Jesus in Prophecy

Introduction. (John 8:51-59) In our text I call two things to your attention:

1.       Jesus identifies Himself as existing before Abraham! (v. 58).

a.       What a remarkable statement! If we had heard Jesus say this, would we have been any less shocked than the Jewish leaders were?

b.       How could this be? Because Jesus is God!

                                                                                 i.      This gospel begins with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1).

                                                                               ii.      It will end with Thomas’ exclamation when He sees Jesus risen, ““My Lord and my God!”” (John 20:28).

c.       Jesus has always been!

2.      Abraham looked forward to Christ’s coming (v. 56). He “rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56).

a.       To what is Jesus referring here? Do we have any record of what He might be addressing?

                                                                                 i.      Brother Dan King in his commentary on the gospel of John understands Jesus’ words to infer that Abraham, in a conscious state in the hadean realm was allowed to see with “his own eyes” the coming of Jesus to earth (179).

•         While Luke 16:24-31 makes it clear that in the hadean realm Abraham remains alive and conscious—and it also makes it clear that he is aware of things on earth that came after him (i.e “Moses and the prophets” Luke 16:29)—it is not clear that he (or any of the dead) are allowed to see events on earth.

                                                                               ii.      Brother David Lipscomb, in his commentary on the gospel of John writes: “Abraham received the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed and by faith he looked forward to the coming of Jesus and rejoiced in the promise” (136).

•         The Hebrew writer describes Abraham (and others) who “died in faith  having received the promises” as “having seen them afar off” and “embraced them” (Heb. 11:8-13).

So, the promises Abraham received allowed him to look ahead and see what was coming and rejoice. Why should we be concerned about prophecies pointing to Jesus? Because the very thing that led Abraham to look ahead and see from afar, we can now look back upon from afar so that we too might gain greater assurance as we embrace them, leading us to confess as well that we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13) looking for that “city which has foundations” (Heb. 11:10).

I. To What Might Abraham Have Looked and Seen Jesus “From Afar”?

A.       He was promised that blessing would come to all the world through his “Seed” (Genesis 22:16-18).

1.      This wording pointed to more than just offspring in general, but to a particular “Seed” (Gal. 3:16).

B.      He was promised descendents like the stars and the sand (Gen. 22:17).

1.      This is fulfilled in those who have faith in Christ (Gal. 3:7-9).

C.       Before Abraham there were Messianic Promises.

1.      One of the seed of woman who would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:14-15).

D.     Abraham’s grandson foretold one from Judah who would hold the “scepter” and be a “lawgiver” called “Shiloh” (meaning “he whose it is”—i.e. the one who would hold authority is the one to whom authority belongs!) (Gen. 49:10-12).

1.      Christians in Second Century understood this reference to washing clothes in the “blood of grapes” to Jesus’ death (Justin, First Apology 32).

2.      This is possible, but it may also be a reference to royal clothing of scarlet or purple.

3.      At any rate, it is clear that Abraham and his family were told of these things they could only see “from afar.”—These things were revealed centuries before Jesus came!

II. How Do We Know These Texts Point to Jesus?—The Nature of Prophetic Fulfillment. From the very beginning of the gospel there have been those who have challenged and criticized applying prophecies such as these to Jesus.

•         The deist critic: “I have examined all the passages in the New Testament quoted from the Old, and so-called prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, and I find no such thing as a prophecy of any such person, and I deny there are any.” (Thomas Paine, An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament Quoted inform the Old and Called Prophecies of Jesus Christ, Preface).

•         The skeptic critic:  “Every case of alleged fulfillment of messianic prophecy suffers from one of the following failings: (1) the alleged Old Testament prophecy is not a messianic prophecy or not a prophecy at all, (2) the prophecy has not been fulfilled by Jesus, or (3) the prophecy is so vague as to be unconvincing in its application to Jesus” (Jim Lippard, “The Fabulous Prophecies of the Messiah,” The Secular Web, http://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_lippard/fabulous-prophecies.html).

Part of the problem rests in a misunderstanding of the nature of what New Testament writers mean when they speak of something being “fulfilled.” Most often we think of a fulfillment as a direct prediction of events, or qualities. Some fulfillments are of that nature, but there are different types of relationships between OT texts and events in the life of Jesus.

A.        Predictive fulfillments.

1.      There are predictions of when the Messiah (or Christ) would come (Dan. 9:25-26).

B.        Dual fulfillments.

1.          These are prophecies that have an immediate application and a secondary application that comes later.

2.         For example, Isaiah 7:14 is identified as fulfilled in the virgin birth of Jesus in Matthew 1:18-25,

                                                             a.      In the context, however, the prophecy of Isaiah also had an immediate application to the days of Ahaz. This application was fulfilled soon after its revelation (cf. Isa. 7:15-16; 8:3-4).

                                                            b.      Even so, some elements of the prophecy described things that would only be applicable to the Messiah.

C.        Parallelisms.

1.      These are prophecies in which a common feature of a name or prophetic revelation of the past is reflected in a person or event that happens at another time.

2.      Hosea 11:1 is said to be fulfilled in Matthew 2:15 “Out of Egypt I have called My Son.”

3.      In the text of Hosea, the name Israel is used for the nation of Israel as a whole. But, God affectionately referred to them as His “son” in reference to the exodus from Egypt in the days of Moses. In the very choice of this affectionate term for Israel, God foreshadowed what would later take place in the life of Jesus.

D.       Sensus Plenior (“fuller sense”) or “Name appropriate” fulfillments.

1.      Sensus Plenior fulfillments are those which over time, these types of prophecies reveal a deeper significance than the prophecy first held at the time it was revealed.

2.      “Name Appropriate” fulfillments is a term author John H. Walton, applies to fulfillments similar to biblical names, whose meaning only became appropriate over time (e.g. Abraham—“father of a multitude”).

                                                             a.      He argues: “Like names, I would suggest that the prophetic word, whether of a predictive nature or not, was expected to have an appropriateness that would only be unfolded as history took place. Hindsight was an appropriate element in recognizing any particular appropriateness” (“Isaiah 7:14: What’s In A Name?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30 (1987)299).

                                                            b.      A good example of these may be found in Matthew 2:23. This is not a reference to a specific text but what “was spoken  by the prophets.”

                                                             c.      I believe one of the most compelling explanation of this is the relationship between the name “Nazareth” and the word that referred to those set apart unto God as were the Nazirites.  Jesus did not take a Nazirite vow, but He was set apart unto God granting a “fuller sense” to this name when it became applied to Jesus.

E.        If we understand these different types of fulfillments we can see the full and beautiful scope of all of these allusions to Jesus.

1.      These are not weaker than predictive prophecies, but powerful ways in which God pointed to the coming of Jesus.

2.      Our task is not so much to convince the critic that every fulfillment refers to Jesus, but to call them to consider the most compelling prophecies to even consider what else they could refer to if not Jesus.

III. Three Prophecies the Unbeliever Must Confront.

A.          The Law of Moses promised a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-19).

1.        The atheist or skeptic may not care about such a prophecy, but for the Jew who rejects Jesus, this remains unfulfilled.

2.        The New Testament claims this is fulfilled in Jesus.

                                                             a.      Peter and Stephen teach Jesus as this prophet (Acts 3:22; 7:37).

                                                            b.      In the transfiguration the voice of God the Father declares from heaven of Jesus, “hear Him”  (Matt. 17:5).

B.          The Old Testament foretold one who would be David’s descendent and Lord (Psa. 110:1).

a.       Jesus appeals to this very text to call the Jews to recognize His identity (Matt. 22:41-46).

b.      The Messiah could be the “son of David” and David’s “Lord” because He would be the “root of Jesse” but also a “stem of Jesse” (Isa. 11:1-2; 10)

c.       If Jesus is not this prophesied figure, who is?

C.           The suffering savior (Isaiah 53:1-12).

a.       Christians see in the death of Jesus the horrifying and yet wondrously gracious fulfillment of this.

b.      Philip would explain to the Ethiopian nobleman how Jesus fulfilled this in detail (Acts 8:26-40).

c.       If this does not point to Jesus, to whom does it point?

Conclusion. It might be easy to dismiss any single fulfillment of prophecy as coincidence—but there comes a point at which we must recognize as the evidence builds—there is simple too much which points to Jesus to even imagine that this could point to anyone else. Why not just accept the obvious—Jesus is the Christ toward which all of the Old Testament pointed!