THE SCARLET THREAD OF REDEMPTION
Part 7 – NOT A BONE BROKEN – PIERCED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS – BURIED WITH THE RICH
“All of the Bible is about Jesus and about His blood redemption. There are two threads that run all the way through the Bible. One is the scarlet thread of blood redemption; the other is the golden thread of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how wonderful it is to trace both of these all the way through the Bible.” – Adrian Rogers
In the course of the next two months, we will trace the red river of redemption through the Scriptures from the Old Testament into the New Testament. You will see a few of the many prophecies of a Messiah – a Redeemer. Who would pay for the sins of fallen man and their fulfilment centuries later in Jesus Christ. Beginning in the Garden of Eden with the first prophecy and continuing through Revelation, the blood of Jesus is revealed over and over to be our Scarlet Thread of Redemption. As you read these prophecies and their fulfilment along with Dr. Rogers’ explanations, I want to encourage you to not only see Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, but to know Him. If you read the Bible and don’t see Jesus, read it again, because you missed the message. Without Him all these things become a dead-end road, leading to nowhere.
NOT A BONE BROKEN
Prophecy Proclaimed: “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken (Psalm 34:20).”
Jesus Christ was on the cross dying in agony and blood. The Jews wanted all those who were crucified to be dead before the Sabbath, so the Roman soldiers broke their legs to hasten death. However, when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead. “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water (John 19:34).” Out of the wounded side of the Lord Jesus there poured out blood and water. The pericardial pleural fluid that encases the heart is a watery substance, and of course, it’s the heart that pumps the blood. Medical experts tell us that sometimes in great duress the plasma separates and the pericardial pleural fluid is around the heart. That shows some of the agony that Jesus was in.
There was no agony like the agony of Jesus. We cannot understand the pressure that was upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw the beginning of that in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus’ perspiration became as great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Jesus died in agony. The eternities were compressed upon Him. The sins of the world were distilled upon the Lord Jesus. When that soldier took his spirit and rammed it into the side of Jesus, there poured out water and blood. While the two thieves died because their legs were broken, Jesus died because His heart was broken. He may not have had a broken bone, but with compassion, Jesus literally died of a broken heart.
Prophecy Fulfilled:
“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he sait true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced (John 19:31-37).”
PIERCED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS
Prophecy Proclaimed: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed (Jeremiah 53:5).”
We have said before, as you read many Old Testament passages about the crucifixion, you will be amazed because they sound as if the writer were and eyewitness of the death of the Lord Jesus, standing at the foot of the cross. One thousand years before Jesus walked the dusty shores of Galilee, it was written in the Word of God that they would pierce His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16b). As you know, when Jesus was on that cross, they drove hellish nails through His precious hands and feet. But when this prophecy in Isaiah was written, the Jewish practice for the charge of capital punishment was stoning. Crucifixion was a form of torture introduced by the Romans 800 years later. Yet in the inspired, prophetic Word of God, we see the crucifixion of Jesus Christ delineated.
I want you to see the prophecy of the cross and that the cross was not an afterthought. The cross was not some emergency action, and Jesus did not die as a victim or a martyr. The cross was in the heart and mind of God before He slung this planet into space. The Bible says that Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). When you read prophecy of the cross, written one thousand years before He was crucified, you will step back and say that, indeed, the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
Prophecy Fulfilled:
“And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left (Luke 23:33).”
“But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water (John 19:34).”
BURIED WITH THE RICH
Prophecy Proclaimed: “And he made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth (Isaiah 53:9).”
The Lord Jesus, by earthly standards, was a poor man. When He left heaven and became a man, He took upon Himself a certain poverty and a certain limitation. He left the ivory palaces to come into this world of woe. He became a pauper (Philippians 2:7). He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. When He wanted to preach, He had to borrow a boat and use it for a pulpit. When He wanted to pay His taxes, He had to get a coin from a fish’s mouth. When He wanted a place to rest, He had to stay with friends like Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Many times He slept on the mountainside. When the Lord Jesus wanted to come into Jerusalem, He had to borrow a donkey to ride on. He was incredibly poverty-stricken and died the death of a felon. The only thing He had left was a seamless robe, and they cast lots for that. Jesus, Who was incredibly rich, became poor. He was content to leave heaven for poverty. How could it be that One so poor would make His grave with the rich? The Bible tells us that Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a rich man who petitioned Pilate for the body of Jesus.
Seven hundred years before, Isaiah had prophesied about the grave that He would lie in. Isaiah prophesied a virgin womb and a virgin tomb for our blessed Lord. Isn’t it marvelous how these things are included in the Bible?
Prophecy Fulfilled:
“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he 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 giant stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed (Matthew 27:57-60).”
>Adrian Rogers
Oscar Leske
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