Exploring Bible Prophecies: Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection

Hey, we’re Aaron Jennifer Smith, your host of the Marriage After God podcast, where we desire to help you cultivate a marriage that chases boldly after God’s will together. And today we’re going to talk about prophecy in scripture regarding Jesus’s ministry, death and Resurrection.

And we first of all want to say thank you for being here, but if you have not yet subscribed to our channel either on YouTube or Spotify or iTunes, wherever you listen or watch, we’d love to invite you to subscribe. That way you can get all of our episodes as they come out. And also we want to invite you to, if you haven’t done so already, leave a star rating and a review. Those star ratings and reviews are a huge blessing to us, but it also helps the show get spread around and lets other people find us. I just wanted to read a review quick from one of our listeners. It’s from Mila Verla. It says, this podcast is such a blessing. We’ve learned so much from it. They’re so genuine and their testimony has been a weapon against the darkness. This world is casted upon marriages, praying. The Lord will continue to bless them and use them mightily. We just want to thank you, Mila. That was really beautiful. Again, we love these reviews, so if you haven’t done so, would you take a few minutes today, leave us a star rating and a review. It’d be a huge blessing to us and all the future listeners.

Yes. Thank you guys so much. So little life coming at you from The Smiths. We had your family in town for about a week and a half. Yes, we did. Awesome. That was awesome. The kids loved having them and your nephew came up with them, which was just, it was really good. It was refreshing. It was sweet time. Yeah. Yeah. Also coming up in just this next month we have a friend’s birth, giving birth. We have a family member’s wedding and we have a family member’s memorial. And I just think how interesting that is to all be kind of squished together in a short period of time for our

Different life events

And that we’re going to and we’re traveling for and that our kids get to view and witness just that remembrance of life and also celebration of life that in different ways. And I hope that it impacts their life, just that they think about it and considers what it means for them

So we can ask all of our listeners to be praying for us this next month with all the things that we got going on.

Well, and it’s interesting as being parents of kids who are getting older and knowing that there will probably be questions or moments, opportunities for us to engage with them about these things. And I hope that there’s wisdom on our lips about it and we can encourage them.

It’s going to be a lot of stuff this month and we’re wrapping up school now.

Well, we’re wrapping up sooner than usual. Usually I go through June, but I told the kids, okay, if we hurry up and finish, then we get to have a bigger break because I told them I want to start school in August, which usually we start in September because we have a baby coming in October. I want to take that month lighter. And this is just something that I really love about homeschool and the flexibility that we have to make our own schedule.

I was going to say it’s a huge pro to homeschooling is being able to have that flexibility

So the kids are eager and have been diligent on it to finish up, especially before we start even traveling for these events that we’re going to.

Yeah, it’s really cool seeing ’em also with their, they each have their different drives, but when it comes to school, some of them are like, okay, I’m going to get through this subject. I’m going to get through this subject. And they’re like,

They like checking things off the list like me, but some of them have attention deficit You like me.

That’s very true. Also,

We also have some cool testimonies just coming out of church and I get really excited when you just hear what other people are going through, how God’s moving in them or answering prayers. And I feel like that’s been happening a lot lately. We’ve had men being provided through jobs, right, in a timely way, but just enough time that they really have to dig in and trust God for all of

It. It wasn’t immediate, but there was enough time that they had to pray.

It’s awesome.

They had to wait on the Lord

For sure. There was another prayer answered about a relationship of just mentorship and having a relationship where men can be digging in the word together that we heard about, got to praise God for lately there was confession of sin and transformation and turning from what, what is better?

The kinds of things that should be happening in

Church and with believers is yes. And I just share that because I think sometimes we can get in an autopilot mode of like you go to church, you show up,

We’re doing all the things,

But to really press into each other’s stories, see what God’s doing to continue to pray or praise God for how he’s working. And I love that we get to do that. And on top of that, I got to from the kids yesterday when we were driving about prayer because I had a headache coming on and then one of our other kids was dealing with sickness. I just asked, Hey, does anyone want to lift us up? Olive was really quick to pray for us. And then right after she was, she barely said amen. And then Edie started praying and

She always starts right before the end,

Not after the end. She wants to know that she’s going to start, but I just encourage them that I love their boldness and their courage to pray because it’s going to impact their life in a positive way as I feel like it’s done for me and for you. And I even said, I can only imagine what it’ll be like for you teaching your kids how to pray and them having the same kind of just fire.

I was talking to Olive about that the other day. She was just saying how she just can’t wait to be a mom and a wife. And I was like, well, I was like, you have a while for that, but I can’t wait for it either. I was like, I’m excited to be a grandpa one day. I just think that’d be such a cool thing when we talk to our kids about them raising their children. And then I reminder, I was like, and we’ll always babysit if you want us to.

That means we’ll have to live close to them or hopefully they all each other or have the money to.

Yeah, exactly. We will see there’s a lot of ’em. So hopefully they decide to be close. We don’t know.

Alright, jumping into today’s topic. Remember last episode we mentioned there’s like three plus Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, so we can’t possibly list them all in these episodes even though we’re doing a series on them, but we do hope that what we share with you encourages your faith and inspires you to keep your eyes open to the rest of what’s there and to dig in with your spouse about these prophecies and to just learn more about who Jesus was, what he came to do, and just how cool it was that the things that he did were written about before he even came.

I had a few comments on our YouTube channel of husband’s wife saying, thank you for this series and that it’s getting them to dig into the word and look at prophecies all over again. Awesome. And so that was really cool. Prophecy is, it’s amazing. Hundreds of years, sometimes even more thousands of years if you think of Genesis before something took place, it was prophesied about, it

Was written about, and it wasn’t just like, oh, I hope this thing happens. And they wrote about it. It was very specific the Lord said, and they recorded it.

And I use blue letter Bible a lot for my Bible studies. Me too, and for preparing for messages, and I just love some of the things they have to say. And when it comes to prophecy, this is what Blue letter Bible says about prophecy in the Bible. Just so we can get an understanding of how important it is. It says the Bible is unlike all other sacred books in that it bases authenticity and authority on prophecy. So the authenticity and authority of the word of God is based on prophecy. All other sacred books contain no predictions as to the future. If their authors had attempted to foretell future events, their nonfulfillment would’ve discredited their writings and they knew that. And they know that fulfilled prophecy is stronger evidence of the inspiration and authenticity of scripture than miracles are

Of where it came from.

Yeah. Prophecy is not a haphazard guess nor a probability made upon uncertain data prophecy is history written in advanced.

Oh, I love that.

So it’s not just like, oh, something like this could happen in the future. No, it’s like I’m telling you history before

It happens, this is what’s going to happen.

And I just thought that was a really good definition of the authenticity and authority of the word of God because it’s based on prophecy, which is also what we’re going to talk about today. The authenticity and authority of Jesus’s ministry is based on prophecy

And that whole history written in advance. It just goes to prove once again that God is outside of time. He’s not limited the same way we are. We’ve had these conversations with kids about who is God’s father or where was his beginning,

All those big questions that we all

Have. Yeah, it’s kind of a strange thing to consider him being outside of time, but he truly is, truly is. And he sees it all and he’s ever present and all knowing. And this truth gives us hope and security for being able to trust in him and trust in his word of what he said

Because if he knows everything, then we don’t have to because we don’t know. We just walk in it steps we can trust and go to him to help guide us in each step of our life because he knows it all and that’s a good thing. So we’re talking about the life and ministry of Jesus, but not just what happened, but the fact that it was said previously what was going to take place by the Messiah in his life, things that he maybe could control, but mostly it’s things that he had no control over in essence of the way he died. He

Couldn’t try to get born a certain way. He couldn’t try to do some of these things that we’re going to share about today. So we’re going to start off in Malachi three, one, which we already brought up in the last episode for a different reason having to do with the messenger. And so today we’re going to share the rest of that verse. This prophecy was written around 4 30, 3 to 4 24, somewhere in that little time range. Yeah. There’s a range in there,

Not perfectly known, but

This is 400 or so years before Jesus is even on the scene. It says this, behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. Again. We mentioned this in regard to John the Baptist being that messenger. And then it continues on, it says this, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. I love that. His temple,

His own temple

And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold he’s coming, says the Lord of hosts,

Which is awesome because this is a prophecy about the Messiah coming to his temple, his own temple because it’s a temple for himself. And there’s lots of scriptures about him being in the temple at all times. But there’s even one where it talks about my house is going to be a house of prayer and you’ve made it at Dena thieves and he makes a whip. And so you have

These, that’s not even the verse that we’re bringing up today. No, it’s not. But it shows that he repeatedly went to his temple, which

The focus and he saw and he knew what it was for and he knew what it represented. But speaking of this prophecy, one of the only times the Bible talks about the early life of Jesus when he was a child, which

I wish there was so much more. I know I think about my kids and everything and I’m just like, oh,

And I was looking the life of little Jesus. I was looking up some of this and there’s extra biblical texts that talk about the life of Jesus, but none of them have been seen as inspired, but word of God, they’re more like myths and legends where this story, the only recorded story of him being a child is less extravagant. It doesn’t show him doing any miracles. Interesting. It doesn’t. But

It’s interesting, interesting because it fulfills scripture. So when Jesus was about 12 years old, he went with his family to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, and then his parents kind of lost him. So don’t feel bad parents when certain things happen,

When sometimes we

Overlook even Jesus’s own parents kind of lost him. So it says in Luke 2 46, it says after three days they found him in the temple. So they left and they assumed that he was with

Because they were with a group of

Family.

So it probably would’ve been really easy to

This. It says after three days they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. So this is Jesus at 12, so

Cool asking

Questions. Yeah, I love that. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, son, why have you treated us so

Typical mother

Thing, she’s offended. Yeah, behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house, which I love that word must because he must be here, this is where I should be. He knows something, he knows what he’s doing, so he must do you not know that I must be in my father’s house? And then verse 50 says, and they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them, so they’re like, what? And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them and his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And I love this little moment of going from distress to ting. And I think that really quickly, side note for all parents that there are going to be so many times I’ve experienced this where you are distressed over your children and then those little things, which felt like huge things become treasures in your heart and for different reasons. So anyways,

And this is also a good lesson for teaching your children. See, Jesus was submissive to his parents.

Just remind them to have you tell them where they’re going. Yeah, right.

Did that make sense? But what’s awesome about this is even as a young child, it shows that Jesus was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, that there was prophecies said about him that we’re going to be fulfilled, that

He said, he said that he was going to be in his temple very wise at 12, he must

Be in my father’s house, which is his temple. And so we see him early on this happening taking place, and he didn’t go wander or off to do something crazy. He sat there in the temple to ask the religious leaders questions and to give answers. He was just having this discussion. We don’t even know what he was asking, but it says that those leaders were astonished by him, which is really cool.

When I read that part that right after he gave the answer that his parents didn’t understand what he was referring to just made me think, well, he’s definitely then referring to something. And I remember you had mentioned that the New Testament is kind of like a key to the Old Testament and the prophecies. And so I think that this is just alluding to that scripture that we read in Malachi.

Well, and they also, even though Mary and Joseph knew from the angels that he was the Messiah, they still didn’t have a full understanding of what that meant. And it wasn’t going to be until after he died and rose from the dead and that the Holy Spirit was given that it

Was unfolding

Before them. People would be like, oh wait, this is what he was meaning by all this. And you saw that over and over again. Again, I think this is one of the most interesting things because this is the only scripture that talks about him as a child and just the fact that as a child he’s fulfilling prophecy. Totally cool. It’s pretty awesome because his life from the very beginning was fulfillment of prophecy.

Okay, so moving on a little bit, the ministry of Jesus, the things that he would do while he was alive and what was prophesied about him. So

It wasn’t enough to just have prophecy about his birth, birth where he would be born, which

Is very specific. That was his. It

Wasn’t enough to prophesy what he’d be doing as a child. And this main thing of he’s going to be in his father’s house, even prophesied about everything he did.

So this prophecy was written around 700 to 681 bc and it’s from Isaiah, Isaiah 60.

Yeah. It says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. And the entire ministry, there was this message to the religious leaders which was repent and how dare you. And this rebuking of them of you’re not giving the message that was intended to be given to the people and then to the poor, giving good news to them saying the kingdom of heaven is a hand healing, bringing life, all these things that he was going to the poor and not going to the rich, but he was serving as one of them those people.

So he did do this, and this was after he was

Baptized. And that’s another thing. The Lord got his upon me at his baptism, you see? And it was witnessed by many, the Holy Spirit, like a dove is descending onto him. And then the voice from heaven, this is my son with whom I’m well pleased. And so you have this anointing. He was anointed in that moment by God himself for the ministry of reconciling the world to himself.

So cool. Isaiah continues and says, he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Thank you Jesus.

And this is what he was doing, the broken hearted. It wasn’t just that they were destitute, it wasn’t just that they were sick and had all these infirmities, but it was also that they were under the bondage of Rome. It was also ultimately they were under the bondage of sin. And so this was when he says he binds up the brokenhearted and proclaims liberty to the captives. This was the ultimate message. It wasn’t just that their physical bodies would be taken care of. It was that he was going to give freedom to them ultimately from sin and forgiveness. It’s why the Pharisees were so surprised or offended when he said, your sins are forgiven. And they’re like, wait, only God can forgive sins. What are you doing? And he’s like, well, what does that say about me then?

Okay, so following up in Luke four 16 through 22, it says this, and he came to Nazareth speaking of Jesus where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. So they handed him this specific set of scripture.

This is one thing I love is that it’s not like he said, Hey, give me Isaiah. I want to point something out

Of this. Remember in the beginning you said it’s not like he could have chose to be born specifically. Yeah, manufacture these. He couldn’t manufacture these. So he shows up on Sabbath day and they hand him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he unroll it in. So it says he unroll the scroll and found the place where it was written. Starting in, this is Luke two, sorry, four 18. It says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim news, good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And if you keep reading, it says, and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. I just can’t even imagine being there and all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.

What a bombshell he takes. First of all, they just hand it like, Hey, this is what we’re going to be reading today. And go ahead, you can read this. And he reads that section of scripture and says right now in your midst, this is fulfilled, this prophecy comes true. He was telling them, I’m the anointed one of God, and here’s the things that I’m going to do. In that one statement today, this has been fulfilled. And that was his life was the fulfilling of that, the healing, the blind, the setting the captives free, the forgiveness of sins.

Okay? Now Jesus stops at a specific point in reading this scripture.

He doesn’t read the whole section

And he says, this has been fulfilled today. So regarding to what he just read in the Old Testament prophecy being fulfilled. But why does he stop there? Why didn’t he continue with that scripture?

Well, probably because the next portion of the scripture is not yet fulfilled. And the next section of

Scripture, yeah, it says, and the day, this is right after what he just read, and he paused and he said, today this has been fulfilled. But in the next section of scripture in Isaiah, it says, on the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning the garment of praise instead of a faint heart or faint spirit, I should say. And this is an example of how it’s hard sometimes if we just have the Old Testament alone, not

If you were just you, Isaiah, yeah, you’re reading through these scriptures, you wouldn’t know to stop at that specific time.

And you would look at these and they sometimes can seem contradictory, similar to there’s Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah being a conquering king, one that destroys his enemies, that puts his enemies under his feet. And then in the same section of scripture, I have it being, but he’s being beaten and ridiculed and destroyed. And you’re like, wait a minute, which one is he? Is he the conquering king or is he the lly lamb? And we know looking backwards, oh,

How it happened. He

Was the lly lamb, and then he’s going to be this conquering king. And it’s a common way again, like we’ve mentioned before, that the Bible does prophecies where it’s going to give multiple points of the prophecy, multiple time zones of the prophecy, some being fulfilled at a different time and some being fulfilled at another time. And so he mentioned the part that was being fulfilled in that moment and left out the part that’s not yet fulfilled, which we will see in revelation, these things being fulfilled of the day of the Lord, the vengeance on the earth, and also the reconciliation of the Jewish people, of them recognizing finally Jesus is the Messiah.

So cool. Okay, so moving on. When John was in prison, he asked his disciples to go and ask Jesus directly if he is the one they have been waiting for. So John knew, right? I mean, well,

Yeah. He had to have known because he was proclaiming it, baptizing people and saying, the one who comes after me is I’m not worthy to tie his shoes. And he’s like, probably, here’s the Messiah, Jesus. Was

He just frustrated that he could with him? Well, he’s in prison. Yeah, he wants to be with

Jesus as a man. You’re there and all of a sudden you’re like, and I’m hungry. I’m cold, I’m beaten,

Probably doubt or insecurities starts flaring up. I do this

For the wrong person. Is Jesus the right one? He had questions. So he sent his disciples. And so he says, and when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, are you the one who’s to come or shall we look for another? So John’s debating, he’s like, he needs

To know if, did I make a mistake? Does he need to break out of prison? He’s

In that hour. He healed many people of diseases and plagues in evil spirits and on many who were blind. He bestowed sight and he answered them. Go tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind received their sight, the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed and the deaf here and the dead are raised up. The poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. So not only he’s

Saying, I fulfilled the scriptures like I’m doing it,

John, all John needs is to trust what the scriptures he knows say about me. And so you can see from my life and what’s happening, I am who I say I am, but I also love it at the very end of this. So first of all, he doesn’t say yes

Well, which is so interesting because think about our lives, not us, but like humans, right? We are to say just general people. We are quick to say who we think we are or want to be, even if our life doesn’t match up where Jesus is saying, look at my life, look at what I’ve done. I don’t

Tell you I’m an author. No. Well, look at my books. Oh, you have written books,

Okay. I think it’s a good principle for us to live by that, not that we’re as cryptic as Jesus was, but no,

But let our

Life, but let our life define who we are and what we’re doing and all of that.

So his answer to John is, you know what the scripture should say, you know what the prophecies say? And look, they’re being fulfilled. So what does that say about me? And then I love that he ends with, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. It’s almost like he’s saying, John,

Don’t be offended by me.

I know that you’re fearful and you’re doubting, but know the truth and you’ve done the right thing. What a

Hard thing. He came and done. Okay, am I moving too quickly by going on? No. Okay, I’m just the transition queen. Let’s keep rolling. So there’s this one prophecy about coming into the city, being celebrated as a king on a donkey,

Which is a strange thing. Yeah. Why?

Because God said, I know,

But this is also one you would’ve looked at without seeing Jesus do this and be like, okay, this is strange.

So this prophecy was written about between four 80 and four 70 BBC Zacharia, and it’s in nine, nine. It says, rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult. The foul. The full of a donkey. The full of a donkey.

What an interesting one, because this is pronouncing that a king’s coming. Yeah. Again, this would be confusing.

You have a lot of thoughts or expectations of

King. Wait, is the Messiah going to be beat and killed?

But what he describes, what is he going to be a king? But what he describes of him is not wrong. He nails it.

No. And this happens. He’s

Righteous. He has salvation. He

Comes in on not just a donkey, but the cult, the full of a donkey. And he tells us, disciples go and we’ll read it in a second, but it’s mentioned in all four gospels, and he comes in, and this is when this is Palm Sunday with palm throne, and they’re praising the whole city’s praising.

If you are doing an extra study with your spouse and want to look these scriptures up, check out Matthew 21, 1 through nine, mark 11, one through 11, Luke 19, 28 through 44, and John 12, 12 through 19.

It says that now when they draw near to Jerusalem and came to Beth Phage and the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you’ll find a donkey tide and a cult with her. So it mentions both that there’s a donkey and

Don’t be confused. He’s covering his bases

And tie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you shall say the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill. It was spoken by the prophet saying to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, the full of a beast of burden. And so Jesus enters into the city on his way to be crucified. No one knows this yet, but he does on a donkey, and they praise him as a king. And it’s only days later that then they’re like, crucify him. It’s crazy. But they praise him as a king and he comes in on donkey and it shows the fickleness of man, but also it shows the knowledge of God. He’s like, this is how it’s going to play out. They’re going to see him as a king, but then they’re going to kill him as a criminal.

Exactly. What happened, something else that I love about this part of scripture is it’s not like Jesus just came and fulfilled all these scriptures himself. He incorporated his disciples in this moment by inviting them to participate in the work of going to get strange what he needs. And I love that. I

Love it. And it was all excuse. It was all to because these disciples were going to later on become their apostles of God. They were going to write down, send full revelation of Jesus Christ

And spread it. He

Wanted them to be eyewitnesses of the fulfilling of these prophecies because we have them now. It says here, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. That’s because those two disciples saw and heard and watched it. And then the Holy Spirit,

They’re probably walking back with the donkeys going, how’d he do that?

Yeah, exactly. How do you know? And so they write this down, and then the Holy Spirit brings to recollection Isaiah or Zacharia, and he’s like, oh, that was fulfilled. So cool. So again, new Testament being a key to Old Testament prophecy. Awesome. So next one, again, even we get prophecies about how he’s going to be betrayed, not just that he’s going to die, not that it’s

Little bits all along the way.

So he’s going to be betrayed by a friend, specifically, not an enemy, a friend,

Someone very close to him.

And we all know who that is. So Psalm 41, 9, even my close friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me,

Which we all know in that moment of the last supper, he even says, well, we’re going to read it. Let’s just read it. And Matthew 26, 23, Jesus says, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. So he was literally sitting with him eating

His bread. And when he said, dip, it’s taking that bread and dipping it. And so friend, that

Wasn’t the only time he had done it. He had built a relationship with Jesus.

He had walked with him for years. They were friends. Jesus loved Judas. That’s something for us to consider. Jesus loved Judas. And I was talking with a friend the other day because specifically about this idea of him being betrayed by a friend, which is super hard, how amazing is that Jesus not only can relate to us on a physical sense of when he died on the cross, he understands physical pain. He understands stubbing his toe, he understands all of the things that we do in our normal life, and he can relate to us, be like, oh, I understand what it feels like to be hurt. But he also understands how to relate to us on every level,

Emotionally, mentally, I, thoughts,

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually. How many of you have been betrayed by a friend? I think betrayal only can happen by someone you love. Otherwise, if it didn’t mean anything, somebody is my enemy. They’re not betraying me. I’m like, oh, that makes sense. They’re my enemy. They’re going to do something to her. You

Expect it. You don’t expect it from a friend.

You don’t expect it from a friend, especially one that you walked with and discipled and raised and trained and gave authority to and trusted. And so He knows, knows our pains. He understands what it feels like to be hurt by someone close to you and that that’s why he’s such a good savior. Sad though too. Yeah.

Speaking of his pain, there is prophecy about how he would be treated, things that people would say to him as he’s being crucified. So let’s take a look. Psalm 22, 7 through eight. It says, all who see me mock me, they make mouths at me. They wag their heads, he trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him and let him rescue him for he delights in him.

Yeah, it says not only do they mock him, but it says what they mock. And then these people mock him

Like this in a specific way. So following up in Matthew 27, 39 through 43, it says, and those who passed by derided him wagging their heads, very specific phrases and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him saying, he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him. Now if he desires him for, he said, I am the son of God.

They literally fell in line with exactly how God said they would. Not that God made them. It was their hearts that they were deriding him and wagging their heads at him and mocking him in the sense of saying, you helped others. Why can’t you help yourself? But God knew that they were going to be that way because of their hearts. He knows them. They did it exactly as that. And how sad is that, that Jesus had to experience that personally, but it was a part of the whole deal. It was a part of the reconciliation of the world was going to take that. So another one is the fact that his bones would not be broken,

Which is crazy to think about how severe his experience was, his crucifixion was,

And also to say how his bones wouldn’t be broken because jamming those nails into his hands or wrist or into the feet, those bones are so small how they would not be broken. And yet they missed all of the bones. And then even in the way that they would finish it out, and we know this from s like a

Typical crucifixion,

They would to speed it up, break their knees

So that they had nothing

To hold themselves up and then they would suffocate quicker. But it says that when they came to him, they saw that he was already dead, so he had already given up his spirit, and so they didn’t break his legs.

I don’t think we mentioned these reference points, but it Psalm 34 20 that talks about he keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. And then John 1933 says, but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

Yeah, it’s amazing. And it came to pass exactly that way that he was whole. There was no bones broken and yet his flesh was broken and he bled for us.

If you guys want to continue on with your spouse checking into just prophecy regarding Jesus’s crucifixion and what would happen at the end of his life, go read Psalm 22 and just study

That. That’s another cool one because Jesus makes reference to it on the cross. Yeah,

Powerful. Go look up that specifically. So then we have the resurrection, which

This is a big one to prophesy about.

Well, and why is it so important when you talk about this? Well,

Just before saying how important it is, think about like we talked about earlier, if you’re just haphazardly saying this is probably how the Messiah might fulfill things to make a claim of the resurrection of the dead would be detriment. That’d be dangerous if you didn’t know the truth, if you didn’t have the answer to what was going to actually take place, if it wasn’t truly from God, no one would make that reference at all. But we did, or God did, I should say. But the resurrection is so important because without it, the Bible tells us that if there is no resurrection from the dead, if Jesus didn’t raise, then there is no defeat of death. We are of all people to be the most pitied. And so the resurrection is what gives us hope, not only in this life but in life to come.

Because it shows us an example of what transformation looks like and what going from death to life looks like, what the afterlife or eternal life looks like, that we know where Jesus is and that we get to partake in that with him. Exactly. So there is no fear in death because we saw what happened to Jesus. And when we believe in him, we believe that we are going to experience that same power in us.

And without the resurrection, then there’s only death in Christ, no life in Christ. But with the resurrection it says that if we’ve died with Christ, we’re also alive with him. And so that resurrection, it’s the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which saves us. It’s that truth, it’s that power. It’s that completed work, everything he did.

So in Matthew 1238 through 40, it says this, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish. So will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth?

Yeah. So we see right here, Jesus is making reference to the sign that he’s going to give this evil generation is his resurrection, is him dying, going into the grave and then coming out again because the reference he gives is

Jonah, Jonah, which in Jonah one 17 it says, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

So Jonah was swallowed up by a fish, but he doesn’t stay in the fish. It’s not like, Hey, you disobeyed me. You ran from me. You hid from me. Now you’re going to be eaten by a big fish. You’re going to be just dissolved. No, he was swallowed up and he used the fish to guide Jonah to where he was supposed to be and then spits ’em up onto the land for a very specific purpose to deliver a message to Nineveh. This is exactly the story of Jonah. God had a message for Nineveh and he wanted Jonah to deliver it. And so this is why Jesus tells the Pharisees in Matthew 1241, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here.

He’s like, look, if they could do it, you guys could do it. If you wanted to do it,

You can hear this message, but you’re not wanting to listen. You’re

Not

Listening. And so that’s exactly the story of Jesus. He goes into the grave and then when he comes out, the message that he was preaching and the message that the apostles are going to preach, he’s saying, this is what I came for, to not to preach to you so that you won’t be destroyed. And that was what God wanted for Nineveh. He said, go tell Nineveh. I’m going to destroy them for their wickedness. They repent. God doesn’t destroy them. This is what Jesus did in his death and resurrection. My message is, you are going to be destroyed. Repent. Believe in me and you will not be destroyed.

There’s a psalm that I just appreciate and I love that it makes reference to the resurrection. Psalm 1610, for you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy one see corruption.

Yeah, that word shield is another word. It’s a word for the grave being in the earth. And he’s trusting in the Lord saying, you’re not going to abandon me. Not

Which makes reference that he’s going to be there. He’s going, but he won’t be left.

And then even Jesus prophesies about his own resurrection, which is really awesome because he’s in real time prophesying about what’s about

The place. Well, he had these disciples that he had to talk to and tell what was going to happen so that they would believe

John two 19 through 22, Jesus answered them, destroy this temple. In three days, I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead. His disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scriptures and the word that Jesus had spoken. So he prophesied about his own body. He’s like, I’ll destroy this temple and I’ll raise it up in three days. And they remembered and believed, how amazing is that? So cool. So not only from birth to death, but also to new life, to resurrection, to glorified body. The Old Testament, and God himself was showing us. He’s like, this is how you’ll know.

And I love that. It’s true. I love that Jesus ties it together. He pulls in Jonah, I just love that He’s making the reference points for us so that we can study them and know them and believe all of His word. We don’t put the Old Testament aside. We don’t say we don’t need it because the New Testament references it so much and it is so beautiful. I think it’s really powerful. The art, and I don’t even know if you’d call it art. It’s a masterpiece. The masterpiece of we were just about, that’s more the kids. Yeah. It’s really cool. And in reference, I just realized too, that last scripture we just read, it brought up the temple and being built in 46 years. We’re going to talk about the temple and the role of the church in the next episode. So you guys are going to want to subscribe and stay tuned, but it’s going to be really fun. Why don’t you close this out in prayer,

Okay, Lord, we love you and we thank you so much that your word is true and it is real, and it is prophecy that God, we can look in the Old Testament, we can look at writings that have verifiably been written hundreds and hundreds of years ago, even before Jesus, and they came true. They were true words about what was going to take place. And because of those prophecies, we know that they verify the authenticity and the authority of Christ and who he is, that He is God, that he came in the flesh, that he lived a sinless life, that he died a sinner’s death, and that he rose again from the dead so that anyone who believes him will not perish but have everlasting life. And so I pray that each one of us would glory in that, that we would have awe in how awesome you are. And I just pray that, Lord, we would remember it every day, that Jesus is who you said he was and who he says he is. We love you and we thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Thank you for being here for this episode, and we look forward to having you next week.