threw the silver at them in the Temple. The priests said, ‘this is blood money. We can’t put it in the treasury.’ So they bought a field to use to bury paupers. And the owner of the field to whom they gave the money that had been thrown at them in the Temple? A potter. (Matt 27:1-10). They gave the money to the potter, just as God said 500 years earlier: the price at which I was valued, throw to the potter.
7. Seventh, the Messiah Would Be Silent Before His Accusers. Isaiah had prophesied, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” (Isa 53:7, NASB). When Jesus was on trial for His life, with all sorts of false accusations being made about Him, the Bible says that “Jesus kept silent.” (Matt 27:63).
8. Eighth, the Messiah Would Be Crucified. Psalm 22:16 made this prophecy: “His hands and His feet were pierced.” Of course, Jesus was crucified: his hands and his feet were pierced with nails.
B. Now I chose these eight prophecies for a very important reason. In 1969, Dr. Peter Stoner published a book called “Science Speaks.” Dr. Stoner was the Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953, when he became Chairman of the Science Division at Westmont College. In other words, he was a capable mathematician. And in “Science Speaks,” Dr. Stoner calculated the probability that any one man could fulfill just these eight prophecies to be 1 chance in 10 to the 17th power, meaning a 1 with 17 zeros after it.
1. To illustrate how unlikely a chance that would be, Stoner gave this illustration. Cover the entire state of Texas with silver dollars to a level of two feet deep. The total number of silver dollars needed would be 10 to the 17th power. Now, choose just one silver dollar, mark it, and put it back. Then thoroughly stir all the silver dollars all over the state. Now, blindfold someone and tell them they can travel wherever they want in Texas, but sometime they must pick one of the silver dollars. The chance of finding that one silver dollar that we marked in a pile 2 feet deep covering the state of Texas would be the chance the prophets had for these eight prophecies coming true in any one man in the future. (Peter Stoner, Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible 107 (Chicago, Moody Press, 1969)).
2. Interestingly, Dr. Stoner submitted his figures for review to a Committee of the American Scientific Affiliation. After examining his figures, they verified that his calculations were dependable and accurate in regard to the scientific material presented. (Id. at 4).
3. And that is just eight of the more than sixty prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled.
C. We haven’t even talked about the prophecy that his garments would be divided by his executioners (Psalm 22:18), or that darkness would cover the land at the time he died (Amos 8:9), or that his bones would not be broken in his death (Psalm 34:20), or that He would be buried in a wealthy man’s tomb (Isa 53:9).
D. Nor have we discussed the prophecy that the Messiah would be “the light to the Gentiles” (Isa 9:1-2). And indeed Jesus was: when Jesus came into the world, only the Jewish people and a few Greek philosophers believed in the concept of “just one God;” yet, today because of the ministry of Jesus, almost one-half of the world’s population claims allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus.
E. Nor have we discussed the prophecies that said that Messiah would come while Judah had its own king (Gen 49:10) and while the Temple still stood (Haggai 2:3-9). Jesus was crucified during the reign of the last king of Judah, and there hasn’t been another one down to this day. He was crucified just forty years before the Temple was destroyed, and it hasn’t been rebuilt, down to this day.
F. Nor have we discussed the prophecy in Daniel that dates the coming of the Messiah to the exact time in which Jesus lived and ministered and died. This prophecy says that the Messiah would come and be killed during the 69th period of 7 years from the issuing of the command to rebuild Jerusalem. (Dan 9:24-26). The Jewish people in that day counted years in cycles of 7. We know that the command to rebuild Jerusalem was given in 445 B.C.—historians can tell us that much. That year, 445 B.C., fell within the cycle of seven years that stretched from 449 to 442 B.C. Counting forward 69 cycles of seven years, we find that the Messiah is to have his ministry and be killed sometime between A.D. 28 and 35, which is the exact timespan of Jesus’s ministry and death!
G. I could go on, but the point is that Jesus understood Himself to be the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy about the coming Messiah; and, when we examine the scriptures, we find that He did in fact fulfill those prophecies. And the odds against anyone fulfilling just eight of them are astronomical; yet, Jesus fulfilled not just those eight, but all of them.
H. Trans: But, are there other explanations to explain this phenomenon?
II. THE ONLY CREDIBLE EXPLANATION IS THAT JESUS REALLY IS THE MESSIAH.
A. In other words, could this all just be coincidence? In a word, no. In addition to figuring the odds of fulfilling just the 8 prophecies, Dr. Stoner considered the odds that any one person could fulfill forty-eight of the prophecies to be one chance in 10 to the 157th power; that is, a 1 followed by 157 zeros. (Stoner, at 109). That’s a very large number. Emile Borel states in his book “Probabilities and Life” that once we go past one chance in 10 to the 50th power, the probabilities are so small it’s impossible to think they will ever occur by chance. Emile Borel, Probabilities and Life, chapters 1-3 (New York, Dover, 1962). In other words, once you get past 1 chance in 1 followed by 50 zeros, the chance of the event occurring is so small statisticians say there is zero chance it will occur. And here, the odds are not 1 in 1 followed by 50 zeros, but 1 in 1 followed by 157 zeros—3 times less likely! So no, the fact that Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies could not be “just coincidence.” Someone had to have arranged it. And I suggest to you this morning, that someone was God.
B. Let’s consider a second explanation: Could this have all been staged? In other words, could the early Christians have made these prophecies up after the fact, or could Jesus have known what the prophecies were, and deliberately did things to fulfill them?
1. Remember, it is known for certain that these prophecies were written prior to the birth of Jesus. That’s important; for, that means that it is not the case that Christians wrote these prophecies into the Old Testament ‘after the fact.’ In other words, it is impossible that Christians wrote into the Old Testament the prophecy about Jesus being crucified to explain the fact that he was crucified. Scholars have established that the Old Testament text, including these prophecies, was written prior to the time of Jesus.
2. So, could Jesus have staged all of this? Could he have known what the prophecies were, and deliberately acted in such a way so as to fulfill them?
a. With some of the prophecies, yes. In fact, He seems to have done that. For instance, when He was dying on the cross, the Bible tells us that He cried out, “I thirst,” so that the Old Testament prophecy saying that the Messiah would thirst would be fulfilled. (John 19:28).
b. Yet, there are other prophecies that Jesus could not have arranged, such as where He would be born, or when in history He would be born, or the price for which He would be betrayed, or the way in which He would die. These were things that were outside of His control. He could not have rigged them, in other words.
C. The other explanations, then, fall short. They cannot explain how it is that these prophecies were fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
CONCLUSION
A. The only fair conclusion, after considering the evidence, is that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah. Hundreds of years before He was born, God promised to send a savior into the world to save us. And Jesus fulfilled every prophecy relating to that down to the smallest detail. And the odds of anyone doing that by chance are too small to say it was coincidence. And the nature of the predictions, relating to where He would be born and how He would die, make it impossible to think that He rigged it. The only fair conclusion is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies, and He is therefore the Messiah sent by God to save us.
B. Furthermore, the fact that these prophecies, written hundreds of years before His birth, came true in Him undergirds the proposition that God exists. If the odds of these things happening by chance are so small that it is they are a mathematical impossibility, then Somebody must have given those Old Testament prophets ‘the inside scoop.’ That Somebody, friends, was God.
C. Now, what will you do with this information? If Jesus is the Messiah, as the Scriptures indicate, then that means that God sent Jesus into the world to save you, and to save me; and, we can trust God when He says that Christ’s death on the cross has accomplished that salvation for us. The Bible says that we respond to God’s offer of salvation by:
1. First, trusting Jesus to save us, to make us right with God.
2. Second, repenting of our sins. This means that we commit ourselves to trying to live life God’s way, under His authority.
3. Third, being baptized for the forgiveness of our sins. And the Bible says that when we do these things,
4. God forgives our sins,
5. Places His Holy Spirit inside us to help us and guide us, and
6. Promises us heaven.
D. Do you need to make that decision this morning? If so, come forward as we sing. I’ll meet you down front here, and we’ll discuss privately what your spiritual need is, and you will leave here today knowing that Jesus is your Messiah, just like He’s mine. Won’t you come forward as we sing?
