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Announcer (00:00:00): It's time to think about the Bible like you never have before. This is Christian Questions. Experience more episodes, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com. Today's topic is "How Do We Know Jesus is the Promised Messiah? (Part II)." The word "Messiah" hardly ever appears in the Bible, but the work of the Messiah is described all over the place. He's a king, a priest, a deliverer, a mediator, a warrior and more. How does this even work? Does he do all these things all at once, or does he sort of change uniforms as he goes? Here's Rick, Jonathan and Julie.

Rick (00:00:40): Welcome everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over 25 years. Julie, a longtime contributor, is also with us. Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?

Jonathan (00:00:51): John 1:40-41: "One of the two who heard John (the Baptist) speak and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ)."

Rick (00:01:09): As Christians, when we think about Jesus and his reason for being born as a man, we're always inspired by the selflessness of his sacrifice to redeem Adam and all of humanity from sin and death. This gift is truly beyond anything we deserve. When we think of the Messiah, we instinctively think of Jesus. In our last episode, we explored a Jewish perspective regarding their expectations of Messiah, and what we found were several differences, but also several inspiring similarities. Today, we delve deeply into many Old Testament prophecies. We'll focus on the astounding detail with which they not only describe Jesus, but also provide all of humanity with the hope for a new life and the opportunity to live that new life forever. The bottom line: we're blessed to have God's amazing plan unfold through Jesus, our Lord and Messiah. We want to begin with a brief recap of last week. The word "Messiah" is rare in scripture. Now in the Old Testament, the word for "Messiah" is translated and it means "anointed; usually a consecrated person, as a king, priest or saint." We looked for descriptions in our last episode of Messiah that did not use the word "Messiah," but used several other descriptions. Here are several characteristics we found in the Old Testament of how "Messiah" will be understood by all people in his full glory. The list that we're going to read here is a short list, because there's so many. Jonathan and Julie, what do we have?

Jonathan (00:02:51): He has and will have the authority to represent God and the strength to be victorious.

Julie (00:02:57): He will be a royal authoritative law giver, a deserving ruler, and profoundly respected.

Jonathan (00:03:03): He'll be a deliverer like Moses and a prophet, and one who speaks God's words and represents God's will.

Julie (00:03:10): He will mediate between God and the people and be a wise, just and righteous king from the line of David.

Jonathan (00:03:16): He'll protect like a shepherd and guide his flock to walk in and observe God's own statutes.

Rick (00:03:23): We reviewed many descriptions that didn't use the word Messiah, but used what he does, who he is, how he acts, how he fulfills God's will and God's word. We look at this and we say, okay, Jesus fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies in his first advent and continued fulfilling them in his second advent. The apostle reminds us, the Apostle Paul reminds us of what his background is, what Jesus' background is, and what he came to do. After illustrating--in Galatians now we're looking--after illustrating that all of Israel was beholden to the Law and not able to reach a higher relationship with God, he then shows how Jesus was the right person at the right time, in the right way. He's showing us how Jesus fulfills messiahship. Let's look at Galatians 4:4-7:

Jonathan (00:04:22): "But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that he might redeem those who are under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

Julie (00:04:48): Jonathan, you read "born of a woman" was one of the qualifications here. We talked last week about the lineage of Jesus using Mary's genealogy in Luke 3. An interesting fact that we didn't bring up last week is that Mary's lineage goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and that first hint of deliverance we read about in Genesis 3:15 last week.

Rick (00:05:09): This "born of a woman" aspect is very, very, very, very important because it's showing us, the Apostle Paul is bringing us back to the fact that God Himself said, "born of a woman," the "seed that would bruise the serpent's head." You have that verification that the Apostle Paul is bringing forward.

Jonathan (00:05:30): "Born under the Law" - Jesus was born under the Law as a Jew from the line of King David. It was only because he was perfect and kept the Law that he was able in God's due time to present his body a living sacrifice as a substitute for Adam.

Rick (00:05:46): Those are some pieces that we talked about last week, obviously in much greater detail than that, but just to put the perspective on the table. Now let's build upon that last episode. Let's look at a few more prophecies that came to pass when Jesus was on earth, and we're going to go through these relatively quickly. Julie?

Julie (00:06:05): Well, Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem was prophesied in Zechariah 9:9-10: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; he is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; and the bow of war will be cut off. And he will speak peace to the nations; and his dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."

Jonathan (00:06:39): It was fulfilled as recorded in all four gospels. Here it is in Mark 11:7-10: "They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and he sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!"

Julie (00:07:09): It's estimated that there were probably some 300,000 people who spontaneously came out to greet Jesus. It was a flash mob without the use of social media! Either 300,000 people are in on the scam to force Zechariah's prophecy to come true, or Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all lied, or it was a fulfillment of prophecy. Pick one.

Rick (00:07:33): Yeah, it's a fulfillment of prophecy. Sometimes you just have to cut through all of the confusion and say, Look, this is what it is. Too many people saying exactly the right things. There was no time or capacity to even begin to unfold the possibility of trying to understand how to teach them all of these things. It just was remarkable. Let's move on to another prophecy. Jesus was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave.

Julie (00:08:01): Here it is prophesied in Zechariah 11:12-13: "I said to them, If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind. So, they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them (and that was sarcastic). So, I took the thirty shekels of silver and I threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD." All right, so we have thirty pieces of silver, which was the price to ransom a slave, and those pieces being thrown to a potter. Curious.

Jonathan (00:08:34): Here it is fulfilled in the gospels, Matthew 27:3-7: "Then when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. But they said, What is that to us? See to that yourself! And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood. And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter's Field as a burial place for strangers." Rick, could this have been made up?

Rick (00:09:19): Well, you think about this one, Jonathan, and what you have are the enemies of Jesus cooperating with prophecy. Seriously. Do you think that they're going to do that? For what reason? To prove themselves wrong? Of course, it couldn't have been made up. You see that the actions are just foretold by God's word and come into play exactly when they're supposed to.

Julie (00:09:43): Well, this phrase, the "Potter's Field," we don't really have that now. A Bible commentary from Jay Vernon McGee said this: "The potter's field was property belonging to the potter. When he had clay on his wheel, attempting to make a pot, a vessel, a vase, but it didn't yield to his fingers or it wouldn't bend where he wanted or a piece came off, he would take it off the wheel and throw it in the field. The clay wasn't the right texture to be molded. It was discarded as useless."

Rick (00:10:11): What happened with the Potter's Field is that ground became useless because of all of this useless pottery. That's why the Potter's Field was sold cheaply because it was not good for anything else. You see again, prophecy unfolding in a very, very dramatic way. No, it's not planned or pre-staged by anyone. These are the enemies of Jesus. Let's look at another enemy of Jesus; the next prophecy that we're briefly touching on here. Jesus was, in fact, betrayed by a friend.

Julie (00:10:47): The original prophecy found in Psalms 41:7-9: "All who hate me whisper together against me; against me they devise my hurt, saying, A wicked thing is poured out upon him, that when he lies down, he will not rise up again. Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." Now, "lifted up his heel against me" is a Hebrew idiom. It's taken from a horse that turns and kicks the one who fed him, or it throws his rider and tramples him. Either way, the phrase implies injury.

Jonathan (00:11:24): Fulfilled in the gospels; John 13:21-27: "...Jesus...became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one he was speaking...He (John), leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus then answered, That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So, when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore, Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly."

Julie (00:12:08): But we have this prediction that a friend who you would trust, who "ate my bread." If we look at this critically, Jesus could have forced at least this part to happen. I mean, after all, he deliberately gave the bread to Judas. He could have given him a glass of wine or a piece of fish or nothing at all. He could have just answered the question, "Lord, who is it?" Oh, it's Judas. He's right there. How's that prophecy?

Rick (00:12:30): Well, first of all, Judas is his friend, and we need to understand that. We're going to verify that in a moment here. But Judas is his friend. Jesus is not looking to outwardly expose him. He is looking to expose the trial that's about to happen in a very, very simple way. The sharing of bread is a symbol of friendship. You can say, sure, you can say that if you want, but I look at this as a sincere human being, Jesus Christ, looking at this man and giving him that offering of friend to friend, in the legitimacy of, I've been with you. Are you not with me? I would not even go down that road. Sure, people can say it, but I think it holds absolutely no water, to tell you the truth.

Jonathan (00:13:22): It's clear Jesus didn't force Judas to turn against him. Jesus was nothing but a friend and a mentor to him. Now let's fast forward to the Garden of Gethsemane; Matthew 26:48-50: "Now he who was betraying him gave them a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, he is the one; seize him. Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, Hail, Rabbi! and kissed him. And Jesus said to him, Friend, do what you have come for. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him."

Rick (00:13:55): Again, Jesus...most of us, if we were in that situation and our friend came with all of those to betray us, we wouldn't call them friend, would we? We'd look at them and we'd say, how could you possibly do this to me? Who do you think you are? Jesus still had love for Judas. "Friend, do what you've come to do," because he knew it was God's will and he was willing to accept it. Let's see this as the goodness of Jesus as Messiah doing exactly what he needed to do in these circumstances. Jonathan, let's put this together here, Understanding the Meaning of Messiah. What do we have?

Jonathan (00:14:39): Because Jesus did so many things that could not have been staged, we can see and appreciate the magnitude of his earthly life as God's chosen. The next important thing to realize is that his life, death, resurrection, and glory all fulfill prophecies that point to his Messiahship. You know, so far, Rick, we've learned that all these fulfilled prophecies prove the supreme power and authority of our heavenly Father.

Rick (00:15:08): They prove how Jesus willingly walked the walk through all of them, no matter what they meant, no matter what hardship they brought, he just kept walking forward. So many prophecies, so many experiences and so many fulfillments. It's hard to believe that we're just scratching the surface.

Jonathan (00:15:31): Now that we have several prophecies that verify Jesus's earthly life, what about prophecies that tie his earthly life to his spiritual glory?

Rick (00:15:41): This is where the depth of study becomes a necessity. Many prophecies that we're now going to work with are profoundly interconnected with other prophecies. Now, this might sound complicated, but the message is clear; and that message, is God's word was designed to reveal future truths about the Messiah in some very hidden but very fruitful ways. We just need to follow where the scriptures lead. I will tell you that in putting all of this together, that's exactly what had to happen. It was following where the scriptures lead. You read a prophecy, then you say, how do you verify that with another prophecy? That's how this whole episode formed itself because it is following the beauty of God's word working together. Let's begin by tying Jesus' death to his reign as a king from the line of David.

Julie (00:16:40): We begin with one of the many prophecies found in the book of Psalms. Psalms 16:7-11 says, "I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; indeed, my mind instructs me in the night. I have set the LORD continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to sheol (meaning the grave); nor will you allow Your holy one (meaning religiously pious) to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forever." Question: we have this being a "holy one" or religiously pious. Now, that's not limited to the Messiah. How do we know for sure this refers to Jesus, although it does sound like him?

Rick (00:17:35): It does sound like him. But you're right, that phrase "holy one" appears many times with many individuals. How do we know? Well, let's answer that question with a question. When you're looking at not allowing your "holy one" to undergo decay, who else but Messiah would fit such a description? Look back in the history of Bible prophets and holy individuals. Any of them fit that description? No, they didn't. Let's go further and see how this actually unfolds. Paul's preaching in Antioch gives the history of how Jesus came to be crucified in accordance with the Jewish leaders' request. He points out that David died and experienced decay. Now it's interesting because David wrote Psalm 16 and he says, you will not allow my soul, my being to experience decay. But here the apostle is going to explain that. He points out that David died and experienced decay while Jesus did not. Jonathan, we're going to go to Acts 13:30-32, then 34-37:

Jonathan (00:18:39): "But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now his witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers." My first observation, Rick, is, can you believe who was saying this? The Apostle Paul was the enemy of Christians as Saul. He turned around 180 degrees and proved that Jesus was raised from the dead with credible witnesses. The second point is the promise made to the fathers. Paul is declaring that through Jesus, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Rick (00:19:20): You have all of these pieces coming into play where he's talking about history, the history, Bible history, Old Testament history is proving this all to us. Now let's continue with Acts 13:34-37:

Jonathan (00:19:36): "As for the fact that He raised him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way..." (Paul next quotes from Isaiah 55:3) "I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore He also says in another Psalm (he quotes from Psalm 16:10), You will not allow Your holy one to undergo decay. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but he whom God raised did not undergo decay."

Rick (00:20:10): There's a dramatic difference between the two. Paul is telling us emphatically David is writing this as a representation of Messiah. Obviously, the death of God's "holy one," death of the Messiah, is paramount in this scripture. The question we have to ask is, how do we verify this?

Julie (00:20:31): Well, so if I was going to paraphrase it, "For you will not abandon my soul in the grave or allow your holy one to undergo decay," it would be I will die, but I won't stay dead long enough for the normal decomposing process to happen.

Rick (00:20:43): Right.

Julie (00:20:43): To answer my previous question, how do we know the original text in Psalm 16 referred to Jesus? It's because the Apostle Paul says it does. We can trust the Apostle Paul.

Rick (00:20:54): It does. The other big, big point here is the fact of death and Messiah. Remember in our last episode, we talked about that and there was this, this big, big pushback from our Jewish friends to say, no, that can't possibly happen. We are looking at this in Psalms, it says it happens. We want to go into that and establish it a little bit more clearly.

Julie (00:21:16): Real quick, in other words, our Jewish friends say, Jesus isn't the Messiah because he died...

Rick (00:21:22): Exactly.

Julie (00:21:22): ...and therefore was not successful.

Rick (00:21:24): Right. Death equals failure. Failure is not this everlasting kingship. All we're doing is saying it's okay to justify a failure. No, we're saying it's okay because the scriptures tell us it is. They tell us by Old Testament prophecies as well as New Testament facts. Let's look at applying this to Jesus and what we're going to see, it's well in line with the Daniel prophecy that we reviewed in our last episode. We're going to go a little deeper into one part of that. We talked about last time, Jonathan, we talked about Daniel 9:26. Let's reread that here:

Jonathan (00:22:02): "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."

Rick (00:22:19): You've got dramatic destruction being shown here in this the end of the city and the sanctuary. Jesus plainly spoke of this destruction here mentioned in Daniel in Matthew 24:1-2:

Jonathan (00:22:35): "Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. And he said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down." An important point is that the four gospels were written before the temple was destroyed. No one knew that this massive structure would have been pulled apart bit by bit. And this occurred in AD 70.

Julie (00:23:07): In Jerusalem today, along the southern section of the Western Wall is a pile of giant stones first excavated in the 1970s. They're thought to have been pushed off from the higher-up area of the Western Wall when the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD. We'll put a picture, my vacation photos, in this week's CQ Rewind Show Notes from our trip to Israel several years ago.

Rick (00:23:29): So, you've got a picture of this pile of stones?

Julie (00:23:31): And me on the pile of stones! They're huge. They're bigger than me.

Rick (00:23:37): The point is, you're standing on this pile of stones that proves the fulfillment of prophecy.

Julie (00:23:42): Correct.

Rick (00:23:43): That's a pretty cool place to stand. I just want you to know that, even though it's a very destructive thing to see the fulfillment of prophecy. We see in Daniel's prophecy, he talks about the destruction of the city and the sanctuary we know that came to pass after Jesus' death. But Daniel also talked about being "cut off." Let's look at that. The description of being "cut off" is graphically, graphically described by Isaiah as he himself is describing none other than the Messiah. Jonathan, let's go to Isaiah 53:8-9:

Jonathan (00:24:17): "By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth."

Julie (00:24:41): Well, "cut off out of the land of the living." Okay, that's easy to understand that here that means death.

Jonathan (00:24:46): "His grave was assigned with wicked men." Now that would be the criminals who hung on the crosses next to him. He definitely had no say in who the Romans would sentence that day.

Julie (00:24:57): Right, and he was "a rich man in his death." We remember he was buried in the tomb of a rich disciple, Joseph of Arimathea. He had no say over what would happen to his body. I mean, I suppose he could have made an arrangement with Joseph beforehand to force this prophecy to come true. But there would still be no guarantee that Pilate would've handed over the body.

Jonathan (00:25:17): "He had done no violence." We know from other texts he was described as a lamb and didn't defend himself, even healed the ear of Malchus, which was cut off by Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane. There's really only one person this describes.

Rick (00:25:32): See, what you're showing with all of these different pieces is that there are far too many pieces that have to fit precisely together to be a fabricated story. It's just not possible. That's the beauty of this. That's the beauty of this. The one individual that can all be describing is Messiah, is Jesus. Okay, now here's the next question though. We just read those verses from Isaiah 53. How can we be sure that those verses are talking about the Messiah? Could they be talking about some good guy or are they talking about THE Messiah? Well, let's go back to the beginning of that particular prophecy. Messiah is referred to as the "arm of the Lord" and as a "tender shoot."

Julie (00:26:16): Just a quick note, it's worth reading all of chapter 53, Isaiah 53, and even the context of 52 to get the full flavor, because we're just highlighting certain scriptures. Traditionally Jewish rabbis have attributed this chapter 53 as being prophetic of the Messiah. We agree. They don't think it's Jesus, but someone yet future. But modern rabbis seem to be claiming that this chapter 53 is speaking about Israel personified as a suffering servant who will eventually be rewarded. But as we're going to go through this, we're going to see evidence of it pointing to Jesus being an overwhelming fulfillment.

Rick (00:26:52): Yeah, yeah. I'm glad you put that in in perspective so we get a broader picture. But Jonathan, let's go back to the first few verses of Isaiah 53, the beginning of this particular prophecy, Isaiah 53:1-3:

Jonathan (00:27:04): "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we did not esteem him." We could take each one of these phrases and show how it applied to Jesus.

Julie (00:27:37): Well let's take one. Here's a "root out of parched ground" or dry ground, that would seem worthless and would be overlooked as not viable. The Jewish people were expecting the equivalent of like a strong towering, leafy oak tree with thick branches and fruits and birds. Messiah, they thought, would come as a king and make the nation of Israel strong, safe, and sovereign. They didn't expect this little tiny nothing to come out of the ground.

Rick (00:28:02): Yet it says, "He grew up before Him like a tender shoot," vulnerable, something that has to be cared for out of parched ground. Like you said, it doesn't seem to have a chance. When we see Jesus' first advent, we see all of those pieces just lining up, coming into place. Here's the thing, that "tender shoot" idea was also verified in yet another Isaiah prophecy about the Messiah. This is Isaiah 11:1-3:

Jonathan (00:28:34): "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The spirit of the LORD will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And he will delight in the fear of the LORD, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear..."

Julie (00:28:57): In the natural world, it's common to see trees sprout up from cut trunks, as the roots are still viable in the ground. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah all give us this repeated plant image: stem, tender shoot, branch, roots, fruit. This is spiritual horticulture!

Rick (00:29:14): It's all focused on the Messiah. As we look at the life of Jesus, it is unequivocal that the two fit together, just perfectly fit, just like a puzzle. We talked about the root and the tender shoot. Let's also just take a moment and talk about the "arm of the LORD" being verified in Isaiah as well. You had mentioned Isaiah 52. Let's look at Isaiah 52:8-10:

Jonathan (00:29:44): "Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together; for they will see with their own eyes when the LORD restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God."

Julie (00:30:11): Bible commentary from David Guzik says, "The expression made bare His holy arm is a Hebrew idiom derived from rolling up long, loose sleeves before starting to work. Then the arm was bared--the symbol of any mighty undertaking or initiative." In what way was Jesus the arm of Jehovah? Well, he has the authority and power to act on behalf of God and is the mechanism by which all will see the salvation of God, visible first through the restoration of Israel and specifically Jerusalem.

Rick (00:30:42): When you put all of these things together, we looked at Messiah being "cut off" and how that was verified by several other scriptures. Then we look at the "tender shoot," the coming from things that don't look like it can possibly make it, but it does. Then you see "the arm of the LORD," you see the strength with which He operates. All of these things are verified in all of these different prophecies, and it helps to see that Messiah is very clearly described in many, many, many Old Testament scriptures. As we go through and we are understanding the meaning of Messiah, what have these particular scriptures shown us? Jonathan?

Jonathan (00:31:22): They have tied together several would-be difficulties regarding the Messiah dying and coming twice, which is contrary to what our Jewish friends believe. Messiah dies. He is not left to sleep in death as David still does. He was a "tender shoot," and he becomes "the arm of the LORD" and the redeemer of Jerusalem. So far, we have seen that the Old Testament verifies Messiah's death was not a failure. It is a fulfillment.

Rick (00:31:53): Right. Prophecy said it would happen, and not just one prophecy, but several prophecies. It's thrilling to put all this in order. The depth of detail here is absolutely amazing. We start with one prophecy and suddenly several other prophecies are all there to support and verify its meaning.

Jonathan (00:32:12): Now that we have established the role that Messiah's death plays to bring him to glory, how does that glory begin to reveal itself?

Rick (00:32:21): Once again, prophecy will provide answers, but those answers are not necessarily simplistic and what we might expect. Messiah's glory does not begin gloriously. It is not some storybook type of revealment that brings instant happiness and joy to all around him. On the contrary, Messiah will have to establish his position, then teach, guide and correct all who would eventually follow him. This is absolutely Messiah's reign, if you will, is a process of development, starting with lots of things in lots of places and bringing them all in slowly and carefully. That's what we're going to focus on now. Messiah was plainly revealed in Psalm 2 - and that's the Psalm we're going to go to now - as a king and as the Son of God.

Julie (00:33:13): Psalm 2 is attributed as a Messianic prophecy because it's referred to several times in the New Testament, three times in the book of Acts, three times in the book of Hebrews and four times in the book of Revelation.

Rick (00:33:25): Alright, so we have the New Testament all over it and then let's look at why the New Testament's all over it. The beginning of Psalm 2, the context takes us from a time of rebellion against God and His anointed to the rule of His anointed; time from against God and His Christ and the Messiah, to the rule, to the kingdom rule of the Messiah. Let's look at Psalms 2:1-9. Let's actually read 1-5 to begin:

Jonathan (00:33:52): "Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His anointed, saying, Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us! He who sits in the heavens laughs, the LORD scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury..."

Rick (00:34:16): The first thing we have is distress. We have discord, we have the Lord being angry. We have people that are out of harmony with God and His plan. There is a sense of rebellion in these verses.

Julie (00:34:33): Yeah, they're tearing fetters apart, cast away their cords. That means to break their chains and be free from slavery to God.

Rick (00:34:41): Wow. Be free from slavery to God. Think about that for a second. I mean, let's reestablish our priorities, shall we? Let's go a little further. Let's finish these verses, Jonathan.

Jonathan (00:34:50): "Then he will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, But as for Me, I have installed My king upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, you are My son, today I have begotten you. Ask of Me, and I will surely give you the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware." Well, these verses bring out three main points: One, God is angry and gets the world's attention. Two, He installs Messiah to lead the nations. Three, He puts the nations in their place.

Julie (00:35:31): This sounds like force was going to be used against our present-day earthly governments. The king is on God's holy mountain, and we know mountains in scripture generally represent governments. This is what it takes to get to God's holy government finally in ruling power. That's something to think about when we look at today's headlines.

Rick (00:35:48): Sometimes people, Christians, today look at the governments of the world and think, well we can convert those governments. No, you can't. You have to replace those governments. They are founded in sin and sickness and egotism and death. They need to be pushed aside. You can't have more than one world government, and this is the world government of God by way of the Messiah. This prophecy is showing us several things. It's showing us this bond between God and the Messiah, a wonderful inheritance, but it's also showing us a massive amount of unrest. Let's break down all of this into a few smaller pieces. First, let's look at the unrest and the rebellion. No surprise, but Jesus verified this when prophesying about his own return in Matthew 24:21-22:

Jonathan (00:36:40): "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."

Julie (00:36:56): This predicted time of trouble sounds awful. Has that started or are things about to get worse do you think?

Rick (00:37:02): Yes. We are definitely in the "things are starting to get worse" phase, but we've seen immense trouble that the world has never seen up to this point. But it is continually unfolding. By Jesus saying this, he's verifying the unrest and rebellion. He's verifying the fact that it must precede Messiah's glorious and peaceful reign because that's the context in which Jesus himself returns, Jesus as Messiah returns with this. You have to go through the really difficult gory parts to be able to see the glory of the Messiah. Let's go further. Working through this rebellious time will require power and wisdom.

Jonathan (00:37:48): We just left off in this chapter describing Messiah as a "shoot from the stem of Jesse" growing into a branch and bearing fruit. Righteous judgments would begin. Isaiah 11:4-5: "But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and he will strike the earth with a rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins, and faithfulness the belt about his waist."

Julie (00:38:17): Okay, time out. Why are the poor singled out as being judged?

Rick (00:38:21): Okay, "with righteousness he will judge the poor." You look at that and say, yeah, what about the other guys? What about the people with all the power and the ego and all of that, right? That's what you're thinking?

Julie (00:38:31): Yeah, the fat cats, not the poor.

Rick (00:38:32): Okay, what about them? Well, here's the interesting part about this. This is like the great news of the Messiah because it says, "with righteousness he will judge the poor." Let's go back to verse three that we read just previously. It says, "He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear." Typically, when you're looking at the bigness of the world and you see a lot of people in that poor state, you say, you know what, they never applied themselves. They didn't do this, they didn't do that. They got what they deserve. From a Jewish perspective, remember abundance was a blessing of honoring God, so a lack of abundance would've been, Ah! Maybe you weren't doing the right things. What this is saying is, he will judge the poor with righteousness. He's going to look at them and say, no, no, no, you are not understanding them. You are not seeing the value of those human beings. Let me show you how important they are to this plan. He decides with fairness for the afflicted on the earth, everybody gets fair chance. That's what this is saying. It's not a bad judgment, it's a judgment that brings them up and gives them opportunity. That's what that is about.

Julie (00:39:45): A righteous judgment.

Rick (00:39:46): Yes, absolutely.

Julie (00:39:47): That's wonderful. Okay, thank you.

Rick (00:39:49): Let's go further now. Messiah will complete what must be done. This is unequivocal so God can receive the glory because the whole thing here is all about one thing, one thing only; give the glory to God. That's everything. 1 Corinthians 15:24-26:

Jonathan (00:40:09): "...then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death."

Rick (00:40:24): You can see that Messiah has to do what's necessary, but when all is said and done and finalized and complete, the glory goes to the heavenly Father. By Jesus turning all things over to God when complete, we are given the assurance of a righteous and just reclaiming of godly principles upon the earth. It comes directly from God the Father, through the Messiah, through the true church. That's the way it all is going to work. How does this all happen?

Julie (00:40:59): Well, I was just wondering about how we're kind of jumping from one scripture to another scripture, and these are all these connections that you wouldn't be able to make for the people that just read the Bible straight through from Genesis and they end with Revelation. But that's effective Bible study. But how do we make sure we're making all these right connections? It seems like these scriptures are just leading us right to them.

Rick (00:41:18): Yeah, well and that's the point, and we have wonderful study tools that help us do this. When you look at the "righteous branch" or the "tender shoot" or being "cut off," the scriptures will open themselves up if we follow where the scriptures lead. Here's the problem, here's the big problem with this. The big problem is we generally have preconceived notions, and we go to the scriptures to try to verify what I already think. Let us instead go to the scriptures to verify what they already say and forget what I already think. This is a study method for me that has been completely, completely transformational because when you allow the scriptures to speak, what you hear is a wisdom that's beyond any preconceived notion you can have. Let's put this all in order. How does all of this happen? Is it just the execution of power and justice? No, no, no, no, no. The Messiah was also prophesied to be a king and a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Let's go to another Psalm, another prophecy. Psalm 110:2,4,5:

Jonathan (00:42:28): "The LORD will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, Rule in the midst of your enemies. The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath." We'll have more information about Melchizedek in this week's CQ Rewind Show Notes. He was the king of Salem, later called Jerusalem, and he came out to meet Abram, later called Abraham. When Abram was victorious, he rescued the inhabitants of Sodom.

Julie (00:43:02): Now the scepter here signifies a right to rule, and the name "Melchizedek" actually means "king of righteousness." He's unusual in that he was also called a "priest of God Most High" before the Levitical priesthood was established. He's both a king and a priest. That's unusual.

Rick (00:43:19): It is, it is. Let's look at that. Let's look at those two aspects. We have two clear descriptions of who Messiah will be. He'll be a king who will reign in the midst of his enemies and a priest after the order of Melchizedek. It's interesting that when you see Melchizedek referenced, you always see him referenced as a priest, even though it's established that he was a king. This is important and we're going to get to that in a moment. Let's establish the kingly aspect of Messiah from just one of the many, many, many, many, many other prophecies that say that. Jonathan, let's go to Jeremiah 23:5-8:

Jonathan (00:43:51): "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, When I will raise up for David a righteous branch; and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is his name by which he will be called, the LORD our righteousness. Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, but, As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them. Then they will live on their own soil." Well, "a righteous branch," more evidence of spiritual horticulture. From previous scriptures, we know this means Messiah will come from the line of David.

Julie (00:44:45): One of the major remembrances of the Jewish people, as it was talking about, is celebrated at Passover when the nation of Israel was brought out of Egyptian slavery. But here it says the defining moment will instead be bringing the Jewish people from around the world back to their homeland.

Rick (00:44:59): You have this kingship, this absolute assurance of appropriate rulership as opposed to a king whose rule is self-driven. How many people who get into power say that they're going to do things according to the book and then do things according to their own way, because with great power comes great temptation. But you see, Messiah doesn't fall into that. It is all godly all the time.

Julie (00:45:27): One more important set of texts, I just have to throw in Zechariah 6:12-13. It shows succinctly that Jesus will fulfill roles of both king and priest. It uses the phrase "the branch" and "a priest on his throne." That's a good one to look up.

Rick (00:45:43): Okay, but there's more. But wait, there is more! You've got the priesthood of Messiah will be the assurance of appropriate spiritual guidance. We had appropriate rulership and now we have the sense of appropriate spiritual guidance. We're going to go to Hebrews 5:1-6. This is going to show us how important the priesthood is in God's plan, not only in the past but also in the future:

Jonathan (00:46:11): "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself."

Julie (00:46:35): Well, that makes sense. The priest had to offer sacrifices for himself because every Jewish priest was flawed and sinful.

Jonathan (00:46:41): Continuing, "And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was."

Julie (00:46:48): The physical priesthood of the Jews came from the Levites. That's how God set it up. He set the tribe of Levi apart for holy service. Aaron, of course, we know was the high priest.

Jonathan (00:46:58): "So also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to him, You are My son, today I have begotten you..." Now that was quoted from Psalm 2:7 that we already read. "...just as He also says in another passage, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Again, we quoted that in Psalm 110:4. The apostle Paul is showing the Hebrew Christians that God took Jesus, His son, and appointed him priest forever as mediator to guide the world with godly spiritual living. This will make them acceptable for everlasting life "on earth as it is in heaven."

Rick (00:47:38): A lot of details. Take a breath, step back and realize that these are all prophecies that point to the Messiah and point to Jesus as the Messiah. There is no difference. They are so intertwined, you cannot possibly separate them. Understanding the Meaning of Messiah, Jonathan, what have these particular scriptures shown us in the segment?

Jonathan (00:48:02): Messiah will act with justice and righteousness when dealing with the challenges of the rebellious race of humanity.

Julie (00:48:09): Messiah will reign as a king with a godly rulership driven by wisdom, justice and mercy.

Jonathan (00:48:14): Messiah will be a priest for the people full of compassion, understanding, and spiritually sound direction.

Rick (00:48:21): All according to the will and the word of God spoken thousands of years before in many different places under many different circumstances. Seeing how these prophetic details all work together is amazing. Seeing how Jesus so seamlessly fulfills all of this, well that's priceless.

Jonathan (00:48:44): We see that Messiah reigns forever as priest and king. How do we know that Jesus knew this when he was here on earth?

Rick (00:48:53): Alright, now we're getting into some really interesting details. There are many ways that we can see what he knew. Two specific ways to put this in order are by what he taught and by the prophecies he quoted and when he quoted them. All of this becomes clearer as he was drawing toward the end of his ministry. We'll just focus on two specific end-of-ministry events to better see what Jesus saw. What we're looking at now in this segment is we want to understand what Jesus understood by what he said and what he did. Within the last week of Jesus' life, he spoke these words which will follow, which truly reveal what he knew. He began--and we're looking at John 12 now--he began with an allusion to his final experience of trial and death. Let's look at John 12:27-34. We're going to break it into quite a few pieces:

Jonathan (00:49:48): "Now my soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour."

Rick (00:49:58): You have Jesus troubled and he is giving a sense of this is what I came for. He establishes that and then he states, what's next? The sole purpose, the sole purpose behind all of what he has ever done. Then we'll see how God actually responds to that. Jonathan, let's go to 28-29:

Jonathan (00:50:23): "Father glorify Your name. Then a voice came out of heaven: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, an angel has spoken to him."

Julie (00:50:39): "Father, glorify your name." "Glorify" here means "to render (or esteem) glorious, to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate" among other similar things. "Father glorify your name." That seems simple, but what is Jesus saying?

Rick (00:50:53): Jesus, I think, is saying that his sole purpose was exactly that, to glorify the Father's name. That's what he said in the verse. He said, "for this purpose I came to this hour." His very next words are, "Father glorify your name." He's saying, I came to this incredible trial. "Father glorify your name" in this. It looks like he's verifying two different instances of God's glorifying God's own name. We're going to take a look at this in a moment here, and I'm going to give you my understanding, my interpretation of these scriptures. Personally, this to me indicates that God's glory in Jesus' first advent in his coming as a man and doing the things he did and coming up to sacrifice, God was glorified in that. Then God's glory in Jesus' coming resurrection in the second advent, I think that He is showing, God's response is showing these two things are in play because of what Jesus is actually doing. We're going to look at these two instances because I think - again, it's a Rick opinion - I think that Jesus describes the two "glorifyings" in the next few verses. First we're going to have the ransom price. Jonathan, let's go to John 12:30-31:

Jonathan (00:52:16): "Jesus answered and said, This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out."

Julie (00:52:27): The ruler of the world is Satan. We know this from 2 Corinthians 4:4, but Jesus died 2,000 years ago. Look around; it's getting worse, not better. Satan's still here.

Rick (00:52:38): He is. But what did Jesus do with the ransom? What did Jesus do when he died? He bought the human race back from being under Satan's rulership. Now what happened is, as an illustration, as an analogy, Satan's rulership, when Jesus was crucified, was pronounced terminally ill. It was going to die. It was beginning to be in the dying process. That's what Jesus did. He didn't take Satan's rulership away at that moment. But it began to diminish, and it continues to diminish, and it will be destroyed to a point where it'll be unrecognizable any longer because it will be overwhelmed. You've got the ransom price; God first glorifying Jesus in his sacrificial life. That's the first part. The second part is the resulting reconciliation. That's shown to us in John 12:32-33:

Jonathan (00:53:35): "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. But he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die."

Julie (00:53:45): Jesus knew he'd be crucified, physically lifted up from the earth. But how would this crucifixion draw all men to him? Because this certainly hasn't happened yet. Oh, that's what you're saying. It's the next part of it.

Rick (00:53:57): See, you know the answer before you finish asking the question. The crucifixion paid the price. Jesus sacrificed, willingly sacrificed his life and that bought the reconciliation process and that's why...

Julie (00:54:14): And gave glory to God.

Rick (00:54:15): Absolutely! How much better glory can you give than for Jesus to say I am "lifted up from the earth" and "will draw all men to myself?" I now have the right to call them from the grave because I will have been faithful. That's the beauty of the glory that comes to God here. Now here's the interesting thing. The people knew that Jesus was speaking of his death. He was speaking of crucifixion and of his claim to be the holy one. They knew that. Now they start asking questions. Again, we're in John 12, let's go to verse 34:

Jonathan (00:54:48): "The crowd then answered him, We have heard out of the Law that Christ is to remain forever; and how can you say, the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?"

Rick (00:55:00): You have this circumstance where they're in place and they're asking the questions, and you know what they've done? They've completely ignored the second part. They've completely ignored what the Son of Man came to do, "draw all men" to himself. But they're asking a legitimate question because as we saw last week, Jewish thinking says, no, no Messiah doesn't die. But Jesus said, yeah, yeah, yes he does. It's provable in prophecy, but there's something attached to it. Don't forget that. He doesn't directly answer their question here because he's already essentially answered it in a veiled way, but he has answered it and it wasn't yet time for them to know. But see, we can look back on these things and put the details together and say, this is amazing. Glory to God in the death of Jesus, glory to God in the resurrection and restitution to follow that Jesus brought. We can see that Jesus had clear knowledge of all that was happening. You see how he handled this circumstance and just expounded on what was to come. But there's more to this. Jesus also knew how many of the aspects of his mission would unfold, again because of prophecy.

Julie (00:56:12): Here's a well-known prophecy from Daniel 7:13-14: "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away; and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." Now he talks about the "clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming." I know from other episodes from Christian Questions that when we see clouds, they often symbolically represent trouble.

Rick (00:56:51): They do. Jesus understood this prophecy in Daniel. He understood Daniel's words and appropriately, Jesus himself relayed some of those words of Daniel in this very prophecy to his disciples. Let's notice the conditions of the world that Jesus relays. Let's go back to Matthew 24. Again, this is the context of his return. Let's hear what happens here. Matthew 24:29-30:

Jonathan (00:57:17): "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky (and that's quoted from Daniel 7:13-14) with power and great glory." Luke 21:28 adds: "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Rick (00:57:51): When it gets really awful, is what he's saying, straighten up. Lift up your heads because you know that God's will is unfolding. When we look back at this, this John 12, we can see how much Jesus knew by what he said there and what he said in other prophecies. He was constantly relating himself back to the Old Testament, to show us that he was fulfilling every aspect of the will of God in relation to the Messiah. One last aspect we want to touch on is Jesus' final experience in the crucifixion itself. Now this is hard to talk about, but it is powerful when you understand the magnitude here. This single experience of the crucifixion is detailed in prophecy with amazing detail. In this episode, we're merely going to overview some, just a few of those details. We're going to look at Psalm 22. Now this Psalm in its entirety clearly describes Jesus' crucifixion experience, and this Psalm was clearly, undeniably on Jesus' mind as he was coming to the end of his earthly life.

Julie (00:59:05): Let's start it out with Psalm 22:1, because that said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That sounds familiar.

Jonathan (00:59:12): In Mark 15:33-34 reads: "When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?"

Rick (00:59:30): Jesus, like so many other times, is quoting the scriptures because that's how he learned God's will. He's quoting those scriptures, and when you go through Psalm 22, it's an amazing picture of what's happening to him on the cross. We're going to only touch on three of the verses in the interest of time here, but there's so, so much here. We're going to look at Psalms 22:14-16:

Jonathan (00:59:55): "I am poured out like water..."

Julie (00:59:57): Complete and utter exhaustion.

Jonathan (00:59:59): "...and all my bones are out of joint."

Julie (01:00:01): Think of him suffering on the cross. There's a complete disarray of the human form.

Jonathan (01:00:05): My heart is like wax; it melted within me."

Julie (01:00:09): Literally, his heart was without strength and giving way.

Jonathan (01:00:12): "My strength is dried up like a potsherd..."

Julie (01:00:15): Biblical commentary from Barnes says, "His strength... was like a brittle piece of earthenware, so dry and fragile that it could easily be crumbled to pieces." Again, the crucifixion.

Jonathan (01:00:24): "...and my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

Julie (01:00:27): A symptom of overwhelming thirst and dehydration.

Jonathan (01:00:31): "And you lay me in the dust of death."

Julie (01:00:34): A fitting end to the life of the ransom price; death, like Adam.

Jonathan (01:00:38): "For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierce my hands and my feet."

Julie (01:00:44): Oh, an obvious reference to the Gentile soldiers, their cruelty and the crucifixion itself.

Rick (01:00:49): Just in those three verses, going through them so, so quickly, what we see is the unfolding of the crucifixion experience. Jesus knew these verses. I am in my mind - this is a Rick opinion - but I absolutely believe that he is reciting that Psalm verse by verse by verse, probably over and over and over again in the last hour of his life. That's why he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's where his mind was. Now here's the thing, here's the amazing thing. When Jesus was about to die, we can still see that this Psalm was still on his mind. How? Let's take a look at John 19:30:

Jonathan (01:01:30): "Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished." That word "finished" is a verb meaning "to discharge a debt." In other words, the debt for humankind is paid. The word is done, "it is finished."

Rick (01:01:47): Done. He says that, and then moments later, Jesus dies. Why do we say that he's got the Psalm on his mind? Well, when you read through the Psalm, you see the utter travesty and horror of the crucifixion. You see all of those terrible things that are happening. But at the end of the Psalm, the tone changes and the tone becomes very positive. Why? Because this Psalm is showing that the death and the torture of Messiah would bring life and peace and joy and love and God's will and God's way. Let's look at Psalms 22:27-29, and 30-31, and see the upside of all of that pain and suffering:

Jonathan (01:02:32): "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD'S and He rules over the nations. Posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the LORD to the coming generation. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born, that he has performed it."

Rick (01:02:55): He has performed it. "It is finished." There is an unmistakable clarity. "It is finished." The debt has been paid, "he has performed it," and it says, "posterity will serve him" and all the ends of the earth will remember in terms of the Lord. "All the families of the nations" will worship you. It is unmistakable that the end result of this death is life, is peace, is harmony. "It is finished." "He has performed it." Jesus, in literally his last breaths, that's what he said. "It is finished." "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit." And he died. That Psalm was powerfully fulfilled as Jesus hung on the cross. Jesus knew. Jesus knew, and he stayed faithful in spite of the pain, the torment, the torture, and the suffering. Jonathan, Understanding the Meaning of Messiah, let's wrap this up.

Jonathan (01:03:50): What we have seen and experienced is a simple yet profound truth. No matter what part of Jesus's life we examine, we have many prophecies that show us that none of it was random, made up or without higher cause. What should we do with all of this? Sit back, soak it in, marvel at the complexity and live in gratitude, faith, and conviction! Jesus made it possible for God's kingdom to come for all! (edited)

Rick (01:04:24): That's the reason for the Messiah's suffering. That's what the prophecies tell us. Folks, it is very obvious that the word of God is one unit that shows us His plan, and His entire plan works through the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, who was Messiah then, who is Messiah now and will be seen by the whole world as Messiah later. Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com. Coming up on our next episode, "Do I Show Up When God Calls, or Do I Run and Hide?" We'll talk about that next week.

Final Notes (01:05:12): copyright @2023 Christian Questions. In addition to this transcript, we provide comprehensive CQ Rewind Show Notes for every episode. They include every scripture quoted during the podcast, as well as graphics, illustrations and bonus material. Click the "CQ Rewind Show Notes" button near the audio player or sign up to receive these weekly at ChristianQuestions.com. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence. While we believe it to be accurate, we apologize for any errors that may exist.