John 19 (Part 2) :31-42 • That the Scripture might be fulfilled

All right, John chapter 19. We're going to finish out the last part of the chapter, which is picking it up in verse 31 through the end so turn there, please. John 19 and verse 31 through the end. I'm going to read those verses. I'm reading from the ESV and follow along with me, here we go.

Let's pray together. ---

Father, as we go through these verses, as we kind of, talk about what they mean, what they are to us, we invite you to do a work in us that we might be receivers of your grace. We pray Father for spiritual ears and eyes. We pray that you would enlighten our hearts, that you would fill our hearts and nourish us through the Word. Lord, your Word is true and we long for truth. We pray that you'd fill us today and equip us and we thank you for your goodness in Jesus precious name we pray, amen. Amen. John tells us, you'll notice in verse 31 that this was the day on which he's referring now, it was preparation day. And that means the Passover Sabbath was about to begin, it would begin at the end of that day. The Jews considered a day to end at sundown. We don't see a day ending until it turns over to the next day at midnight or at 12:01 or whatever. But for the Jews, that wasn't the way they considered a day. A day began at sunrise and it ended at sunset. And so, this was preparation day, meaning it was the day on which they would slaughter the Passover lamb and prepare it for the meal that they were going to have during the Passover celebration. And, of course, Passover was a feast of the Jews. It was celebrated annually and it commemorated their release from bondage in slavery which they experienced while in Egypt. While the nation of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they worked hard, they were oppressed, but God released them from that bondage and the celebration of that release is Passover. And we are given some of the details related to that, that liberation and the celebration of Passover that goes along with it in the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament. So rather than having you turn there, I'm going to put these passages up on the screen so we can read them together. Here we go.

We'll read more in just a moment, but you can see what's going on. God is telling through Moses to the elders, that this Passover celebration that they're going to inaugurate at this time is all about the blood of the Passover lamb. And when they would slaughter the lamb, they would catch some of the blood in the basin, and they were to take this hyssop brush and they were to literally paint the blood, if you will, on the lintel, which is the top and the doorposts on the side. So that at night, that very night, when God allowed a destroying angel to pass through the land of Egypt, he would see the blood that was on the doorposts of their homes and he would pass over those homes and not bring death into that home. In other words, the Jews were told, to shelter under the blood of the lamb. It's a beautiful picture. Let's keep reading here in Exodus. It says,

So Passover became this celebration of the Jews, this feast of the Jews, whereby they commemorated their release from bondage and slavery. For you and me, it's really the same sort of a picture. Because we too, like the Jews back then, are sheltering under the blood of the Lamb, our Passover Lamb. And that blood has released us also from our bondage to sin. The Jews were in slavery under Egypt, you and I were born in slavery to our sinful flesh and we needed to be liberated from it. But how is that liberation going to take place? Well, once again, it all comes down to the Passover lamb and of course, this whole story, this whole insight gives us so much more understanding of what John the Baptist declared way back earlier in our study of John chapter 1. You'll remember this very passage from John 1:29 (ESV)

The next day he (and that's John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And this statement, and what we're seeing today in this passage about the death and burial of Christ in John 19 brings us full circle to understand now the Passover lamb. Back again in chapter 1, we just read it. John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And now we come to John chapter 19, we dealt with His crucifixion last time. We're dealing with this whole concept of His burial in this passage and we are seeing why this Passover observance is so powerful and so poignant that Jesus would die during Passover. But one of the key elements of the Jewish Feast of Passover was the idea that they were not to have any yeast or leaven in their homes during Passover week. So for an entire week, the Jews had to get rid of any yeast, or they refer to it as leaven and they had to get it out of their homes. In fact this is talked about in Exodus 12:19-20 (ESV)

Why? Because yeast or leaven was a picture of sin, all right. And God made it a picture of sin because of how powerful that picture is. Any of you who have ever baked bread and put yeast in the bread, you know that it gets worked into the dough and it literally just permeates the whole batch of dough. Whatever you're working into as you sit and need that dough, that bread, it works its way through the whole batch of dough and that is exactly how sin operates in our lives. When we let sin into our lives, it permeates. In fact, it does that even in the church and that's one of the reasons why the apostle Paul ties all this together for us and in a beautiful way regarding the symbol of sin when he writes about it to the church at Corinth. Let me show you this on the screen where he says from 1 Corinthians 5:6 (ESV)

Your boasting is not good. (and then he asked the question) Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? (meaning the whole lump of dough) Do you not know? He's calling them on the carpet for their sinful pride and their boasting, saying, don't you know and haven't you learned, that a little bit of leaven permeates the whole batch of dough, right? And that's what sin does, of course. And that, all that imagery points us back to Passover because, again, getting rid of leaven was part of the Passover celebration in Israel. But it points to something that is true for the church today. And that is that just as Israel symbolically got rid of the leaven, you and I, as believers, are to put away sin in our lives. Look what Paul goes on to say a little bit now in the next few verses of that chapter, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (ESV)

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. (look at this and I underlined it because it's very important) For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And that's really just symbolic language to say to you and me, let us celebrate Christ and what He's done for us, not by living the old life of the flesh, but by living the new life of the Spirit. This work of God, whereby the sin of our old lives, the old man, is put off, that we might begin to live a new life through the power of the Spirit, this life that pleases God and so forth. So we see this beautiful connection between what's happening at this time in Israel's history and the Passover feast and celebration that the Jews had been observing for hundreds of years without fully understanding the symbolism of how it would apply to their coming Messiah, the Passover Lamb. Now, John goes on here to tell us that the religious leaders didn't want these individuals that had been crucified hanging on crosses during Passover, because as I told you last week, when someone was crucified, they could hang on the cross for 3 to 4 days before dying. And so they didn't want this happening and usually people who were being crucified would scream out, yell out, I mean cry out constantly because of the pain and it was a very slow and painful way to die. And they didn't want that happening during their Passover. We don't want anything to ruin our Passover celebration. Never mind that we've crucified the Lamb of God but we don't want anything to ruin our celebration. So, they go to Pilate and they say, we want you to break their legs. When the legs of someone who's been crucified were broken, they would no longer be able to push up with their legs to give room to the lungs to fill up with air. They literally had to push up on their legs to breathe because they were so compacted, and with the legs broken, of course, they would effectively suffocate to death. And that's what they were asking to happen. And so, verse 32 tells us, “So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” And were told that instead one of the soldiers thrust his spear into Jesus side and out came water and blood.

Now, John then goes on in verse 35 to tell us that he saw these things happening. Verse 35, it says, “He who saw it (and he's referring to himself) has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth— that you also may believe.” And then he returns to this issue in verse 36 of the no broken bones for Jesus saying, “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: (and then he quotes) “Not one of his bones will be broken.”” But actually see this points us back to Exodus because when God was giving them instruction about preparing the Passover lamb for their Passover meal. He said this, let me show you this from Exodus 12:46 (ESV)

And so, John is connecting the instructions of the Lord related to the Passover lamb with the fact that no bones were broken in Jesus’s body as a fulfillment of those instructions. And then he goes on in verse 37 and he says, “And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”” And this time he's quoting a passage in Zechariah, which we're going to stop now, pause for a little bit, and we're going to look at because this is a fascinating passage. In fact, this whole chapter in Zechariah, from which this quote is taken, I believe is one of the most incredible prophetic passages in the Bible. In fact somebody asked me recently, he wrote me and said, I've gone through Revelation and Daniel, what else can I study concerning the last days? Well, Zechariah, I would say go to Zechariah because this particular chapter is amazing. Now, John quotes it, he quotes the statement here that essentially says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” And he's referring to Jesus on the cross in His first coming. What's interesting is when you go to Zechariah and you read the chapter from where that quote comes, Zechariah is talking about His second coming. He's talking about His return to this earth, which is still future and the fact that the Jews are going to recognize Jesus when He comes as the one who came the first time. In other words, what it says is, they will look upon him whom they had pierced. They're going to know this is the Jesus who came the first time and we missed Him and Zechariah, prophetically, is going to tell us how the Jews are going to respond. Now, before we get into Zechariah and we're going to do it up on the screen, so I won't make you turn there. But, one of the things you need to understand about this is that the return of Christ is going to take place at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation. And there is going to be a battle that will have been going on, we call it the Battle of Armageddon. And this is when all of the nations of the world are going to amass against Israel, and I mean all of the nations in the world. They're going to all come against Israel because they have been afflicted with a madness to destroy her and to wipe Israel and Jerusalem off the map. And this battle is going to go very badly for Israel and it's going to look, during this battle, like they are going to have their way and that Israel is going to be utterly destroyed. And when the battle is at its worst, there is going to be a trumpet sound and Jesus is going to return and we're going to be coming back with Him. And He is going to return to the Mount of Olives, we know that, we know exactly where He's coming back because the Bible tells us. And He is going to fight on behalf of Israel at that time and He's going to destroy those enemies of Israel, they're all going to be destroyed. But Israel is going to recognize, this is the one we rejected, this is the one we crucified and we've never, ever believed He was the true Messiah. But He's going to come back and I believe the reason…, it says, they will look on Him whom they have pierced. How are they going to know they pierced Him? Because He still bears the scars. I believe Jesus will bear the scars of His crucifixion for eternity and they will see those scars, I believe He still has them now. You know, when John, in his Revelation, when he was catapulted into heaven and he saw Jesus as a lamb, how did he see Him? He says, “Then I saw (in the midst of a throne) a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.” Still bearing the marks of that slaying and so forth. So, the Jews will recognize Jesus when He comes. This is a lot of what we get from this passage in Zechariah so, let's begin looking at this. On the screen, Zechariah 12:1-12 (ESV)

Now notice here He says, “I am (going) about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering.” That's an interesting statement, isn't it? It's a reference to a drunken stupor and it speaks of this drunkenness that's going to come upon the whole world. This madness, which will be referred to here in a bit to destroy Israel. There will be a spirit of madness and by the way, we're seeing the beginnings of it now. This antisemitism you're hearing about that is right here in the United States of America and worldwide, in fact, even in our government, in some places of our government, this absolute hatred of the Jews, this is the beginning of these things. And make no mistake about it, it is a spirit of hatred, okay? This is a demonic spirit that has risen up right now and we're seeing it happen. This kind of antisemitism, you would never have believed this kind of antisemitism could happen so close to, Nazism. I mean, it was in the first half of the 1940s when Nazism rose to power and began to exterminate Jews and there are people who are still alive today who were alive back then. And they talk about this horrible hatred of the Jews that took place. Well, it's still here, it hasn't gone away. It takes different names, it has different forms and there are even people today who would say, oh, Nazism, that was horrible and yet still hate the Jews with the same hatred, the same hatred. And in one sense, they'll say, we hate Nazism but they still hate the Jews with the same spirit that was behind Nazism. Anyway, God goes on here and He says, check this out.

On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’ On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. (and look at this) And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.’ He goes on. “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. “And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. (in other words, Israel is going to become an incendiary thing in the world, right?) And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. “And the LORD will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, (it's talking now about after His coming) so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them. And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And then finally, here's the response of Jerusalem or Israel, to the coming of their Messiah. “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn… So Zechariah gives us this picture, this snapshot of this incendiary work of the Lord among the people of Israel, whereby all the nations of the earth will gather against it to battle against them, to destroy it. And again, this battle happens at the end of the Great Tribulation, which we are not in. People ask me all the time, pastor Paul, are we in the Great Tribulation? Heavens, no. First of all, you'd be gone and second of all, we would know who the anti-Christ is. The Bible tells us that the anti-Christ will be revealed. I believe that at that time the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and then the Great Tribulation will ensue. At the conclusion of the Great Tribulation, all of these nations will come against Israel to destroy her in the Battle of Armageddon. And as I said, it will look very much like they are about to succeed, at which time the Lord will return to the Mount of Olives. He will fight on behalf of Israel. He will enable them, through the power of the Spirit, to battle against their enemies, and in so doing, bring judgment upon the nations of the earth that were living now under the rule of the anti-Christ because they had taken the mark of the beast. So there you go, this is a lot, isn't it? I mean, it's a lot to digest, it's a lot to think about. All of these elements that are connected to Passover, all of these things that come together. John makes the connection saying, on the day of His crucifixion, they will look on Him whom they have pierced, connecting that prophetic passage in Zechariah to what we just read, which speaks of the second coming of our Lord to this earth. And I think that coming is getting close. It says in verse 38, and we read here about an incredible act of bravery and kindness by 2 men. It says, “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body.” So in other words, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been kind of a closet Christian up to this point, came out of the closet and this was a real act of bravery on his part. This would open up his life, the lives of his family members, to great persecution. They would be excommunicated from whatever synagogue they tried to enter. They would be subject to great violence against their family, but Joseph didn't care. And do you know why Joseph didn't care? Because, when you realize who Jesus is, you realize He's the Messiah, He's the Lord of life, He is the Passover Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world, and that I owe Him my life. Then like the apostle Paul said, whatever else I could gain in this life I consider as nothing that I may just have Jesus. (Philippians 3:8) I don't care what I'm going to lose, as long as I've got Him, I've got everything. And that's where Joseph was coming from. I don't care, I've been living in the shadows as a Christian all this time, but I'm coming out. I'm coming out into the light and I don't care who knows that I believe this one is the Savior that God has sent to ransom us from the grave. And then also Nicodemus we’re told, “who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.” So you got Joseph and you got Nicodemus and these men who took now a very public stance. Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus at night because over the cover of darkness, he could have a private conversation, but now he's just like, I don't care. You can't carry 75 pounds of spices without getting noticed. By the way, if you have a New King James (NKJB), your Bible says a hundred pounds, it was probably somewhere in between.

--- So, these guys are making a very public statement about their identification with Jesus Christ and by the way, Joseph didn't just take Jesus down off the cross, he did more. But we have to actually see that in Matthew's account. Let me show you on the screen, from Matthew 27:59-60 (ESV)

... You know what we learn from this? We learned that not only was Joseph a brave man now, a very compassionate man now, we know that he was a fairly wealthy man. To have your own tomb would be something that very few people could afford and yet, isn't it interesting that even Joseph's wealth is something the Lord foretold 700 years before the birth of Christ, when He moved upon the prophet Isaiah to write this, from Isaiah 53:9 (ESV)

… Isn't that amazing? Well, all of this is corroborated by John, who finishes the chapter in the last 2 verses, saying, “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” And that's where we're going to stop for today. Next time in our study of John, we're going to return to the tomb, but we're going to find it empty. And we get to talk about the resurrection and all the implications of what the resurrection means. We've been talking today about Passover and the implications of Passover and the liberation that we have received from our slavery to the sinful flesh that we might be given freedom now to live for God, to walk with God. And then we'll talk, we're going to talk about life next time. So if you like talking about life, I hear too much about death, I like talking about life. Jesus is the Lord of life and we celebrate that life and we'll talk about it next week. So, let's go ahead and stand and we're going to close in prayer.

If you personally need prayer for any reason, we would be honored to pray with you, just feel free to come up here after we're done. We'll have our prayer team, some folks up here to pray with you and lift up whatever's going on to the Lord. So let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for giving your life for us, Father, for sending your Son to die on a cross that we might have life, our Passover Lamb. Father, I want to pray right now for anybody here who may not be walking in confidence today that they have received the forgiveness that you offer through Jesus Christ when He died for our sins. And so I pray Lord that even right now, as I'm closing in prayer, that in the quiet of their own hearts, they would simply pray to you and say, Lord I confess my sin and my need of a savior and I believe that Jesus came to save me from my sin. I believe that He is the Lamb of God who takes away my sin and I accept Him, I receive Him and I put my faith in Him for forgiveness and new life. And Father God, I pray for anyone who has prayed that prayer right now in the quiet of their own heart, that you'd fill them with your Holy Spirit and that you would enable them, Lord God, to live a new life. Not the life of the old, represented by the old leaven, but the new life that is ours in Jesus Christ. I ask you, Father God, to empower them to live for you. Lord, do that with all of us. Empower us, strengthen us to live for you every day, to serve you, to be filled with you. We thank you and praise you, we worship you, we rejoice in you through Jesus Christ, our Savior, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you, have a good rest of your Sunday. ---