This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you're joining us today.
Sign up today at ConnectwithSkip.com. And that verse is alluded to and it is quoted here. So when Jesus comes the first time, he is offering them peace, terms of peace. He is the one and only time he is allowing himself to be publicly seen and preached as their promised Messiah is here and now. When he comes the second time, he will come on a horse. Revelation chapter 19. Don't have to turn there now. You can keep a marker there. You can write a little note in your Bible.
Look at it later. But Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven the second time to the earth to put an end to the great tribulation period, riding a horse, and it says, and he judges and makes war. He's on a war horse. So I don't know, I'm not that excited that he's coming to make war, but I'm glad he's coming to take over.
But anyway, at this point, he's coming to make peace, terms of peace. Now, verse 16, I'm glad it says this. Boy, am I glad. There's certain verses that, you know, are popular.
This probably isn't. This is one of my favorite verses. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. Why is that one of your favorite verses, Skip?
I love the fact that it says they didn't get it because I don't always get it. I'm glad it says of the disciples, these things happened. It was written in the scripture, and the disciples are going, huh? I don't get it, and they won't get it until Jesus is glorified. After the crucifixion, after the resurrection, after all of that, when he's glorified, he's taken back up into heaven, then they'll remember it.
I can't tell you how many times I've read through parts of the Bible only to read it again after years of studying it even, perhaps. And I'll look, and I go, I never saw that there. I didn't quite get it. Now it makes sense. Ever had one of those moments? It's wonderful when you have those moments. The disciples had those moments. And what I love is that it's when Jesus was glorified that they got it, and I believe the more Jesus becomes glorified in your life, the more you'll get his word, his truth. It'll make sense to you.
You know, you've got the right heart. You're growing in your faith. You're growing in your relationship with God. He's more and more glorified. It's like, ah, enlightenment is coming.
I'm getting it. Therefore, the people who were with him, when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. They checked it out. They saw it. They agreed with it.
For this reason, the people also met him because they heard that he had done this sign. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, you see that you're accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Can you hear the frustration in their voices? They're losing the grip of control on the people. They're becoming less popular. Jesus is becoming more popular. They hate that.
Their influence is waning. Jesus is growing. And they make a statement, oh, I wish it were true. Said, oh, look, the whole world has gone after him.
Boy, do I wish that were true. I wish the world would go after Jesus. He's the only hope for the world. Sadly, the world hasn't gone after him.
They've gone away from him. But that's where you and I come in. We can, by our lives, by our message, but by our lives, create a hunger and a thirst. You're the salt of the earth. You know, part of salt's job is to create a thirst.
You can create a thirst so that when you're around, people go, man, whatever you got, I want. Give me some of that. You've got peace in this political hurricane. You've got joy. You're not stressed because you believe like God's in control. How did you get there? And hopefully, though the world is gone mad.
They may go after him as they see you pursuing him. OK, so this is the 10th of Nissan, right? This is the triumphal entry. It's called the triumphal entry. I mentioned you'll never find that term in the scripture.
I'm going to give it a different term. The tearful entry. Because when Jesus, according to the other gospels, crusted the Mount of Olives and looked at the city, he stopped. And Luke's Gospel Chapter 19 says he stopped and he wept over the city. So he's not like going, we donkey ride. He stops. He's their Messiah.
It's the 10th of Nissan. The lamb is being presented, but he weeps over it. And he makes one of the most incredible statements that begs a person to find out what he means. In Luke 19, it is recorded.
Let me just tell you what it says. He weeps over Jerusalem. And by the way, remember what we read last time in the previous chapter? Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, the shortest verse in the New Testament, Jesus wept. The second time Jesus weeps is very different. First time at the tomb of Lazarus, he wept silently, his eyes just welled up with tears. When he saw Jerusalem, he wept audibly. The term is strong. It's a loud, audible, groaning kind of wailing. It would be unmistakable.
I'm sure when the disciples saw them, whoa, check out Jesus. Like, what's going on? It's almost like a nervous breakdown. What's going on?
I mean, it was that dramatic. And Jesus said this. If you had known even you. Especially in this, your day, the things that make for your peace, but they have been hidden from your eyes. For days are coming when your enemies will build an embankment around you and surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children within you and not leave one stone upon another.
Because you did not know the time of your visitation. Striking words. I wish you would have known, especially today. But you don't know what this day is, and your enemies are going to destroy you because you didn't know the day of your visitation. What was he speaking about? He was holding the nation accountable that they should have known what day this was.
That they should be aware of what was happening. And it wasn't just the 10th of Nisan, the land being presented. It was a date predicted in their scripture by the prophet Daniel.
And that is what I believe Jesus was referring to. You should have known this date. This is the day of your visitation.
Or as the NIV puts it, the day of God coming to you. You say, what did Daniel have to say about this? Well, Daniel was given in chapter 9 a detailed prediction.
Daniel, 70 weeks. The angel came and said to Daniel, 70 periods of seven are determined for your people. The holy city of Jerusalem to finish the transgression, make an end of sin, anoint the most holy, bring an everlasting righteousness. Know therefore and understand that from the beginning of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem until, listen to this, Messiah the Prince will be 483 years.
It's a wild statement. Now, I'm changing the wording to a modern translation from the New King James which says 62 sevens and seven sevens. So 483 years, the modern translation.
So listen to what I just said again. The angel comes out of heaven and says, Daniel, dude, I want you to know something. If you want to know when the Messiah is going to come, know this, from the commandment given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince will be 483 years. What that means is you should be able to find whatever date it was given to restore and build Jerusalem and count 483 years.
And you'd show up to the day of Jesus or some happening in the life of Jesus, right? It's exactly right. This so interested the lead detective years ago at Scotland Yard, Sir Robert Anderson, that he wrote a book on it called The Coming Prince. All of his calculations are in it.
I won't bore you with them all, but I'll cut to the chase. He took the 483 years given by the prophecy in Daniel nine, discovered that the date in question given to restore and build Jerusalem was given March 14th, 445 B.C. by the ruler Artaxerxes Longimonus.
OK, good. We have the date. Artaxerxes on March 14th, 445 B.C.
said Jews go back home, build the temple under the leadership of King Cyrus. That's a date attested to in history. What that means is that from March 14th, 445 B.C., you should be able to go 483 years into the future and something amazing should be there. So Sir Robert Anderson calculated not just the years, but the days of the years.
And 483 years is one hundred and seventy three thousand eight hundred and eighty days. You following me? You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, starting the year with a structured Bible study can shape your spiritual journey for the months ahead. And help align your life with God's truth. We want to help you do that with Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from Thirty Thousand Feet and Companion Workbook. Journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, gaining a deep panoramic understanding of God's word that helps you understand the big picture of scripture with greater clarity. These resources are our thanks for your gift of at least fifty dollars today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least fifty dollars today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. So he counted from March 14, 445 B.C. 173,880 days and he found what date that was in history and it happened to be April 6, 32 A.D. The tenth of Nisan. The very day Jesus said, go get me a donkey. I need to fulfill Zechariah 9. I need to come on the exact date as given to the prophet Daniel. Something that is in the Jewish scriptures. Something that they should be accountable of knowing because it was given to them. It's in their text. It's read in their synagogues. And he came on that date. Now some of you may be interested in this stuff like when I first read this and heard it, it so like amped me up that I read everything I could on it.
In fact, I've used this to share with unbelievers for years in secular settings just to watch them change their thinking about the Bible. Now you may get excited about this and go home and you'll come back next week with your little calculator and pencil and go, you're wrong. I did the math and it's 176,295 days.
And I'll say, ah, you're wrong. You miscalculated and your mistake probably is that you took our calendar, the Julian calendar based on the lunar model rather than the, I mean the solar model rather than the lunar model. The ancient calendar is a 360 day per year model based on a lunar calendar. The Julian calendar is 365 and a third days. It's a different model.
If you calculate with that model, add the necessary leap years to compensate, you too will come up with 173,880 days starting at March 14, 445 B.C. ending on the exact date Jesus came to Jerusalem, wept over and said you should have known this day. Now let me ask you a question. Is your God precise or what? Is your God on time or what? Is your God exact or what? Yeah, that's praiseworthy.
That's awesome. So if he is that exact, what are you worried about? What on earth do you have to fret about when God is like into it that much? So don't you ever dare say, God, you're late or how could you let this happen? He knows what he's doing and he's right on time and he can pull any string he wants to get whatever he wants. So you can chill acts when it comes to trusting God.
I love this. Now, there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew and in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. Okay, John, the author John, is the only gospel author who mentions this little event of some Greeks. We don't even know what they were, who they were, why they were there, just certain Greeks.
John is the only one who brings it up. But there's a couple of things I want you to notice about this because it's noteworthy. It wouldn't be in your Bibles were it not. First of all, these certain Greeks who came to the feast, they said, sir, we want to see Jesus.
It's a great request. The old King James said, sir, we would see Jesus. In pulpits that I have been in, especially like old world, old school, like European pulpits, they will often have a plaque when you get into the pulpit and the plaque is this verse, sir, we would see Jesus. It's a reminder to the preacher, don't preach your opinion, don't preach politics, don't preach you, preach Christ. Sir, the people want to see Jesus. That's the idea.
So I love that. Sir, we want to see Jesus. Now, who are these Greeks?
Well, we don't know. They could be secular Greeks. They could be there because they were interested. They're traveling through and they're interested in the wisdom that they have heard Jesus is filled with. They heard there is a man from Galilee who has wise thoughts. He does amazing things, but he says amazing things. You ought to hear them. And if you know anything about the Greeks, they love wisdom.
Right? They love philosophy. They are philosophers. Philosophos. They love wisdom. You may also recall in the book of Acts chapter 17 when Paul goes to Athens, he goes to a place called Areopagus, the Hill of Aries, Mars Hill, where the philosophers gathered.
And it says those who were there came only to listen and to hear some new thing. They would just tell each other stories. Interesting.
Wow. They just loved new ideas. Sounds like a college campus. They're there just to hear and discuss something new. So it could be that they were just there to learn. Or it could be that they were religious Jews.
Now, that's what I think they were. I don't think they were just loving wisdom. I think that they were there probably because they were seekers of God. And you ought to know that there was a group that the Jews referred to as God-fearers.
And God-fearers were also known as proselytes of the gate. That is, they believed in the Jewish God. They prayed to the Jewish God. They worshiped the Jewish God everything short of circumcision for obvious reasons.
Short of circumcision and keeping the Mosaic dietary laws. So they were allowed to have some sort of relationship with Judaism as God-fearers. And they knew that Jesus was not from Jerusalem. He's from Galilee.
And Galilee was called the Galilee of the Gentiles. And it's interesting that they came up to Philip. Why Philip? Well, Philip, that's a Greek name.
The name Philip was the name of Alexander the Great's father, Philip of Macedon. And he was from Bethsaida, which was a very Gentile area in the Decapolis, a Gentile region for Rome and for Greece. So probably because of the area, because of his name, they approached him. And they're interested in this Jesus. And the reason John includes this is because John wants you to know that God didn't just love the Jewish people. God loved the world. He came to be the savior of the world. And right here when the door is closing to Judaism, Jews are rejecting Jesus, a door is opening in the Gentile world.
Which will be carried out by Peter but then especially by Paul as the gospel will go out. So that's probably why John included it in his letter. Sir, we want to see Jesus.
But here's what I love. Greeks were known for wisdom. They show up at the end of Jesus' life before the cross. There was another group of wise men who showed up at Jesus' birth. When Jesus was born, wise men from the east showed up seeking Jesus. Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? Wise men from the east. At Jesus' death, wise men from the west came. It's as if his life and ministry were bookended by people seeking him. Non-Jewish people seeking him for some reason. And that is one of the messages that John is trying to get across. That he is the savior for all and he's the savior of the world.
Now, they didn't expect this answer, but Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it will produce much grain. He who loves his own life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also.
If anyone serves me, him my father will honor. Why does Jesus give an answer about kernels of wheat being put in the ground? Why doesn't he quote the Old Testament? Why doesn't he say, let me show you who I am from the prophecies?
Because he's dealing with Greeks. It's an answer that's going to go from the disciples back to the Greeks. So he talks about, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. So they're seeking Jesus, but Jesus is on his way to the cross to fulfill the hour, the exact time of him coming into Jerusalem so that he might die on a cross. So if you're seeking him, that's where he is going.
And you might be seeking Jesus, but by doing this, Jesus is seeking the whole world. You see, if you take a kernel of wheat in your hand and you look at it, it looks pretty insignificant, it looks small, and it looks powerless. It looks dead.
It's lifeless. But then you take that little kernel of wheat and you bury it in the ground, you entomb it. And you give it a little bit of time and a little bit of nourishment, and it will break forth from its encasement and sprout out into new life.
It's a picture of death, burial, and resurrection. And if you do that with a number of kernels of wheat, you'll have a whole field of it. And then if you take what they produce and sow more of it, you'll have more fields of it.
And I guess, theoretically, if you kept doing it, you could fill the whole world. The principle is that life comes from death. Resurrected life comes from death. And this group is seeking Jesus, but Jesus, by His death, burial, and resurrection, can spread the seed of truth around the world. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the sweeping story of Scripture. Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, and The Companion Workbook are our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
