A Lesson in Prophecy

One of the reasons I'm convinced about the authenticity of Scripture is prophecy. Dr. Tony Evans on the trustworthiness of the Bible. What God predicted hundreds and thousands of years before it ever came to pass, came to pass precisely as God predicted it. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Imagine putting together a jigsaw puzzle where the once scattered and disconnected pieces finally begin to fit together, revealing a perfectly planned picture that couldn't be seen until it was completed. Well today Dr. Evans explains that in a similar way, the events of Jesus' death and resurrection fulfill numerous Old Testament prophecies. Prophecies that, like scattered puzzle pieces, only make sense in the light of Christ's work on the cross.

Let's join Dr. Evans in the book of John. Come to chapter 19. Chapter 19 is important because there's a lot of fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in chapter 19.

One of the reasons I'm convinced about the authenticity and trustworthiness of Scripture is prophecy, that what God predicted hundreds and thousands of years before it ever came to pass, came to pass precisely as God predicted it, which gives authenticity or validation or verification for the trustworthiness of Scripture. Pilate now in chapter 19, verses 1-3, takes Jesus and he scourges him. Scourge was like a whip with metal tips, so you're not just creating welts on the back, you're lifting out pieces of the back. He orders Jesus to be scourged because he wants to get sympathy from the crowd that he's not ignoring their bringing Jesus to him for Roman justice, since they had limitations.

Not knowing that they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 50, verse 6 and Isaiah 53, verse 5. A crown is placed on his head. The thorns that they would have used are not these little things you get in a little thorn bush where you go ow with your hand.

These are very thick, nail-like things that penetrate the skull. So a major disfiguring is occurring of Jesus Christ. That then comes in verses 4 and 5 and declares, I'm bringing him out to you, but you need to know I find no guilt in him, so I am not punishing him because I see something wrong with him. I'm punishing him to satisfy y'all. So Jesus comes out in a mocking way because he has a crown of thorns on his head and he has a purple robe, which is a royal garment, mocking him as king because he's declared himself to be king, and they are rejecting him because of that declaration. Pilate says, okay, look at him at the end of verse 5, behold the man. Okay, you see what I've done? Do you see that I have addressed your concern about him being king?

I've beaten him, I've mocked him, even though I find no fault in him. But that was not enough, verses 6 and 7, because the chief priests, the leaders, said crucify, crucify. They wanted him dead, not just disfigured, not just beaten, and not just dishonored. Pilate said to them, take him yourself and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.

In other words, why don't you do it because I don't see anything wrong that demands the death penalty. So they were insisting on death, and the reason that they were doing so is we have a law, verse 7, and by that law, he ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God. Now, you have to understand, to be the Son of God meant to have the DNA of deity.

It meant he had divine nature. Pilate is now a little worried. This guy is claiming to be the Son of God. So Pilate's raising the question now, who am I fooling with here? So he takes Jesus to the pictorium in verse 9 and says, where are you from? The Bible tells us that Jesus did not answer him.

That's a fulfillment of Isaiah 53, 7, that he would utter not a word. Pilate says, you don't talk to me. Do you know who I am? Do you not know I have the authority to release you? Your life is hanging in my hands. And I have the authority to crucify you. I'm in control here.

I am the puppet master. I ask you a question. You don't answer me? Okay, I'm going to answer you, Jesus says.

It is. You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Mr. Pilate, the only authority you have is what God allows you to have.

You are not, I know you got the position, but you're not the final authority. And by the way, you need to have that perspective about your own life and people who seek to illegitimately rule over you. It comes to verse 12, Pilate made efforts to release him, but the Jews crying out said, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. That was the death nail right there. Pilate then brought Jesus out and he sat on the judgment seat and it's about the sixth hour, that's 12 noon, and he says to the Jews, behold your king, behold your king. And they cried away with him, away with him, crucify him. So they handed him over to be crucified. Starting with verse 16, we're now entering into time of crucifixion. They take Jesus bearing his own cross, which would be the cross bar, the way they had it was the vertical bar would be in the ground and the accused would carry the cross bar, the horizontal bar over their shoulder until then the two were connected when they got there would be the typical way. So Jesus is carrying his cross bar to the place of the skull, which is called Golgotha.

It's the place of death. Pilate writes an inscription. The inscription was designed to tell you why you were being crucified. Verse 19, Jesus, the son of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, because that's why he's being crucified. Many of the Jews read this inscription because it's kind of written big. The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

So he writes it so that everybody can read it, regardless of your language. Pilate disagrees with the crucifixion. See we've seen that. I find no fault in him. He's not for the crucifixion and so that's why he wants to put up that it was for this declaration related to this people that he's being crucified. Not because of a crime he committed.

So this is another one of, you know, there's six trials. This is another one of the illegal trial because he's being crucified for a non-crime, but just for a designation. So the chief priests come up and say, don't you write that? Don't you write that, the king of the Jews?

No we don't want that up there. We don't want you giving the impression he's the king of the Jews and that's why he's dying. Once you change it to he said, I'm king of the Jews, Pilate wrote the king of the Jews. He stated as a fact, they said, no, no, no, you got to add a few words. You got to say, if you're going to put that up there, that's what he said, because we don't agree that's who he is. So you got to add a few words. Pilate said, nope, what I've written, I've written. So Pilate is a very interesting figure. He's caught between innocence, fear, because where are you from?

I don't want to make a mistake here, and acceptance. He's afraid of what they're going to tell Caesar. He's not quite sure who this Jesus is. He doesn't want to make a mistake, but he's got to placate the Jews.

So he's caught in a very interesting web here. So the soldiers crucified Jesus. John doesn't go into all of the factors of the crucifixion like Matthew does, like Luke does, doesn't go into all of the details, but the soldiers crucify him. But he does tell us this, they took his outer garments and made four parts. Verse 23, a part for every soldier and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless.

This is the undergarment underneath the outer garment, and it was woven in one piece. They say in verse 24, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide who it shall be. Then we're told in verse 24, this was to fulfill Scripture.

They divided my outer garment among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. So verse 24 is fulfilling Psalm 22, 18. So again, Old Testament prophesied it, the New Testament, it occurred. But it occurred not because God is making it happen, it's God knows what's going to happen. And he's prophesying what's going to happen. So these people weren't forced to do something against their will, they were just cooperating with their will, which validated Scripture.

So Scripture is inerrant, it is without flaw, it's without error. Dr. Evans will have more for us from this study called A Lesson in Prophecy when he returns in just a moment. First though, I want to tell you about an encouraging book from Tony that focuses on renewal and transformation.

It's called Dry Bones Dancing, a study of Ezekiel's vision of brittle bones brought to life by the Spirit's breath. It's a work that will renew and energize your faith like never before, and it's yours as our thank you gift when you make a contribution in support of Tony's ministry. And right now, we're packaging this book along with all 14 full-length messages in Tony's current two-volume teaching series on the Gospel of John. Get all the details and make your request before time runs out at tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. We'll hear more from Dr. Evans right after this. What if you could unlock the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything in between? Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for everything. The Tony Evans Training Center presents a transformative course from special guest lecturer Ken Ham, founder CEO of Answers in Genesis. If you want to understand anything about the universe and anything about life and this earth, we have to jump into God's Word. This course dives deep into the origins of life, the harmony of science and Scripture, and how to build a solid biblical worldview. Do signs conflict with the Bible?

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Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. So Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture—here we go, verse 28, fulfilling the Scripture again—said, I am thirsty. So they take a jar of sour wine standing there and a sponge, a sponge full of the sour wine, upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. And then a very interesting statement that is easy to miss in verse 30. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

The telestai, the Greek pronunciation, means paid in full. So when you get a receipt where the final payment has been made, that is the demand of God for a substitutionary atonement for the whole world—for he is the propitiation of the whole world, 1 John 2.2—was made on the cross by Jesus Christ. Now, only God can fully explain how that happened and why it was satisfactory. It was satisfactory because of who died, but how all the sins of the world was—the price tag for all of that—was credited, because Jesus had no sin of his own, so it was credited on the person of Jesus Christ. So Jesus died on credit, credit for our sin.

So he became our substitute. And he bowed his head and he said, it is finished, and gave up his spirit. He said, it is finished, which meant atonement was complete, satisfaction was made, sin was paid for, and he gave up his spirit. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one, he asked Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus. Pilate granted permission, so he came and he took away his body. And Nicodemus brings the myrrh and the alloys, which was for the anointing, about a hundred pound weight. That's a lot of anointing.

So he's anointing Jesus Christ, who he has obviously responded to prior to this. He's bound in wrappings with the spices, which was the custom of the Jews. So he's wrapped, and he's kind of putting that kind of mummy kind of look, and there's a garden where he was crucified. He's taken there to a new tomb in which no one had been laid. That's very important because now the events that happen in this tomb cannot be mistaken for anybody else. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid him there. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Madeleine came—women have a strategic part, and you'll see how important part they play in the second here—came to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. It says they've taken away the Lord out of the tomb.

Natural. He's not there. The stone's rolled away, and we do not know where they have laid him. And the other disciple ran faster than Peter because he's younger than Peter, and he comes and he gets to the tomb first. He looks in, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there. The wrappings are there, but not Jesus. So Simon Peter finally catches up, following him, and entered the tomb, because that's Simon. John's standing outside. No, Peter's in.

No. And he saw the linen wrappings lying there. So now we get these wrappings again. He's wrapped, but now he's gone, and the linen is there. And here's the kicker, verse 7.

And the face cloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. Now, they're already saved.

We know that from before. So what are they believing? They're believing now the resurrection.

But what did they see that made them believe the resurrection? When they go in, they see the wrappings over here, and the turban over here still rolled. So they knew if Jesus left there on his own, which wouldn't have been possible, how about beaten up he was, if he takes the thing off, you know, you unroll it. If somebody is taking it off, you unroll it, you unroll it, because it's wrapped on. So you unwrap it to take it off. You unwrap the linen. But when they come in, the face cloth that's been on his head is lying and the linen wrappings rolled in a place by itself. In other words, the head is up here. The linen is over here. Nothing's been disturbed in terms of its look. If you're taking off clothes, there's a disturbance that takes place. They're saying there is no disturbance, and they're separated in the body length of his body with no disturbance. So they knew then, just by looking in the tomb, this thing is real.

This thing is real. And so he believed, and the other disciple was with him, he believed, and yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. They believe it, but that's because they didn't, they never understood what he was saying when he was trying to tell them this, or didn't accept it. So the disciples went away to their homes. I can imagine that walk, because they're believing there's a resurrection, but they're still trying to figure all this out, what in the world is going on. But Mary, who was standing outside the tomb weeping, because she's still trying to figure all this out, and so as she wept, she stood and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white, sitting, one at the head and one at the foot, where the body of the Lord had been lying, both ends, and they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, so she still hasn't grasped what has happened, and I do not know where. So she believed in the Lord, but she didn't get the resurrection. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Now the issue here is this, brothers and sisters, if the resurrection is true, all of it's true.

From the first verse in Genesis to the last verse in Revelation, because if the resurrection is not true, then you can question a whole bunch of things. Jesus Christ is standing there. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Who are you seeking? Because she doesn't know it's Jesus yet. She doesn't recognize Him in His glorified body. Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.

If it was you, tell me. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni, teacher, which is what she called Him. When He called a name, when He knew her name, she knew it was her Lord. You know God is talking when He calls your name.

When He's speaking to you, because sometimes He's there, but you don't recognize Him. So Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, because she's all excited, she ain't gonna let Him go. For I have not yet ascended to the Father, and I ain't going nowhere yet, but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and my God, and your God. Now, what's very interesting here is the first declaration about the resurrection of Jesus to be declared was given to a woman. It wasn't given to Peter, it wasn't given to John, it was given to a woman, okay? So Mary Magdalene came announcing unto the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that He has said these things to her, which means that the Lord speaks directly to women, that He has said these things to me.

You need to know what He says to me, but this is not an office issue, this is a communication issue. All believers have equal access to the Lord, but that access must be handled under legitimate authority. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up a message called A Lesson in Prophecy, part of his in-depth 14-part sermon series on the Gospel of John. Now if you'd like to get a copy of today's message to review on your own or pass along to a friend, it's available on CD or digital download as part of the special offer I mentioned earlier.

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But this special offer ends this week, so do it right away. Again that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. And before we go, a quick reminder, the latest episode of the popular animated series Stories from the Storyteller premieres this weekend. Discover how your kids can watch Stand Your Ground by visiting tonyevanstv.com. That's tonyevanstv.com for Stories from the Storyteller. Tomorrow Dr. Evans highlights how our love for God can grow stronger as we grasp the profound significance of Jesus' resurrection. Be sure to join us for the final installment in Tony's powerful sermon series on the Gospel of John.