4 One Life Changed the World
The Significance of Jesus: A Life that Transformed the World
This post is a rough transcription done by AI. I will later come back and clean it up.
Hello, and thank you for joining us once again for our Prophecies of Hope series. We are studying the Bible. The Bible is our main source of information for this series. So I hope you have a Bible and you can follow along with me. And this time we are focusing on one life that change. The world transformed the world, and we are talking about Jesus.
It's so interesting, the Book of Revelation. Um, it begins with the following statements, the book of Revelation, chapter one, verse one says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things, which must shortly take place, and he sent and signified it by his angel. To his servant John.
The book of Revelation is all about Jesus. Sometimes we study prophecy and we talk about dragons and the antichrist and the mark of the beast and the end of the world. And. And we missed Jesus, who should be the focus of the whole thing. So we have been talking about Jesus so far, but this episode we're gonna focus specifically on Jesus and learn some new things because if we understand Jesus, then everything else will make sense.
And if we misunderstand Jesus, if we don't get Jesus, it'll be hard to understand. Anything else in the Bible before we jump into it, let's bow our heads and pray. Father in heaven, I pray that you would lift up Jesus, that you would reveal him to us through the scriptures as we go through this study.
Bless us, father, as we spend these moments studying your word, seeking to understand better Jesus, reveal him to us through your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I hope you have your Bibles with you. Thank you for joining me. This is episode four and I want to start with a question. Who had a positive influence in your life?
Is there someone that you can think of? Maybe this is a teacher, maybe this is a, uh, a family member, a grandfather, a parent, a sibling, a friend that you had a, a mentor, someone who had a profound impact in your life. Think about that for a bit. I know I can think of a few people in my life and. It's interesting when we think about this because you know, what makes someone have an impact in their lives?
What is it that they do? What, what causes them? Why is this person that you're thinking about, why did they have such an impact in your life? What is it that they did? And as we think about history and we think about the world, it's interesting that we have a life. That changed history, that split history into two, and I looked into this a little bit.
We currently have what's called a Gregorian calendar. That's the global standard for measurement of dates and despite it originating in Western Christianity, uh. Or Western Christian tradition it uses, um, its use has spread throughout the world and now transcends religious, cultural and linguistic boundaries.
And it's interesting that people argue over, you know, um, AC or, or I'm sorry, uh, BC and ad, so before Christ and UN domini or the, the year of our Lord. So before Christ, you know, things that happened before Jesus was born and ad for things that happened since the birth of Jesus. And then there's also ce in BC, E or common era.
And before the common era, you might seen both of these used in history books and textbooks and others. So the idea of counting the years from the birth of Jesus was first proposed in the year 525 by di, by DiUS or the anus. Um. Exus a Christian monk and it's standardized under the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
Uh, a system that spread throughout Europe and the Christian world during centuries during the centuries that followed. AD stands for an Domini Latin for the year of the Lord while BC stands for before Christ. Now, CE stands for common or current era while BCE stands for. Before the common or current era, these abbreviations have shorter history than BC and ad, although they still date from as least as early as the 17 hundreds.
They have been in news in frequent use by Jewish academics. Um, for more than a hundred years, but became more widespread in the later part of the 20th century, replacing BC and AD in a number of fields, notably science and academia. And I can leave links to this, uh, in the video descriptions and maybe have a blog post on that, but it's interesting.
People want to take Jesus out of the calendar, right? So they'll say, oh, we use common error before, common error. And then my question to them is. So what happened there that swished between the common era and before the common era, right? What, what was the event that split CE and BCE. And, and they would have to say the supposed birth date of Jesus Christ.
Whether you believe in him or don't believe in him, agree or disagree, the birth of Jesus has changed. Is, is it? It affects how we count dates, whether you like it or not. That's the way that it is in the whole world. People are aware that something happened. And it changed the calendar and the way that we keep track of time.
Who was this? Jesus. Why is he so important? What did he do that impacted the world? I mean, how many great men and women have lived throughout history? What makes Jesus so special that the whole world kind of goes by? That calendar. Now, there's a lot of different theories out there, and I'm sure you have your own, but it is interesting that the birth of Jesus out of all the events in the world is the one that affects how we count the years.
Something to think about. So let's look in Luke chapter 24 as we begin our study. I think this is a story that that takes place that that really helps us tackle the whole, who was Jesus? How can we know if he was really the Messiah? How can we be sure? And like I said earlier, when, uh, in one of the previous videos.
Prophecy has a few different functions when Jesus is asked about the end of the world by the disciples. Uh, Matthew Chapter 24, I think this was video number two in our series. I. The first thing that he says regarding the end in the destruction of Jerusalem and when these things would happen, and what are the signs of the end of the age.
Jesus says, be careful that no one deceives you. There will be false Christs, so it's good for us to know. The true Christ, because the better we know him, the easier it is to spot a fake. And also it's good to know what our faith is based on and founded on. And that is of course, Jesus Christ. So let's, let's, let's jump in to the text, Matthew chapter 24, verses 13 through 35.
And it's worth noting that in Matthew chapter 23 is when Jesus is. Killed, crucified. And then chapter 24 is when he raises from the dead. So in verse 13, Jesus has raised from the dead, and let's see what is happening. He has shown up to a few people. People haven't seen him yet. They're still arguing whether or not he rose from the dead or what happened.
So Luke 24 verse 13 says, now behold, two of them were traveling that day to a village called Emmaus. Which was seven miles from Jerusalem and they talked together all these things which had happened. So it was while they conversed in reason that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him.
So these men are talking about Jesus. They're on their road. It's a seven mile hike that, that, that can take a while. I've done some seven mile hikes. Um, it, it'll, I guess they were used to walking that far back then, but it's, it's, it's a good walk. It's a good journey on foot. And Jesus joins them and the text tells us that they did not recognize Jesus from his appearance.
And this is intentional, right? Their eyes. Um, it, it says here. That, um, well, they converse in reason. Jesus himself true and went with them, but their eyes were restrained. That's the word I was looking for. Their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. So they didn't recognize him from appearance, right?
Oh, yeah. You look like Jesus. That's not what happened. So he's with them and he said to them, they're talking amongst themselves. He joins in, they don't know this, and then he starts talking to them. He said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk? And they're sad.
So they're sad, they're clearly upset, they're not happy. Something has terrible, something has happened and it's something terrible. It's not a good thing. And. Verse 18. Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things which happen here these days?
Like, where have you been? Have you been under a rock? Everybody knows what's happened here in Jerusalem these days. And he said to them, what things. So they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how their chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucify him, but we were hoping that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Indeed. Besides all this, today is the third day since these things happen. Yes. And certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. And they were saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive, and certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him, they did not see.
So here's the thing. According to these men, and especially Cleopas who's answering this question, there was a mighty prophet among them. They were hoping he was the Messiah who was going to come to deliver them, but now they're not so sure. And so it is with history. There are many people who believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but there's some.
We're not so sure. I'm not sure which camp you fall into as you watch this video, but let's see what happens next. They were hoping it was Jesus, but there were things that happened. They were just confused. He's dead, but he's not there. Some women said they saw Angels said that he's alive. Some of the guys went there and they didn't see him, and, and, and just a, a note.
Also, I don't think that the Bible is against women, but it is it, these events took place in a culture that regarded women in a way that's very different than we do right now in the Western world. Um, but we see that the women had a gospel message to preach that the savior was risen. God gave them that message.
They were the first ones to run to the tomb. They're the ones who got to witness that Jesus had been raised from the dead. However, the men did not believe them. So then the question becomes, is it that the women should not have been sharing the good news and it's wrong for them to do so? Or is it that the women had the news, they were sharing the news, they were speaking gospel truth, but because of the culture, people were not willing to listen to them.
Anyway, just something for us to think about, um, as you go on this study. So verse 25, and this is what we are going to be focusing on in this study. Then Jesus said to them. Oh, foolish ones and slow of, hard to believe and all that the prophets have spoken. Is prophecy important? Yes. Jesus is saying you are foolish and you're slow to believe in everything that the prophets have spoken.
Jesus is not saying. Didn't you see the miracles that the, that the Messiah performed? Didn't you see all the things that Jesus did? No, he does not appeal to miracle signs and wonders. This is important. Matthew 24, like we talked about in our second video, it, Jesus says There will be false Christ false prophets.
They will perform signs and wonders. Don't follow, just signs and wonders. Anybody could do those. Satan has a limited amount of power, but he can definitely do signs and wonders. There's more power than us as humans Do. But listen to what Jesus says. You're slow to believe in what the prophets have spoken.
The way you spot the Messiah is by understanding prophecy and what the prophets have said. Verse 26, on not the Christ who have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. In beginning at Moses, in all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Jesus was able to go through the whole Bible and teach these men all the things concerning himself, the evidence of Jesus being the Messiah.
It's not that only he healed the sick and raise the dead and turn the water into wine, and did walked on water and did all these things where cast out demons healed people. Yes, those things happen. And yes, that is part of the testimony, but that's not what Jesus appeals to. He appeals to prophecy because even if someone comes and does these signs and wonders, but they do not fulfill prophecy or they contradict what the Bible says about the character of God and with the things that should happen, then we should be warned that this is not someone that is from God.
So I'm going to continue reading verse 28. Then they drew near to the village that, uh, where they were going, and he indicated that he would've gone further farther, but they constrained him saying, abide with us for the stored evening and the days far spent. And he went in to stay with them. This is a principle we see in scriptures, right?
Hospitality, without knowing people have, you know, um, stayed with angels and here they invite Jesus to stay with them, not because they knew he was Jesus. They were just being hospitable. They were being kind to this stranger who had joined them in the journey. Now because of their kindness, look at what is going to happen.
Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them that he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And then verse 31, their eyes were open and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us so that they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11th.
And those who were with them gathered together saying The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon and they told him about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. I. Okay. Jesus gave us the proper approach to finding out whether or not he is the Messiah.
Look through the Old Testament and you will know. Look at what the prophets have said, and this is why I, I always worry when people want to throw out the Old Testament. If you throw out the Old Testament, how do you understand the ministry of Jesus? How do you understand the plan of God? It only makes sense in the context of the things that happened before Jesus spoke to those men to prove and to explain to them that these things were supposed to happen.
He had to go back and talk about what the prophets had said and the writings and the Bible and the law and, and all of these things. Or we would. Call it the Old Testament and they call it the prophets and the testimony. Um, so let's, let's go back to Genesis chapter three. There is, um, Genesis chapter three.
We talked about it last time. It's, it's the fall, right? The Fall of humanity. Genesis one and two, we have creation account. World is perfect. There is a warning regarding this one tree. Don't eat from it. And then Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan, who shows up in the form of a serpent. And then they fall into saying, there's all of these problems.
There's judgment that takes place towards the end of chapter three when God confronts them about what they did. And also, Genesis three 15 is a passage that has been referred to as the proto gallium, the the first gospel. In Genesis chapter three, in the context of judgment, when God shows up and humanity has rebelled against them, and God is judging the serpent and man and woman because of their choices, because of their rebellion.
At the heart of this judgment, we have a promise. We have the gospel. So Genesis chapter three, verse 15, it says the following. God is speaking, he says, and I would put enmity between you and the woman. He's speaking to the serpent. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head. And you shall bruise his heel.
Now, it's interesting, the word used for bruise here in the original Hebrew, it, it has to do with, you know, uh, smash destroy. It's the, the same emphasis crushing, um, bruising. And the only difference. Here is the location. The, the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman, and the seed of the woman will bruise or crush the head of the serpent.
So, uh, the injury in the heel is not as, is not fatal, but the injury to the head. Is this was foreshadowing what was going to happen. And ever since this humanity was waiting for the Messiah to be born, the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent, and yet he would have his heel bruised. And many interpret this, and I agree with this interpretation that that's a reference to the crucifixion.
And you can say, well, but he died. Yes, he did. But he was victorious. He was not defeated. But when he rose from the dead, Satan was defeated. And we also kind of talked about this a little bit on our previous video, that in the end, Satan and his angels and his followers will be ultimately destroyed, and then the earth will be made new.
So here is the first prophecy about the Messiah. The seed of the woman. That's why in biblical times, uh, a woman who couldn't have children was considered cursed. And why the firstborn was dedicated to the Lord in a special way. It's because. With every child that was born, it was the possibility of the Messiah, the Savior.
You're one step closer. And so anyway, so, so this is, it starts in Genesis, this idea, this notion that someone is coming to defeat the enemy. The gospel is not something new that begins in the New Testament. The gospel has been there from the very beginning. It's God's plan that someone would come to rescue us.
The law was never meant to save us. We were never meant to save ourselves. Our obedience was never meant to save us. We were always meant to be delivered by the seed of the woman who would come to crush the head of the serpent. And that is talking about Jesus. Now, in case you're not convinced, let's go to Genesis chapter 22.
There is a story in Genesis chapter 22 that is really powerful. It's referred to in Hebrew as the. Uh, AADA. It's when Abraham is, um, Abraham is tested by God to see if he would be willing to offer his son as a sacrifice. And I believe that this was a way of teaching Abraham and those who would hear the story later on how God called for him to sacrifice his son, the one whom he loved.
And. Later we find out that Jesus is God's son in whom he's well pleased, right? The son that he loves. So ultimately, God made the sacrifice. Abraham did not have to, but you can read that story in Genesis chapter 22. For the sake of time, we're not gonna go through the whole thing, but I'll go through verses one and two and then seven through eight, verses one and two says, now it came to pass after these things that God tested, Abraham.
So we know from the beginning, this is a test. God doesn't really mean for this to happen. This is a test. Abraham didn't know this, but we know this as we read this story, and God said to Abraham, Abraham and Abraham said, here I am. I guess he is, talked to God enough that he's familiar with God and they, he unders, he hears the voice of God.
He knows it's God. He says, here I am. Then he said, God speaking to Abraham, said, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Go to the land of Mariah. And not for him. There as a burnt offering on the mountains of which I will tell you. God does not want human sacrifices there. Anyway, you could do a whole sermon on this thing.
There's all kinds of things going on here, but, but let's skip forward. God told Abraham, you're gonna sacrifice your son, offer him as a burnt offering, and then we skip forward to verses seven and eight of the same chapter. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, so Isaac is his son, the one that he loves, the one that he's bringing with him up the mountain.
But Isaac spoke to Abraham. I. Uh, his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am, my son. And he said, look, the fire, the wood, but where is the lamb for a bird offering? You see, Isaac did not understand what was going on. They're going to offer a sacrifice that's obvious. They're bringing the wood.
They're bringing the fire. Uh, they are bringing, yeah, the, the wood and the fire, but they're, they're missing the lamb. That isn't this kind of a, an important thing. Aren't we missing? You get the feeling we're, we're missing something. Like, where's the lamb for, to offer as the burn offering now, verse eight.
Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. Abraham answers by saying God will provide for himself a lamb for the offering. Now, I have a personal view on this. I believe at this point the Holy Spirit inspired Abraham, and I don't think he was even aware of this, but he prophesied.
That God would provide for himself a lamb. Maybe Abraham was just remembering the story and how God told Adam and Eve that his seed would, that the seed of Eve, I should say, right, the seed of the woman would one day crush the serpents. Maybe he had this understanding that someone was coming to rescue, and it's interesting that as you read the story, you come to verse 13.
It says the Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and actually let, when he's about to kill his son, God speaks to him, says, don't do it. Um, and then verse 13, the Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram I. Got in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
This is what we refer to as substitutionary atonement. A fancy word to say somebody else dies to atone for my sin. Somebody else dies to, uh, deal with the separation that sin causes between me and God. The atonement. Brings us back together, but I don't atone for my sins. Somebody else atone for my sins.
The, the ram here, in this case, the lamb, all those sacrifices were pointing forward to Jesus. They were not enough because if they had been enough, Jesus would not have needed to die on the cross. We could just continue to offer animal sacrifices, which is a lot cheaper than the son of God. That price is a cost way too high to be paid if there was some other option.
But I digress. Uh, the, the point here that I want to highlight is that Isaac asked about the lamb. Abraham says God will provide for himself a lamb. And if you're paying close attention to the text here on verse 13, it says that Ira was. Present. Ah. Potato. Potato. You know, lamb, ram, same thing. God provided true God provided, but in the way that Abraham spoke, that God would provide for himself a lamb that does not get fulfilled or mention until we come to John.
Chapter one. So we're going from Genesis all the way over to John in the New Testament. John chapter one, verse 29. John chapter one, verse 29 says, the next day when John, this is John the Baptist, who is preaching and baptizing people the next day when. John, sorry. The next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin?
Of the world. Once again, I believe the Holy Spirit inspired John in here. He understood that this was the fulfillment of the words that Abraham had spoken to. Isaac, his son, God will provide for himself. A lamb. He looks at Jesus and he says, behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This means John the Baptist, understood the ministry of Jesus.
His disciple should have understood his ministry. They should not have been surprised that he died. But here is what happened. When we fail to study prophecy and scriptures and to allow scriptures to challenge our views, we impose our views into the scriptures and we read on it what we want to see, and we disregard the parts that challenge our views.
We're going to see as we go through this study that there were prophecies that the Messiah was supposed to suffer and to die. But there are also prophecies about his power and his kingdom that would last forever. The rain that would not end. What happened is the religious leaders held onto the parts that they liked, the kingdom that would have no end, and the disregard the parts about the substitutionary atonement.
The fact that somebody had to die for their sins at the sacrifice of bulls and lambs and rams and sheep. It was not enough. So let's continue with our study. There's other prophecies that took place and one of them is found in Micah. Micah, chapter five verse two. Micah five two says, but you Bethlehem aath though you are a li, though you are little among the thousands of Judah yet.
Out of you shall come forth to me. The one to be ruler in Israel, who's going forth are from a old, from everlasting. So in Micah, we find out that Jesus was supposed to be born in Bethlehem. Now this is important because when we go to the New Testament, when we jump to Luke chapter one. Where we have the story of the birth of Jesus.
I'm sorry, not Chapter one. Chapter two, starting with verse one, Luke chapter two, starting with verse one. It says, and it came to pass in those days that a decree went now from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. The census first took place while Carius was govern, was governing Syria, so all went to be registered everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee. Out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. Continue in verse five to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, that the days were completed for her to be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swa, swaddling, man, I struggle with that word, swaddling cloths.
And laid him in the manger because there was no room for them in the end. Notice there was a decree that caused them to move and all of this commotion, but in the end, prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus was born not in Nazareth, not in Galilee, but in Judea. In Bethlehem, just like prophecy had, um, foretold. Now, if we go back once again to the Old Testament now to Isaiah chapter seven.
Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. It says, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name. Emmanuel, Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. And then if we jump back to the New Testament, I want to show you the prophecy and then the fulfillment.
Matthew chapter one. I. Starting with verse 18, Matthew chapter one, verse 18 says, now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother, Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.
But while he thought about these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you. Marry your wife for what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
So all this was done that he might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God. With. Us then Joseph being ar uh, aroused from sleep did as the angel, the Lord commended him and took to him his wife and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and they called his name Jesus.
So where Jesus had to be born. Also, the fact that he was going to be born. From a virgin, this was prophesied and fulfilled. Okay, so Genesis also has this interesting thing. So in, in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob is about to die. He has his last words for his son and in, in these blessings, he also prophesize over which each one of his sons, so Genesis, chapter 49 verses eight through 10, when he's talking to Judah.
He says, Judah, you are he whom your brother shall. Praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's welp from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He bows down. He lies down as a lion. And as a lion who shall who shall arouse him. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be obedience of the people.
We understand this to be a prophecy about Jesus. He's also called the lion of Judah, so we know that he'll be a descendant from Judah. This also is true when David comes into power. David is a descendant of Judah and we know that Jesus would also be a descendant of David. All of this prophesied way back in Genesis chapter 49 verses eight through 10, when we go forward to Luke chapter one again, old Testament, new Testament, making sure these things match up.
Matthew, mark, Luke, Luke, chapter one. Oh, still Mark. Luke, chapter one verses 30 through 32. We have the, here we go. Verse 30. Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and she and shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great. He'll be called the son of the highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father. David, once again, a reference back to this, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever In his kingdom, there will be no end. So this is what the children of Israel will looking forward to.
A king whose kingdom would have no end, but they're expecting this to happen during the first coming of Jesus when he was born. But actually this is happening when Jesus comes again the second time and he will establish his kingdom. Like we saw a little bit in Revelation, how the whole thing ends. So the prophecy is true, is just the timing.
Jesus will establish that kingdom. He didn't establish it that time, but the fact that he was born a descendant of David and you know from from the right lineage, this makes sense also, Luke chapter three. Verses 31 through 38. Oh yeah. Luke chapter three. I'm in Luke chapter one. So if you go to Luke chapter three.
And then verses 31 through 38, that's the genealogy of Jesus and it mentions it on there. You can also compare this to Genesis three 15. You know where it talks about the the scene to crush the head of the serpent. Now, if we go back to the Old Testament to the book of numbers. Chapter 24, he said, but numbers is not a prophetic book.
Yeah. But there's this really interesting story there about Baam who is a prophet for hire, not necessarily Israelites. He's from the east. He's not Jewish, he's not from the the children of Israel, but. It's, it's a really interesting story. I, I can't go over the whole thing right now, but it has the whole thing with the donkey and the donkey talks to him, and there's an angel that was going to destroy him.
You should really read the story if you're not familiar with it, but I want to skip forward to chapter 24 verse 17. And, and here's what's happening. Uh, Balam is paid by a different king, an enemy of Israel to curse Israel, but he can only speak what the words that God gives him to speak. So he ends up prophesying.
This is one of the prophecies that this prophet, who's not even the prophet from the children of Israel, is used by the God of Israel to prophesy the following words. Numbers chapter two, verse 17 says. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel and the batter of the brow of Moab and this, and batter the brow of Moab and destroy the sons of tumult.
So it's gonna be the opposite of what the king wanted him to do. He wanted to curse Israel and he's saying actually Israel is gonna be victorious over. Everything. And this is ultimately pointing to the Messiah and the kingdom of peace that will have no end when Jesus comes the second time. So it's really interesting because it mentions a star coming out of Jacob, and there are some who have connected this to the wise man who come to Israel.
What prophecy did they look at? It could have been the prophecy of Baam. They followed the star, came all the way to Jerusalem, uh, to Bethlehem. I'm sorry. Anyway, so that's, uh, a possible connection. So let's go to Matthew chapter two and look at that. Matthew, get really good at going back and forth in the Bible.
Matthew chapter two.
Matthew chapter two, verses one and two. It says Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. So I was right. He was Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born? The king of the Jews. For, we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.
How did they know? Well, they probably had access to other prophecies also, but I, I would like to believe that this was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Balam. Um, anyway, so cool stuff. Also, Psalm 22, and you can say, but Psalm is not. Prophecy, well, not all of them, but it does seem to fit or to function in a prophetic manner in certain ways.
So it's really interesting that though there are prophetic books in the Bible, it's prophecies are not only found in the prophetic books and. The, the law and the prophets and the testimony, it's a reference to the Old Testament in general, and the more you understand the Old Testament, the easier it is to identify the true Messiah or Jesus.
I. So we're, we're just, I'm just hitting the highlights. There is a lot more we could spend, uh, a lifetime studying everything in the Old Testament that was fulfilled in Jesus and pointed to Jesus. But join me in Psalm 22 and let's see what this has to say. Psalm 22, uh, there's several verses here. And, uh.
I, I don't know if I'll do all of these on camera, but I'll give you the references. You can look them up. So Psalm 22, verse one, it says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning. Jesus quoted this part. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me in Matthew 27, verse 46?
Um, I'm gonna stay in Matthew 22 just for the sake of time, but you feel free to pause the video and go and double check all these references. It's good for you to check for yourself, make sure that I'm being accurate as I share the gospel with you. Psalm 22, verse 16. It says, for dogs have surrounded me.
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. Um, you can compare this with Luke 2333, Luke 24 39, John 2020, and 25 and 27. Jesus' hand and feet were pierced when he came back from the dead. When he rose from the grave, when he was seen by his disciples, is here, touch and see.
And they could see that really. It was him. So we know that he was pierced because there were scars there for others to see. And we see here in math in Psalm 22, this, this, this was predicted regarding the Messiah. Also, Psalm 22, verse 18. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots.
So you can compare this with Matthew 27 35, John 1923 to 24. We can see that these things happen, just like Jesus said that they would happen. And another interesting thing, and some have mentioned this and it makes sense to me, I, I don't disagree with it, that when Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me this?
Psalm 22, which talks about the suffering of the Messiah would have been known by the Jewish religious leaders of the time any good Jew was familiar with the Old Testament, with the scriptures that they had. Would've been familiar with Psalm 22. And it's reference to the Messiah by quoting my God, my God, what have you, forsaken me out loud as he is on the cross, he is calling for those who were there.
To remember the psalm and realize it's being fulfilled in front of their eyes, their piercing of the hands and the side, the garment not being split, but lots being cast over it. So all of these things happening, Jesus is saying, look, prophecy is being fulfilled. All that had to happen was for Jesus to be killed some different way.
And it wouldn't have been fulfilled. All of all that would've needed to happen is for Jesus to have died from, I don't know, foot poisoning or pushed off a cliff or stoned or stabbed with a sword and, and none of this would've been fulfilled, but these things are being fulfilled down to his garment, being divided in lots, being cast for his clothing.
Yeah. Interesting. Right? It's a lot to be just a coincidence. Let's look at a few more. If we go to Isaiah. Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53. This is a famous, also well known, I should say, prophecy about the Messiah and the suffering of the Messiah. So Isaiah fifty three, four through seven, he has born. Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we is teamed him. Stricken. Smitten by God in the. Afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So our sin, our iniquity was laid on Jesus who was perfect. Do you see the substitutionary atonement?
He substituted us. He took our place and suffered what we were supposed to suffer that death. Jesus died for us. This is what makes him the Messiah, not just the miracles, even though he did the miracles, but that's not the most important thing that he did. The most important thing that he did was to take our sins upon himself and died in our, and die in our place.
This is the important thing that we cannot miss about Jesus. His teachings are important. His miracles are incredible. His death on the cross and his resurrection, and the promise that he's coming again. This is what we cannot possibly miss about the ministry of Jesus. So we can compare this with John 1 29.
Acts chapter 8 32 through 35. Revelation five, verse six. So write these down. Reference these. It's talking about Jesus as a lamb to the slaughter. Just like we said, God will provide for himself a lamb. Someone who's innocent, dying for the sins of someone else. Substitutionary atonement because of his death.
We are brought. Close with God, we are God's children because Jesus has given us that privilege. Um. In Isaiah 53 verse nine. So let's go there it says, and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Jesus was crucified in the middle of two other wicked men that were being crucified.
Yet he was buried in the rich men's. Grave. So really interesting to see this fulfilled as well. Matthew 27 57 through 60, we see that Jesus was buried in a rich men's grave even though he was crucified between two sinners. So in case you wanna go deeper. So the, the bonus level, I guess look up Zechariah chapter 11 verses 12 through 13.
Compare with Matthew chapter 27 verses three through nine. It talks about 30 pieces of silver and that being used to buy a potter's field, um, that's to do with Judas betraying him. Anyway, you can look that up. Isaiah 61, 1 through three. In Luke chapter four, 16 through 21, he talks about the ministry of Jesus.
And Jesus did what was predicted that he was going to do. Psalm chapter 34, verse 20 compared that with John 1931 through 36, and we see that none of Jesus's bones were broken. They would break the legs of people who were on the cross. Uh, it's this weird thing. And take 'em down so they wouldn't be crucified during the Sabbath and they can't escape.
Uh, others have said that they broke their legs so that they would just die a little bit faster. People could be on the cross for a long time, but Jesus' legs were never broken. Instead, he had already died. They thrust a spear through his side to make sure that he was dead. Anyway, you can read about those in the passages that I mentioned.
So what do you think? Do you think that Jesus is the Messiah? I believe there is overwhelming evidence that yes, Jesus Christ is the Messiah. So then the next question is, who do you believe that Jesus is and how will you live your life as a result? If you've never considered this before, I would encourage you.
Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. All you have to do is pray to him, invite him into your heart. Confess your sins. Salvation can be yours. If you want to learn more about this, please leave a comment below. I will reach out to you and we can talk and I can take you through the steps and maybe find you, uh, a local person to help you with, with Bible studies and baptism and all those things if you're in the Boise area.
Come and visit us, and if you found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up, leave a comment, let me know what you liked about it. Subscribe to our channel so you can see other videos like this. I hope that this series so far has been a blessing to you. We do have more coming up or next video. It's going to be what happened to right and wrong in God's Everlasting Law.
