Fulfilled Prophecies that Jesus made and their significance.

        God challenges everyone, especially the doubters, to test His existence, whether He is a fake or real.  And He tells them how to easily do so. God tells humanity to look at the prophecies He has given, and if they did not or do not come to pass (barring his conditional prophecies) then we can conclude that He is a fake.  In previous articles we have shown that no one can produce prophecies that God has made through the prophets that have not come to pass, barring those conditional ones.  

        And concerning the Messianic prophecies we have shown that they all found fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  Here is God’s challenge in Isaiah, “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.  Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.” Isaiah 41:21-23.  Seeing so many fulfilled prophecies our confidence, therefore, should be strong in the Lord, knowing that all that He said He would do for His followers will be eventually fulfilled.  

         In this article we will look at the prophecies that Jesus made while He was alive in Israel.  If these prophecies that we will look at have all been fulfilled, then there has to be something awesome and creditable about Jesus and what has been said about Him as being God and man’s Saviour.  Having read and witnessed the facts of this article the reader would be left with a choice and decision over how Jesus should impact his life, for his destiny may very well depend on that choice and that decision.

        Our first chosen prophecy that Jesus made was that He would be killed, crucified by the Romans  and He will rise after being three days (Jewish inclusive time reckoning) in the grave.  We read in Mat. 16:21 (Luke 13:33; Matthew 17:22, 23; Mark 8:31): “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”  

        And here’s how Matthew 20:18, 19 put it: “Listen! We are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death. Then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified, and He will be resurrected on the third day.”[i]  We will not re-hash the authority and historicity of the New Testament documents, we have already done so in previous articles.  Suffice it to say that all Christians and many non-Christians are aware that Jesus was killed exactly as he predicted.  Christians also believe that he was resurrected the third day.  Even Josephus Flavius, the non-Christian Jewish Historian who worked for the Roman Court admits that Jesus was indeed the Christ whom the Jews killed, and that he rose again the third day[ii]

        Christianity stands or falls on the truthfulness of the resurrection.  There were many witnesses to the resurrection.  “The empty tomb, the silent testimony to the resurrection of Christ, has never been refuted.  The Romans and Jews could not produce Christ’s body or explain where it went. Nevertheless they refused to believe. Men and women still reject the resurrection, not because of the insufficiency of evidence but in spite of its sufficiency.”[iii]  Have you considered how possible it was for Jesus to predict the manner in which He would die, by whom, and that in three days (Jewish inclusive reckoning) He will be resurrected and will meet with His disciples at a designated place?  And there were many eyewitnesses of this resurrected Jesus.  Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:3-8 that the resurrected Jesus was seen by over 500 individuals including the apostles, James, Peter and finally by Paul himself. 

        The apostle John explodes with gusto when he writes his account of the resurrection in 1 John 1:1-4.  He writes: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”  The NT being such a well attested historical document, we cannot bypass these assertions of so many witnesses to the resurrected Jesus.  Friends, I encourage you to come walk with us on the winning side and to Hang on! The best is yet to come.

        The next prophecy that Jesus made that we will look at is on Jerusalem.  This is a twofold prophecy; one is for the temple and city and the other is for His followers in light of His prediction on the Temple. We read in Mark 13:1, 14-16 where Jesus’ disciples praised the beauty and grand structure of the Jewish temple.  Jesus in turn said to them, “Do you see these great buildings? I tell you, there shall not be left one stone upon the other that shall not be thrown down.”  And in verses 14-16 He tells them when this would happen, and that at that time they should flee Jerusalem when they see the signs He gave them.  Now think of this friends, Jesus prophesies of the destruction of Jerusalem and exactly what will happen in the destruction of the Temple.  Not one stone will be left on another in its destruction and that the followers of Jesus would be given a sign when to leave the city.  At the time of making such a shocking and amazing prophecy Jerusalem had been beautified and fortified by Herod, rendering it apparently impregnable.  To foretell its destruction would render that individual a crazed alarmist,[iv] but Jesus not only made the prophecy, he also said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” Mat. 24:35.  History stands in complete vindication of Christ’s words.

        Three years before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Romans under Cestius surrounded the city with Roman heathen Images, this was known as the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet in Daniel 12:11, and also reiterated by Jesus in Mat. 24:15, and they laid siege to the city, however, not long after for some reason they suddenly broke the siege and the armies left the city.  This was the sign that Jesus gave to His followers to leave the city with haste (Mat. 24:15).  In 70 AD the Romans under Titus returned, and the city was conquered, and millions of Jews perished but not a single Christian lost his life, they had fled when they saw Jesus’ sign to beyond the Jordan to the city of Pella.[v]   What marvelous historical accuracy!

        There is only one question left to ask at this juncture and that is, what will you now say?  Do?  What more evidence do you want that Jesus Christ is God and Saviour?  Your choices are very slim, accept Him into your life and survive this mad world or deny Him and perish with this sin loving world.  As the African expression goes, “it’s left by you.”  We say in English, “the ball’s in your court!”  May God help you make a wise choice.

        The next prophecy of Jesus we will look at is one that has been fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled everywhere the Bible is read.  The incident is found in Matthew 26:6-13.  There we read of Jesus’ visit to Simon the leper in Bethany.  As they sat in the house a woman came and anointed Jesus with very precious and expensive ointment.  When the disciples knew it they remonstrated asserting that the ointment could have been better used if sold and the proceedings given to the poor.  When Jesus heard it He in turn reprimanded His disciples, telling them that the woman had done Him a valuable service as her actions only served to prepare His body for burial.  Jesus then went on to prophesy that this good action that the woman had performed on Him will always be remembered through-out the world wherever the gospel is preached. 

        In this prophecy Jesus made three assertions: 1) the gospel of salvation that He brought to humanity will be preached, it will not collapse and die as Voltaire predicted.[vi]  Jesus intimated that His gospel to humanity will become a world wide movement, and nothing will be able to stop it.  If Jesus were just a lowly Galilean how could He even imagine, let alone prophesy,  that His movement will successfully challenge the Jewish juggernaut and all other religions, including Islam, and over-power them?  Today Jews in Israel number about eight and a half million people while Christianity has become the largest religious body in the world, totalling about two and a half billion adherents!  2) The Gospel will not just be preached locally, but it will be a worldwide presentation.  Jesus reiterated this assertion in several parts of the gospels and in Acts.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus say, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  Contrary to desires of the above French philosopher, Time has shown Jesus’ prophecy to be solid! Was Jesus making a calculated guess?  No my friends, He was the God-man and knew all things.  It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for his prophecies to fail!  Mat. 24:35.

        And 3) Jesus made it quite clear that the actions of this woman who anointed Him will always be remembered.  Again, who would think that such a small incidence in the life of Jesus would be singled out by Jesus and made of world-wide fame?  How could Jesus know that He or his followers and their message of salvation would make top ratings and continue to the end of time?  And to add insult to injury (to our human thinking) Jesus said that everything may pass away, but His words would never pass away!  Only a being with omniscience could ever repeat thoughts like that.  These incidences in the brief life of Jesus are irrefutable evidences that we are not dealing with a mere human being, but with a supernatural being, dare we conclude any differently?  Following the evidence wherever it leads leaves us with little option but to concur that only a divine being could speak as this man spoke.

        In closing I would like to admonish each reader to please take time to consider where his or her choices are taking him or her?  God makes it plain that iniquity will not endure forever; God himself will come to put a stop to these evil occurrences taking place on earth right before our eyes.  He promises us in Revelation 21:1-5 that there will be a new heaven and a new earth; that sin, evil, and death will cease to reign in God’s universe.  And all He asks of us is for us to make Him Lord of our lives that we may be with Him forever.  May God bless you all and enable you to make the right choice.

        Our next article will deal with, ‘how has Jesus contributed to this world?’  Blessing to you all.

[i] McDowell, Josh. Evidence That Demands a Verdict (p. 239). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (2017)

[ii] Flavius Josephus, The Life and Works of, (Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, 1957), p. 534

[iii] Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1999), pp. 203-284.

[iv] Ellen White, The Great Controversy, (Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1911), p. 26

[v] Ibid., 30, 31.

[vi] Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, p. 10

If you have any comments or questions please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.