Back to Previous Page

Back to Previous Page

[Announcer] (0:00 - 0:17) Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Access more audio videos and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com. Our topic is: "Did Jesus Live a Scripted Life?"

Here's Rick and Jonathan.

[Rick] (0:19 - 0:26) Welcome everyone! I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over twenty-five years.

Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?

[Jonathan] (0:27 - 0:39) Psalms 40:7-8: "Then I said, Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart."

[Rick] (0:39 - 1:36) The man Christ Jesus stands at the center of the faith of hundreds of millions of people. His very existence, along with the words and actions of his life, creates a remarkable tapestry that truly provides a strong foundation for believers. Sometimes questions arise about how and why Jesus did all that he did. Was his life scripted? This question can have several layers. First, did Jesus do the things he did in a mechanical way,

solely for the purpose of fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies? Second, and on a much deeper level of skepticism, could Jesus have fulfilled the prophecies he fulfilled just as a show, to gain followers and notoriety? Could his life have been a collection of events designed to merely draw attention to himself and create a movement? A couple of big questions here! Jonathan, let's begin by answering both of those questions. You ready?

[Jonathan] (1:36 - 1:36) I'm ready.

[Rick] (1:37 - 1:55) No and no! Okay? Now that we have that out of the way, let's work on understanding just how the fulfillment of so many prophecies went far beyond any kind of scripted event. Answering the first question will help us to set the foundation for answering the second.

[Jonathan] (1:55 - 2:05) Rick, let's repeat the first question: Did Jesus do the things he did in a mechanical way, solely for the purpose of fulfilling Old Testament prophecies?

[Rick] (2:05 - 2:43) In other words was his life just a series of checking the boxes on a "to-do" list to fulfill what he was supposed to do? Okay, I got to do this

--check! Got to do that--check! Was there this mechanical sense to his fulfilling of prophecies? Let's look at the theme scripture that you quoted, Psalms 40:7-8, because it's quoted in Hebrews. Paul quotes it in Hebrews, and let's get a little bit of the context. Let's look at Hebrews 40:7-10. It attributes those Psalms 40 verses to Jesus. When we get the context in place, we're going to see what it talks about, what it means about Jesus and his attitude. This is important. Psalms 40:7-10:

[Jonathan] (2:43 - 3:25) "Then I said, Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;

behold, I will not restrain my lips, O LORD, You know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation." The word for "delight" means "to incline; to be pleased with; desire."

[Rick] (3:25 - 3:51) It's important when we look at the context of this, it's--I desire to do Your will, Your Law is in my heart, I haven't restrained my lips, I haven't hidden Your righteousness, I've spoken it out.

You see this very clear desire to do God's will. He clearly--Jesus CLEARLY loved God. His life was thoroughly, thoroughly invested in doing His will. When we look at his life, we have several places to look to find that confirmation. Let's just look at a couple. Let's look at John 4:34:

[Jonathan] (3:51 - 4:10) "Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work."

[Rick] (4:10 - 4:25) What a great illustration! It nourishes me to do my Father's will. It's just such a powerful proclamation of what's the most important thing. Let's also now jump to John 14:30-31:

[Jonathan] (4:25 - 4:38) "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. Get up, let us go from here." Rick, Jesus knew he was walking into a trap. Why was he willing to do this?

Because he loved his Father. He was submissive just like Isaac was to Abraham.

[Rick] (4:39 - 5:12) There's such power in that. When you look at, did Jesus do things just because he had to? There's a resounding NO to that. You're right, he's walking into a trap and he says, I'm doing exactly what the Father would have me to do. In John 14, he talks about joy. You think about, he's talking about joy in the context of all this. What we want to do now is we want to begin to Comprehend the "script'' of Jesus' Life. Let's start by putting these first few pieces in order:

[Jonathan] (5:12 - 5:21) All that Jesus said and did in his life was thoroughly driven from his heart, which was bent on serving his Father in heaven.

[Rick] (5:22 - 5:43) Therefore, because of this, therefore the "script" of his life was a self-imposed choice. It was an absolute free-will offering to live each moment according to the MOST important thing! This is who Jesus was. This is what he did. There is no guesswork about his desire here.

[Jonathan] (5:43 - 6:13) Let's move on to our second question: On a much deeper level of skepticism, could Jesus have fulfilled the prophecies he fulfilled just as a show, to gain followers and attention? Could his life have been a collection of events designed to merely draw attention to himself and create a movement? Now, let's remember--others had tried this before and had failed!

[Rick] (6:13 - 6:52) Yeah. Yeah. The question is, does Jesus fall into that category? This is the real skeptical question and this is the one we're going to really settle into and focus on. To answer this question, let's simply examine multiple prophecies and see what Jesus could and could not control in these prophecies. Throughout this episode, we're going to go through actually fourteen different prophecies. We're going to start with just two prophecies regarding his birth. That's where we're going to have our beginning point. Prophecy #1 that we're focusing on today: Jesus was prophesied to be born of a virgin. We get that prophecy from Isaiah 7:14:

[Jonathan] (6:53 - 7:04) "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (meaning God is with us)."

[Rick] (7:04 - 7:20) Skeptics say, look, that word for "virgin" can mean any young woman so there's nothing special about that. Well, here's the news; they're right,

it can. However, we have to look at this and say, why do we think that this is a literal virgin in this literal prophecy?

[Jonathan] (7:21 - 7:41) One, the "virgin" conceiving is a sign, a marker, a miracle! Two, most other's use of the word clearly means an actual virgin. Please see the Bonus Material in the CQ Rewind Show Notes.

[Rick] (7:42 - 8:03) We list out all of the uses of the word and it's very clear that that's the main meaning of the word. You're right, there's that signal that this is something special. It's not by accident. We've got that prophecy. Our first prophecy was, prophesied to be born of a virgin. The fulfillment was announced through the words of the angel Gabriel, powerfully announced through the words of the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:26-31:

[Jonathan] (8:03 - 8:53) "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one!

The Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus." The name "Jesus" means "Jehovah saves." This beautifully described why Jesus was sent, but I have a question, Rick. Was it possible for Jesus to control his own birth?

[Rick] (8:54 - 9:16) No. I mean, seriously, it's good to ask the question because we're dealing with skeptics, but no, no. The heavenly Father controlled it, but Jesus did NOT control it. That's the theme of what we're looking to lay out when we go through all of these several prophecies. Here's the thing; when you look at the Old Testament prophecy, it says his name will be called "Immanuel." Well, he wasn't named Immanuel, he was named Jesus.

[Jonathan] (9:16 - 9:17) Right.

[Rick] (9:17 - 9:54) You say, ah, well, there's a problem! Well, not really. "Immanuel" means "God is with us." "Jesus" means "Jehovah saves." You get this sense that God is with us through the sending of His son to be the ransom for all. The meaning of Jesus' name encompasses the fact that God is with us because His presence through His son, Jesus, who gives his life as a ransom, puts things in order. That's the first prophecy. Jesus--you're right-- he can't control that. Let's go to the second prophecy. You're going to have the same question and the same answer. Just telling you, okay?

[Jonathan] (9:54 - 9:55) Okay.

[Rick] (9:55 - 10:01) Prophecy #2: Jesus was prophesied to be a king over Israel. First of all, let's look at the prophecy, Genesis 49:10:

[Jonathan] (10:01 - 10:21) "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." "Shiloh" means "gift from God; peaceful one."

[Rick] (10:21 - 10:37) You see, "God is with us," "Jehovah saves" "gift from God." You see how it all begins to fit together. We've got this prophecy about king and rulership. The fulfillment was announced through the words of Gabriel, the angel, the very next words as he was talking to Mary. Luke 1:32-33:

[Jonathan] (10:37 - 10:58) "He will be great and he will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end." Rick, what are the odds of these prophecies being fulfilled by one individual?

[Rick] (10:58 - 11:36) We've only talked about two, but what are the odds? What we want to do throughout this episode is lay out the numerical possibilities. We're drawing this from something that I found many, many years ago from a college professor working out the numbers, looking at just eight of the prophecies

Jesus fulfilled. We're going to use those numbers. It's going to be a fun thing to lay out. We're only going to consider fourteen prophecies.

Jonathan, there are hundreds, but we're only considering fourteen and putting a numerical value to this, okay? I didn't answer your question, but we'll get there, I promise. As we look at this, let's Comprehend the "Script" of Jesus' Life:

[Jonathan] (11:36 - 11:55) The obvious initial conclusion here is that Jesus could not have controlled the outcome of these two prophecies given by the angel Gabriel. As we continue to look further, let us note that all of the next several prophecies will be from the written holy words of the Old Testament.

[Rick] (11:55 - 12:14) We're going to be looking at the written holy words of the Old Testament and see how Jesus in the New Testament puts all of these things in order. We're just opening the door prophecy fulfilled with just one event, just the prophecy of the birth, and already we have plenty of inspiration to feed our belief!

[Jonathan] (12:14 - 12:22) We'll now unfold four Old Testament prophecies regarding Jesus' birth and infancy. What kind of insights await?

[Rick] (12:22 - 13:05) In our last segment, we saw the angel Gabriel proclaimed to Mary what had already been written. The angel proclaimed it, but it had already been written. As we move forward, we're going to see that the Old Testament can certainly stand on its own, as it is the holy word of God. A powerful lesson to take note of here is that when the Bible speaks, we need to listen! You don't need an angel. That's the message, Jonathan. It's great to have an angel, makes it easier, but you don't need an angel, you have the prophecies. Let's go on to the third prophecy for today. This third prophecy is: Jesus was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. We know that from Micah 5:2:

[Jonathan] (13:05 - 13:21) "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Rick, you mentioned to me earlier that this identified the correct Bethlehem. What did you mean by that?

[Rick] (13:22 - 14:09) Because there were two cities of Bethlehem, and this Bethlehem Ephrathah was very, very specific as to which Bethlehem it would be.

JONATHAN: The details...

RICK: Yes!

JONATHAN: ...that God puts in His word are amazing so that we can't go the wrong direction. RICK:

Right! That's the point. This is specific prophecy fulfillment. No play acting, no guesswork; specific fulfillment at the hand of God Almighty. Now let's look at the fulfillment. Everybody knows this part of the story. The fulfillment was recorded in Joseph's simple obedience to the laws of the land. We find that in Luke 2:4-6. It's because Joseph is simply obeying that a prophecy is fulfilled.

[Jonathan] (14:10 - 14:36) "Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth." Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to register for tax purposes.

[Rick] (14:36 - 14:39) He goes there because he has to.

[Jonathan] (14:39 - 14:43) Yep.

[Rick] (14:43 - 15:04) It just so happens to be the place where Jesus is prophesied to be born. But Jonathan, we know that's just a coincidence, right?

Of course not.

JONATHAN: I think not.

RICK: No, of course not. God can use specific places in the simple conviction to send clear messages regarding His plan. Joseph was doing the right thing and that right thing was actually fulfilling prophecy that Herod had put in place.

[Jonathan] (15:04 - 15:05) That's right. The enemy!

[Rick] (15:05 - 15:31) Right, right. So there we have it.

That's a simple prophecy, simply fulfilled. Let's keep going. The fourth prophecy that we want to consider for today: Jesus was prophesied to be taken to Egypt to avoid death as a small child. Now, this is a very straightforward, simple prophecy that some may have questions with. Hosea 11:1:

[Jonathan] (15:31 - 15:37) 'When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son."

[Rick] (15:37 - 15:52) You say, was that really a prophesy about Jesus? You have to say, it doesn't really say--

it doesn't sound specific. Hang on! Let's go a little further. Let's look at the fulfillment.

The fulfillment was recorded in Joseph's simple obedience to God through a dream. Let's look at Matthew 2:12-15:

[Jonathan] (15:52 - 16:15) "And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Get up! Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."

[Rick] (16:15 - 16:29) Think about this just for a minute before you continue the scripture. Joseph has a dream to instruct him to protect Jesus as this little, little toddler of a boy. He obeys this dream and he moves.

[Jonathan] (16:30 - 16:51) Continuing in Matthew 2:14-15: "So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: OUT OF EGYPT

I CALLED MY SON." Think about it. Is it possible for a toddler to set this up?

[Rick] (16:51 - 18:09) What is the toddler going to say? "Daddy, Egypt!" I mean really, come on! No, no! We have to put it in order and we have to be serious. Look, we know skeptics say, you know all of this was just moving pieces on a chessboard.

This is not pieces on a chessboard and Jesus obviously--he's a little, little child-- he has nothing to do with this. The interesting thing about this, Jonathan, is Matthew tells us that this action fulfilled that prophecy. What that does is that helps us understand. Matthew, by the power of God's spirit, in writing down this account, recognized the Old Testament connection to the New Testament action. That's another powerful, powerful part of this whole thing. Matthew's very, very good at doing that as Matthew writes the gospel of Matthew. So that's the fourth prophecy for today. Remember, we're looking going to be looking at only fourteen prophecies of the hundreds that Jesus fulfilled. Let's go on to the fifth one. The fifth prophecy for today: The results of the actions that Herod would take were clearly prophesied.

This is very much connected to the dream and removing Jesus and the Magi leaving and not coming back to Herod. This is a sad, sad horrible prophecy when you think about it. Jeremiah 31:15:

[Jonathan] (18:09 - 18:21) "Thus says the LORD, A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more."

[Rick] (18:22 - 18:57) This is a really heart-rending prophecy about the anger of Herod and what the anger of Herod would produce. The fulfillment of this prophecy was recorded in Herod's unconscionable anger. It's interesting. His anger was focused not on Jesus, because Jesus is a child, but on the wise men who left, who went a different way. Incidentally, they went because in a dream they were told, don't go back to Herod. You see God working these things out. When we look at this we see the fulfillment in Matthew 2:16-17:

[Jonathan] (18:57 - 19:49) "Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled." In Jeremiah, we read that Rachel is weeping for her children. Why Rachel?

Rachel was the mother of two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, who became entire tribes of people. They occupied Palestine at the same time as the first advent. Also, Rachel was buried near Bethlehem.

[Rick] (19:49 - 20:29) You can see that history backs up what's happening here and the children were slain in that vicinity. It's tragic. It's tragic! It's a horrible prophecy. This is in relation to Jesus as this tiny little child. That's the fifth prophecy. Folks, we're running through these prophecies as quickly as we can to make a point. We only have time to cover fourteen, but there's so many. The point is, did Jesus "script" his life? Did he just set it up so it looks good, so he could draw attention, so he could create a following? Because hey, that looks like a pretty cool thing to do! This is what we're looking to uncover. Let's go on to the sixth prophecy for today:

Jesus is also prophesied to be called a Nazarene. We find this prophecy in Isaiah 11:1-2:

[Jonathan] (20:29 - 20:56) "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #5341, 'netser') 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 of the fear (or reverence) of the LORD." Rick, this would be an extremely hard prophecy to trace if it wasn't for Matthew. He exposed this prophecy.

[Rick] (20:56 - 21:23) Right. He said this prophecy fulfilled what was spoken. Now let's look at the fulfillment. Again, it's recorded, interestingly, as a result of Joseph's obedience in the directions of God. You see this pattern of Joseph following through on what he is told to do and Matthew helps us to connect the dots with the Old Testament. Look at Matthew 2:19-23 to get the fulfillment of that prophecy:

[Jonathan] (21:23 - 22:05) "But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judah in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: he shall be called a Nazarene."

[Rick] (22:05 - 23:29) That's hard. It's hard to connect the dots on this one. Let's look at commentary from Jameson, Fauset and Brown on this and they say: "... The best explanation of the origin of this name (Nazarene) appears to be that which traces it to the word netser (and you mentioned that's the word used in the Old Testament) in Isaiah 11:1 -- it means small twig, sprout, or sucker, which the prophet there says, 'shall come forth from the stem (or rather, 'stump') of Jesse, the branch which should fructify from his roots.' " Then the commentary goes on to say: "The little town of Nazareth, mentioned neither in the Old Testament nor in Josephus..." You say, How can you prophesy that he went there because it's not even mentioned? But the symbolism is, he says, it continues, this acclamation of this small sprout "... was probably so called (in relation to Nazareth) from its insignificance: (Nazareth was always known as an insignificant place) a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree; and a special contempt seemed to rest upon it-- (when they said) 'Can any good thing come from Nazareth?' (John 1:46)"

Again, Matthew tells us this is to fulfill the words of the prophets and this is a sensible explanation. Matthew tells us this so we take it and say, yes, this is another prophecy fulfilled.

[Jonathan] (23:29 - 23:36) Let's reread our second question. On a much deeper level of skepticism, could Jesus have fulfilled the prophecies he fulfilled just as a show to gain followers and attention? Could his life have been a collection of events designed to merely draw attention to himself and create a movement?

[Rick] (23:37 - 24:19) You keep asking the question. To agree with the skepticism, here's what would have to happen; we'd have to claim a major conspiracy was in place. Participating in this conspiracy, Jonathan, all working together;

you've got the angel Gabriel, you've got Mary, you've got Joseph, and you've got the enemy Herod, as well as the Wise Men. Not participating in this conspiracy is the toddler, Jesus.

JONATHAN: Okay, Rick. Again, what are the odds of these six prophecies being fulfilled? RICK:

Let's start talking about the math. I'm going to use the information we found from a college professor. We're just going to add a little bit, to sort of dramatize it, shall we say. Jonathan, you're going to be involved in this.

[Jonathan] (24:19 - 24:20) Okay.

I'm ready.

[Rick] (24:21 - 24:22) Have you ever been to Texas?

[Jonathan] (24:22 - 24:41) Yes, I have.

RICK: Have you ever been in a helicopter?

JONATHAN: I have indeed.

RICK: Okay, then you're the perfect guy for this job.

JONATHAN: Okay.

RICK: First of all, Texas has 268,601 square miles.

Uh, okay. I didn't know that.

[Rick] (24:42 - 25:07) Big place! Your job is going to be to find, in the state of Texas--just you, with no help--you have to find one silver dollar. This silver dollar is going to have a red "X" on one side. Now, here's the thing, you're going to get in that helicopter with the pilot. You can't get help from the pilot. The silver dollars are going to be spread all over the state of Texas. The "X" may be up,

it may be down. We don't know. You have one opportunity to find that silver dollar.

[Jonathan] (25:08 - 25:13) I could try but how do I do this in a helicopter? Am I using a mechanical claw arm to drop down and grab it off of the ground?

[Rick] (25:13 - 25:25) If you want you can have a mechanical claw arm to drop down to the ground, but you have to control it. You have to tell the helicopter pilot, "hover here," so you can go down and pick your silver dollar.

[Jonathan] (25:25 - 25:30) Okay, I'll try.

[Rick] (25:30 - 25:44) 268,601 miles--you've got a couple of days.

JONATHAN: Oh good.

RICK: But it's got to be on you. This helps us to begin to set the odds of these things happening. That's why we're using this illustration. Sounds pretty amazing, doesn't it?

JONATHAN: It does!

RICK: Good luck, pal!

[Jonathan] (25:44 - 25:45) Yeah I'll need it. <EDITOR'S NOTE: Please refer to the CQ Rewind Show Notes for further details on this example. Source: This analogy comes from Peter Stoner, a mathematics and astronomy professor, who applied the science of probability to biblical prophecy in his book "Science Speaks.">

[Rick] (25:45 - 25:51) Comprehending the 'Script' of Jesus Life-- where are we now?

[Jonathan] (25:51 - 26:13) Our obvious second conclusion is that it is simply impossible for these dramatic events to come to fruition by the will and planning of mere humans, as the drama is far too deep. The evidence of God's foresight and will unfolding before us cannot be ignored!

[Rick] (26:13 - 26:31) That's the thing, we are only up to just a few prophecies here and already you're looking at this saying this would be really, really, really hard to do. You've got to understand God's foresight being involved in all of this. It's downright stunning to see all of the details that had to fall into place so Jesus could even have a chance to grow up. I mean, God's power here is amazing!

[Jonathan] (26:31 - 26:40) Putting conspiracy theories aside, what prophecies did Jesus fulfill as an adult? Is there any way he could have just read the Old Testament and made the fulfillments happen?

[Rick] (26:40 - 27:08) We do know that when Jesus began his ministry at thirty years old, he was already incredibly well-versed in the Old Testament writings. We know that he knew prophecies. We know that he was eagerly preaching in order to fulfill God's will. Does this mean, aha! Jesus was scripting his own life!

[Jonathan] (27:08 - 27:11) Did Jesus get lucky?

[Rick] (27:11 - 28:02) No! Was he scripting his own life? Let's address that because in a sense you can have a positive answer. Jesus DID script his own life-- now hang on and listen--in the same way that an athlete who has been rigorously trained enters a competition. You've got the training, you know exactly what you're supposed to do. You can visualize it. The training makes you move forward because you have an objective. Jesus knew his objective and did everything in his power to fulfill his objective. This personal scripting could control some things, but it could NOT control most other things. Let's go to a few more prophecies just to illustrate this. We're up to our seventh prophecy for this episode. In this seventh prophecy: A messenger was prophesied to prepare the way for Jesus' message.

Let's look at Isaiah 40:3-5:

[Jonathan] (28:02 - 28:28) "A voice is calling, Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, in every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

[Rick] (28:28 - 28:46) You have a plain prophecy of someone who prepares the way. The fulfillment of this prophecy was brought to life by, we know, John the Baptist and his preaching and his life. That is shown to us in Luke 3:3-6:

[Jonathan] (28:46 - 29:09) "And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet..." which we just read. Jesus could not control the zeal and focus of John; rather, John lived according to the determination of his own heart. John was quite a character.

[Rick] (29:09 - 30:04) He was in a lot of ways! He was quite a character and had quite the character to be able to fulfill such a difficult part of this prophecy. It's interesting, here in Luke it also says "as it is written in the...words of Isaiah..." It's telling us, here's what John did and it's "as it was written in...the words of Isaiah." The New Testament is already bringing us back to the origin. Again, you're right,

Jesus couldn't control John's zeal. He couldn't make him work harder, preach more--it came from his heart and it cost him his life.

JONATHAN: It did.

RICK: You have this very, very, very strong fulfillment in John the Baptist. That's just one prophecy. Let's move on to another prophecy, prophecy #8 for today's episode: It was prophesied that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem and be hailed as a king. Let's look at Zechariah 9:9:

[Jonathan] (30:04 - 30:18) "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."

[Rick] (30:18 - 30:54) You've got this very straightforward prophecy about rejoicing with your king coming, riding on a donkey. The fulfillment was dramatically set in place by Jesus orchestrating his entrance into Jerusalem. When we look at this, we're going to look at this fulfillment actually in two different pieces because there's two parts to this fulfillment. It's really dramatic to see how these two parts absolutely dovetail together. It's set in place by Jesus orchestrating-- okay, he scripted this, he did! He absolutely scripted his entrance into Jerusalem. Mark 11:7-10:

[Jonathan] (30:54 - 31:15) "They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and he sat on it. And many spread their coats on 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!"

[Rick] (31:15 - 31:52) At the very beginning of this, Jonathan, you have the prophecy that Jesus said, go find me this colt. Go to this place to get it.

Here's what I'm going to do. Yes, that part he scripted. Let's go a little further though, because this fulfillment was dramatically magnified by the responses of the people fulfilling yet another prophecy. Again, we're combining two different prophecies to make a really, really big point in this eighth prophecy

we're talking about today. Let's go to Psalms 118:25-26:

[Jonathan] (31:52 - 32:24) "O LORD, do save, we beseech You; O LORD, we beseech You, do send prosperity! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD;

We have blessed you from the house of the LORD." It's important to know that "hosanna" from Mark 11 and "do save" from Psalms 118 are similar words in Greek and Hebrew. Jesus could NOT have made that happen. Is that even possible for Jesus to manipulate the crowds just to fulfill the prophecy?

[Rick] (32:25 - 33:27) Let's think about the crowds for a moment because some of the commentators say there was as many as 300,000 people at this event. There's no cell phone with texting. There's no group chat. There's none of that. All of these people come from where? You have no possible way that Jesus could say, excuse me, here's an announcement.

It happened because they were drawn to him. They recognized--you understand, they recognized Zechariah as coming to pass and they're like this is it and they're saying the things that are said in the prophecy, save us now, save us now! There is no way, there's no way he can orchestrate that. It just happens because it's God's will. That's the eighth prophecy.

Let's go to the ninth one: It was prophesied that the people would not believe in Jesus' message. Now we just talked about all these people coming to him, but then there's other prophecies that say no, people are not going to believe him. Let's look at Isaiah 53:1:

[Jonathan] (33:27 - 33:34) "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?"

[Rick] (33:34 - 34:03) Very simple, straightforward prophecy. "Who has believed our message?" Well, where is that fulfilled? Again, you have this grand hosanna to the son of David! Save us now! The fulfillment was a sad result of the people's hardheartedness. That's shown to us very straightforward, very graphically in John 12:37-38:

[Jonathan] (34:03 - 34:23) "But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" Jesus could NOT control this outcome. How much good can one person do, and still they wouldn't believe?

[Rick] (34:23 - 34:55) You're right. It's like what more could have been done? Understand in John 11, he raises Lazarus from the dead.

JONATHAN: That's right.

RICK: In John 12, you have this result. The raising of Lazarus from the dead was the pinnacle of all of these miracles and John tells us this fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah. We had Matthew telling us that, we had Luke telling us that, and now John is telling us that. This is not something Jesus could say, okay, I'm going to do this, but don't believe me. There's absolutely no sense to any of that.

Let's go to another prophecy. Jonathan, we're really stacking it up.

[Jonathan] (34:55 - 35:05) This is good. This is fun!

[Rick] (35:05 - 35:16) Because, if you're skeptical about it, you've got to look at each prophecy and ask yourself the real questions of how did this really happen? The tenth prophecy for today that we're going to consider: It was prophesied that the people would also despise and reject Jesus. We go back to Isaiah 53:3:

[Jonathan] (35:16 - 35:29) "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."

[Rick] (35:29 - 35:54) You have this very sad prophecy, Isaiah 53, and we're only touching on a couple of verses here. It's a very sad chapter of prophecy that was given and then we see the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus' life. It really is heart-rending. The fulfillment was a sad result, again, of the people's hardheartedness. We're going to look at two different scriptures to just understand the fulfillment of this prophecy. Let's start with John 1:11:

[Jonathan] (35:54 - 36:00) "He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him."

[Rick] (36:00 - 36:27) You've got that and John (this is the beginning of the gospel of John), he's summing up what happens and he's saying there was a rejection of him. That's kind of leading us towards the crucifixion. At the time of the crucifixion, we look further to see a deeper fulfillment of this prophecy. Now let's look at Luke 23:13-14; 16, 18-20.

I hope you remember all that.

[Jonathan] (36:28 - 37:02) "Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man... Therefore I will punish him and release him. But they cried out all together, saying, Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas! Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept on calling out, saying, Crucify, crucify him!" This rejection of Jesus was absolute and heartbreaking. Rick, now we're up to ten prophecies.

[Rick] (37:03 - 37:05) Yeah.

[Jonathan] (37:06 - 37:11) What are the odds of Jesus being able to control all these outcomes?

[Rick] (37:12 - 37:14) Okay. Well, we left off with you in a helicopter.

[Jonathan] (37:14 - 37:19) Yep.

RICK: Flying over Texas...

JONATHAN: And I have the claw.

[Rick] (37:19 - 37:23) You have the claw so you're in great shape.

JONATHAN: Okay.

RICK: You're flying over, you have one shot to find this silver dollar.

[Jonathan] (37:23 - 37:27) Okay.

[Rick] (37:27 - 37:42) 268,601 square miles one shot. I forgot to tell you one detail. It's small, but it's an important detail. In order to find this, you're blindfolded.

JONATHAN: Great. RICK:

You're flying over the entire state of Texas and now you're blindfolded and you have to find this one silver dollar.

[Jonathan] (37:42 - 37:46) Oh, that's going to be hard. Can I ask the pilot when the claw touches the ground at least?

[Rick] (37:46 - 38:01) Yes, you can ask him when it touches the ground.

JONATHAN: All right, okay.

RICK: But, that's it. But one shot, 268,000 square miles. You have two days and you have one opportunity and you can't see a thing. Are you getting the sense of what the odds are?

[Jonathan] (38:01 - 38:02) It's unbelievable!

[Rick] (38:02 - 38:16) Yeah, and that's really what we need to put into our minds here. This is going beyond the realm of any kind of reality to say, oh, he could have just assembled these things. We're not even done! Let's get back to Comprehending the 'Script' of Jesus' Life:

[Jonathan] (38:16 - 38:34) Our obvious third conclusion is that all of these events were far out of Jesus' control, and yet they were precisely fulfilled. The power of God's word and prophecies cannot be denied; rather they should be relied upon as proof of God's plan.

[Rick] (38:34 - 39:07) That's the key. When we look at these things, we have to start looking at them truthfully and say, this is proof of something bigger than humanity. It's proof of something bigger than any period of time.

It's proof of something that has an eternal purpose. It's proof of something enormously large. The reality of magnitude of prophecy being fulfilled without manipulation really shows us the power of God's foresight. The bottom line here is, this shows us God IS love!

[Jonathan] (39:08 - 39:16) Thus far the evidence is overwhelming! How much more evidence of prophecy being fulfilled is there in his crucifixion and death?

[Rick] (39:16 - 40:30) We're going to fast forward to just that part of his life. Jonathan, we're skipping these major, major parts. Just reading the 22nd Psalm strikes awe into our hearts as we realize that those words were written so long before and they were largely fulfilled right there on the cross. For the sake of this brief overview, we're only going to touch on that Psalm just once, as well as touching on just a few other prophecies that were clearly, clearly beyond Jesus' ability to control. Let's move forward to prophecy #11 for today's consideration. The 11th prophecy is: It was prophesied that Jesus would be betrayed by a friend. Psalms 41:9:

JONATHAN: "Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me."

RICK: That's a pretty straightforward scriptural statement. You're looking at betrayal.

JONATHAN: Yes.

RICK: The fulfillment was dramatically set in place by Jesus pointing out Judas' betrayal. Somebody may argue,

aha! He just set that up. But the fact is Judas betrayed him. Let's look at Matthew 26:21-22 and then Jonathan, I want you, if you would, go directly to John 13:26-27. We're combining the two gospels to get a rounded picture here:

[Jonathan] (40:30 - 41:02) Matthew 26:21-22: "As they were eating, he said, Truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to him, Surely not I, Lord?" John 13:26-27: "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."

[Rick] (41:02 - 41:48) That's the first part of this dramatic fulfillment. Jesus calls it out before it happens because he understands the prophecies. Basically he tells Judas, okay, whatever you're going to do, go do, because he knows he's not going to be able to stop him. He's just going to allow God's will to unfold at his own expense. Now the further fulfillment was dramatically carried out by Judas' actual betrayal. We had it pointed out by Jesus and now it's carried out by the actual betrayal. We fast forward in Matthew 26:48-50:

[Jonathan] (41:48 - 42:12) "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." It is hard to relate to the heartbreak Jesus would have felt as this prophecy so boldly unfolded. Jesus couldn't control Judas' heart.

[Rick] (42:12 - 43:02) No, he couldn't and believe me, it comes down to, this is my friend. This is somebody who's walked alongside of me for years. This is what it's come to. This is another dramatically tragic prophecy that was beyond, far beyond Jesus' own control and this began the process of his death. Let's go a little further.

Let's get on to our twelfth prophecy: It was prophesied that the price of Jesus' betrayal--the price, the exact price was prophesied in the Old Testament--to be 30 pieces of silver. This is where, Jonathan, when you get into these prophecies you marvel at the accuracy, like you said before, the details, they just matter. Zechariah 11:12-13:

[Jonathan] (43:02 - 43:25) "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. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD."

[Rick] (43:25 - 44:01) You look at that and say that sounds a little strange--just in the real life example in Zechariah. Let's look at the fulfillment, because again the fulfillment comes in two parts. It comes in two parts. The fulfillment was unmistakably displayed in the actions of Judas and in the actions of the chief priests. We're going to look at Matthew 26:14-15 and then, Jonathan, if you would go to Matthew 27:6-7.

[Jonathan] (44:02 - 44:23) Matthew 26:14-15: "Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What are you willing to give me to betray him to you? And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him." Then after Judas gave the money back to them, let's go to Matthew 27:6-7: "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." Rick, didn't the money come out of the temple treasury?

[Rick] (44:23 - 44:24) Yeah.

[Jonathan] (44:24 - 44:44) Continuing with Matthew 27:7: "And they conferred together and with the money bought the potter's field as a burial place for strangers." Think about it. Would the enemy of Jesus conspire to fulfill prophecy that confirmed Jesus? No, of course not! That would make them look bad.

[Rick] (44:44 - 45:52) They did look bad because they did fulfill the prophecy that was condemning Jesus. The fact that it says they bought the potter's field and Zechariah says the thirty pieces of silver are going to be thrown to the potter-- you can't look at that and say, well that was just, that was an accident, that was by chance, it was a coincidence. This is just one of many, many, many prophecies. You see those who stand against Jesus who are doing everything in their power to discredit him, fulfilling these prophecies precisely. Whether they like it or not, they are part of the prophecies. You look at this, was Jesus' life scripted?

No! Good heavens, understand the depth of what we're looking at here. We only have two prophecies left. Let's go to the thirteenth prophecy for our consideration for today: It was prophesied that Jesus would be mercilessly mocked and ridiculed. This is where we're going to drop in on Psalms 22:7-8:

[Jonathan] (45:52 - 45:57) "All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him."

[Rick] (45:57 - 46:28) That's the prophecy. This Psalms 22, that we said earlier, was really largely completely fulfilled on the cross. There's some of the later verses that give you a view of the future, but you can see the cross experience laid out in this Psalm. The fulfillment obviously was dramatically revealed in the abuse of the people, but especially of the chief priests. As we go to the fulfillment, let's understand, pay close attention to who does the speaking in this fulfillment. Matthew 27:39-43:

[Jonathan] (46:28 - 47:01) "And those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! ...the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him and saying... HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE him now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for he said, I am the son of God." Did the enemy quote the prophecy on purpose or in mocking?

[Rick] (47:01 - 48:31) They're not quoting the prophecy to make Jesus look good. They know what they're saying. They know where it's coming from. They're doing it to mock him, to say, you think you're this, but you're not. The fulfillment of this prophecy is done out of this horrible spite and anger and this sense of evil victory over Jesus as he's dying. The interesting part about this, Jonathan, is when you look at Psalms 22, it starts out, "My God,

My God, Why have you forsaken me?" Jesus utters those words on the cross and then you have this part of the prophecy that literally, the chief priests and the scribes and elders are mocking with. Then at the end of the Psalm, the last verse, it says, "He hath performed it"...which is "it is finished."

JONATHAN: Wow!

RICK: You can see this complete package of what's happening on the cross. Is this scripted? We just got to look at that and say understand the depth and the reality and the sadness of the fulfillment of these prophecies that were in place so many, so many decades and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before. Let's get to our final prophecy for today.

Remember, there's hundreds -- we're dealing with 14 -- but there's hundreds of them: It was prophesied that Jesus would be counted among wicked men and yet buried with honor. We find that prophecy, we go back to Isaiah 53:9:

[Jonathan] (48:31 - 48:46) "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."

RICK: Simple prophecy: "His grave was assigned with wicked men," but he "was with the rich man." Sounds odd.

JONATHAN: It does.

RICK: How does that happen?

[Rick] (48:46 - 49:23) Well, the fulfillment was powerfully set in place by his crucifixion and burial. We're going to look at one scripture for each of these pieces. First the crucifixion part. Matthew 27:38:

JONATHAN: "At that time two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left."

RICK: You have the crucifixion, he is assigned with wicked men. Not only is he assigned with them, he's the central part of the wicked men.

Now let's go to the burial portion of the fulfillment of this prophecy. Matthew 27:57-60:

[Jonathan] (49:23 - 50:04) "When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away." Wrapping this up,

we only looked at fourteen prophecies ..

RICK: Yep

JONATHAN: And left out so many more, like you said, but again, let's look at the odds. What are the odds of one person trying to manipulate all of these fourteen events?

[Rick] (50:04 - 50:06) Let's go back to you in the helicopter.

[Jonathan] (50:06 - 50:09) Okay.

[Rick] (50:10 - 50:13) State of Texas; 268,000 square miles; you're blindfolded; you can pick out one of the silver dollars over all the land of Texas.

[Jonathan] (50:14 - 50:14) Okay.

[Rick] (50:14 - 50:23) I forgot one more detail. JONATHAN: Uh-oh, okay.

RICK: I forgot just one more detail. The silver dollars over the whole land mass of Texas, are piled two feet deep.

[Jonathan] (50:24 - 50:24) What?

[Rick] (50:25 - 50:27) You have one shot. You got your claw. What are you worried about?

[Jonathan] (50:27 - 50:30) That's crazy!

RICK: Well, and that's the point.

JONATHAN: That is impossible!

[Rick] (50:30 - 50:34) It is beyond the realm of thinking of possibility.

[Jonathan] (50:34 - 50:37) There's no way.

[Rick] (50:37 - 52:02) Right, and that's just a few prophecies. The reason we're not trying to give you numbers is it's just too big to grasp! But you can get how many--and I don't know the number, okay, so don't ask--how many silver dollars there would have to be to cover 268,000 square miles. and there's one somewhere buried, you're blindfolded and you pick it on the first shot. It can't happen by accident! Was Jesus' life scripted? We look at this and, folks, what we see is a clear, clear constant steady picture that God set this up, showed us what would happen, showed us the faithfulness, so His plan would be fulfilled;

so the sin of Adam would be canceled by Jesus no matter what happened; so that through the free-will offering of Jesus giving his life, all men would have an opportunity for life later. Prophecy is put in place because God's plan is bigger than Satan's rule and Satan's desire. It's bigger than sin. It's bigger than death. It's bigger than anything! Jonathan, we didn't even touch the prophecies that Jesus himself spoke.

That's for another episode. The prophecies show the desire and the heart of Jesus. 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 in our next episode: "What Are the Signs of Jesus' Return?"

Final Notes: copyright @2025 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.