EASTER MESSAGE JESUS FULFILLS THE SCRIPTURES2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Easter Message Jesus Fulfills The Scriptures

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Here in Luke chapter 24, we're joining with the disciples as they are trying to figure out what is going on. And there Jesus shows up in the room, and they're just having a hard time believing it. Even with him right there in their midst, they're just having a hard time believing it.

They're freaking out. They have all kinds of doubts. They're trying to get their minds to be able to just figure out what is really going on here. Is this the resurrection of Jesus? Is this some spirit? Is this someone else pretending to be Jesus? What is happening in this situation? And Jesus offers them several proofs that it really is him, that he really has risen from the dead. The first proof that he offers them is his hands and feet.

He shows them. He says, look at the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet. Now, Jesus, when he resurrected from the dead, it wasn't just like a resuscitation where, you know, they just had to perform CPR and then, you know, he was able to have life again. No, he was actually dead for three days, for three nights. He was in the tomb and he was resurrected, not just in that physical body living again, but in the new glorified body that, uh,

is also promised for all those who believe in Jesus for eternity. And so Jesus, as he rose from the dead, he's in his glorified body, but there's still the evidence. There's still the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet. And so he shows them, look, you can see it really is me. This is not, you know, someone else. This is not, you know, just a spirit. This is, this really is me having resurrected from the dead. But they were like,

I don't know. Maybe it's just some other guy who, you know, just happens to have the prince in the same place. Or maybe it's just a spirit. We're just seeing a vision. We're not seeing a real resurrected Jesus. And so Jesus now goes on to give them another proof. He says, well, how about some food? Do you have some food? And they had some fish and some honeycomb. And so he said, I like honeycomb. Pour me a bowl of cereal. And he begins to eat the honeycomb. Not quite like that, but

And he's demonstrating to them, look, you're not seeing, you know, the milk and the honeycomb just splash onto the floor. You're not seeing the fish just, you know, fall down. No, I'm not a spirit. This isn't a vision. This is reality. I have risen from the dead. And so he showed them his hands and his feet. He showed them that he was able to consume the food that they had there in their midst and

And then thirdly, he reminds them of the things that he has taught them that the scriptures had said. And that's where we're going to focus here in verse 44. Reading that again, it says, Then he said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

The third proof that Jesus gives to his disciples that he really has resurrected from the dead is the scriptures, the very words of God that

said in advance and declared in advance that this is what would take place in the life of Jesus. Jesus said, I taught you these things and the scriptures themselves teach these things so that you can know and rest assured, indeed, it has taken place. I have resurrected from the dead. And so I've titled the message this morning, Jesus Fulfills the Scriptures. And

As Jesus calls back to the scriptures, we want to take some time to consider those scriptures and be affirmed in our faith that Jesus has raised from the dead. Now, Jesus refers to three groups of writings in verse 44. He talks about the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. And this was the way that their Bible was divided.

What we have in our Bibles, we call the Old Testament. That was the Hebrew scriptures. That was the Bible for the Jewish people.

And so just as we have the Old Testament and New Testament, right? There's the different books that are grouped, you know, in those major sections. They had three sections in their Bibles. And it was the law, the law of Moses. It was the prophets, all of the prophetic writings. And then the Psalms or the writings, which includes the book of Psalms, but also Proverbs and Job and Ecclesiastes and those books as well.

And so in these three major groups that they had, these three divisions of their Bible, Jesus says, look, in every major division of the scriptures, it talks about me. And it foretold these things that are taking place right now in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The great commentator H.A. Ironside said, the risen Lord here authenticates the entire Old Testament by declaring that all things written in the law, the prophets and the Psalms concerning him must be fulfilled.

Here, Jesus gave his stamp of approval on the Old Testament books. Again, what we have is our Old Testament was the Jewish Bible. And Jesus points to all of those and said, everything written in those about me is going to be fulfilled. And we've seen much of that fulfilled in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

But there's also much more that will be fulfilled in the return of Jesus Christ for the church in the second coming where he will come back to earth and establish his kingdom. There's still much more in the scriptures that will be fulfilled. And Jesus here looks at all of those scriptures and says, these are genuine, these are true, and what they have spoken about me will come to pass.

And so there's many scriptures that we could look at as we consider these claims of Jesus, these statements of Jesus in the law, in the prophets, and in the Psalms. But for us right now, today, we are working our way through the Bible in three years and are currently in the book of Psalms. And so I wanted to take some time with you to go through some of the Psalms that we've read over the past couple weeks and

And see what Jesus is talking about when he says that these things are written about him and they must be fulfilled. And so we're going to be jumping back to the book of Psalms. And you can start with me in Psalm chapter 45. And we'll get to that in just a moment. But Psalm chapter 45 is where we'll start. And then we'll work our way backwards to a couple other passages as well.

As we've been looking at the book of Psalms for the past few weeks, I've mentioned that the Psalms are a collection of songs or poems. And there are different types of Psalms, and many of them are expressions of the author, what they're feeling, what they're going through, what they're experiencing, and

Many of them are not necessarily teaching doctrine, but they're capturing the event and the experiences that the psalmist is going through and their relationship with God through it all. But there's great variety in the Psalms. And so some are incredibly joyful, some are sorrowful. The full range of human emotions are experienced throughout the book of Psalms. It's real great variety.

And yet in the midst of all that, one of the incredible things about the Psalms is they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so even in the midst of these different experiences that the authors are having and going through and communicating, the Holy Spirit is speaking prophetically many times of the promised Savior. And so there are Psalms that we refer to as Messianic Psalms. These are Psalms that speak about the Messiah.

That is that promised Savior that God has been declaring would come since the very beginning of creation. And so there is this promised Savior and the psalmist will talk about him. And now Jesus looks back after he's resurrected and he said, look, all of these things that the scriptures said, that the psalms said about me have been fulfilled.

And so as we look at this, we can see that this was God's plan from the beginning. And we can have great confidence in the truth of the gospel, in the truth of the death and resurrection, and the value of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a result. But some people question that. And some people wrestle with that. Is it really significant that we can find these scriptures in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled? No.

There are those who would wrestle with, well, you know, that was a long time ago. I mean, 2,000 years since Jesus has been here. So how do we really know that those Old Testament scriptures that seem to fit so well in the life of Jesus, how do we know that they didn't just write those after to fit? Because they already knew, okay, here's what happened. So we can just write what happened and make it look like it was old. And then, you know, now it looks like it's prophetic and it has been fulfilled. How do we really know that?

And there is some great concrete ways to know that. There's a lot of things we could consider, but the one I would call your attention to this morning is called the Septuagint. The Septuagint, it's also referred to as the LXX many times because LXX is Roman numerals for what number? Anybody know?

I know I just put you on the spot, huh? It's 70, right? So 70, and that's what the word Septuagint means. It is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. In fact, it's the first known translation of the Hebrew scriptures where they translated the Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament, from Hebrew to Greek. And this work began with 72 Jewish elders. And this work began with 72 Jewish elders.

And that's where the word Septuagint comes from. The 70 or the 72, they began this work around 300 BC. Now, if your dates are not clear in your head, this is about 300 years before Jesus was born, this work began.

And it was completed, fully translated, not the whole time by the original 72 guys, but they translated the law and then others came along with them to continue the work until all of the Old Testament scriptures were translated into Greek. And that was completed around 132 BC. Now, again, just for clarity. So this is about 130 years before Jesus was born.

And that's significant because this is something that is not, you know...

or unclear that we have this separate from the Hebrew scriptures. We have this Greek translation that is well-known and well-preserved and we can verify and validate that the Hebrew and the Greek match up, that these things were written and established 150 years, 130 years, sometimes up to 300 years before Jesus was even born. Now we're in the year 2019 right now.

So if you could just kind of rewind the tape a little bit back to 1919. Do you remember what it was like back in 1919? Pastor Pooley, you remember? You remember what it was like back in? A hundred years ago, it's hard to imagine, right? Someone in 1919 writing with great detail about events that are happening right now. That's not something that we're capable of.

Can you, you know, specify and say, here's what's going to be happening in 2119. And, you know, here's some great details about specific individuals and instrumental people that will be happening on the world scene. It's not something that we are capable of. It's something that only God is capable of. And so as we see the Old Testament scriptures, we have this great assurance as God has put his fingerprint in

and declared this is what will take place hundreds of years, sometimes thousands of years before they actually take place, demonstrating that he really is God, demonstrating that this is the word of God, demonstrating ultimately that Jesus Christ is the son of God, the savior. And in his resurrection and death and life and ministry, he fulfilled these promises and prophecies that God had spoke about him.

And so there is great significance to these things. As we look through these Psalms, there's great significance to seeing and understanding the reality of what the Lord said in advance so that we would know for sure that Jesus is who he claimed to be. And who did he claim to be? Well, jumping into Psalm chapter 45, we're gonna look at verse six and seven for point number one. And point number one is that Jesus Christ is God. The Psalms declared in advance that,

that the Messiah, the promised Savior, would be God himself. This is one of those Messianic Psalms, and it's speaking of the Messiah, that promised Savior, and his bride throughout the whole Psalm. We're not going to go through the whole Psalm, but just looking at these couple verses, we're going to see this very important doctrine that Jesus is God. Now, if Jesus is not God, if this isn't the truth, if this weren't the case, then

You need to understand that the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus would have no value. If Jesus was not God, it wouldn't mean anything to us today that he died and then on the third day rose again. The great value of what Jesus accomplished for us was not just the fact of his death and resurrection, but it was, well, the fact of who he is, that he being God took our place and received our penalty upon the cross.

And so this psalm, written at least 130 years or so before Jesus was even born, tells us this. In Psalm chapter 45, verse 6, it says, "'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions.'"

Here is the psalmist is speaking of the Messiah. He refers to the Messiah as God. He says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. And so here we have revealed, it's elsewhere in the scriptures too, but here we have revealed that this promised savior is

Would not just be a good man, would not just be a great prophet, would not just be a military leader, you know, would not just be these different types of human beings that are only human beings, but this promised savior would in fact be God. He says to the Messiah, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. And yet something interesting happens in verse seven. He goes on to say, therefore, God, your God. So he's talking to the Messiah. He says, your throne, oh God,

And then refers to God, your God, that's Messiah's God. And here we have some subtle hints towards the triune nature of God. That we have the Messiah who is God, but when we say that Jesus is God, we are not declaring that Jesus is the Father. No, but within the nature of God, you have the triune nature of God that is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And they are one God.

It is one God. It is not three different gods. It's one God. At the same time, there's three distinct persons in the Godhead. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. It's something that baffles our mind and we will wrestle with and cannot be explained today.

completely by us in our humanity. But there's some simple illustrations that we sometimes refer to. You might look at me and understand there's a body, there's a soul, there's a spirit, and that's sometimes used to kind of help us picture and wrap our minds around the triune nature of God. Jerry, well, he has a body. Jerry is a soul. He's a spirit. He's a

But there's only one Jerry. Well, there's some other Jerrys, but you know, those are all imposters. But there's only one real Jerry, right? I have a body, I have a soul, I have a spirit, but I'm one. In a similar way, we have the triune nature of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one. He is the Messiah, he is God, and his God, that is referring to the Father, has established him. Jesus uses similar words.

a similar passage, an idea to challenge the religious leaders because they were not believing Jesus when he claimed to be God and not believing that the Messiah would be God. And so in Matthew chapter 22, he challenges the religious leaders and says, "'How then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying, "'The Lord said to my Lord, "'Sit at my right hand "'till I make your enemies your footstool?' "'If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son?'

The religious leaders were insisting that the Messiah would not be God. And Jesus was saying, well, look at this passage. And he's quoting from Psalm 110. And there in Psalm 110, David says, the Lord said to my Lord, that is the father said to the son, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And so Jesus used this same concept to challenge the religious leaders and make the declaration that,

The Messiah, as revealed in the scriptures, would not just be a man, but he would be, this passage here in Psalm chapter 45 is also quoted in the book of Hebrews chapter 1, where the author of Hebrews is establishing the superiority of Jesus over all other beings, over humans, over angels, establishing in fact that Jesus is God. And he uses Psalm chapter 45 to establish that point in Hebrews chapter 1.

Another way to establish this point and remember that Jesus is God is to remember that Jesus is the creator. This is something that's declared clearly in the scriptures. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, the apostle Paul says, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.

here's the understanding of Jesus as the creator. Everything that exists, visible, invisible, everything that you could think of, everything that you could name, everything that you could imagine, it all was created by Jesus. Paul goes on to say it was all created through Jesus and it was all created for Jesus.

This is something that can only be said of God. Jesus is the creator. Again, he's not the father, but the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, God, we're involved in the creation of all things. We also see this continued here in Psalm 45, 6, where the psalmist says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. Jesus is the one who will rule and reign forever.

forever. It's something that can only be said of God. And so here in Psalm chapter 45, it's just a quick sample, just a quick example, but it demonstrates, it shows, just as Jesus said, the things that were written concerning him must be fulfilled. He, in fact, is God. And this, again, is very important doctrine because if Jesus was not God, then we have nothing to celebrate today.

There's no value in his death and resurrection if he is not God. The thing that makes it valuable, the thing that makes it acceptable for salvation, for forgiveness, for the promise of everlasting life is that it's God himself who became man to die upon the cross and

And that brings me to point number two. We're going to jump now to Psalm chapter 40. You want to turn there, Psalm chapter 40. We get point number two, and that is Jesus became a man and lived a sinless life. So although Jesus is God, he is the creator. He's always existed. He will always exist. He reigns on high. And yet Jesus added humanity to his deity.

He became a man. He was born of a virgin. And we're not going to get into the details of that. Come back for Christmas. We'll talk about that a little bit more, right? But here we see that it's not just that he is God, but that he became man and lived a sinless life. Now this Psalm chapter 40 is a Psalm of David. And if your history dates are not clear in your head, let me just remind you, David lived about a thousand years before Jesus, right?

So he is writing these things about a thousand years before Jesus is ever born. And he speaks about the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus himself. Psalm chapter 40, we're going to jump into verses 6 through 8. Here's what it says. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. 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, and your law is within my heart. Here in Psalm chapter 40, as David is writing this psalm, it's one of those cases where it seems to be David is in some situation. He's experiencing some things. He has some emotions about it. He's capturing all of that in this psalm as he's writing it. And yet, as he does that, the Holy Spirit says,

implants some concepts about the Messiah in the midst of it. It's not necessarily that every verse in this psalm is referring to the Messiah or talking about the Messiah exactly, but it's

But there are lots of hints and shadows and pointing to the things that Jesus would do. Specifically in verses six through eight here, we can see that it's talking about the Messiah because it's quoted in Hebrews chapter 10 and specifically applied to Jesus. There's the author of Hebrews is establishing the superiority and the need for Jesus's death above the death of animal sacrifices.

And so here in verse 6, he says, sacrifice and offering you did not desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. When Jesus came on the scene, he didn't show up on earth. He didn't become man to then offer animal sacrifices. That's not what was needed. That's not what was necessary. That's not what was required.

Now, God is the one who established the law. He is the one who established those animal sacrifices. But from the beginning and by design, those were meant to be temporary and pointing the attention to, well, the ultimate sacrifice that would come in that promised Savior in Jesus Christ. We find this in Hebrews 10, verse 1. It says...

The issue with the sacrifices was, well, God designed them to be shadows. They're pictures. They cast the shadow of the one sacrifice that would come, but they're not the substance themselves. And so they couldn't make anybody perfect.

What made people perfect was, well, their faith in God and obedience to God in offering the sacrifice. But the actual blood of the animal, the author of Hebrews goes on to explain in chapter 10, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. That's not sufficient to deal with our condition to remove the sin and to offer forgiveness. But God accepted those kind of as a deposit of

that they were believing God and obeying him in offering the sacrifices. And God was saying, okay, that's temporary. And then now here's Jesus. He's the fulfillment of all of those things. And so you have believed in Jesus, even in the Old Testament. That's how they were saved and forgiven. It was by faith, just like it is for us today. Again, the law was God's plan, but it was a shadow. It was temporary by design until today.

the perfect sacrifice would come. And that's Jesus. In verse 7 here of Psalm chapter 40, he says, Behold, I come. Speaking of his arrival upon earth, speaking of his arrival there to do the work of God. Behold, I come. It's not the beginning of his existence.

But it's his beginning, the beginning of his ministry here upon the earth. Jesus has always existed because, well, going back to point number one, he is God. But he added on humanity. He was born of the Virgin Mary and here he is. Behold, I come in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

Now we began in Luke chapter 24, Jesus referring back to the books, right? Specifically, we're jumping into the book of Psalms. But even here, Jesus is referring back to books even before. That is the law of God. The first five books, the books of Moses. In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. From the very beginning, God has been promising and declaring that this Savior would come.

Well, as Jesus came upon the earth and lived his life and performed his ministries, he did so in a sinless manner. Verse 8 here of Psalm 40 goes on to say, I delight to do your will, O God, and your law is within my heart. The condition of Jesus perpetually throughout his whole life was, I delight to do your will, O God, and your will, your law is within my heart. Jesus said,

always did the Father's will. Jesus only did the Father's will. This is different than you and I. Even when we know the will of the Father, even when we want to and we try hard to do what God wants us to do, we don't measure up. We fall short. But Jesus, well, he had no such occasions like that.

He only did the Father's will. Never deviated, not even one time. He never compromised, not even a little bit. He perfectly lived out the will of God, a sinless and perfect life, which is what makes him the perfect sacrifice. Again, if Jesus was not God, his death and resurrection would have no value.

But along with that, if Jesus didn't become a man and live a perfect life, his death and resurrection would have no value. If he was sinful, if he had committed even one sin, his death and resurrection would have no value for salvation for us. We wouldn't have anything to celebrate today, but because he is God, because he lived a perfect life, because he always delighted to do the Father's will, we have for us

the opportunity of forgiveness and salvation, the incredible work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Pastor Thomas Constable puts it this way. The sacrifices of the Mosaic system could never satisfy God's high demands. They only removed sin temporarily and expressed worship superficially. The offering that fully satisfied God was the willing self-sacrifice of the sinless Son of Man, Jesus Christ, who is God. His death was

has great value because he is God. And the value is sufficient to cover all of our sins, past, present, and future. All of the sins of all of humanity, past, present, and future, because he is God who became man and lived a sinless life. He was the perfect sacrifice. It's fulfilled what was written about Jesus.

Well, moving on to Psalm chapter 22 now, if you'll jump back there with me, Psalm chapter 22, we get to the next part that we consider in the life of Jesus fulfilled the promises of the prophet David here in Psalm chapter 22. Here, the point number two or point number three for Psalm 22 is that Jesus died upon the cross.

So it's not just that he was God, not just that he became a man and lived a sinless life, but he then took our place upon the cross and received there upon the cross the penalty, the payment that we deserved for our sin, the judgment that we deserved.

Now Psalm chapter 22 is another messianic Psalm that is, it's truly incredible. And we don't have time to work our way through all of the details of Psalm 22. We're just going to get a few highlights of this Psalm, but it details the crucifixion of Jesus. Again, this is the writing of David, a thousand years before Jesus was ever born, even before crucifixion was invented.

This psalm records for us some great details that speak about the resurrection and death of Jesus Christ. And we can see this beginning in verse 1 of Psalm chapter 22. Here the psalmist says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning?

Now you might be pretty familiar with this verse because, well, it's famous because it's one of the seven things that Jesus declared or spoke while he was hanging upon the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And here the psalmist, whatever situation he's facing, but Jesus there upon the cross as he's experiencing the separation from the Father because of the judgment of our sin, he

He's expressing the emotions that he's experiencing. He feels forsaken. He feels that separation from God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You find it recorded in Matthew 27, verse 46. There at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Now what's interesting about this is not just we get a glimpse of what Jesus was experiencing there on the cross. That's an important aspect of this. But what's also interesting about this is that this was a technique that the teachers would use to call people's attention to a passage.

In our Bibles today, we have, you know, the division of the Old Testament and the New Testament. We have the division of the different books of the Bible. And then each book is divided into chapters. And then the chapters are divided into verses, right? And so there's chapter this, verse that. And it's very easy for us to say, turn to Psalm 22. Look at verse 1, right? And everybody gets to the same spot. We know what that means, right?

Well, those divisions, those specific numbers for the chapters and verses, they weren't in the original writings. So David, as he's writing this psalm, doesn't say verse one and then, you know, begin to pen these words. Those were added later by those who are composing the scriptures for us for ease of reference so that we could easily find those passages.

But before that, the way that the Jewish teachers would direct people's attention to a passage is they would quote the first line of the passage. And in doing that, then, you know, the people would be able to know, oh, yes, I remember that passage. It starts like this and then it goes on to say this. And so that was a way of directing people to a specific portion of Scripture.

And so what Jesus is doing upon the cross is perhaps not just expressing that separation and letting us know some of what he's going through as he receives that judgment for our sin, but he's also saying, turn to Psalm 22 in your Bibles and look at what is going on there because that speaks about the situation that is at hand. And there's some great truths for us to consider. Jumping to verse seven of Psalm 22, it says, all those who see me ridicule me.

Here we see there's some mockery going on, some ridicule taking place.

You said you were special to God. You said you were chosen of God and by God. And so let God get you out of this mess is what's being expressed here as David is writing this. And we see this fulfilled in Jesus in Luke chapter 23, verses 35 through 37. It tells us that the people there were looking on, but the religious leaders, the rulers sneered.

ridiculed saying he saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. You said you were the Messiah. You said you were special. You said you were chosen by God, the anointed one. Let him save you. Save yourself. Prove that that is true. The people mocked.

The Roman soldiers also mocked him. Verse 36, it says, the soldiers mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. You're so powerful, you know, and you declare yourself to be the king. You declare yourself to be God. You declare yourself to be that chosen one.

Then save yourself. And that same idea, that same concept of ridicule and mocking that is described there in Psalm 22 is lived out in the life of Jesus there as he hung upon the cross. But then jumping to verses 14 through 18 here of Psalm 22.

It gets even more detailed in the specific elements of the crucifixion. Verse 14 says, I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death.

Here the psalmist, David, is recording some interesting things that fit the crucifixion with incredible detail.

In verse 14, as he declares this concept of being poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. It speaks of and pictures the exhaustion that is experienced by someone who is hung upon a cross. The body is pinned to the cross in such a way that, well, it takes everything that the person has to just take a breath.

It requires all their energy, all their strength. And as their strength wavers, their muscles are so fatigued, their bones begin to pop out of joint because of the way that they are hung there upon the cross. And so the psalmist says, my bones are out of joint. That was part of the process.

Jesus, as he hung upon the cross, his arm at his elbow, at his shoulder, would have been dislocated as a result of the strain, the weight, the pressure, and the fatigue of his muscles. He says, my strength is dried up and my tongue clings to my jaws, describing an intense thirst as Jesus hung upon the cross. And we see this fulfilled in John chapter 19, verse 28.

As Jesus is there upon the cross, it says, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst. What scripture was he interested in fulfilling? This one here in Psalm 22. He's thirsty. His tongue clings to his mouth as he is there swallowing the dust of death, experiencing the severe thirst, the severe fatigue upon the cross. It also says,

In verse 17, I can count all my bones. It's referred to in the New Testament to the fact that Jesus, he didn't have his bones broken. Like the other two guys who were upon the cross, they broke their legs to help them die quicker because of the season. It was right before Passover. And so they broke their bones, but they came to Jesus and he had already died. And so none of his bones were broken. They could all be counted.

But then also in verse 18, it says, Casting lots was kind of like, you know, their version of rolling the dice. And the clothes of Jesus, they stripped him of his clothes to hang him upon the cross. And so now they have these clothes, which, well, they're valuable. And so, well, who gets these? And the Roman soldiers cast lots in order to find out. We find this recorded in Mark chapter 15, verse 24, where,

So they're playing rock, paper, scissors to figure out which soldier gets which piece of Jesus's garments. Foretold in Psalm 22, a thousand years before Jesus was born, these details about his death are recorded here.

He is fulfilling the scriptures, confirming this indeed was the plan of God from the very beginning. He is the plan of God for salvation. He is who he claimed to be. He is the only means of forgiveness. Jesus died upon the cross for our sins. And that has great value because he is God who became a man and lived a perfect life to be that sacrifice for us upon the cross. But then of course, after the cross comes life,

The empty tomb. And that's what we remember today on Easter Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And that also was foretold in the scriptures. We're going to go to one final passage here in the book of Psalms chapter 16. You can turn back. It's just a couple pages. Psalm chapter 16 and we'll look at verses 8 through 11 for point number 4 and that is Jesus rose from the dead.

This was not just some, you know, random thing that happened. It's not just some incredible thing that was recorded after the fact. But this was the plan of God from the beginning of creation. He knew what would take place in the Garden of Eden and the fall into sin that Adam and Eve experienced. He knew that and had the plan from the beginning that Jesus himself would come.

Become a man, live a perfect life, die upon the cross, and then rise again, conquering sin and death on our behalf. Psalm chapter 16, jumping into verse 8, it says this, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol.

nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Here in Psalm chapter 16, we have some prophecies about the resurrection from the dead for the Messiah. And the Messiah is saying, I can have great joy. My heart is glad because I know you won't leave my soul in Sheol.

Now sheol is not a word that we use very often. It's actually a Hebrew word that has some uncertainty about it because it spoke about what happened after death. In general, we could say it's the grave. But there was not a lot of revelation from God at that point about what happened after death. And more was revealed when Jesus came on the scene and declared to us what happens after death. And there was some insight also in the Old Testament. But

Generally speaking, it was just kind of a vague way to say, you know, after death. Whatever happens after death, that's Sheol, the grave. And so here, speaking of the Messiah, he says, I'm not going to stay there in the grave, but instead you will show me the path of life, he says in verse 11.

And you won't allow your Holy One to see corruption. Now, this passage is quoted in the book of Acts twice. In Acts chapter 2, by Peter as he's preaching to the multitude there on the day of Pentecost. And then later in Acts chapter 13, this passage is quoted by Paul saying,

Both of these guys apply this passage to Jesus saying, this is speaking about the resurrection of the dead of the Messiah, of the Savior of Jesus Christ. You will not leave my soul in the grave and you won't allow me to see corruption. Commentator William McDonald says, God did not allow the usual process of decomposition to take place.

By a miracle of preservation, Christ's lifeless body was kept from corruption for three days and three nights. Jesus died upon the cross. He actually died. His heart stopped. Blood was not pumping through his body. His physical body was dead as dead can be. And the normal process is, well, as soon as we die, our body begins to decompose. Our cells begin to break apart.

It happens at different speeds for different components of our body, but it begins immediately. The cells begin to die, to break apart, to generate, to degenerate the corruption that is being referred to here. But here this prophecy about Jesus is that his body would not see corruption, would not decompose like others. Now, this could not be just David talking about himself.

Because, well, David's body did see corruption. He did die, his physical body decomposed. And that's the point that both Peter and Paul make. I'll give you Paul's as an example in Acts chapter 13. He says in verse 36, For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. David's body decomposed completely.

But Jesus's did not. God preserved him and he rose again on the third day. And so it tells us in verse 11, you will show me the path of life. He didn't stay in the grave. His body didn't decompose. Instead, he was on the path of life. He rose again.

He says, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Remember when Jesus ascended up into heaven to the Father? He's sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That's the place of the Son of God. That's the place of Jesus where there are pleasures forevermore. And so it speaks of the life of Jesus beyond the cross. Jesus rose from the dead, fulfilling the scriptures. He came and claimed to be God forevermore.

and was crucified for it. That's the primary reason the religious leaders put Jesus to death. That was the claim that they used. It was blasphemy. Let's put him to death because he claimed to be God, but that's exactly who the scriptures declared he would be. Jesus being God became a man and he lived a sinless life and he fulfilled the scriptures in that. He did not sin. He did not deviate from the father's will. He was about the father's business from the beginning until the end. And he went to the cross and

on our behalf, fulfilling the scriptures. Not just the fact that he would die, but that in his death, there would be offered to us the forgiveness of sins and the opportunity for everlasting life. And he rose from the dead, fulfilling the scriptures, authenticating what the Bible says, authenticating his own claims, declaring once and for all, he is the son of God, the savior of

the way of salvation, just as God promised and declared. I want to finish up with one final scripture to share with you. It's, you don't have to turn there, but it's from the gospel of John chapter six, verse 40. And Jesus is speaking and says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me, he'll never hunger. He'll never thirst. And he goes on to say that I've come to do the will of the father. And here is the will of the father.

Verse 40, he says, Jesus declared, here is the will of the Father.

You know, sometimes we get this image in our head that, you know, God's angry and good thing we have Jesus in between to kind of save us. But if it weren't for Jesus, you know, God would just love to strike us down. That's not the picture at all. Here's the will of the Father. You know what God wants most? To spend eternity with you. And so he, loving you, loving me so much, sent his only begotten son because of his love for us. So that, well, whoever believes in him may have everlasting life. And how can we know that?

It's kind of a crazy claim. If I come up to you and say, I can give you eternal life. Like, well, you know, you're only 40 years old. You know, what do you know about life? How can you give me everlasting life? Probably some other, you know, silly diet plan, you know, some new thing. Okay, okay, you go on this diet. I'll give you everlasting. No, no. How can we know that what he said is true? How can we know that he can give us everlasting life? Because he rose from the dead. It authenticates, it proves his claims. It gives us reason to believe he can do what he said he will do.

And that is forgive us of our sins. Give us everlasting life. And Jesus is now the model for us. Jesus died, but then he rose again. And in a similar way, all who believe in Jesus, we will face physical death. This body will cease, but we will rise again. We will have everlasting life. And death will not be the end for us because that's what Jesus has promised us. That's the will of God. The will of God is for you to spend eternity with him.

By believing in Jesus Christ. The scripture has declared that from the beginning. It's fulfilled. It's evident. It's clear. And so today as we remember the resurrection of Jesus and celebrate this Easter Sunday, this resurrection Sunday, let's look to Jesus and be affirmed and convinced of the truth declared. The reality of what he has done for us. Let's walk with him because he has promised to give us everlasting life. Let's pray.

God, I pray for each one of us here, Lord, that you would help us to have some clear insights and confidence as a result of what you have revealed in your word. I pray, God, as we celebrate and remember the work of Jesus and what he did for us this weekend, Lord, I pray that you would give us great faith to trust in you. And Lord, like we've been seeing throughout the book of Psalms, we go through lots of experiences and there's

highs and lows, victories and defeats, joys and sorrows in this life. But Lord, no matter what occurs, no matter what happens, we can have this great confidence in you, in your work in our lives, in your promises to us, and in the everlasting life that you have declared is ours as we have believed in you. Help us, God, to hold fast to that confidence, to take joy in those promises.

Help us, Lord, to walk with you. And we can do that. We can walk with you because you're alive. You have risen from the dead and you are here with us to minister to us, to lead us, to guide us, to speak to our hearts. I pray, God, that you would help us to draw near to you, looking forward to that eternal life that you have promised for your followers. Thank you, God, for your goodness in our lives. We accept it. We receive it. We believe it.

And Lord, we desire to hold fast to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.