Bible Study - Resurrection predictions and mysterious numbers!

Bible Study Series: Resurrection, Rapture & the Redeemer

Resurrection predictions and mysterious numbers!

by I Gordon

Welcome! We are going to continue our series on the resurrection and so far we've explored three Old Testament passages in Job, Isaiah and Daniel. So we will be transitioning (mostly) to the New Testament today. I want to spend two or three messages on the most important event in the history of the world - Jesus' resurrection! This message will be focused around the following passage which Jesus spoke to His disciples after the resurrection:

Luk 24:46-48 "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,  (47)  and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  (48)  "You are witnesses of these things.

David Jeremiah writes:

"The Christian Gospel rests on the truth of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:14, Paul puts it this way: “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” Without the Resurrection, there is no reason to attend church! The foundation of the Gospel is predicated on Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and over death. "
David Jeremiah

Now I must warn you ahead of time that there will be some math involved today. There will be a simple calculus and algebra test at the end of this study. Oh alright... breath easy... nothing on that level! But a few numbers are going to pop up today. Can you remember your favorite TV show when you were little? Yeah that's right, remember Elmo, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and the rest of the crew? (Argh, these were in far more innocent days, long before Sesame Street went woke!) Well this study, to quote Sesame Street, is bought to you by the numbers 3 and 8. And, as a bonus, I'm going to throw in 5 and 13 as well. Clear as mud? Hopefully things become a little clearer! But as well as being the greatest designer, chemist, physicist, biologist (and anything else you can name), Jesus, who made all things, is the greatest mathematician. He likes His numbers and has put them throughout His word both in and below the text. And they are related to the cross and resurrection. So in this study...   

• We'll start with a look at the central message that the early Church witnessed to.
• We'll explore Jesus' own predictions of His death and resurrection before the event
• We'll see how 'the third day' was spoken of even in the Old Testament
• We'll look at the number 8 in the Bible and how that relates to Jesus and His resurrection
• And, as a bonus, we'll look at the numbers 5 and 13 and their connection with the title placed above Jesus on the cross 

Jesus' resurrection - The central message of the early Church

Let's go back to our main passage for this study and begin by exploring how the message of Jesus' resurrection was pivotal in the witness of the early church. When Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection He said:

Luk 24:46-48 "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,  (47)  and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  (48)  "You are witnesses of these things.

Note the important points here: 

1. That His death and resurrection where all written and recorded in scripture in advance.
2. That it was specifically recorded that He would rise on the third day
3. That His disciples were witnesses of His death and resurrection 
4. That they would be a be witness of this to others, proclaiming forgiveness of sins, to all nations. 

So the disciples had both witnessed, and would witness to, Jesus' death and resurrection. When you get that knock on the door and see a couple of smiling JW's out on your porch. let me tell you two things that aren't witnessing about. They aren't witnessing about Jesus and they aren't witnessing about His resurrection. Why? Because they are 'Jehovah's Witnesses' - they don't believe that Jesus is Jehovah, they don't believe that He is God (with a capital 'G') and they don't believe that He was raised physically from the dead¹. They only believe that He was raised as 'a spirit creature'. How far away this is from what the early Church spoke and witnessed about! 

"To preach Christianity meant primarily to preach the Resurrection... The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts."
C.S Lewis

This is very true. When you look at what the Apostles spoke about in the book of Acts, you always find Jesus and the resurrection! It was His physical resurrection that gave proof that He was who He said He was and these disciples had seen Jesus alive and well with their own two eyes! Have a look at this footnote to see more.²    

What do you witness about?

Just to pause for a moment, what do you speak about when witnessing to people? What do you focus on? Maybe that He died for our sins and there is forgiveness through His death on the cross? Maybe that His life fulfilled the many prophecies of the Messiah? Maybe the change that He has made in your life? Do you mention the resurrection? Obviously you and I weren't eye witnesses of the resurrection (missed that by only 2000 years) but is there evidence in your life that He is alive? Is there evidence in how your life has changed by coming into contact with the living risen Lord? A changed life, combined with an explanation of what His death and resurrection means, is a powerful witness! 

Predictions of His death (& the disciples' reaction)

Let's now explore the predictions Jesus made of His own resurrection. When you read through the gospels, especially the book of Mathew which was written to the Jews to prove He was the Messiah, you see that Jesus mentioned His death and resurrection several times. The first came straight after, and was related to, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This was something that the specific generation witnessing Jesus' miracles did when they failed to believe in Him and instead ascribed His miracles to the power of the devil! (Matt 12:24). Given all that Jesus had done to prove His Messiahship, this act of gross unbelief was a sin against the Holy Spirit which could not be forgiven (Matt 12:31-32). From that point on, Jesus spoke to the crowds mainly in parables and started, for the first time, to speak of His upcoming death and resurrection. Straight after the 'blasphemy of the Holy Spirit' in Matt 12, we have the first occurrence of this when Jesus was asked to perform more 'signs' and 'wonders'. Jesus replied:

Mat 12:39-40 "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  (40)  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The sign of Jonah was the sign, the only sign, that Jesus would now give. He said that as a fulfillment of what Jonah experienced, He would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So what did His disciples say to this? Crickets. Nada... Nothing. They didn't understand it. And probably fair enough too because that by itself doesn't explain clearly what was going to happen. How and why is the Son of Man going to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? What does that mean? Thankfully Jesus repeated Himself several times on this and made it very clear, so they did understand.

Mat 16:21-22  From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  (22)  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

Mat 17:22-23  When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  (23)  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.

While the first veiled mention of His death was met with crickets and silence, the second was actually met with a rebuke from Peter - 'Never Lord! This shall never happen to you!' But by the third time Jesus spoke of it in Galilee the response was met with grief. First silence, then an angry outburst, then grief as the realization of what was to come slowly dawned on them.³ 

Resurrection & the third day

Let's now zero in on Jesus' reference to the 'third day'. We saw earlier that after the resurrection Jesus said that 'it was written' that the Son of Man must suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day. Have you thought about where in scripture it says that? And remember that when Jesus said this the only scripture they had is what we now call the Old Testament. Obviously, there were clear references to His death in such passages as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 does allude to His resurrection (Isa 53:10-11). David also spoke prophetically on Jesus resurrection in Psalm 16 as Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:25-32. But where in scripture does it speak about being raised specifically on the third day? Where does this number 3 come in? 

What did Jesus do for the disciples after His resurrection when He spoke to them? We read in Luke 24:45 that 'He opened their mind so that they could understand the scriptures' and He went through the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms speaking about Himself! We all need our minds opened by the Lord and I for one would have loved to have been a fly on the wall listening in that day! Concerning the third day, I believe that Jesus would have pointed to all the pictures and types given in scripture that spoke of this marvelous 'third day'. I have written about this before, so we'll keep it brief here, but it is always interesting to see the many relevant mentions of the third day in scripture. Very little is mentioned about the about the second of fourth day yet a lot of events occurred on the third day! For example:

• As mentioned above, the prophet Jonah being in the great fish for three days and three nights was a type of the death and resurrection (Jon 1:17)
• Abraham, when asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, received him back on the third day (Gen 22:4)
• The cupbearer and the baker in prison with Joseph both had dreams where their fate would be seen on the third day (Gen 40:20-22) 
• Having come to the edge of the Promised Land, it was on the third day that the Israelites would pass over the Jordan and into the land (Josh 1:11)
• To save her people, Esther put her life on the line coming before the King unannounced on the third day (Esther 5:1)
• Hezekiah, when mortally ill, was healed and granted an extension of life on the third day (2 Kings 20:5-6)
• The Lord was seen on Mount Sinai before all the people on the third day (Exodus 19:10-11)

Clearly there is something important that scripture was trying to teach about life, death and victory on the third day! The number three is also associated with resurrection in other ways. There are three instances where someone was raised in the Old Testament. There are three resurrections in the ministry of Jesus.⁴ If we look at the 'law of first mention' we see that the first resurrection in the Bible was performed by Elijah where we have another mention of this number 3:

1Ki 17:21-22 Then he (Elijah) stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child's life return to him." (22) The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.

We see that Elijah associated himself with the one dead by lying on him... and he did this three times. In like manner, Jesus associated Himself with those dead by going into death for them so that they could have life! Jesus Himself was the 7th (God's perfect number) resurrection in the Bible but the first to get a new glorified body!

The Number 8 - Resurrection & New Life!

As well as the number 3, the number 8 is also associated with Jesus and His resurrection. The number eight speaks of new life and new beginnings. It is Jesus' number as we shall see! For example:

• Creation was based around a 7-day week. Thus the 8th day was also the 1st day, the start of the new week and thus the start of something new. 
• In the flood, a picture of death and new life, there were 8 people that were saved (1 Pet 3:20 - Noah & Wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters in law)
• Circumcision, representing the removal of the flesh and new life, occurred on the 8th day of life. (Lev 12:3)
• The firstborn of Israel was dedicated to God on the 8th day (Ex 22:29-30)
• Jesus' birthplace, Bethlehem, is mentioned 8 times in the New Testament. 
• When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in that famous passage about the need to be born again, being born (new life) is mentioned 8 times in the 8 verses (John 3:1-8)
• Jesus rose on the 8th day after entering Jerusalem in that final week. He arrived on Palm Sunday, riding the foal of a donkey, on Nisan 10th in fulfillment of scripture. On day 8, the following Sunday, He rose from the dead!⁵
• The eighth mention of an earthquake in scripture (NKJV, NASB, NIV tested) is Matt 28:2 where an angel caused the stone to roll away at Jesus' resurrection!
• The value⁶ of the name Jesus in Greek (Iesous) is 888. Iesous = I (10) + e ( 8 ) + s (200) + o (70) + u (400) + s (200) = 888
• The book of Revelation, which is the Revelation of Jesus, has (apparently) 888 unique Greek words!
   

Bonus Number! - 5

As a bonus for making it this far, here is one last number. A very important number! We've seen that the title 'Jesus of Nazareth', which Pilate wrote and placed on the cross, had a numeric value of 2197 (13 x 13 x 13). Many years ago my Uncle decided to see what the entire sentence that Pilate wrote added up to in the Greek.⁹ He soon found that each Gospel writer only records part of the message:

• Mat 27:37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS."
• Mar 15:26 The inscription of the charge against Him read, "THE KING OF THE JEWS."
• Luk 23:38 Now there was also an inscription above Him, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS."
• Joh 19:19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

Combing these to get the full message we have 'This is Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews'

When sin met perfect grace!

My Uncle found that in Greek this has a value of 7215. Now the observant among you will probably ask 'Well, is this a multiple of 13? Because if Jesus was made sin on the cross, and 13 is the number of sin, then I would expect it to!' You will be pleased to know that it is. But here is the really interesting part. 7215 is 13 x 555! 5 is the number of grace and 555 is the intensification of grace just as 888 (the number of Jesus) is the intensification of resurrection and new life! 

Sin (13) met intensified perfect grace (555), on the cross! 

Conclusion

Ok - there is a lot to digest there! This has been an introduction into the predictions and numbers around the resurrection of Jesus. What we have seen is that it was PERFECT and it was pointed to in many ways! 

1. The very date that He died and rose from the dead was perfect being specified 1500 years previously when God revealed the feast day dates to Moses (Passover and Firstfruits)  
2. The length of time He spent in the grave was perfect to fulfill multiple pictures and types in the Old Testament as well as the very predictions of Jesus Himself.
3. The very name of Jesus, in the Greek, has a perfect value of 888 pointing directly to the One who is the resurrection and the life! 
4. And the cross, as shown by Pilate's inscription above Jesus, was sin meeting perfect grace! 

Only God, who is perfect in all His ways, could do all this! And what does the New Testament say? 

1Co 15:20-22  Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

The study has been mostly data, points and facts with little emphasis on the application. I know... I'll try make up for it next time! But as we close, the application is this: The perfection of Christ's resurrection means that all that are His are sure to rise and be found in perfection as well! God does everything perfectly. In my last message I spoke of having been at my sister-in-laws mother's funeral that week. That same day I recorded it I found out that my best friend's mother, a woman I have known for 40+ years, had finally succumbed to her pancreatic cancer and gone home to be with the Lord also. She is now with Him... because she is in Him. 'For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive'. Everything that we have is because of Him. He was made sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. His resurrection and defeat of death means that death will, and can have, no hold on those in Christ. 

Just make perfectly sure you have salvation. It is a free gift, but it can be missed if you are doing your own thing or trying to earn it in some other way from that which is prescribed by God in His word. Pastor J.D Farag likes to keep it simple and always closes His prophetic messages with the A B C's of salvation.

A  Admit to God that you are a sinner needing salvation

B  Believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and was raised from the dead

C  Call upon the name of the Lord and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord   

We will carry on next time looking more specifically at the events that occurred at the time of Jesus' resurrection.