1 in 10 to the 17th power.
The Gospel of John Chapter 19
Jesus has taught his disciples with Words,
Now he will teach by an ultimate demonstration.
Chapter 19 of the Gospel according to John contains a record of the events of the
execution of Jesus.
The Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of the Jews, has rejected Jesus as Messiah.
They have charged Jesus with the crime of blasphemy,
A crime under Jewish law that calls for the death by stoning.
The Sanhedrin brings Jesus before the Roman governor and demand that Jesus be
put to death.
Three times Pilate the Roman procurator announced that he found no charge
against Jesus that warranted the death penalty.
Yet Jesus is crucified.
All in accordance with Biblical Prophecy
For me Biblical Prophecy remains a fascinating challenge.
I’ve been influenced by our modern stories where someone finds an ancient
text and the people get caught up in it,
totally identified with what transpires between what was written and
what is happening.
In these stories the prophecy is written as if the writer peered into the future
and wrote down how current challenges will find their fruition in
future events.
Thus all things are determined as if the story of existence was written down
in a book, and we each come to life as our part in the story is read,
fulfilling our role only to pass away with the end of the chapter.
Biblical Prophecy isn’t like this.
I would be much more comfortable with Biblical Prophecy if it did conform
to those “tell the future” predications. But it doesn’t.
The prophets chief function was the proclamation of the Word of God to their
own times,
rather than seers who described future events that had no relation to
their own day.” (Dunning GR&H p. 617)
That understanding just takes some of the “magic” out of the equation.
But it doesn’t remove the requirement for Divine Revelation.
My theological mentor, HR Dunning,
was convinced that the prophets job was not fore-telling the future,
not forecasting, not predicting, as if God allowed them to peer into the
distant future and write down the details of that strange new
world.
but rather the prophet forth-told God’s intervention based on the
actions of his people in accordance to His nature.
Stay with me hear, this is more than likely a new thought for you and it is a hard
one to wrap your head around.
A writing becomes prophetic when we take our experience and read back
into the prophecy seeing its full-fillment in our time.
The writing was always prophetic,
We just didn’t realize it.
For instance what if, that when I was born my great grand father wrote:
And it will come to pass, that God will reveal the folly of his ways but it will be too late to undo the damage that he
inflicted upon himself. Nevertheless in his repentance he
will find salvation.
Now let’s say 42 years later I am recovering from a heart attack and I
begin reading through old family papers and find what my great
grand father wrote.
I say wow, Great Grand Dad was a prophet,
The folly of my ways was to allow too much stress,
Combined with poor diet and a lack of exercise
that resulted in a heart attack.
I am going to take care of that stress, diet and exercise
problem so I don’t die prematurely.
What I have done is taken my current circumstances and read back
into what was written and identify it as prophetic.
I have taken what was implicit and filled it full with explicit details.
Now I can recognize what was written as prophetic.
I only know something was prophetic after my
experience indicates that it has come to pass.
With biblical prophecy we have to take this a step further.
We know that God intervenes in the course of history especially in relation to his
people. (Dunning p 619)
God gives His prophets insight into what is occurring in their lifetime,
And based on their knowledge of the character, nature and purpose of
God declare the outcome of the situations and circumstances of
their times.
Since God is unchanging, what we understand God to have done in the past, we can expect that he will do in the future.
The past anticipates a greater revelation in the future.
We also believe that history is not circular,
Repeating itself over and over again.
History has a beginning and History has an end.
The scripture reveals that time is linear.
Moving from time A to time B to some God
ordained end of time as we know it.
In salvation history, the history of God dealing with humankind
We see that the former things are representative of things to come.
Events and People in The Old Testament prefigure, or model, or
foreshadow, hint at, strongly suggest,
what will happen in the future.
Here’s just one example:
Old Testament: Moses leading the people out of Egyptian bondage.
New Testament: Jesus leading his people out of Satan’s bondage.
But we don’t realize that Moses prefigures Jesus until Jesus is revealed.
The pattern of divine activity in the past anticipates the pattern of
divine activity in the future.
The prophet may not have been aware of the future ramifications of his forth-telling of Divine Activity in his day, but later,
Armed with a more clear revelation,
By the experiences and circumstances of our lives,
we “fill full” the ancient prophecy with
understanding and say
“Ahh! This was predicted thousands
of years ago.”
And in the way salvation history unfolds,
Our statement is correct.
Hind sight we say is 20 20.
We look back and now see the prophecy
For it is a foreshadow of what has come to pass in our time.
There are numerous Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
Today I want to consider the prophecies that find their full fillment
In Chapter 19 of the Gospel According to John.
1. The Messiah Will Be Struck On His Face.
Isaiah 52:13-14 (MSG)
Just watch my servant blossom! Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd! But he didn't begin that way. At first everyone was appalled. He didn't even look human— a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
John 19:2-3 (NIV)
The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.
2. The Messiah Will Be Hated Without Cause
Psalms 69:4 (NIV) (circ 1000 B.C.)
Those who hate
me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me.
John 19:4 (NIV)
Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
3. The Messiah Will Be Rejected By Rulers
Psalms 118:22-24 (MSG) (circa 400 B.C.)
The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone! This is God's work. We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it! This is the very day God acted— let's celebrate and be festive!
John 19:5-6 (NIV)
When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!" As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
4. The Messiah’s Hands And Feet Will Be Pierced
Psalms 22:16 (NIV) (circa 1000 B.C.)
Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
John 19:16-18 (NIV)
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
5. The Messiah’s Clothes would be Gambled For
Psalm 22:18 (circa 1000 B.C.)
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
John 19:23-24 (MSG)
When they crucified him, the Roman soldiers took his clothes and divided them up four ways, to each soldier a fourth. But his robe was seamless, a single piece of weaving, so they said to each other, "Let's not tear it up. Let's throw dice to see who gets it." This confirmed the Scripture that said, "They divided up my clothes among them and threw dice for my coat."
6. The Messiah Will Be Given Vinegar And Gall To Drink
Psalm 69:21 (circa 1000 B.C.)
They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
John 19:29-30 (NIV)
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
7. None Of The Messiah’s Bones Will Be Broken
Psalms 34:19-20 (NIV) (circa 1000 B.C.)
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
John 19:32-33 (NIV)
The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
8. The Messiah Will Be Pierced For Our Transgressions
Zechariah 12:10 (MSG)
They'll then be able to recognize me as the One they so grievously wounded—that piercing spear-thrust! And they'll weep—oh, how they'll weep!
John 19:34 (NIV)
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
In 1963 Peter Stoner set out to determine the probability of one man fulfilling
eight of the prophecies of the Old Testament for the Messiah to be
1 in 10 to the 17th power.
The odds are 1 in a quadrillion
Josh McDowel took that number and made this illustration:
If we took that many silver dollars and laid them over the State of
Texas,
they would cover the state two feet deep.
Now mark one of the silver dollars, stir the whole mass thoroughly,
blindfold a person, and tell him/her that they can travel as far as they
want but must pick up one silver dollar and say that it is the
marked one.
What chance would s/he have of picking up the right one?
It would be the exact same odds of anyone fulfilling eight of the
Messianic prophecies by chance
alone.
The odds are astronomical, that Jesus could be identified with these prophecies.
Yet Jesus is
God is somehow involved.
We look at events in the past totally missing their significance.,
Until revelation gives us a new perspective.
We tend not to understand the full meaning of a prophecy until it comes to pass
and we are able to fill it with understanding.
That’s why the Jews, especially the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees,
Who had memorized the Old Testament,
Did not see in the events of their time,
In the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth,
The fulfillment of Messianic Prophecy.
Biblical prophecy must have meaning to the prophet who spoke the words and the
first audience who heard those words.
The prophecy is rooted in history,
but also may take on an even greater significance in the future.
The past prophecy is an indicator of the character of events that may
take place in the future.
Isaiah 46:9-10 (MSG)
Remember your history, your long and rich history. I am God, the only God you've had or ever will have— incomparable, irreplaceable— From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, 'I'm in this for the long haul, I'll do exactly what I set out to do,'
Video Presentation of The Gospel of John Chapter 19
The significance in Chapter 19 is that Jesus makes atonement for all the sins of
mankind.
Atonement is understood relationally as reconciliation.
Two parties at odds are brought together once again.
Romans 5:12-19 (MSG)
You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.
Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?
Romans 5:18-19 (MSG)
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
Grab on to this wildly extravagant life-gift.
Grab on to this grand setting-everything right—
Grab on with both hands what Jesus has provided all who believe.
When you accept the fact that you are living under Adam’s curse.
When you believe that in obedience to the Father Jesus died to set you free
to live.
When you commit yourself to being a disciple of Jesus,
You’ve grabbed the grace gift God has given,
That you might be reconciled with God.
Don’t ignore so great a sacrifice.
Any one,
Doesn’t matter who they are,
Doesn’t matter what the have done,
Doesn’t matter how deserving of a devil’s hell they are,
Anyone who believes in their heart,
Demonstrated by the way they are now living their life.
Anyone who believes in their heart and confesses with their mouth.
That Jesus is Lord,
Have put their continuing faith in the work Jesus has done on their behalf
and will be saved from Adam’s curse.
Romans 10:10 (NIV)
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.