Was Palm Sunday a Fulfillment of Prophecy?

January 19, 2003

Tom:

We’re continuing with the gospel of John and we’re in chapter 12 and we’re going to pick up with verse 9. “Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.” (laughs) People, Christians who really live their faith, are going to be persecuted. I think about this: here Lazarus, he was a testimony to Christ, just his walking around and I think we ought to be testimonies to the Christ when we walk around, that we reflect his light and his life and we’re going to take some persecution for that.

Dave:

It raises questions that we have already discussed, Tom. It says, By reason of him, that is, because of Lazarus, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus, but we don’t know what they believed. They believed that Jesus raised him from the dead, they believed that Jesus could do that but they don’t understand that Jesus is going to die for their sins and that’s what the scripture says. The gospel is how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And so these Jews, yes, they are believing something, they are believing that he is the Messiah, perhaps, but they don’t have a full understanding of it. But we talked about it last time, I think, as well, the hardness of the hearts of these Pharisees. They’re going to kill Lazarus!They know that Jesus raised him from the dead, they know he was four days in the grave. This, Tom, this is—they didn’t have CNN, they didn’t have the daily news, they didn’t have newspapers and so forth but wow, this word has spread everywhere! So, in the Book of Acts, Paul is reasoning—this would be Acts 26, verse 26—he is reasoning with King Agrippa. He says, “…the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.” That’s the difference between Christianity, the Christian faith, and Islam, once again. Everybody knew! You couldn’t have pulled this off, you couldn’t say, Well, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he was four days in the grave, you know, and so forth. Wait a minute!—a guy raises his hand and says, Look, he was my uncle, he never even died. Or somebody else says, Wait, come on, I lived in Bethany, that never happened! Or somebody else says, Wait a minute, I’m from Bethany and I know the guy is still in the grave, he didn’t raise him from the dead. This was a very small country and it wasn’t done in a corner. Christianity is not based upon some secret initiation rite, it’s not some technique for getting in touch with God, but it’s based upon facts, it’s based upon history and this is what the disciples testified to and they were all killed for testifying to the truth. So, here we have a situation, Wow! Everybody has heard about this. You can’t keep this quiet. And that’s why they come to Bethany now, to see Lazarus. Wow! This guy was dead, raised from the dead. I don’t know what conversations went on with Lazarus, I don’t know what he had to say, if he was down there with Abraham. You know, the Bible doesn’t tell us that and whether he even testified. Look, we have people today who claim that they were taken to heaven or they were taken to hell and they have been commissioned to come back to warn us. We read of nothing like that with regard to Lazarus. Here was a man who was dead four days. If this is what God wanted he could surely have gone around testifying. We don’t get that picture at all.

Tom:

Right, and we certainly have the words of Paul who had a death experience, the scriptures plainly tell us. But he didn’t—(laughs)—he didn’t feel compelled to go out on the speaking tour with regard to what he had seen.

Dave:

That should raise some pretty serious doubts in the minds of anyone listening if you have been caught up in that sort of thing. Anyone who purports to say that they were sent back by God to tell you what it was like in heaven or what it was like in hell, it’s not biblical.

Tom:

Dave, what do you think it is? I can think of individuals over the past ten, fifteen years who, you know, remember Pastor Buck supposedly was entered into the throne room of God and there were feathers on the floor so he said God must have feathers and so on. Some of these are so absurd.We have some who have been paradise and this woman recognized her father on a train because he loved trains and he was, you know, in the engine of the train moving along through paradise. This appeals to people, it’s attractive but it’s so irrational.

Dave:

Well Tom, it’s not biblical and I guess we could come up with some explanations, we’ve talked about that in books, but anyway, I find it just staggering that the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death because by reason of him many people were believing. They come to Bethany because they have heard about this. There is no doubt this happened, okay? We have evidence for what went on.

Tom:

Mmhmm. But Dave, this brings up another point. I think it was Lord Acton that said, Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. But his application was to religious power. There, when you say you are doing something for God, atheists, of course, are denying truth, so I’m not exalting them by any means, but they’re concern, historically it is borne out that those who, whether it be Khomeini or whoever it might be, once you are ruling from a religious point of view there is no turning you back. It seems.

Dave:

That’s the worst when you say you are doing it in God’s name. And that was the situation with these Rabbis, we saw that in chapter 11. They want to preserve their position and their power and they are going to do anything and no one is going to stand in their way and ultimately that was why Jesus was crucified. Well, it goes on in verse 12: On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees,—amazing timing because this is going to be the fulfillment of Zechariah:9:9 where it says, Rejoice O daughter of Jerusalem, shout for joy, behold your king cometh riding upon the colt of an ass. And here Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem, now this is on a Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, and he is hailed exactly as the prophet foretold. Now there’s nothing like that for Mohammed, nothing like that for anyone else. But here they come. They took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass sat thereon as it is written.Fear not daughter of Zion, behold thy King cometh sitting on an ass’ colt. These things understood not the disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified then remember they that these things that were written of him and that they had done these things unto him. So again, we have another fulfillment of prophecy for Jesus. No such for Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, anyone else. We’ve talked about it many times, Tom, I want evidence.

Tom:

Mmhmm. Well Dave, what if somebody says, Well wait a minute, Jesus knew the prophecies, he just sort of got his disciples to get a crowd together and bring the donkeys and so on.

Dave:

Well, there was quite a turn of events, wasn’t there? I don’t know how they could get these people together without paying them, get them to line the street, I don’t know how they could fake the resurrection of Lazarus.

Tom:

Lot of rehearsal they would have to put into that.

Dave:

Right. It clearly says it was the resurrection of Lazarus that caused these people to gather so I don’t know how they could pull that one off. And then, four days later they turned them against him and they get them to all now cry, Away with him, crucify him. But there are other things that you have explained that way. We’ve dealt with that.

Tom:

There’s so many things, where Jesus was born, you know, he’s was going to pick the place of his birth ahead of time? Wow.

Dave:

And how does he know what soldiers are going to be at the foot of the cross so he can pay them off so they will gamble for his clothes exactly as the prophets foretold.Yeah, it doesn’t work. But anyway, this is a tremendous scene and a tremendous fulfillment, nothing like this for anyone else. Furthermore, it’s foretold the very day it would happen in Daniel chapter 9, and if Jesus is not the Messiah, nobody is because that day has come and gone.

Program Number:

0403d