Possibility, Probability and the Proof of Prophecy
Text: John 19:16-24
Let’s go ahead and open up our Bible’s to John chapter 19. We’re going to camp out here for a couple of Sunday’s at least… we’ll see where the Lord leads us… But at least a couple of Sundays, because there’s so much here that we need to see.
If you remember, last Sunday we read about Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go… He realized that Jesus was innocent, and that this was an issue that seemed to be between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem, but at the same time – Pilate was a morally weak person. There’s an old saying that says, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for everything.”
In other words, if a person compromises, then the next time, it’s a little easier to do it again. And each time you fail to take a stand, it gets easier and easier to compromise with the world… until finally, you’ve completely come to a point where you are unable to stand for anything. Compromise becomes your default mode.
That’s Pontius Pilate in a nut-shell… and that’s what he does. He knows Jesus is innocent, but he’s become so accustomed to compromise, it causes him no dilemma to allow Jesus to be put to death. So… he turns the Lord over to the soldiers and goes and washes his hands.
We’re in John 19:16-24, let’s read the Word of the Lord (READ TEXT).
Now I feel like I should explain something before we get too far along here. In the Old Testament, the prophets prophesied that the Messiah would be both betrayed and crucified. In other words, God has decreed it – and it would come to pass. At the same time, that doesn’t mean that Judas or Pontius Pilate were forced to do those things by God. They acted in accordance with their own will.
You see, we sometimes confuse free will with free moral agency.
A dog barks like a dog, digs like a dog, acts like a dog – because it is a dog. A cat meows like a cat, climbs like a cat, and acts like a cat – because it is a cat. A cow moos, chews its cud, and acts like a cow – because it is a cow, and a tiger roars, and hunts, and acts like a tiger – because it is a tiger.
Sinners sin because they are sinners – it is their unredeemed nature, and they will choose – by their free will – to follow, and live, according to their nature.
Judas and Pilate did what they did, because they were sinners, and by their sin nature – they made their choices and decisions. They would not have acted righteously because they were unrighteous, un-redeemed – unconverted – sinners! We, as human beings will always choose by our free will, to follow and obey our nature! That is why the most pressing need for humanity is the Gospel. Only the Gospel can transform human nature. Only the Gospel can take a vile sinner and make them a redeemed saint of God. The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart. And the Bible’s diagnosis is that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.
So they acted of their own free will – in accordance with their fallen, sinful nature.
And yet – at the same time, God has sovereignly said in times past, through the prophets, that Jesus would be betrayed and crucified.
ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY HAS BEEN BUILDING UP TO THIS POINT!
Apart from Jesus coming into this world as the sacrificial Lamb, and being willing to shed His blood on the cross of Calvary – as a propitiation for our sin, there would be no salvation for anyone!
And that is what the cross does – it propitiates God.
Now that’s a word we don’t hear a lot about today right? Propitiation. It doesn’t get much use in todays vernacular. But if you would, really quick, turn with me to Romans 3:24-26 (READ).
So… what Paul was saying there, is that the blood of Jesus serves as a propitiation for us.
What is “propitiation”?
It’s the Greek word hilaskomai – it means to appease one who has been wronged, and to atone for another’s sin. We see it used again in Hebrews 2:17, and also in 1 John 2:2. You might want to read those verses later. I’ll say them again so you can write them down. Hebrews 2:17, and 1 John 2:2.
So back to Romans 3 … Paul says that God put forth Jesus as a propitiation by His blood.
Now I want you to catch that… Jesus was our propitiation – He appeased God’s wrath and anger against sin, and atoned for our sin BY HIS BLOOD.
Hebrews 9:22 – “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.”
And that takes us back to Leviticus 17:11, which says, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”
So where does the propitiation – the appeasement of God’s wrath take place? On the cross!
Where does the atonement for our sin take place? On the cross!
Like I said, all of human history has building up to this point! This one instance! This one particular time in history in a small Mediterranean country that’s the size of the Oklahoma Panhandle, outside of the city of Jerusalem… almost 2000 years ago.
And it happened! Just as God has said it would!
Henry Liddon, a scholar from Oxford in the late 1800’s did the work and found that there are 322 distinct prophecies literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
A Biblical scholar named William Hendriksen, from the 1940’s stated that the mathematical probability of all those prophecies being fulfilled in one man is astronomical… I wrote it on the back of your bulletins… 1 in 84 with 100 zero’s behind it. A mathematical impossibility! But it happened. Just as God’s Word said it would. And it had to, for the propitiation and atonement of our sins.
322 prophecies… like Jesus being crucified between two criminals – that’s Isaiah 53:12, or His clothing being divided up and soldiers casting lots for His inner tunic – that’s Psalm 22:18.
And what’s really amazing is when you think about those prophecies… like Psalm 22… that was written by King David. Listen to what he wrote – Psalm 22:14-18, “I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet – I can count all my bones – they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
King David wrote that, and he had never once in his life seen a crucifixion. The Persians did it, MANY YEARS AFTER David… the Seleucids did it after the Persians, and then the Romans did it. But here was David describing this scene with accurate detail, that would take place 1000 years after he was gone. Can we even really grasp that?... I mean, next year our nation will celebrate it’s 250th anniversary. And we talk about 1776, and George Washington, and the American Revolution… but we are so far removed from that time… our technology and discoveries, and culture… so imagine a thousand years. But here’s the thing church – God’s Word and God’s promises aren’t affected by time. Time is subject to the ONE who created it. To God, a thousand years is like a day.
Now don’t go building some weird doctrine off that – that’s just a figure of speech… to show us, that God is not bound by time – He’s eternal.
So here’s the scene. Jesus has been forced to carry His cross, outside of the city, up a hill called Golgotha (in Aramaic – it means the Place of the Skull… or Hill of the Skull)… but in Latin it’s called Calvaria… and He’s stripped bare. The soldiers divided up His outer garments. That would His sandals, His belt, His outer cloak, and His kippah – or head covering… back then it would’ve been more like a head scarf, like you see in the Middle East, rather than a yarmulke that you see in Israel today. But His inner garment was seamless, and so rather than tear it up and divide it, they cast lots for it – to see who got it.
And understand, this was part of the execution squad’s pay. They not only got their pay for being soldiers, but they also got to keep the items of the people they executed.
Here’s what John is getting at in all of this…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us – and His Name is Jesus! He is the promised Messiah – the promised Savior. The One that all of those Old Testament prophecies tell of… and not just the 322 spoken prophecies, but all of those Old Testament types and shadows that point Jesus as well… like Isaac carrying the wood up the mount in order to be the sacrifice for his father Abraham… or Joseph being sold by his own brothers, or David slaying the enemies of God and God’s people, or Jonah being three days and nights in the belly of the big fish, or Samson destroying the enemies of God, but doing so by his own death.
But none of them could be the Savior. They all had their own sin. They all, just like we all, had fallen short of the glory of God. It had to be the sinless, Son of God, who became a man that bore our sins. Who offered Himself up as a propitiation, in order to make atonement, once and for all, by the blood of His cross.
Turn with me to Colossians 1:6-20, “For by Him (that’s Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the Head of the Body – the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.”
So, church… this has moved far beyond probability. Far beyond just being “possible”. It is the work and doing of Almighty God. The question for us is – what will we do with that information? Will we go on acknowledging Him with our lips while our hearts are far from Him? Or will we run to the foot of the cross and bow before Him?
CLOSING
