102 - Fully Convinced

<p class="ng-scope" style="margin:5.55pt 0in 5.55pt 0in;">To someone who didn’t know the Bible well, what happened to Jesus that afternoon would have seemed to be nothing more than a tragic series of events. That person would have seen only an innocent man being badly mistreated. But if someone did know the Scriptures, he or she would have been shocked as they watched key prophecies being fulfilled in front of their eyes, especially the way Jesus’ body was treated after He died. Certain things were done to Him by people who had no idea of the spiritual meaning behind what they were doing, things that God, through His prophets, had described in detail hundreds of years earlier. Unknowingly, those soldiers fulfilled two prophecies which were such powerful testimonies about Jesus that John assumed that there would be people who suspected that he had put those events into his account, but that they hadn’t really occurred. After all, John is the only one of the gospel writers who mentions them, probably because neither Matthew, Peter (Mark’s source), or whomever Luke interviewed (Lk 1:1-3) had been close enough to the cross to see what John saw. So as soon as he finished describing what happened, he inserted these words,  “…and the one having seen [these things] has borne witness, and his witness is true, and that one knows that he speaks truly, so that you may also believe. For these things happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled…” (literal) (v35).  He’s saying that he saw the soldiers do those things with his own eyes, and if we trust his integrity as an apostle of Jesus Christ, we will believe him.</p> <p class="ng-scope" style="margin:5.55pt 0in 5.55pt 0in;">John wasn’t the only one that afternoon who saw those events and recognized the prophecies that were being fulfilled. Two of Israel’s top, religious leaders were also watching and understood the meaning of what they were seeing. They had memorized and studied the Bible since they were children, so when they saw the soldiers shatter the legs of the ot