The Apostle Paul referred to a man he knew fourteen years earlier who had been caught up into Paradise where he heard “UNSPEAKABLE words, which it is not LAWFUL for a man to utter” here on earth. It was God who refused to permit discussion of what that man saw in Heaven. Perhaps he was forbidden to speak because no one is capable of handling that information properly. One day, the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples when He paused to say, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Despite our protests, there is information about God, Heaven and Hell which, because of the weakness of our flesh, we cannot process. It is literally mind-boggling knowledge. To understand these things would be detrimental to our mental and spiritual health. And again, shortly before His crucifixion, Christ was in an upper room, washing His disciples’ feet. When he came to Peter, the man protested: “Dost thou wash my feet?” The Lord replied, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” “At this moment you may not understand what I am doing, but one day you will.”
Peter, that man to whom the Lord spoke that Passover evening, tells us in this epistle that the Old Testament prophets experienced the same sort of things that he had. They were given prophecies straight out of Paradise which they were to share with us, but they had only hints about it their meaning. Their feet were washed in the truth, but their minds, as yet, were not. Perhaps, those men could not have handled more information on salvation or Christ’s death. And very likely, the people to whom they were speaking couldn’t have borne it either. It wouldn’t be until the time of Christ’s in carnation that even the believers would be ready. Those prophecies were for us, not for the prophets themselves. “Unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you…”
And yet, as Peter tells us, those prophets were so intrigued with their prelude to the gospel message, they sincerely yearned for more. They enquired and searched diligently, “searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ…” It disturbed them; it probably saddened them; maybe they were embarrassed by their lack of knowledge. Preachers and prophets are expected to have all the answers to Biblical questions, but that isn’t realistic. The prophet’s lack of understanding could be considered as a blessing to us, and a magnification of the glory of God. You and I can now look back hundreds of years and see the predetermined plan of the sovereign God. You and I can read God’s word: “This is what I am going to do,” and then we see where He has done it.
Consider, generally and briefly, the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Christ.
I have never counted them, but I have read one statement that there are 333 prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament. Please remember that there are 400 years between the last book in the Old Testament and the first book in the New Testament. There are prophecies we can see fulfilled in the Book of Matthew, for example, which were spoken a thousand years before Matthew was written. Some of those prophecies are simple and nonspecific, but others are highly complex and detailed. There might not be great weight in some of them, but when enough are put together, like grains of sand, they become extremely heavy.
Let me give you some of the highlights of the prophecies about Christ Jesus. For example, the time of His birth was foretold, and that He was to be born to a virgin in Bethlehem. While great persons were to visit and adore Him, a jealous king would attempt to kill Him by slaughtering innocent children in a very specific town. Christ was to be preceded by a forerunner prior beginning His ministry in Galilee. He would often teach through parables, but His lessons would be authenticated through miracles. He would be hated without reason, rejected by the rulers of his day, and be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver. That silver would then be used to buy the field of a man who was a pottery-maker. Christ’s hands and feet would be pierced, and He would be severely beaten, but without any broken bones. He would die with law-breakers, and He’d be given vinegar to drink, because He was dehydrated. He would be buried with the rich; He would be raised from the dead, and He would ascend into heaven.
I’ve just shared about two dozen of more than 300 prophecies about Christ, written hundreds of years before their fulfilment. Each of them have at least one Old Testament statement as their source and at least one New Testament verse to prove their fulfilment. Included with the words of those prophets, there are many dozens of people and events that we call “types” which illustrate the Lord Jesus or events in His life. They are prophecies through pictures.
Fulfilled prophecies like this is are found only in the Bible. Only God knows the future. There is no one on earth, who can do anything but guess the future or try to manipulate a few short-term future events. Not even Satan. And so there are no religious books, outside of the Book of God, which accurately foretell the future. Jehovah himself challenged the false gods and heretic religions in the world in Isaiah 41:21: “Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.”
A.T. Pierson, a man to whom I often refer to in order to understand Greek, once wrote: “There would be no honest infidel in the world were Messianic prophecy studied… nor would there be any doubting disciples if this fact of prediction and fulfillment were fully understood. The sad fact is, we have yet to meet the first honest skeptic or critic who has carefully studied the prophecies which center in Christ.”
I am not a mathematician and definitely not a student of probabilities, but I have read a little about this. I have learned that if we flip a quarter there would be a fifty-fifty chance, a 1 out 2 chance, we could guess on which side it would land. But If we flipped it twice there would only be a 1 out of 4 chance we’d be able to correctly guess the results of both flips. And if we did it three times the odds would be 1 out of 8. With a little bit of math we could calculate the odds down to a thousand flips. For example, to accurately guess the probability of ten coin flips would be 1 out of 1,024; 1 tenth of 1%.
A few minutes ago I mentioned two dozen prophecies about Christ. I am told that to accurately fulfill all of those prophecies the odds would be 1 in 16 million. It is virtually impossible to correctly guess just 24 coin flips. Keep in mind flipping a coin is relatively simple, but in picking one city out of several hundred makes the odds infinitely more difficult. To say that Christ would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and not 32 makes the calculations incalculable.
Olinthus Gregory was an English mathematician, author and editor He died in 1847. This expert in numbers declared that if there were only 50 prophecies of Christ, and all were exactly fulfilled, the Lord would have had break the odds of less than 1 in 1.125 followed by 12 zeros. Now add only two more elements, like the approximate time of Jesus’ birth and the place, the probability would exceed the numbers available to Gregory three hundred years ago. But there were not 52 prophecies; there more than 300. Is this why the Lord scattered His prophecies between different men of God in the Old Testament? Is this why God didn’t explain everything to individual prophets, despite their searching and enquiries? I can’t answer those questions, because I am not God. Furthermore, it is not for me to correct the Lord or to tell Him that He should have spoken more clearly.
Please turn to Psalm 22 where we find an almost miraculous prophecy of the Crucifixion of Christ.
This one of the psalms of King David, who in several ways is a type or picture of the Lord Jesus himself. So it is possible in some verses of this psalm to see David, while in other verses it is definitely not David. And I will admit that to those who are determined to deny Christ and deny that this is a prophecy of Christ, it is easy to convince themselves. But for those who are willing to compare Psalm 22 to the New Testament, there are extraordinary references to the crucifixion of our Saviour.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” One of the things which Jesus said while hanging on the cross was, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The unbeliever might say that Jesus deliberately used these words to tie him to David. But remember that Jesus was in the midst of the most painful experience in His life; it was a time when rational thought would have been difficult if not impossible. No ordinary man would have been able to carry out such a hoax. Another unbeliever might say that it was entirely coincidental. Certainly that is possible, but I’m telling you that it wasn’t a coincident.
“O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.” Remember that Jesus was crucified under the blazing sun, sapping the strength and moisture out of Him. But shortly after that the sky went inexplicably black. It was like day and night.
“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” No one can deny that the Lord Jesus was despised by the Jewish leadership in His day. And they incited the fickle crowds to shout, “We will not have this man to reign over us.”
“All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” In Matthew 27 we read: “They that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyed the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priest mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him no come from the cross. And we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God.”
David said, “But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.” The crucifixion put Jesus into the spotlight of public scorn – “they gapped upon me.” Some of the witnesses that spring morning sat down as though it was some sort of picnic. And while Jesus’ strength began to fail, and His weight began to pull apart His joints, He cried out, “I thirst.” Was there any single thing which brought about the death of Christ? Was it blood loose? Pain? Some say it was a broken heard, “My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.” Jesus’ hands and feet were impaled with awful nails. They were probably recycled nails which had crucified real criminals weeks and months before.
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Remember, none of this actually befell David, the man who penned his Psalm. This was all prophetical. Isn’t it astounding that this incidental detail was played out at the crucifixion? “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they did cast lots.”
“But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” And wouldn’t you know it. That is precisely what God the Father did, when He raised Him from the grave. David says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.” And that too, the Lord Jesus did.
Something to keep in mind when reading Psalm 22, is that crucifixion was completely unknown in David’s day. I have read that crucifixion probably originated with the Assyrians and Babylonians, and then was used by the Persians in the 6th century BC. That was about the time of Daniel not David. Alexander the Great brought it from Persia to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century before Christ. David, the Psalmist, died about 400 years before the cruel invention of crucifixion. The details of this Psalm come to us from the omniscient God, not from the machinations of wicked men.
Now turn to Isaiah 52:13 where we find another of the most important prophecies of the death of Christ.
Speaking of the end before the beginning the Lord says through Isaiah, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” In order to avoid the obvious prophecies of Christ, Jews and other unbelievers apply these words to Israel. But as we shall see that application is ludicrous.
“As many were astonied (astonished) at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” This servant of Jehovah, a term applied to the Messiah in several scriptures, was beaten so badly that he was hardly recognizable. Not only was a crown of thorns driven onto Jesus’ head, causing blood to run down His face and into His hair, prophecy tells us that His heartless captors yanked Jesus’ beard off his face. And He was pummeled and beaten, causing His face to swell and bruise to an unusual shape and coloration. Remember, too, that a whip was used to shred his back, and very likely the straps reached around His body.
“So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” The mighty men of the earth; the world’s leaders, most of whom will have lived and died rejecting Christ, shall one day see Him, and they will be dumb-struck. “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” God predicted the disbelief of the majority of humanity, despite the work of the prophets of the past and the preachers of today. John’ Gospel, 12:37: “But though (Jesus) had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him; that the word of Esaias, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” This speaks of Jesus’ humble birth in Bethlehem, the place Micah pointed out in another prophecy. He was not born in the palace to which He was due; rather he appeared in a stable in a tiny rustic town. And His eventual neighbors in Nazareth failed to see who He really was. He grew up like any other human child, having taken upon himself human flesh. “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). But after He revealed that He was the Messiah, the people of that city tried to cast Him over a cliff.
When Jesus turned 30, things turned from obscurity and unconcern to three years of antagonism. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Christ was condemned by Israel’s leaders as well as rejected by the common man. And then came the cross.
While accurately describing the crucifixion, Isaiah becomes accurately theological. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”
I wish that I had time to dig deeply into the details of this prophecy, but I am hoping you are familiar with it. You and I, along with our neighbors, have been like lost sheep, wandering all over the religious world, looking for peace with ourselves and peace with God. We couldn’t find it in the religions created by man. Then the Lord stepped forward. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” Christ Jesus, God’s son, died a vicarious death, that is, He died on behalf of those He intended to save, bearing the punishment of those who trust Him for deliverance. He became a sheep; that sheep. He became the Passover Lamb and taking the place of the daily sacrifice, not complaining at all when the death wound was struck. He was taken from the land of the living for the sins of those chosen by God for salvation. He died with wicked men beside Him, and then He was buried in a rich man’s borrowed tomb. There was no sin in his life; there weren’t even any sinful words, expressions or thoughts. He didn’t die for anything which He had done. He died for what we had done.
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” It was the will of the Trinity that God the Son should become the sacrifice required for the salvation of the wicked. And when it was finished, God the Father looked at that perfect sacrifice and declared it to be perfect. Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
“Therefore (says God) will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and (now he lives to make) intercession (for those he has redeemed).”
Conclusion
Based on the authority of Peter, I am convinced that neither David nor Isaiah, nor any of the other prophets who revealed things about the Messiah, understood the depth of their statements. “Unto US they did minister the things, which are now reported unto YOU by them that have preached the gospel unto you…” Those prophesies turned on the spot-lights which illuminated the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. And following that sacrifice, the preachers and prophets of the New Testament carried that gospel of good news around the world. And eventually into Post Falls, Idaho. These things are now being reported unto you.
And what is the gospel message? It is a story of hope and deliverance. You and I do not have to die in our sins. We do not have to expect to feel the wrath of God for our disobedience. Christ Jesus endured that wrath for our sake. He shed His blood on Calvary that we – that you – might be redeemed and reconciled to God.
How will you respond to that revelation; to those prophecies; to the preaching of the gospel? Will you respond by turning to Christ in love and faith, repenting of your sin? The blessing of this message and this grace will be enjoyed only by those who repent and trust Christ. Are you among those people to whom Peter was writing?