May 8
Bible Reading: John 19:23-24
John 19:24, “This was to fulfill the Scripture.” (19:28, 19:36, 19:37)
In April 2024, an Oregonian won the $1.3 billion Powerball lottery. Officials noted that the odds of winning that lottery were about one in 292 million. Pretty steep odds, right? Did you know that there were over 300 prophecies about Christ given in the Old Testament. All the prophecies were given at least 400 years before he was born and some thousands of years before. He fulfilled thirty-three prophecies on the day of his crucifixion, with several of them being referenced in this chapter in John. The odds of any random person fulfilling all those prophecies were astronomical!
Jesus spoke of how He came to fulfill the Scriptures. He chided the religious leaders, saying: “You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). And likewise says: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?” Even after his resurrection, Jesus directed his disciples back to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies to encourage their faith (Luke 24:25-27). The fulfillment of prophecy testifies to the truth that Jesus is who He declared and revealed Himself to be (John 20:30-31).
So, if the odds of winning the $1.3 billion dollar lottery were one in 292 million, what would have been the odds that any anonymous person would fulfill all the prophecies regarding the Christ? Professor Peter W. Stoner states that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled in one person is 1 x 10 17th. That is 100,000,000,000,000,000! It has been illustrated like this: If you took 1 x 1017 silver dollars and placed them over Texas (the second largest US state), you would not only cover all of Texas but would have a coin pile two feet deep. If you blindfolded yourself, took one of the coins and threw it back into the pile, and walked from the beginning of Texas, stopping only once to find that coin, that is the chance that one person would fulfill only eight of these prophecies.
Bottom line? Jesus is the Messiah of whom the Old Testament spoke. He came as promised, fulfilling every prophecy to the letter. He is the Divine Son of God, and salvation is to those who place their trust in Him (John 20:30-31). And by the way, there are plenty of prophecies that speak of His second coming! They’ll be fulfilled to the letter also. And that, my friends, is our blessed hope!
Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament Messianic prophecies related to His first coming! He will likewise fulfill all those that speak of His second!
O WORD OF GOD INCARNATE
O Word of God incarnate,
O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth, unchanged, unchanging,
O Light of our dark sky,
we praise Thee for the radiance
that from the hallowed page,
a lantern to our footsteps,
shines on from age to age.
The church from her dear Master
received the gift divine,
and still that light she lifteth
o’er all the earth to shine.
It is the golden casket,
where gems of truth are stored;
it is the heav’n-drawn picture
Of Christ, the living Word.
It floateth like a banner
before God’s host unfurled;
it shineth like a beacon
above the darkling world.
It is the chart and compass
that o’er life’s surging sea,
‘mid mists and rocks and quicksands,
still guides, O Christ, to Thee.
O make Thy Church, dear Savior,
a lamp of burnished gold,
to bear before the nations
Thy true light as of old.
O teach Thy wand’ring pilgrims
by this, their path to trace,
‘til, clouds and darkness ended,
they see Thee face to face.
LookingtoJesus 