The Resume of the King

And they respond by weighing out for him 30 pieces of silver, which is the ultimate insult. This would be the price and into the days of the Lord. This would be what you would pay for a servant who was disabled. This, of course, will become a prophetic connection with Jesus, who is the good shepherd of the nation, who cares for them.

And they will consider him as worthless as a handicapped slave. And the nation's leaders will say to Judas, Well, I'll tell you what he's worth to us. 30 pieces of silver. The 30 pieces of silver that Judas was paid to betray Jesus was one of the prophetic fulfillments that proves Jesus was the Messiah.

Think about this. How many Old Testament predictions would Jesus have to fulfill for you to believe that he really is who he claims to be? 20? 50?

200? What if there were 456 separate prophecies that were all fulfilled by one person? Would that be convincing? Jesus Christ is that person. He's fulfilled the prophecies of his first coming to prove that he is the Messiah.

Here's Stephen Davey with a lesson called, The Resume of the King. If you're old enough, you may remember how the late 1900s were dominated by the psychic predictions of one particular astrologer by the name of Jean Dixon. She sort of held center stage as someone who could tell the future. Her horoscopes that she wrote were printed in newspapers around the country, read by millions and millions of people every single morning. She became a sensation after supposedly predicting in the late 1950s that the president of the United States who won the 1960 election would be assassinated.

John F. Kennedy was assassinated. That prediction sort of catapulted her to fame. Never mind that she had predicted that John F. Kennedy would lose that election, that Richard Nixon would win it.

Never mind that throughout her career time and time again. Her predictions were hit and miss. Whether it was her prediction of who the Antichrist was, she missed that on several occasions. When the end of the world would take place, the fact that China was going to bomb America in the 1990s, that world peace would sweep over the globe in the year 2000.

I was there when 2000 occurred, how about you, and world peace didn't sweep over the globe. But she became a household name. Her horoscopes read by literally millions. Her predictions followed carefully. I don't know later in life if she ran out of material, but she ended up actually writing a book on horoscopes for dogs.

She even wrote that cats have ESP. The question is, who are you listening to? What's the expert who's predicting for you what the world's going to be like or what's going to happen? What's your source?

Who is it? I love the confidence, though misguided, of the little boy who was riding home with his father. His father later wrote about their conversation.

I read the article. As they're heading home from the grocery store, his little boy said, Daddy, do you believe in the Bermuda Triangle? His dad said, well, if you're asking me if I believe in a physical location, yes.

But if you're asking me if I believe in a mystical place where ships and airplanes sort of vanish into thin air, no, I don't believe in that. His little boy said, well, I believe in it. You want to know why? Yes, and why?

Because I saw it on Scooby Doo. That settles it. Well, what if somebody delivered a series of predictions about the coming Messiah and yet a future messianic kingdom? Let's say four hundred and fifty six of them. That's how many there are, and it's not hit or miss. It's not one out of three. Nine out of ten.

Would we start taking notice? By the way, what is, and Gene Dixon claimed to speak for God. What was the success rate of a true prophet of God in the Old Testament? One hundred percent.

One hundred percent. In fact, if you decided if you live back in the Old Testament that you were going to apply to be a prophet of God, you had to make a prediction and it had to come true. And if it didn't come true, they took you outside the city gates and stoned you to death.

That had a way of limiting the number of applications for the office. Well, if you combine all of the Old Testament predictions about the first coming of the Messiah along with the second coming, but his life, his crucifixion, his ministry, even his parabolic teaching style, specific miracles, things he'd say, things he'd say when he's dying, on and on and on. You come up with hundreds and hundreds of predictions, who the Messiah is, what he's going to say, what he's going to do. You don't keep a secret by delivering four hundred and fifty six clues. God is essentially asking, is anybody awake down there?

What I want to do is in these next few weeks is just sort of pull away. And today I want to rehearse these clues with you, not all four hundred and fifty six, so relax, just a few of them, as he delivers to us these rather stunning specific predictions. Now, if you're older in the faith, you may recognize some or all of them. I want to be sensitive of the fact that we have new believers in our congregation, newer to the exposition of scripture and the truth, especially the Old Testament.

But let's just sort of break down a few of them. Let's talk about his virgin birth for a moment. In fact, you might turn to Isaiah seven. This ought to be underlined in your Bibles if it isn't already. It's one of the stunning predictions where Isaiah says in Chapter seven and verse fourteen, Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. The sign will be ultimately fulfilled on the coming of the Lord, the birth of Christ.

Therefore, here's the sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive. Virgins don't conceive. This goes all the way back to Genesis three, where God promises that it will be the seed of the woman that will bring forth this head crushing redeemer, the seed of the woman.

A woman doesn't have seed. This is a prophecy that grabs your attention. And then Isaiah picks up on it and he says, A virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.

Now that clue alone makes headlines. It was given 700 years before this teenager betrothed to Joseph gets the news from an angel that she is at that moment carrying God the Son. And her first response, by the way, to the angel is classic and it's exactly what you would expect from a virgin.

She said this, How can this be, seeing that I am a virgin? Luke's Gospel records the conversation and the angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. Jesus is going to be miraculously conceived as the Holy Spirit overshadows her egg with his divine power, which is, by the way, crucial. It isn't just interesting.

It isn't just, well, that's unique. It's actually crucial for him to be virgin born. He needs to avoid the fallen sin nature of Adam that's passed down seminally from the male.

The virgin birth allows Jesus to have a human nature and a divine nature but not a fallen nature because he'll be the unblemished Passover lamb, the final lamb of God who will die for our sin. Second of all, let me point out his birthplace. This is one of those marvelous specific predictions that, again, should have set off alarm bells. Micah the prophet predicted, But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little but is too insignificant to be among the clans of Judah.

I mean, you're kind of last place. From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. In other words, the birthplace of the future king of Israel will be this politically insignificant town of Bethlehem.

And the reference to Ephrathah, it isn't like you just want to add a little information here. It's important because it names the district. It names the region. Sort of like today referring to the county, referring to Wake County. And it was important here with Micah and the prophecy because there were more than one Bethlehem in that region. So it's sort of like you saying to some friends, Hey, what do you say this summer we meet in London?

Well, they may buy plane tickets and fly to England. Problem is you meant London, North Carolina an hour and a half away. This is Bethlehem in the county of Ephrathah. It's as if God wanted everybody to be clear and not confused as to which Bethlehem it was and not end up in the wrong town. Now, notice the expression of the king's resume that informs us there at the latter end of the text that he is from of old, from ancient days. This isn't just a throwaway line or, you know, for us to have, you know, a chorus one day, the ancient of days.

That's not why. This is not a throwaway line in his resume. The expression is used in the Old Testament only for the eternally existent God. Micah is saying that the king of Israel will have been eternally pre-existent, his deity. As strange as it might have sounded to Micah's ears or to his first readers, he is essentially saying that the eternally pre-existent God will be born in time in Israel, in Bethlehem, in the county of Ephrathah. This is the birthplace of King David, now foretold to be the birthplace of the Messiah King. And that prediction is going to come true 740 years later when the wise men or the magi come to Herod, as you know, perhaps, asking where the king of the Jews has been born. They eventually leave and Herod assembles all the chief priests, Matthew 2 tells us, and scribes of the people, inquiring of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told them in Bethlehem, you know, the one located there in Judea, so, for so it is written by the prophet. Now, the amazing thing, of course, is that they didn't go check it out.

They didn't go look. By the way, the word Bethlehem means house of bread. It was no coincidence that in the house of bread would be born the bread of life.

Wonderful play on words. Beyond that, it was no coincidence that the temple shepherds, who were the first to hear the announcement and come to that stable to worship him, were shepherds keeping watch over flocks destined for sacrifice in Jerusalem, five and a half miles away. Jesus may very well have been born surrounded by sacrificial lambs. There's another prediction related to his forerunner. Jesus is going to have an announcer preceding him. Isaiah, the prophet, predicts that the forerunner will be a voice crying.

Here's what the voice is crying. In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Now, in John's gospel, this is fulfilled by John the baptizer. He's the cousin of Jesus, and he is assigned as the forerunner of Jesus.

Early in his ministries, as he's announcing the Lord, the religious leaders gather around him, and the priest asks him who he is, and he responds, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. Sound familiar?

Is anybody awake down there? It was a custom in these days for special roads or highways to either be built or existing roads to be repaired in preparation for the procession of a visiting dignitary or king. They made straight the highway, that is, they prepared the highway. John the baptizer is saying, get ready, the king is coming, and he's meeting something a little deeper than filling the potholes. He's saying, prepare the roadway to your heart to receive them.

Take down the obstacles to receive your king. Of course, with that, Jesus begins his ministry, his ministry of miracles, specific miracles predicted by the prophets. He even begins a teaching ministry, ultimately almost primarily composed of parables that is also predicted by the prophets. But let me take you to his entrance into Jerusalem. Just prior to his crucifixion, he enters on a donkey, and you more than likely know about this.

This also has been predicted. Zechariah prophesies of that day, we refer to his poem Sunday. Behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. That is, this is a purebred donkey, born of a female donkey, not a mule, which then qualifies it to be a royal mount. In the ancient Near East, rulers visiting other nations, riding into the city, they'd ride on donkeys if they are bringing peace. They'd ride on stallions if they are bringing war. And this is why they're told to celebrate.

Why? Because their king is coming, and he's bringing peace. Now, between verse 9 and verse 10, you actually have 2,000 years of counting, because the prophets condensed the first and second Advent thinking it'd be only one.

This church age has taken place now. In fact, in verse 10, peace has yet to come. In the ancient Near East, these rulers would come riding in announcing peace, and this is exactly what Jesus does. Peace can bring peace to them, those who believe. Keep in mind, Zechariah is not writing this prophecy in verse 9, the day after Palm Sunday.

He went to some services, all little kids waving palm branches. Now, he's predicting this 500 years before it happens. This would be like some psychic, 500 years ago, announcing the president would be assassinated in 1960.

Zechariah's prophecy is so strategic and so specific. John writes, as this is fulfilled, Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it. You combine the accounts of the Gospels. John writes, Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. John 12, verse 13, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet them. Jerusalem's crowded along the corridors. Mark 11 adds, and many spread their cloaks on the road.

Jesus is essentially announcing, here comes your king. Did the Jewish people know what was going on? Did they connect the dots? Were they prepared to crown him?

They absolutely were. In fact, they're waving palm branches before him. The palm branch was a symbol of nationalistic hope and their belief that the Messiah would come and in his coming bring victory over Rome. You still see the palm branches and the emblems and symbols of Israel to this day. We're told by Mark they threw their cloaks down in front of the Lord as he rode on that donkey.

They're not doing that to make a nice soft padding for the donkey. That was symbolic. Their cloaks represented their personhood. They're saying, You have the right to walk all over us. You have the right as king to rule over our lives. They're prepared to crown him. When it becomes clear through the leadership of those who were opposed to him, they would soon change their cry from crown him to crucify him. That change of heart, by the way, can only be explained in such a soon change of events in terms of Satan's designs. At the same time, God's eternally pre-existent plans to fulfill the atoning work for the redemption of sinners through his son. Jesus came for that.

Nothing would keep him back. The prophets also predicted the betrayal of Jesus. Zechariah says, And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. This was fulfilled in his day, sort of a now but not yet, because it will be ultimately fulfilled in Christ. You recognize that thirty pieces of silver, don't you? Well, if I could take you back into the context for just a moment, what's happening here is Zechariah has provided service and ministry as a shepherd to Israel whom he refers to as sheep, the flock of Israel. He comes to the point where he asks them if they would be willing to pay him for being their shepherd, for caring for them, for protecting them, for caring about them.

And they respond by weighing out for him thirty pieces of silver, which is the ultimate insult in his generation. This would be the price into the days of the Lord. This would be what you would pay for a slave who had been gored.

This would be for a household servant who was disabled, unable to do heavy labor, nearly worthless for the household. This, of course, will become a prophetic connection with Jesus, who is the good shepherd of the nation, who cares for them. And they will consider him as worthless as a handicapped slave, and the nation's leaders will say to Judas, well, I'll tell you what he's worth to us.

Thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26, verse 15. Matthew records the religious leaders gave Judas thirty pieces of silver.

This is a remarkable fulfillment and incredibly specific. The good shepherd is considered nothing more worthwhile to the sheep of Israel than a handicapped or disabled slave. But that's not all in this prophecy. You go back to Zechariah in the very next verse. After Zechariah is given thirty pieces of silver, then the Lord tells him this. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter.

So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, that is the temple, to or for the potter. Now watch what Matthew records for us as these leaders are gathered. Judas is filled with remorse. He shows up to confess, Matthew 27. He says to them, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, so what? What does that do us? We got them tough. Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, so they took counsel and bought with the money the potter's field.

Is anybody awake down there? What about the prophecies of his crucifixion more than we can recount? David prophesied in one of his psalms, dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me.

They pierced my hands and my feet. This never happened to David. This is a prophetic song. In fact, crucifixion would not have entered the mind of David with hands and feet being nailed because crucifixion is not going to be invented for another 500 years by the Persians, perfected by the Romans. The same psalm of David, he writes prophetically, verse 18, they divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garments. In other words, they're going to split up my clothing and they're going to divide it. By the way, Jesus is completely naked in his humiliation.

He has no clothing. They're going to divide it all except for one piece. It's that tunic, that undergarment.

It's seamless. It was a special gift perhaps from some woman who followed and loved his ministry and loved him. John tells us in chapter 19 exactly what happened as this is fulfilled. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece, so they said to one another, let us cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

In other words, let's not tear this up. This was, John writes, to fulfill the scripture which says they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots. So the soldiers did these things. There are numerous prophecies about the Messiah's resurrection. Jonah would be the signal three days and three nights of our Lord. His resurrection and victory over death, Isaiah prophesies, and he will swallow up on this mountain.

Can you imagine the brow of that mountain along that ridge where Jesus would be crucified hundreds of years later? The covering, he's going to swallow up the covering that is cast over all peoples. He's going to swallow up the veil that has spread over all nations, not just the Israelite nation but all nations. What's this veil?

What's this covering? He will swallow up death forever. This is what Paul uses then as he takes this expression and applies it to the victory we have in Jesus Christ who is our eternal security and our redemption through his resurrection power. And Paul writes, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where now is the idea?

Where now is your victory? O death, now where is your sting? You can't hurt us.

You can't keep us. It is nothing more as David prophesied than a shadow. A shadow cannot hurt you, this shadow which is the valley of death.

The victory over the penalties of sin, the victory over judgment and death, eternal life through God the Son, the King, whose resume of Old Testament prophecies informs us that he will swallow up this veil. These predictions, beloved, can be ignored. And we're heading into a season when they will be ignored all over again. They can be rejected. They cannot be refuted. They cannot be disproved. They have already come true. The sad reality is that if someone makes a prediction that comes true, people are likely to believe that person the next time she makes a prediction.

Jesus fulfilled 456 predictions about the Messiah, and people still deny that he's who the Bible says he is. I hope today's message has helped bolster your faith in Jesus and helped prepare your heart to celebrate the Incarnation later this month on Christmas. Thanks for joining us today.

You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. We have a message from God's Word each day, and I hope you'll make this broadcast a regular part of your daily routine. Between now and Stephen's next message, be sure and visit our website, wisdomonline.org. That's an easy way for you to learn more about our ministry, access our many resources, and even listen to more messages if you'd like. We'd be grateful if you took the time to introduce yourself to us and let us know how God's using wisdom in your life. You can send an email message to info at wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-48-BIBLE. Thanks again for joining us. Come back next time for more Wisdom for the Heart. .