WWUTT 1002 The Death of Jesus?

Over and over throughout the Gospels, all four Gospels, there are references back to the

Old Testament to show how Jesus fulfilled prophecy, so that we'd not only know the history of these things, but the meaning of them as well, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 19, reading this week about the crucifixion of Jesus.

I'll begin reading in verse 28, and we'll go to verse 36. After this,

Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was the day of preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the

Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you also may believe.

For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken.

And again, another scripture says, They will look on him whom they have pierced.

It's in John chapter 19 that the apostle makes more references to the

Old Testament than he does in any other space in the course of this gospel.

He doesn't, as much as Matthew does, make reference back to the Old Testament to say the scripture was fulfilled in this way until he gets to the crucifixion.

Because John is really intent on the reader understanding that all these things that happen to Christ are according to what had been prophesied about him hundreds of years before.

And those things point to even the meaning and the significance of the crucifixion.

Because we can be reading about this here in any of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. And what we're reading is history.

These books, even up through Acts, are historical. The first five books of the

New Testament are historical books. They are telling us about things that Jesus said and did.

And then the commission he gave to his disciples and what the disciples did in going out into the world to begin the church, preach the gospel, planting the church.

That's what we have in the book of Acts. So these are historical books. Lest we read this and think of this as just being some sort of historical account, lest we lose the significance, all four gospels make reference back to things that were prophesied in the

Old Testament about the crucifixion so that we may understand better the significance of the crucifixion in what had even been prophesied.

It wasn't that there was a crucifixion and then the apostles had to come up with some sort of meaning for this.

OK, Jesus died. He was risen from the dead. What are we going to say about this? And then we have the epistles to fill in all the blanks for us.

Well, what was the meaning of the crucifixion? Well, that's what you have in Romans through Jude. But that isn't the pattern of events.

All the way back to the prophets, God was revealing the significance of why he was sending his son and what

Jesus was going to do and what was going to be accomplished on the cross. What the apostles expound upon even in the epistles are what had been spoken about, prophesied even in the

Old Testament. All of this is telling one congruent story, pointing to the cross, which is the pivotal point in all of human and cosmic history.

For even in Colossians 120, it says that God is making peace by the blood of his cross, reconciling all things to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

All of history revolves around this event that happens here at Golgotha in the

Middle East at about 30 A .D. Like you even think of the significance of the date that I just referenced,

A .D. Anno Domini in the year of our Lord, the other side of the calendar before Christ, after Christ is born,

Anno Domini in the year of our Lord. We have even centered our calendar system around Christ.

That's how significant, how influential Jesus was and what he accomplished in his life and his death.

And not just things that we see physically, not just what we can behold in history, but spiritual things.

There were things that were accomplished on a heavenly level that our eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, our senses cannot behold, and we will not see fully until we enter into glory with our

Father in heaven. By faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord, we are forgiven our sins. There is no sin held against us in the heavenly registry, and we have fellowship with our

Father in heaven who will welcome us into his eternal kingdom through Christ.

That's what's being accomplished here at the cross with his death and his resurrection from the grave.

So John is sure to make references back to even things that we have written in the Old Testament so that we know

God had been planning for this, that there is a meaning for this. It's not just that Jesus upset a few people, and that's what the liberal theologians will want you to think.

Jesus made the Jews and the Romans upset at him, and anybody who would push against cultural norms is going to have the culture respond to them in this way.

They're going to crucify him. But the irony in that is that liberals are usually going with the cultural norms, not really pushing against the norms.

And so the culture tends to love them rather than shout, crucify him. But anyway, so John is showing the significance of these events, pointing back to the

Old Testament. And we even saw a reference yesterday to Psalm 22, where the soldiers were gambling for the garments of Jesus.

And in verse 24, Paul makes reference to that Psalm. They divided my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots.

We were reading through that section of Psalms of the Psalms not too long ago in our Thursday study.

It was a few weeks back. But Psalm 22, as I mentioned yesterday, is the most referenced

Psalm in the New Testament. And Jesus, having his hands and his feet pierced again, according to the prophecies that were made in Psalm 22, is hanging on the cross.

He says to his beloved disciple, John, behold, your mother, Mary, who was standing there with him and says to Mary, behold, your son, making sure that his mother is taken care of even as he is dying there on the cross.

For though he was going to come back from the grave, he would be only on earth for 40 days before he would ascend back to his father in heaven shortly before Pentecost, rising there from the

Mount of Olives. We read about that most prominently in Luke's gospel and also in at the start of the book of Acts.

So in John 19, 28, again, after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, he said to fulfill the scripture

I thirst. So again, John pointing out that these things are fulfilling what had been prophesied, pointing back to the

Old Testament so that the Christians today would study and see that all of this stuff was being accomplished in Christ, that we may know that he is the

Messiah. He is the promised one. The people thought he was the promised one.

He came riding into Jerusalem just days before on a donkey's colt to shouts of Hosanna, Hosanna.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The people said this because it's what the scriptures said would be proclaimed of the prophesied king when he came into Jerusalem.

But instead of going up into the palace, Jesus went into the temple, his father's house, and his exaltation would not be upon a throne in Jerusalem, but a throne in heaven.

And his being lifted up wouldn't be some sort of coronation, but rather it would be to be raised up on a cross, crucified, died, shedding his blood for those whom the father would give into his hand, that all who may look upon him on the cross would be forgiven their sins and have everlasting life with God, this fulfilling what was said in the scriptures.

And Jesus said this very thing to Nicodemus in John chapter three, just as the bronze serpent was raised up in the wilderness, according to the story that we have in the book of Numbers.

So the son of man must be lifted up so that all who look upon him will be saved.

Just like the Israelites would look upon the bronze serpent and they would be healed of the venom in their veins from the snake bites that they received as punishment.

God sent serpents into the camp to bite the people because they bickered against God.

But if they would look at the serpent, God would cleanse them of this venom and they would be saved.

And so if we look at the cross of Christ, we will be cleansed of our unrighteousness.

We will be saved from the wrath of God and we will have fellowship with him.

We will be adopted as sons and daughters through the blood of Christ into the family of God.

This is what the Old Testament scriptures tell us about the significance of Christ's crucifixion.

And again, so we would know that he is the promised one. The people believed that he was the promised one, but they did not understand then why he had to die and be risen again.

His own disciples didn't get it. And it wasn't until Luke 24, before Jesus is about to ascend into heaven, he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.

And over and over again, it's pointed back to the Old Testament. This was prophesied. Jesus fulfilled it.

So you would know he is the Messiah. Peter preached the scriptures at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, showing that this one that you crucified is the one who was promised in the line of David.

And he has ascended into heaven and he is seated on that very throne. And the people were cut to the heart when

Peter pointed out these things. When the apostle Paul went to a place called Berea, right before he went to Athens, he was preaching the gospel there.

And the Bereans tested what he said with the scriptures. Well, what did they test him with?

Because the New Testament hadn't been written yet. So what scriptures was it? They were testing the words of the apostle

Paul, according to the Old Testament, because the Old Testament testifies as to who

Jesus is, that he is indeed the Messiah who fulfilled those things. God had revealed through the prophets had promised the sending of his son, who would be a great high priest, who would be the king of kings, who would lay down his life and be despised by men.

The shepherd would die for the sheep. All of this stuff was spoken about, even in the

Old Testament. Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to his own way, but the

Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Jesus took the sins of his people upon himself when he died on the cross and drank the cup of God's wrath.

Psalm 78 or 75, eight in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well -mixed and he pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

And it's this cup that Jesus drank. Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Father, let this cup pass from me, not as I will, but as you will.

And he referenced this cup also in the Gospel of John. It was when he was being arrested.

So though he prayed this in the garden, we hear the words of Jesus in the

Gospel of John come after his prayer. And as he's being arrested, it's when Peter strikes the ear of the servant of the high priest.

And Jesus said to Peter, put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me?

And it's this cup referenced in Psalm 75, eight, the cup of God's wrath to fulfill the scriptures.

Jesus said this, that he would drink the cup of wrath for those on whom wrath would have been poured out.

Had God not intervened and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

So John pointing out how the scriptures were fulfilled through Jesus' death.

And even here in verse 28, after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, he said to fulfill the scriptures,

I thirst. And even this is a reference to Psalm 22. I'll begin reading in verse 14.

I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

You lay me in the dust of death. So as Jesus knows all is coming to completion.

He speaks of his thirst showing the fulfillment of what had been prophesied in Psalm 22.

Now Matthew is a little bit more direct in his reference to Psalm 22 for he speaks of the opening line.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But Matthew doesn't mean for the understanding of what

Jesus is saying from the cross to end with that phrase. That would have been the title of this

Psalm to a Hebrew. And so really it was the entire Psalm that Jesus had in mind and may have even prayed from the cross as he hung there.

And in fulfillment of the scriptures, he says, I thirst a jar of sour wine stood there.

So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

And the significance of this of John mentioning that it was a hyssop branch that the sponge was placed upon.

This may be a reference back to the Passover in the Old Testament in Exodus 12, when the blood of the sacrifice lamb was smeared on the doorposts of the house.

So that when the angel of death came through, he would pass over the house that had been marked by the blood.

Everybody who was in that house, the firstborn would be protected by the blood of the sacrifice lamb and death would pass over him.

So as the hyssop branch was used to smear the blood on the house, so the hyssop branch then became something that was symbolic of purity ritual.

And in other ways, the hyssop would be used to purge or cleanse.

David makes a reference to this in Psalm 51 7, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

And so the reference to the hyssop branch as it pertains to Christ now hanging on the cross is another one of those signs or indicators of him being the lamb of God that has been sacrificed for the purification of sins.

And even this reference to sour wine shows a fulfillment of prophecy.

For it's in Psalm 69 verse 21, where it says, for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink.

Verse 29, I am afflicted and in pain. Let your salvation, oh

God, set me on high. And we know that as Jesus had prayed for deliverance from the

Lord, which is part of Psalm 22. As Jesus would have prayed this from the cross, we know that the

Lord did answer him and did deliver him up. You know what it is that's at the very end of Psalm 22.

You know what the last words of this Psalm are? It's done. He has done it.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.

Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.

He has accomplished the work. He has fulfilled. It is finished.

So even in these last words of Christ that are spoken from the cross, it is the completion of all that had been prophesied there in Psalm 22.

He drinks the sour wine offered to him on a sponge on a hyssop branch. And when

Jesus received it, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In the Greek, it is finished paid in full.

Whenever the Romans would collect a debt from somebody and their debt would be paid off, they would stamp the debt with this inscription paid in full.

Tetelestai. And so Jesus proclaiming that the work was done. It was paid in full.

Everything that needed to be accomplished that the father had sent the son to do. Jesus had done it.

It was completed. No other work needed to be done for the atonement, the forgiveness of sins.

It was accomplished in Christ. It is finished. It is done paid in full in Colossians chapter two, beginning in verse 13.

And you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross, the debt that we owed nailed to the cross of Christ.

And it is by faith in Jesus. Our sins are forgiven. Redemption is the word for this.

We have been redeemed. Ephesians one seven in him. We have redemption through his blood.

The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Galatians three 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

And as I've, as I've been reading here from Colossians, also Colossians one 14 in him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews nine 12 refers to this act as being one of our great high priest.

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, the spilling of his blood on the cross for us that we might be redeemed, bought back by the blood of Christ and owned possessed by him.

We are his possession. As said in Titus two 14, we have been adopted into the family of the father, our father who is in heaven being our heavenly father, our benevolent father, who gives us all good things through his son, shaping us in his image that we might be more and more like Christ.

What a beautiful savior. What a beautiful sacrifice. And we receive all the benefits of this, the grace of God through his son by faith in him.

That's the mechanism that God has chosen to transmit the blessings of his grace that we believe on the sun, that we look upon him, his death on the cross for us and live.

Let us pray our heavenly father. May we know this redemption in Christ.

May we cling so steadfastly to these words from the apostle Paul in Romans eight one.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You do not condemn us. Therefore, what difference does it make if man condemns us?

For if God is for us, who can be against us? We fear not the things of this world and we seek not the approval of men for we have the approval of God because of what

Christ has done for us and clothed us in his righteousness. Let us have confidence throughout this day.

Let our hearts be in enlivened as we go throughout our day, knowing that our heavenly father has paid the price for us by sending his son to become a curse for us, to be sin for us, that he might give his righteousness for us so we can stand before our father as holy, accepted, beautiful in your eyes.

Let us be comforted by the words of scripture today. We do not fear even death itself for the price has been paid in full.

We ask for your continued mercy and grace and guidance upon us today. In the love of Christ Jesus we pray.

Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.