Week 3: John 17-21 and Romans 1-3

John keeps pointing us to Jesus and Romans gives us the solid foundation we need to build a strong faith. What stood out to you? John 19:32-33 stood out to me.

John19:32-33: 32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

At first glance, this looks like merely an additional fact about Jesus' crucifixion but there is much more going on. In Roman crucifixions it was common practice to break the legs of those being crucified in order to hasten their death. Without the use of their legs to push themselves up, it would have been impossible to take a breath so they would die faster. John tells us that Jesus was already dead so they didn’t need to break his legs. A few verses later, John mentions why he included this.

John19:36: 36 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.”

John tells us this was a prophecy/prediction made 1,000 years before it happened and at a time that crucifixion wasn’t even practiced.

Psalms 34:20: He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.

Even more amazing than that is Exodus 12:46 which goes back to a time hundreds of years before the verse we just read in Psalms.

Exodus 12:46: 46 It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.

Moses is giving instructions to the Jewish people on how to celebrate the Passover meal. The first Passover was the night that God delivered Israel from being slaves in Egypt. God told the people to take a lamb, kill it, eat it and put some of the blood on their doorpost. When the death angel came to their household to kill the firstborn the angel would see the blood and pass over them. Notice that God says specifically not to break any of its bones. Why? Because the Passover lamb points to and is a type of Jesus. This is why John, when he saw Jesus, said behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. What can you and I get from all of this? First, we can trust the Bible is God's word not man’s. Only God could know over a thousand years before that the messiah (Jesus) would be crucified (not even invented or practiced at the time it was predicted) and that unlike the common practice at the time Jesus’ legs would not be broken. I can trust that the Bible was not man’s word but God's word that he gave to people to write down. Secondly, these prophecies that came to pass in Jesus tell me I can trust that the promised messiah, Savior and Lord who would come to die for my sins was Jesus. Thus, my faith in Jesus and the

Scriptures stands strong!

Prayer for the week: Father, I thank you that my faith in Jesus and the Scriptures is not a leap into the dark rather a leap into the light.

-Pastor Keith