THY WORD IS TRUTH John 17:17

Pastor Ted Whitaker, PhD, CLP


Sunday March 15, 2009


Sermon Delivered to Annapolis and Hopedale Presbyterian Churches


Bible quotes: NIV (New International Version)

“Jesus’ Death on the Cross Foretold - Part 3”

Today is the third Sunday in lent and we are going again to focus on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross and what it means for us.


This is the third sermon in the series “Jesus Death on the Cross Foretold” and just like in the season of advent we are going to look how God prepared the way for his son to come to earth as God incarnate.


(God in the flesh who dwelt among us is the same God who sacrificed Himself for the sake of reconciliation of mankind to himself).


And continuing in this theme we will look this Sunday morning just how far in advance God the Father had a plan to accomplish this task of the atoning sacrifice of his son, Jesus, to die for the sins of the whole world.


Today we will consider two Old Testament prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah that will foretell of the Messiah’s being betrayed by one of his friends and that person will be Judas Iscariot a disciple chosen by Jesus of Nazareth.


Jeremiah was dead for 54 years before Zacharias became a prophet and priest in Israel in 520 BC.


In this series of Lenten sermons, we will focus how far in advance of Judas Iscariots betrayal did God the Father, the in the Old Testament announce to everyone through these two prophets the exact price by which Jesus of Nazareth would be handed over to the Roman guards.


The test of prophesy is whether the words of the prophet happen as a event in human history.
That is the correct test of prophecy.


Prediction are different from prophecies in that prediction come from the mind of men but prophesies come from the mind of God.


True prophesy is not just a prediction but it is a warning of future event that will come to pass in time and those words are from God’s Spirit.


So the accurate recording of history is paramount to the proof of God’s existence. And that is why Zachariah is such an important prophet here.


For Zachariah life is very late in the timeline of the Messiah much closer to our own time.


The dates around Zachariah’s time are more secure and dependable because they can be checked against dates of other historian who wrote about human history outside of the bible.


When dates of history are record out side of the bible by respected historians like Josephus, Philo, and others no one expresses doubt about the correctness of their authorship.


No one claims that the Jewish historian Josephus was written by someone else 400 hundred years after he wrote the “Jewish wars” or the “Antiquities” that bear his name but the bible has many critics that claim there is an error of authorship and dates recorded in the bible.


But the fact remains that the scribes recorded those events and dates and their whole lives were dedicated to the task of recording the bible on scrolls and these scribes had a belief system based upon the law of Moses which required the death of any one bearing false witness.


The claims of biblical critics that the bible was written hundreds of years after traditional authors is false and absurd based upon these two standards alone.


For in their unbelief these biblical scholars can not tolerate the supernatural fortelling of events 1000 to 2000 years before the events happen and are recorded as facts in the history of Israel.


And why do they object!


Because it proves that God and His Spirit are the real authors of the words of prophesy but what they really object to is that God and His Spirit is the author of the events of history of mankind, itself.


It proves God exists and it is convicting for them!


You see there is a problem in academic scholarship in that unbelievers do not leave the faith.


For they have much difficulty in their own minds in accepting the bible as truth when the bible claims to be truth.


Thy Word is truth John 17:17 is a very troubling scripture for them.


I am the Way The Truth and the life is another one.


And this is what their real objection is.


The accuracy of authorship and accuracy of the timeline of history is a smoke screen for their unbelief.


A constant stream of skepticism and unbelief pervades academic biblical scholarship to this very day.


Zachariah was a priest and not a common man of Israel like the other Old Testament prophets.


So what did Zachariah predict or foretell would happen in the Old Testament that later happened in the life of Jesus of Nazareth’s that uniquely identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah (the anointed one of God).


The prophecy of Zachariah that is being considered here today is the betrayal of Jesus by someone who will be paid thirty pieces of silver as his reward for that betrayal.


We heard of this in the Old Testament reading here today and the words were from Chapter 11 verse 10 of Zachariah, “Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.


11 It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD.


12 I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.


13 And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter”.


So what is God speaking though the mouth of His prophet Zachariah trying to tell us here in this prophesy?


There are 30 pieces of silver mention here.


This is truth that can be verified by just counting out the pieces can’t we.

This is not something figurative, metaphoric or subjective or something we need to interpret.


We might be skeptical if it were subjective evidence based upon interpretation


for we all think a little differently don’t we.


But here we have a exact number of “30 pieces” that everyone can agree on by observations made with our eyes and our sense of touch.


Or by the weight of these piece of silver, we can verify that is either over or under that amount or thirty or exactly 30.


By a simple physical test, we can we all agree 30 pieces is the true amount?


What this means is that we have a test of truth for this event to come to pass in the life of Jesus for if there is suddenly “thirty pieces of silver showing up in Jesus life then the words of Zachariah are fulfilled prophesy.


But let’s look at the words of Zachariah again in more detail for there is another verifiable observation here.


There is a field where these “Thirty pieces” will be thrown and it will be associated with a person who makes pottery.


It will be a potter’s field.


So now we have another verifiable event that can take place in Jesus of Nazareth’s life that proves that Zachariah was prophesying about Jesus of Nazareth, the long awaited Messiah.


And what do we see happening before the Passover meal with Judas Iscariot his disciple.


In the NT reading today we learned that Judas was the treasurer of Jesus band of disciples.


Judas was in charge of the money for Judas was consumed with greed and was taking from the treasury for himself.


When Jesus tells his disciples that he would was being betrayed by a person in that very room they did not realize it was Judas, but Jesus knew.


Jesus says, “It is the one whom I will give this piece of bread that I have dipped into the dish.”
And then he says to Judas, “What you have to do, do it quickly.”


This exchange of words between Judas and Jesus is evidence that Jesus is the Messiah for he knows the heart of Judas and knows what he is about to do without anyone telling him.


Only God can look into a man’s heart and know what is there.


To get the details of Judas betrayal, we need to go the gospel of Matthew chapter 27.


After Jesus is seized by the Roman guards and taken before Pilot, Judas is in despair because of what he has dome and he hangs himself.


But listen to what Matthew tells us about what happens to those 30 pieces of silver.
Matthew 27:5 reads, “Judas threw the money into the temple and left.


6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money."


7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners.


8 That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day.


9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel,


10 and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me."


So the blood money that Judas Iscariot used was thrown back to the priest of the temple who paid Judas by Judas himself and what did this band of priests do with this money.


The used it to buy a potter’s field just as Jeremiah prophesied 483 years before.

The evidence of thirty pieces of silver given by the prophet Zachariah 500 years before it happen in Jesus of Nazareth’s life is enough for any one to believe!

Amen.