One of the most astounding statements that the Lord Jesus Christ made when He was on the earth was ‘the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’ (Matthew 9:6), speaking of Himself. He claimed that He had both the power and the authority to forgive the sins of others. It was a bold claim and a claim that no other man dare make. He didn’t mean that He had would simply overlook wrongdoing or pretend something never happened (which is what we might mean if we say we forgive someone) but rather He meant that He had the power to completely remove an individual’s guilt due to their sin and change the course of their eternal destiny from everlasting death and judgement to everlasting life. It’s an astonishing statement and one that completely rocked the religious establishment of His day, as here was a Man saying that He could do something that only God can do. Was He mad? Was He an outrageous liar? Or was He telling the truth? To answer the question we need to look at the context in which He made that statement and we will see three pieces of evidence that He was telling the truth. A man who was completely paralysed had been brought to Him on a stretcher by His friends in the hope that the Lord Jesus would be able to heal him. He had healed many people of all sorts of diseases simply with either a word or a touch. The Bible tells us that He healed ‘all [that were brought to Him] that were sick’ (Matthew 8:16). This is our first piece of evidence that when He said He had the power to forgive sins He was telling the truth, as only God could heal people in the way that He healed people. Here was a Man who fully demonstrated the power of God. He was able to heal instantly and completely and so the paralysed man was brought so that Jesus could do the same for him. We are told that when He ‘saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you”’ (Matthew 9:2). The religious leaders were appalled and although they sat in silent outrage they ‘said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”’ (Matthew 9:3). This did not go unnoticed, as we are told that “Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?”’ (Matthew 9:4&5). Our second piece of evidence that He was telling the truth was that He knew exactly what they were thinking. He could see straight into their hearts and He knew that they were disgusted and offended by what He had said. Again, we see that He was able to do something that only God could do. 1 Chronicles 28:9 tells us that ‘the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts’. It was exactly the same in this situation. Our third piece of evidence follows on from the question that Jesus asked the religious leaders: was it easier for someone to command a paralysed man to get up and walk or to forgive his sins? Both are of course impossible for an ordinary man. Anyone could say he could forgive sins but how could he prove it? Jesus then commanded the man to stand up and walk and he did! This was the proof to all that were there that the Son of God was in their midst and as Son of God He had the complete authority to forgive sins. He still has the same authority today and we all have the same need as the paralysed man. He did have a physical problem but he also had a spiritual problem which is what the Lord Jesus dealt with first. The man was a sinner and he needed his sins forgiven. The Bible tells us that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). The reason that the Lord Jesus came into the world in the first place was to deal with our problem of sin by taking the punishment for it when He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead three days later and He is alive in Heaven able to save all those that believe He died for them and trust in Him for forgiveness. He still has the power on earth to forgive sins today and He can be your Saviour if you trust in Him.

It can be said that life is all about asking questions and surely the most fundamental question of all is “where did life come from?” What was it that brought our universe, our world and our existence into being? It is a question that many have debated and attempted to answer through both science and philosophy, and down through the centuries there have been numerous theories and explanations offered regarding the origins of life. However, the answer can be only one of two possibilities: either it was deliberately created or it arose by chance. Either the universe was made for a reason or it is the result a cosmic accident and, therefore, apart from survival, life has no real meaning at all. The Bible sets out very clearly for us where life came from: it doesn’t present us with billions of years of chance but rather six days of purpose when ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1). When we consider the vastness of the universe, the variety of life on earth and the conditions just right to sustain it, and the way in which the sun rises and sets each day and the seasons come and go each year with such consistency we have to conclude that there is a Mind behind it all; the Mind of the One that possesses infinite power. He spoke and the world came into being. Psalm 33:6 tells us that ‘by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth’. Psalm 33 then goes on to encourage ‘all the inhabitants of the world to stand in awe of Him’ because of His great power. However, some might ask the question that if God is all-powerful then why is there so much death and destruction in our world? If He is behind it all then why at times does everything seem so out of control? It wasn’t always like this. When God had finished His creation the Bible says that He ‘saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good’ (Genesis 1:31). God’s creation was perfect and there was no disease, no death, and no disaster. He ‘created man in His own image’ (Genesis 1:27) to have a relationship with Him and for a time the first man and woman lived in complete harmony with Him. He gave them one rule and free will to choose to obey that rule but they chose not to. Instead they chose to go their course and disobeyed Him, resulting in that perfect relationship being destroyed and the world that we live in today with all its suffering and pain is the legacy of their disobedience. When they rebelled they became sinners and that sin has infected every person born into the world since, including you. The Bible tells us that ‘through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 6:12). We all die because we are all sinners; we all do wrong and God’s judgement is what we face. However, the amazing message of the Bible is that God has provided a way by which our sins can be forgiven and that relationship with God that we were created to have can be restored. The truth that the Bible presents to us is that the Creator became like one of His creatures to take the punishment due for sin. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom ‘all things were created that are in heaven and on earth’ (Colossians 1:16), became a sinless Man for the purpose of dying for the sin of the world. He was crucified and on the cross He took the punishment that we deserve so that if we trust in Him our sins will be forgiven. He died but He rose again three days later having defeated the power of death and so we can have absolute confidence in His power to save us from the penalty of our sins. He said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). The all-powerful Creator is also the completely trustworthy Saviour for all that believe in Him and what He has done. No wonder the apostle Paul said that he was ‘not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes’ (Romans 1:16). It is the most inclusive message in the world: for everyone who believes. You can know the transforming power of God in your life today through trusting the Lord Jesus as your Saviour.

FInding the Way – a series of events at Maryhill Gospel Hall starts today and runs all week.

So we’ve seen over the past few days that the Bible is reliable and that what it say about Jesus, His death and His resurrection is true. Let’s look at what all of that means for us in the 21^st century.
Our first clue is in one of the sentences we’ve already read, written by Paul to Christians in the ancient city of Corinth:
“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3)
We might naturally want to shy away from that word ‘sins’ but we can’t do that because as we’ve seen, the Bible is reliable therefore we must face up to what it is. As we do that we discover that the Bible also says:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans chapter 3 verse 23)
and so we learn here two things:
1. We are all sinners
2. Sin is falling short of God’s standard
This truth is the most inclusive message possible: it is for everyone. It is also inescapable: there’s no question of whether our personal sins are any less serious (or any more serious) than those of other people: each of us falls short of God’s standard.
And this is why the importance of who Jesus is really matters. The Bible says of Him:
“Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter chapter 2 verse 22)
“And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” (1 John chapter 3 verse 5)
So Jesus Christ is unique: He does not have the sinful nature that causes each of us to sin. He is God, He became the only sinless Person to live on earth and His death is the only sacrifice on the basis of which God can forgive our sins. His resurrection proves that He had, as He claimed, the power to lay down His life and take it again (John chapter 10 verse 18.)
Let’s look at God’s response to this:
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians chapter 2 verse 9)
God is satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son and has given Him the place of highest honour.
It’s clear from these same lines from the Bible that God requires us to honour Jesus Christ as Lord and Romans chapter 10 verse 9 assures us:
“if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
So the truths we’ve been learning this week matter. They matter more than anything else in the world. This is what it all has to do with me, with you:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts chapter 16 verse 31)

We saw in yesterday’s blog that the New Testament contains letters which were written to explain important things about what Christians believe. We start in the same part of the Bible today:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3)
Paul, who wrote the letter, claims that Christ not only died and was buried but also rose again. As evidence of this he says that He was seen by Cephas (that is Peter), by ‘the twelve’ (in other words the disciples) by over 500 believers, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote, by James by all the apostles and finally by Paul himself. By any standards that is pretty convincing: three named individuals, one of whom was the writer of the letter himself, by 500 believers, most of whom were still alive able to contradict Paul if they so wished and by two groups (disciples and apostles.)
So what about the contemporary eye-witness accounts? Are they equally convincing? For these we draw on Matthew chapter 28, Mark chapter 16, Luke chapter 24 and John chapters 20 and 21.

• Two women, both called Mary and a woman called Salome, went to the tomb where the body of Jesus had been laid and were told ‘He is not here; for He is risen’ and were invited to see the empty tomb
• As they went to pass on the good news they met and spoke with Jesus. He was clearly alive.
• His disciples then met Him and He spoke with them
• Peter saw the empty tomb and later saw and have a conversation with the risen Jesus
• Two people travelling saw and conversed with Jesus, again clearly alive
• A man called Thomas, who had refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, met Him and saw for Himself

By any standards of evidence and corroboration the claim that Jesus rose from the dead is irrefutable. We’ll see tomorrow in our final blog of the week the import this has on our lives today.

The New Testament part of the Bible contains several letters which were written to explain certain things about what Christians believe. In one letter written to emphasise the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we read:

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3)

The writer of this letter, Paul, introduces his subject by pointing out that he is passing on information that he has been given, in other words not his own ideas but things he has been told to say. This begs the question ‘Who gave him this information?’ Christians believe that the subject matter came from God, for they believe that the Bible is inspired by God.
Looking at the content of the lines quoted above, we discover that Christ died and was buried. So is there evidence for this? Here’s a summary of contemporary historical accounts in the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew (chapter 27), Mark (chapter 15), Luke (chapter 23) and John (chapter 19).
Jesus was heard to cry out with a loud voice and ‘yielded up His spirit’, an expression that means He voluntarily and in complete control laid down His own life.
There were witnesses:

• the centurion, and those with him, who were guarding Jesus
• many women
• the Jews did not want the bodies of Jesus or of the two criminals who were crucified with Him to remain on the crosses on the Sabbath, so they asked Pilate to arrange for their legs to be broken. When they came to Jesus they saw that He was already dead
• a rich man called Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate, who had presided at the trial of Jesus, took time to confirm that Jesus was really dead before releasing His body. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had cut out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb. A man called Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews
• two women, both called Mary, were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

The evidence is overwhelming: Jesus really did die and, as we shall see tomorrow, rose again. These are indisputable historical facts and they have vital significance for each of us.

At the heart of every Christian’s faith is Jesus Christ. To His followers He is everything. Others however use His name carelessly as an expletive. Some might assert He was a good man but no more than that. Some might see Him as a religious leader and some see Him merely as a figure from history.

This controversy is not a new phenomenon and Jesus Himself was aware of it. Here’s what He asked His disciples:

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” (Matthew chapter 16 verse 13)

And the answer reported by the disciples shows how contemporary opinion was divided:

So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (verse 14)

The biblical record is however clear: when Jesus asks the question

“But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (verse 15)

So what is the evidence? What does the Bible say about who Jesus is?

Just before His birth the message that was given to Mary, His mother, was clear:

“. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke chapter 1 verse 35)

At the time of His birth the message announced by angels was:

^“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke chapter 2 verse 11)

What did God say about who Jesus is? In a miraculous event three of the disciples were allowed to see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. Carried away by the thrill of the moment Peter wanted to make tabernacles, or tents, for them, then God spoke:

“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew chapter 17 verse 5)

And what claims did Jesus Himself make?

In the 4^th book of the New Testament, John, there are seven statements made by Jesus all beginning with ‘I am.’ Perhaps the best known is:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John chapter 14 verse 6)

Now it might not be immediately obvious that in these statements Jesus is claiming to be God: in the Old Testament ‘I am’ is a title of God¹. The Jews understood His claim:

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (John chapter 5 verse 18)

The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” (John chapter 10 verse 33)

For us today the question must be answered: do we accept the record of the Bible and the claims of Jesus Himself that He is God, Lord and Saviour or do we reject His claims totally? There is no half measure. Here’s how the writer CS Lewis puts it:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. . . . You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”²

¹Exodus chapter 3 verse 14

² CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

If you’ve ever had a discussion or even an argument with a Christian you’ve probably noticed that they constantly base what they say on what the Bible says.

‘Fair enough,’ you may say, ‘all well and good if the Bible is reliable.’

But is it? Why are Christians so convinced that they can rely on what the Bible says?

There are many things that bring Christians to that conclusion but let’s look at just one.

The Bible is really a collection of 66 books written by 40 authors from 3 continents over a period of almost 2000 years¹. It is divided into 2 main parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christians lay great emphasis on the fact that such a collection from many sources forms one complete work. This work is internally totally consistent.

Let’s take one example of this. The following lines are quoted from the 3^rd book of the New Testament, Luke, and are part of an account of a conversation between Jesus and two others:

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. ( Luke chapter 24 verse 25 ff, NKJV)

Here Jesus refers to ‘all the Scriptures’, indicating that the books of the Bible were to be seen as a united work. He refers to the individual components of ‘Moses and all the Prophets.’

A close look at books written by Moses might take us to the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis. In chapter 22 we can read an account of a man called Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, in obedience to God’s command to do just that. (God stepped in at the last minute to stop that sacrifice.) Christians assert that this incident is a picture of something that happened centuries later. It’s recorded in the New Testament: God Himself gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrifice for sins on a cross. Christians believe that this is one example of how the Old and New Testaments hang together, a view endorsed by Jesus Christ Himself in the lines quoted above from Luke.

The reference made by Jesus to ‘the Prophets’ is even clearer. We could take two Old Testament prophets as examples.

The prophet Isaiah wrote these words hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14)

In the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, we read in the context of the birth of Jesus Christ and His virgin mother Mary:

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” (Matthew chapter 1 verse 23)

And Micah likewise long before the event wrote:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, 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, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” (Micah chapter 5 verse 2)

In the second book of the New Testament, Luke, we read the historical record:

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, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke chapter 2 verse 4)

There are 3 questions: did Isaiah and Micah, writing hundreds of years before the event, have the ability to stage-manage the historical record of the birth of Jesus; was Mary to stage-manage the circumstances of His birth or were Isaiah and Micah true prophets? Christians believe that the only logical conclusion is that Isaiah and Micah were true prophets and that prophecy confirms the reliability of the Bible.

¹https://answersingenesis.org/the-word-of-god/3-unity-of-the-bible/

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. Dislodge it, and the building collapses in a sorry heap. The Bible itself acknowledges this and traces out the implications if Jesus did not rise from the dead: it would make Christianity a cruel sham, its preachers liars, its promise of forgiveness an illusion, and it would shatter the basis we have for any hope beyond our current existence (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).

Perhaps the clearest prediction of the resurrection came from the lips of Jesus Himself. He repeatedly taught His disciples that He would die and rise after three days:

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. (Matthew 16:21)

Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, “and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful. (Matthew 17:22-23)

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, “and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:17-19)

Further, His prediction was no secret; even His enemies who crucified Him remembered it after He died. This was what prompted them to take steps to stop a resurrection being faked by His disciples:

On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ “Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him [away], and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go your way, make [it] as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard. (Matthew 27:62-66)

Jesus’ bold prediction could go only one of two ways. Three days after His death He would either be confirmed as the Christ, or exposed as a fraud. After all, someone who announces a prophecy in the Lord’s name that does not come to pass is not from God (Deuteronomy 18:22). The highly specific and short timeframe Jesus gave meant that it was the people who saw Him alive on earth – who ate and talked with Him, and who saw Him die – who would be the first jury to decide whether He really was who He claimed.

So what happened three days after He died? His tomb was discovered empty (John 20:1-2) with the grave-clothes left inside (John 20:4-5), eyewitnesses claimed to have seen Him alive (1 Corinthians 15:3-8); and a couple of months later, the church emerged – consisting of people who believed the testimony of those who said they saw the risen Lord Jesus. To those who come to this conclusion today based on the testimony of the word of God, the Lord Jesus made a promise:

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed [are] those who have not seen and [yet] have believed.” (John 20:29)

The Bible presents Jesus as the Christ of God, and promises all who take God at His word on this matter salvation – the benefit the Lord Jesus’ sin-bearing death provides:

… “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:8-9)

The stakes could not be higher – if it didn’t happen then there’s no basis for hope beyond this life. If it did, then it means faith in Jesus as Lord (and no-one else, for He is the only Saviour on offer Acts 4:12) is the most urgent and important issue to settle while you’re still alive.

Biblical prophecy is sometimes described as “history written in advance”, because when reading passages that have already been fulfilled the details read, not so much like the vague predictions of a mystic, but like a news report after the event – with highly specific details. One such example is Zechariah 9:1-8 which described, in advance, a conquest of Phoenicia that corresponds with what secular history books record of Alexander the Great’s campaign in that area. Tyre’s famous navy succumbed to Alexander’s persistent attack on them (Zechariah 9:4). Gaza’s king (he was named “Batis” according to Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus) was brutally killed at Alexander’s command (Zechariah 9:5). The Phoenicians’ loss of their distinctive identity is considered to be a consequence of Alexander’s victory over them and his policy of resettling Greek colonists in conquered cities to spread Greek culture (Zechariah 9:6). Notably Jerusalem, which was nearby and had previously been targeted by many oppressors, was not attacked by Alexander (Zechariah 9:8).

When it comes to the burial of the Christ, a specific detail was given in Isaiah 53, This is one of the most stunning of all the prophetic passages on the death of Christ. Written around 700 years before the event, it describes a pitiful figure; despised and rejected by his peers, who died as a stand-in for transgressors, yet who went through it all without resisting. The chapter also gives God’s perspective on what happened: inspite of human culpability for this death, it was ultimately orchestrated by Jehovah. Jehovah describes the person who died as “My righteous Servant”, and through knowing Him, “many” will be made righteous. The most remarkable feature of the chapter, however, is that it’s written as a gut-wrenching confession coming from the lips of the people who did the despising and rejecting: Israel. This is incredibly exciting: not only was the Bible spot on when it anticipated Israel’s rejection of her Messiah, it looks forward to a day – that still lies ahead – when Israel will receive Him, and come into the sin-bearing benefits of His death!

But tucked into this chapter is a detail about the burial of the Christ:

And they made His grave with the wicked–But with the rich at His death (Isaiah 53:9)

While Jesus was still hanging on the cross, the Jewish religious leaders’ thoughts were already turning toward carrying on their show of outward respectability: if they did not deal that evening with the corpses of the three crucified, then they would be ceremonially unclean the next day, compromising their ability to keep the Passover feast. Their solution was to speed up the death of the three so they could be “taken away” (John 19:31). An ignominious joint burial along with two other rejects of society was the sum-total of their regard for Jesus.

That is not what happened however. Enter Joseph of Arimathea: a member of the Jewish council (the very group who led the calls for the crucifixion), but who was evidently out of step with his peers. He begged Pilate for Jesus’ body so he could give it a respectful burial, Upon receiving permission he supplied a fresh grave for Jesus’ body, and bought fine linen to wrap it in (Matthew 27:57-60). Enter also Nicodemus: a leading teacher in Israel (John 3:10), who up until that point had been a secret follower of Jesus. He lavishly supplied expensive ointments and spices (John 19:39). Together these men of wealth honoured their Lord in His death by giving Him the finest burial money could buy (John 19:40). It matters not whether these men were acting deliberately or unwittingly to fulfil Isaiah 53:9. Either way, 700 years earlier God said this is how the sin-bearer would be buried, and that is exactly how it happened!

If Christianity was cunningly devised by human intellect it’s doubtful the script would have started off by arranging the death of its hero.  If you’ve followed earlier posts in this blog, the next point won’t be a surprise: the Jewish scriptures predicted that their Messiah would be dealt a mortal blow.  Consider the following statements from their Prophets:

“…they will look on Me [i.e. Jehovah] whom they pierced” (Zechariah 12:10)

“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered (Zechariah 13:7)

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself (Daniel 9:26)

In addition to plain predictions like these, the scriptures record a number of pictures of Christ’s death that in retrospect make sense of otherwise obscure historical events.  In Genesis 22 God commanded Abraham to sacrifice to Him his only son Isaac, whom he deeply loved.  In the end Abraham was not asked to follow through.  The episode’s primary purpose was to probe Abraham’s faith: did he trust God to fulfil the promises He made to Abraham – which relied on Isaac staying alive and having a family. Read Hebrews 11:17-19 to get the answer.  But the idea of a father willing to sacrifice his son is exactly what happened when Jesus died on the cross.  Deliberately putting a loved one in a position of suffering is unthinkable to our minds.  Yet that is how far God went in His love toward us.  He sent Jesus Christ, His only Son whom He loved, into this world – to the shame and pain of death on a cross – to meet our deepest need (John 3:16).

In addition to predictions and pictures, the scriptures also contain particulars of His death – tiny details about how He would die.  John draws attention to four scriptures that found a fulfilment at the cross (John 19:24, 28, 31-36, 37).  Ponder one of them: John’s record of the purely functional act undertaken by the Roman soldiers, to speed up the death of the three people crucified that day:

Therefore, because it was the Preparation [Day], that the bodies should 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. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was 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 immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not [one] of His bones shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” (John 19:31-37).

The reference to unbroken bones appears at least twice in the scriptures, first in Exodus 12:46 which in context gives instructions to the Jews on how to treat their Passover lamb.  This reference implies that the death of Jesus Christ fulfilled the meaning of the Passover ceremony and provided redemption from sin.  An unbroken bone reference also appears in Psalm 34:20 which in context describes God’s care of the “righteous”.  This reference hints at the tender care of God toward His righteous Son even at the moment He was suffering crucifixion, at the moment men were treating Him as unrighteous by awarding Him a criminal’s death.

There is a great irony in Jesus’ death – His own people turned against Him because they did not want to accept Him as their Christ (John 10:33).  Yet in crucifying Him in blind rage they fulfilled their own scriptures.  Instead of crushing His claim to be Christ, they confirmed it (Acts 13:27-29)!  The Roman soldiers could hardly be accused of having an agenda to fulfil the Jews’ scriptures – they were simply doing their job, unaware that their actions were prophetically significant.  Taken in isolation, one fulfilled prediction might be regarded as coincidence. However when many prophecies are fulfilled the odds of them all being coincidental are mind-boggling.

What do you think? Have we shown you enough evidence yet in this blog series to convince you that Jesus is the Christ?