I’ve
been thinking about doing a particular sermon for a while, and then someone in
the church really pushed me into doing kinda what I was already thinking of.
I’ve touched on this topic before, but never so completely. This will be a
little different sort of sermon. It is really about the statistical likelihood
that any one person would be able to fulfill all the prophesy of the OT, unless
that person really was the Messiah.
When
I talk about this subject I need you to know first about statistics. You know,
I hope that the statistical likelihood of say, someone rolling a 5 on a 6 sided
dice is 1/6. The chances that someone would roll two 5’s in a row would be one
in 6 times 6, or one chance in 36. The chances of rolling three 5’s in a row
are 1/6 times 1/6 times 1/6. Or by my figuring, 1/216. Now the chances we are
going to be talking in terms of one person fulfilling even several of the
prophesies about the Messiah are much more remote. In fact, we have to use a
little different math notation. One chance in 10 is denoted by 1 x 10 to the
first power. One chance in 100 is denoted by 1 x 10 to the second power. Each
increase in the number above the 10 is another zero on the end. One chance in a
thousand is 1x10 to the third power.
Okay,
now that we sort of have that straight, I need to illustrate what we’re talking
about. And for this, I usually use myself as an example. What are the odds that
someone born in Modesto, California, would be preaching here today. Modesto is
a medium sized suburb of Sacramento California. I’d guess that chances are one
in maybe 20,000. Maybe that’s low. It is not a big city, but not a small one
either. I couldn’t find out how many towns there are the US; that would have
been helpful to know. So I’m just guessing one chance in 20,000. Fairly remote.
So let’s narrow it further. What are the chances that someone born in Modesto,
but raised in Thousand Oaks would be here today? Thousand Oaks is another
suburb, but of LA. So that narrows it down a little further. In fact, none of
my siblings were born in Modesto and grew up in T.O. They grew up in T.O., but
were born other places. So the chances that someone here would be born in
Modesto, and raised in TO, and I simply guessing here, would be perhaps
1/20,000 times 1/20,000. Which gives us a total chance of 1 in 400,000,000.
That’s pretty slim. We could do other things, like born in Modesto, raised in
TO, is an eagle scout. Has blue eyes. Graduated from Pepperdine University and
Fuller Seminary. Eventually the probability would tell you that in the whole
world, there is only one person, or less than 1 person, that would randomly fit
all the categories we are using to describe this person. Eventually, in the
whole world, we could narrow it down so that it really is only possible that it
is me that we are talking about. The prophesies in the OT are so specific, and
there are so many of them, that really only one person could fulfill them all.
The prophesies eliminate everyone but the Messiah, eliminate everyone but
Jesus.
The
overarching texts for today are a couple; John 1:43-45 “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he
said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of
Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses
wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And then this text from Luke 24:44, from when
Jesus was with the disciples after His resurrection. “He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you:
Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the
Prophets and the Psalms.”
And lastly, Luke 7:18ff. John’s disciples told him about all
these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was
to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When
the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are
you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had
diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go
back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight,
the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23 Blessed is the man who does not fall
away on account of me.” [1]
So given that everything must be fulfilled, we’re going to take a quick, probably too quick, look at the prophesies about Jesus, and whether or not they were fulfilled. Some prophesies were harder than others; there were people who preached good news to the poor for instance, (Like me having blue eyes) but raising someone from the dead is considerably less probable. But before we get too far into that, let’s pray.
So
it is important enough for both Philip, one of the Twelve, and Jesus Himself to
note that the OT prophesy has to be fulfilled. It is the mark of prophesy,
genuine prophesy from God, that it come true. We know many televangelists are
not real because they prophesy, and then the prophesy fails to happen. It is
the mark of the Messiah that all the prophesy about Him come true. And there is
a lot of prophesy about the Messiah in the OT. There is a lot so that people
would know that the Messiah can’t possibly be anyone else. What Jesus does
points squarely to who Jesus is. There has been a lot of statistical work done
on the chances that someone might fulfill some of the prophesies about the
Messiah. So let’s look at some of the OT prophesy, and then we can see where
Jesus fulfills the prophesy and ultimately proves Jesus was the Messiah of God.
Lest
someone say that Jesus did His stuff, and then the OT was written to conform to
what He did, I would say that we just have to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls to
see that clearly all this prophesy existed before, hundreds of years before
Jesus was born. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been carbon dated to 300 years to
about 100 years before Jesus birth. And all the books of the OT are there, at
least in part, except one. And that one, Esther, was kept out because it listed
different feast days than the group that kept the Dead Sea Scrolls celebrated.
So it was left out. Anyway, I just wanted you to know for sure that the OT was
absolutely written prior to Jesus arrival and ministry.
So
there are lots of prophesies about the Messiah. I am going to choose to pick
several that seem to me to indicate that this specific man, Jesus, the one who
lived and died and lived again, is the exact person all the OT, those thousands
of years of waiting and hoping lead up to. You know, even after the Jews had
been restored to the land of their fathers following their exile in Babylon,
even when they came back they knew they would be unable to fulfill the commands
of the laws. Heck, even before Jerusalem fell, Jeremiah was talking about a
Savior, talking and waiting for Jesus.
There
are a number of prophesies that don’t seem to be statistically relevant by
themselves, but when group together, they give a complete picture of Jesus. Let
me give you some of them. He would feel forsaken by God, He would be thirsty,
mocked and insulted, and soldiers would cast lots for His clothing, all from
Psalm 22. He would be accused by a false witness, Psalm 27. He would be
scourged, (beaten badly) and spat upon, Isaiah 50. He would be rejected and
insulted, would suffer vicariously, both from Isaiah 53. Also from the same
chapter, He would be silent when accused, and would be buried amongst the
wealthy people. You see, these prophesies by themselves could be just about
anyone. But slowly they begin to build a picture of Christ. Any one of these
prophesies have maybe a ¼ chance of happening; some perhaps less frequent, some
more frequent. So beyond these prophesies I want to get to the big prophesies
that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had
been waiting for throughout their history.
The
first big prophesy I’ve chosen is that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin.
Clearly this denotes an event beyond the grasp of humanity. It was also
prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5:1-5. But let’s
face it, many people have been born in Bethlehem over the centuries. It is not
a big town, but many generations have been born there. So statistically, that
Jesus was born in Bethlehem is statistically important, but not as important as
being born of a virgin. That prophesy alone, and its fulfillment in Christ,
push the statistical odds beyond the number of people who have ever lived on
the planet. When Christ was born He fulfilled an extraordinary number of
prophesies: Born in Bethlehem, like we said. Born of a virgin, Isaiah 7:14. Of
the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49:10. Related to King David; 1 Chronicles
17:11-14. In Jesus birth we have many of the most significant prophesies
fulfilled. That He will be Immanuel, God with us, from Isaiah 7, that He was
the Son to be given, from Isaiah 9. Born a king, from Jeremiah 30, and that
there would be a massacre of infants surrounding His birth, from Jeremiah 31.
Even the flight into Egypt to avoid Herod is from Hosea 11. All those
prophesies were fulfilled in Jesus birth. Perhaps this should have been a
sermon around Christmas, because of the significance of Jesus birth and all the
ramifications, implications and prophesy involved. But here we are.
So
statistically, we’re getting more and more remote that anyone would randomly
fulfill these prophesies and be mistaken for the Messiah when in fact, He was not.
At this point, probably an illustration would be helpful. We’ve covered about
10 of the prophesies about Jesus. I want you to take Statistically, the chances
that anyone would fulfill these is like this: Imagine the world is covered in
dimes. Not just covered in them, but covered in them up to the moon. Nothing
but dimes. One of those dimes is painted red. You have one chance to choose one
dime. That statistically speaking, is about the chances that anyone would
randomly fulfill the prophesies we have talked about so far. But of course,
there are a lot more prophesies. So let’s take a look at them. Remember, just
like I was born in Modesto, raised in TO, graduated from Pepperdine and Fuller
Seminary, the purpose is to get so specific that the Messiah could only be one
person. It could only be Christ Jesus. So let’s push on for more prophesies.
For
the next section I thought we could look at the prophesies concerning what
Jesus did: the first being what Jesus pointed out to John, that the blind see
and the deaf hear, found in Isaiah 29, confirmed several times over in John 9,
Matt 11 and so forth. Also, the Spirit of the Lord was to be upon Him, Isa 11
and 42, and we see this most clearly in Jesus baptism. Isaiah 35 also talks
about the blind and deaf, but adds lame leaping for joy and mute folks talking.
Mark 7 details the healing of a mute man, and of course we have many instances
of Jesus healing the lame, starting with the man in Mark 2 who was lowered
through the roof of the house where Jesus was. You hopefully remember that
story. On the other side, that He was sold out for 30 pieces of silver is
detailed in Zechariah 11, and fulfilled in Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus
in the garden of Gethsemane. In fact, that He would be betrayed by a friend was
prophesied in Psalm 41 and 55. In many ways, Judas was an important character
to have around Jesus. Maybe I’ll look into that further. I know people have
written on Judas extensively. One more thing to read.
Let’s
keep going. He will be a king known for His righteousness, according to Psalm
45. He is the promised Redeemer, according to Job 19. He will be the enthroned
high priest, Zech 6, a prophet like Moses, Deut 18. Cursed on a tree, Deut 21.
He will be zealous for God’s house, Psalm 69. He will be a light out of the
darkness, Isaiah 9. He will be the Lamb slaughtered for us, Isa 53. Annointed
to preach liberty, Isa 61. He will be the good Shepherd, according to Ezekial
21, confirmed in John 10. Triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Zech 9. His hands
and feet will be pierced, Zech 12 and Psalm 22; of course is a reference to the
crucifixion. His resurrection comes
from Psalm 16, 49 and 86. It’s all there.
So
what are the chances that any one life could accommodate all this prophesy?
Christian statisticians have been working on this for a while. There seemed to
be for a while amongst atheists and agnostics a movement to say that the
prophesies in the OT could point to just about anyone. So Christian
statisticians decided to work on the problem, to see just how statistically
likely it was that all the prophesies would be fulfilled. Turns out to be
extremely unlikely. I’ve seen two figures; one is less chance than 1 in all the
seconds in the universe since its inception however many billion years ago. But
I heard that another figure that was a little higher. A French mathematician
figured that fulfilling just 40 of the prophesies was 1 in 1x10 to the 157th
power. That is a 1 followed by 157 zeros.
It
gets bigger. Another mathematician, Peter Ruckman, has figured the odds of only
60 prophesies being fulfilled by the only person to claim be the Son of God,
died on a tree on Calvary and who rose on the third day are astronomical. 1 in
1x10 895th power. That’s a 1 followed by 895 zeros. At that point
you’re looking at the number of atoms in the universe. Remember the one red
dime? The chances are about the same that of all those atoms you could reach in
and pull out the one specific red atom.
I
guess what’s I’m saying, and what these math guys are saying is that it is
extremely unlikely that anyone could randomly fulfill the prophesies of the OT.
The OT points directly to Jesus Christ, and it does so very specifically. The
NT is very careful to point out all the prophesy that Jesus fulfills. The Holy
Spirit wants people to know, without a doubt, that Jesus was who the Jews
should have recognized as the Messiah.
Let’s
pray.