First of all, the text in Zechariah
chapter 12, verse 9 through 11. And in verse 10, you run across
our text today. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that
come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplication. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. and they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a
great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimon in
the valley of Now, in verse 10, they shall
look upon him or me whom they have pierced. John 19, 31 through
verse 37. The Jews, therefore, because
it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the
cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high
day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that
they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers and broke
the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true. That would be John himself. And
he knoweth that he sayeth true, that ye might believe. For these
things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture
said, they shall look on him whom they pierced. And there's Zechariah. Now, in
our study, what I'm trying to do is make a strong emphasis
on the prophecy, first we look at that, and then on the fulfillment
of it as we read about it in the New Testament. Now what we're
seeing from our early study of Zachariah is that the prophecy
is set forth, and the object is Christ in particular. Well, then we find that the prophecy
is fulfilled in the New Testament in the person, in the work, and
in the evil that was done unto our Lord and our Savior. thus confirming beyond doubt
that Christ is the subject and the object of the prophecy and
is the one spoken about so frequently by the prophets throughout the
Old Testament. Now concerning prophecy as we
have them in the Old Testament, there are some prophecies that
are immediately clear and evident. They can clearly be seen and
diagnose and understand. And they are bursting with Christological
truth, for Christ is there and we can see him very clearly. For example, in Isaiah chapter
53. Who could that be but the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, God's righteous servant. There's Psalm
16 and there's Psalm 22 that are plainly evident of our Lord. On the other hand, there are
some prophecies that are more obscure where the Messiah speaks
in the first person as he does in Psalm chapter 16. Thou wilt
not leave my soul in Hades. Places where one divine person
is speaking unto another prophetically, as in Psalm 100 and verse 10. The Lord said to my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand. And prophecies where we might
not recognize them as having prophetical significance until
we come into the New Testament and the authors there bring them
out. For example, If we were to read
in Exodus 12 and verse 46 that the Israelites were not to break
a bone of their Passover lamb on the celebration of it, we
probably would never in our own make the connection to the body
of our Lord as it hanged upon the cross and a bone was not
broken. But John 19 brings that very
clearly before us. When we read in Psalm chapter
19 of the creation in verse 4 that their line or their sound is
gone out through all of the earth and even unto the end of the
world. I doubt that we would ever make
the connection that Paul makes in Romans chapter 10. That he
would justify that as the preaching of the gospel unto the Gentile
and out to the entire world. Romans chapter 10 and verse 18. Have they not heard? Yes, their sound went out to
all the end of the world. Hearing alone is not enough to
convert one unto the Lord and Savior, or our God. With that, let's consider our
prophecy of today. And yet we must not draw on our
own personal conclusion, and we must not apply our own biases
under the prophecy. We must not use them to try to
prove some preconceived bias or notion in our mind. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 20,
we read this, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation." Now that is an amazing statement. But what does it say? What is
it meaning? For it's not that easy for us
to think about it. We see that it refers to what
is written. For notice, it speaks of prophecy
of the scripture. The prophecy of the scripture,
none of it is a private interpretation. And then, does it refer to the
person who wrote the prophecy, or does it refer to the readers,
or does it refer to both situations together? And does it restrict
to the writings of the Old Testament prophets only, or is it a promise
also attached to the Apostle in their New Testament writing
and scripture? As they write up the record of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that they write,
to instruct and guide the churches into the word of truth. Now one thing there does seem
clear. In 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 20
and 21 go together, I believe. Verse 20, no prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation. Now what does that mean? And
notice the connection. No prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation in verse 20. And then look at
verse 21. or sense. The prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man. How then did it come? Men spoke under the controlling
influence of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty. I think the
Greek expressed it in a picturesque way. They were born along. Kind of like a sail ship. The wind is caught in the sail
and bears it along upon the wind. Moved by the Holy Spirit of God
as they wrote. controlled and inspired by the
Spirit of the Lord as they wrote the things that we call the Blessed
and Holy Scripture. Calvin wrote on the text in 2
Peter Chapter 1, verse 20 and verse 21, these words. It is
God that speaks unto us through the scripture and not mere mortal
man. God is speaking to us in and
by the scripture. And then Calvin said, quote,
Peter bids us trust the prophet as the undoubted oracles of God
because they do not give sway to any private human impulse."
They did not write what they desired to write or what they
thought to write, but what they were inspired to write by the
Holy Spirit of God. They were holy men and yet they
did not produce the scripture by their own thinking or their
own reasoning or their own impulse. They spoke or they wrote as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. Literally, that passage in 2
Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16 calls the scriptures God-breathed. They are the God-breathed Word
of God. Owen put it this way, that they
were born up by him carried beyond themselves to speak his word
and what he moved them to write by that inspiration. So the scripture
was not written by man from his own thinking or his remembrance. nor their private conception
or understanding. Nor need they understand all
that they had written in prophecy. No doubt they did not understand
all that they had written, what it meant, and what it would lead
to as they wrote. In Revelation 19 and verse 10,
there is a statement that intrigues me to no end. And I cannot, for
the life of me, seem to get my arms around it. The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19 and verse 10. And taking the two sayings together,
2 Peter 1 and Revelation 19 and verse 10. We see that the gift
of prophecy was Christ speaking through men and writing through
men, the Holy Spirit being upon them, God's Word for His people. And the chosen authors were therefore
so guided to make known the Word of God in truth unto us, as Christ
is the chief prophet and the very Word of God. And so, being inspired, we have
no doubt that our scriptures are indeed the Word of God. Even so, I dare to say not half
the people sitting in the church pew this morning believe that
or have that view of the Scripture and of the Bible. They don't
view the Scripture in the proper light as they ought without mixture
in error in all of their writing. They don't consider them to be
God-breathed. A lot of people in the churches
do not. They don't consider them to have
been divinely inspired so that everything and every point they
are without error. Some places don't even read the
scripture or exposit them in what they call their hour of
worship. But now for the prophecy for
today. the pierced one upon the cross
with observation that some prophecy can no doubt have a double meaning
or double application. A lesser and a greater, a historical
and a spiritual, international Israel and a spiritual Israel
as well. Now Paul distinguished in Galatians
chapter 4 Verse 25 and verse 26, between the Jerusalem that
now is, he said, and the Jerusalem which is above, which is the
mother of us all. But now for the text of our subject. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse
10 is where we'll start. And the part that said, they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And I want to call
attention to the tense there, me. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. Because the verse and the context
has much to say about the piercing. Even in verse 10, before He mentioned
the piercing. I will pour out upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitant of Jerusalem a spirit of grace
and supplication and they look up on me whom they have pierced. And then after me whom they have
pierced and they shall lament for him and mourn. Now the question
is much like that of the eunuch in the eighth chapter of Acts.
Pray tell me, of whom speaketh the prophet? Of himself or of
some other man? Note the change of person just
in the tenth verse alone. me and him. All three of those
are you. But also note that in the verses
referred to in John 19, only the part about the piercing is
mentioned by John in chapter 19. Now as to the question of
whom does the prophet speak these things, they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced. Now the Jews, as you might expect,
are not agreed as to the one intended in this writing of the
prophet Zechariah, not agreed on a lot of things about the
prophecy of the Old Testament. Now the spiritual Jews, the true
sons of Abraham, those enlightened, born again as it were, could
apply it and understand it to be a word of testimony concerning
the Messiah. But only a small number of physical
Israel was also spiritual Israel. Only a remnant and a small remnant
at that. Some Jews taking God to be the
speaker, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Consider
this an absurdity and an impossibility for God cannot be pierced. And so this stumbled them, God
is not a man that one might pierce Him with a sword. Nor dare they
admit it, to be the Messiah, for then it would expose both
their father's sin in killing Him and persecuting the prophet,
and theirs in rejecting Him as the Messiah. And so they invented
different ways that they might avoid applying these things to
the Messiah, Isaiah 53, these others as well. They said that pierce only meant
to insult or to blaspheme. Some Jews said, no, that word
pierce means to insult or to blaspheme. Good commentators
say it is never used in any sense in the scripture except the literal
piercing that we're looking at today. Then some Jews spoke of
a supposed Messiah being Joseph who they invented that they might
remove the passage from Christ. They were greatly pinched by
the words, they shall look on me whom they have pierced. So the pierced one was not just
a common ordinary man but a divine being, as they changed all things,
so they might deny that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah,
the one spoken of in this and other like prophecy. So they denied that Christ was
the Messiah, though they did not deny that a Messiah would
come. Now, if I might make a short
digression, and it will be short, We have a like example of this,
I believe, today in our churches and among the Armenians, as they
despise the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, and they reject it and
cast it aside as abhorrent and an insult, and they change the
meaning of words like hate. so that they might get out from
under the heavy pinch of the sovereignty of God. Or they say,
it doesn't mean that, it means something else. They openly admit
their prejudice against a God that does as He pleases in sovereignty
without regard to the ability or the will of the creature whatsoever. So the conclusion is, this prophecy
of the piercing of the divine one can only properly be interpreted
in the light of the cross and the Lord that died there. Thomas
More, in his commentary of Zachariah, wrote this, and I quote, the
only meaning that the text will bear is Jehovah is the speaker
and that he is speaking of a divine person. unquote. With that, let's
move to the New Testament and the reference to the prophecy
of Zechariah. And there may be three references
to this verse or this statement in the New Testament. I found
at least three. I'll share them quickly with
you. Number one, I think it is referred to in Matthew chapter
24 and verse 30. It uses these words, Then shall
the tribes of the earth mourn. And that's a reference to our
quotation out of that verse. Secondly, in Revelation chapter
1 and verse 7, it uses the words, Behold, he cometh with clouds,
and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him,
and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. But thirdly, the clearest reference
is in John Chapter 19. 31 through 37, if you want to
turn there, we'll be there a while. Where here it is said that the
piercing of the side of the Lord Jesus by a Roman soldier fulfilled
the scripture which said, they shall look on him whom they have
pierced. And this of course would be Zechariah
chapter 12 and verse 10. Now if you're in John chapter
It is a rich vein of ore of truth connecting prophecy with fulfillment. We have more here in a cluster,
perhaps, than any other place in the New Testament. And John
gives us the account of how the piercing came about and how it
took place and they fulfilled that which was written. Zechariah
only gives us the fact. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. But John gives us the particulars
and providentially how it came to pass. Let's notice first the
special emphasis here in John 19, which John gives to the specific
events that occurred during our Lord's hours on the cross. And John says again and again,
they fulfill the scripture, fulfill what was written. How often he
mentions it here in the Lord's time on the cross during his
crucifixion and his death. I'd like to run through them
quickly. I think they're profitable and spiritual. For example, look
at verse 24, if you're in John chapter 19, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, which says, they parted my raiment among
them, and for my vesture they cast lots. Now you'll find that
in Psalms 22 and verse 18, very clearly prophesied, very clearly
fulfilled by the unintended soldier. Then verse 28 of John 19, that
the scripture might be fulfilled, they gave him vinegar to drink
on the cross when he cried out, I thirst. You'll find that in
Psalm 69 and verse 21. Then look at verse 36, of John 19, these things were
done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall
not be broken. Exodus 12 and 46. Then look at verse 37 again,
and again another scripture said, they shall look on him whom they
have pierced, Zechariah 12 and 10. but also there are others
not mentioned in that way. For example, look at verse 18. They crucified our Lord between
two thieves and Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 12 said, he was
numbered with the transgressor. That fulfilled the scripture.
Mark 15, 27 and 28, and with him they crucified two thieves
and the scripture was fulfilled which said, he was numbered with
the transgressor. Then look at verse 38 through
verse 42. The preparation and the burial
of the body of our Lord. Paul said that they were done
according to the Scripture, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 4. And Isaiah 53 and verse 9 makes
a rather mysterious statement, he was with the rich in his death,
and so forth, and would not see corruption. Psalm 16, 8 through
11. So, those are covered as well
by the scripture. And even the writing of Pilate
upon the cross. Pilate wrote, Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jew. And this is called his accusation. in Matthew 27 and 37. I have no doubt that Pilate wrote
those words that he might spite the Jew. I think he wanted to
jab them in the eye with a sharp stick for the trouble they'd
caused him and because he knew that they had delivered him for
envy. And we remember Pilate was determined
to let our Lord go. But this is the point of emphasis
from John chapter 19, that the acts and the action of those
involved in the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior again and
again fulfilled a particular scripture regarding that, made
centuries before, centuries before it ever happened, and written
by men years apart and not even knowing or being acquainted one
with another. The actors in the crucifixion
were not motivated by a desire to fulfill the scripture or the
word of God. It was not that that motivated
them to do what they did unto our blessed Lord. They were not
interested in being an agent in seeing that the scripture
and the ancient prophecy were fulfilled. Pilate and the Roman
soldier, none of them intended to be acting so as to fulfill
the scripture. Pilate even acted against his
better judgment to condemn our Lord. For he believed Jesus to
be innocent. Luke chapter 23 and verse 4. And he ruled against the clear
evidence in the case of our Lord. He ruled against the counsel
of his wife, who sent him word and said, listen, have nothing
to do with that just man, for I've suffered many things this
night in a dream because of him, Matthew 27 and verse 19, and
he still sent the Lord to the cross, though
He was determined to let him go." Acts 3 and verse 13. And then the soldiers, that legion
of soldiers that came, it was maybe the practice of them who
crucified the victim to split the last belonging of those that
came to be put to death. And so they cast lots. for the
garment of our blessed Lord. They were not motivated by what
the prophet had said. They were motivated by a curiosity. and a fascination with the tunic
or the garment that our Lord was wearing without any intent
whatsoever to fulfill the scripture and yet they did not rend this
one as the scripture had said. They cast lots for it. In Exodus
28, 32 you read real quickly about a garment that the priest
wore. Perhaps our Lord had one Like
unto it. As for the vinegar, in verse
28 through verse 30, the Lord said, I thirst that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. Verse 28, nothing but divine
providence guided the response of those soldiers and the Scripture
was fulfilled as they lifted that bitter vinegar to the lips
of our suffering and drying Lord. In Acts 13, Paul, preaching at
Antioch, and if you want to turn there with me, in the synagogue
on the Sabbath day at the invitation of the ruler. And it tells the
people, Paul does, in Acts 13 and beginning in verse 26 through
verse 29, if you want to follow. Paul stands to speak, deliver
the morning sermon. And he said, Men and brethren,
children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth
God, to you is this word of salvation sent, for they that dwell at
Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew not Him, nor yet the
voice of the prophet, which are read every Sabbath day they have
fulfilled in condemning Him. And though they found no fault
or cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that he should
be slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of Him, They took him down from the tree and
laid him in the supplicar." Now twice in these few verses, Paul
mentions how the action in securing the condemnation and the death
of the Lord fulfilled the scripture. What was written of him? Verse 27 and verse 29. And see
what Paul tells them about those who dwelled at Jerusalem, who
actually led the charge against Christ. It's in verse 27, Acts
13, two things. Number one, he said they knew
him not. That is, they knew not Christ.
They knew not the Christ. Or they knew him as a man and
as Jesus of Nazareth, but they did not know him as the Christ
of God and the Messiah. And the second thing, that led
again to their ignorance, they knew not the voices of the prophets. They'd heard them over and over
in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And it was not just that
the common people did not know them, but the rulers and the
leaders did not know the voices of the prophets. Their chief
men and the most enlightened and spiritual among them, supposedly,
fail to recognize Jesus as that one being foretold as the Messiah
in the Scripture. How amazing and how providential
I think is this, that being ignorant of the Messianic Scripture and
yet what they did fulfill the Scripture exactly. Ignorant of
the Scripture and yet unintentionally acted in a way that fulfilled
the scripture. Let's go back to the piercing
of the Lord using John's version of it, chapter 19, 31 through
verse 37. Because it was on this way that
the prophets foretold that Messiah would die, but also they told
some of the particulars of the suffering of the Lord. One of
them being his piercing. He was pierced in the side as
he was crucified. This resulted from the Jews'
request that Pilate might send soldiers to make sure they were
dead. And if they were not dead, to
break their legs. to add pain and suffering and
hasten death because they didn't want the bodies to remain on
the cross on the Sabbath day. And it is said that sometimes
those crucified lived more than one day through the night and
such like and were left there in their agony to die. But in Deuteronomy chapter 21,
23, they must be finished, their bodies taken down and buried
that very same day. So Pilate dispatched soldiers
to make sure that they were dead, the three of them on the cross,
and if not, kill them, finish them off, beat them to death,
break their leg, inflict torture. So they came to Calvary and they
break the legs of the first, And they broke the legs of the
second with him, but by a stroke of divine providence, when they
came to the Lord Jesus Christ, their clubs or their bars or
whatever in hand, they saw that he was dead already, and it stopped
them. Now remember something. The thieves
had their life taken. The Lord yielded His up. No man
takes it. He gave it up. He had already
gave up the ghost in verse 30 of John 19. He commended the
spirit into God's hands, Luke 23 and 46, so that they did not
break His legs, even though this was a fulfillment of the Scripture,
not a bone of Him shall be broken." Then, in John 19 and 34, and
only John gives us this fact about the matter, one of the
soldiers speared the Lord in the side. He thrust in his spear
into the body of Jesus Christ as he hung dead upon the cross. We're not told what motivated
the soldier to do this, They were sure he gave no thought
to the fulfilling of scripture. It was not that he recalled,
oh yes, I read so and so. No, none of that in his mind.
Gill wrote, and I agree, it was ordered by divine providence,
quote unquote. and served two purposes. The spearing of our Lord in His
side. Number one, it confirmed that
the Lord actually, really, literally died. No swoon theory. Because you see, if there's no
death, there can be no resurrection. It's not a swoon theory. The Lord was dead before this
spearing took place. Secondly, It confirmed the scripture. It fulfilled the scripture. Christ
is the pierced one that they looked upon. Now consider the
guiding providence of God. They came with the intent to
break his legs in the event that he was still alive. We hear that
some took more than a day to die, as I said, and being dead
already, he was spared this posthumous indignity of breaking of the
legs, and it fulfilled a scripture. So he was speared. He was speared
in his side and that fulfilled a scripture. But think, why did
the soldier not also crush the legs of the Lord? Since that's
what they came for, that's what they were sent for, that was
the usual procedure in crucifixion. They only speared one but they
broke the legs of two of the three. And Jesus lay down his
life, the others had theirs taken away. Then, let's notice lastly,
a wonderful and an amazing thing occurred. So soon as the soldiers
pierced our Lord, blood and water flowed out of that wound of our
Lord, and in verse 35, John saw it. He was an eyewitness. He
was present there at the crucifixion. He gave a firsthand eyewitness
account of it and said this is a true indeed. What is the meaning
of this? that the water and blood came
out. I think John mentions it in 1
John chapter 5 and verse 6 through verse 8, came by blood and water. Is it natural or supernatural? Is it ordinary or extraordinary
that blood and water flowed out of the side of our Lord? Would
it have had the same result if the thieves had been speared
in this same manner? I cannot be of the opinion of
those who see the flow as a symbol of the sacrament, the blood and
the water. For there's no water used in
the sacrament or the supper of our Lord, nor water mixed with
wine. nor as Augustine's view was that
this water splashed on the one thief and he was baptized in
the hour of his death. But when we look at it all that
occurred during the Lord's hours on the cross, the earthquake,
the ripping and splitting of the rock, the darkness for three
hours, the renting of the veil in the temple, graves coming
open, all of that, in connection with our Lord's death. Then I
tend to agree with J.C. Ryle who wrote, the unusual flow
of water and of blood was a supernatural event meant to have spiritual
lessons, unquote. This seems clear from 1 John
5, verse 6 through verse 8. And can it remind us or point
us to Zechariah 13 and verse 1 In that day shall there be
a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Now in the context
of it, the Jew returned from captivity when these prophecies
were made unto them, and yet it also points to the cross and
Christ and the opening of that fountain. Yea, he is the ever-flowing
fountain of blood to justify of water to cleanse and to sanctify. The fountain of living waters
is our blessed Savior that one may drink and never thirst again. John 4 and 14. As the Lord told
the sinful Samaritan woman, you drink of this water that I give
and you'll never thirst again. And so the Lord tells her that.
A fountain of life. symbolized by the piercing of
the side of the Lord and the outflow of the blood and of the
water. It is open. It is not sealed
up or shut up. It is ever flowing. Now the fountain
is not literal, but it is spiritual. Nor is it in one place upon the
earth that we must go there, but it is spiritual flowing from
the Lord, Jesus Christ. He once said in Isaiah 55, O
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the water. He that hath
no money, buy without money or without price. Not for the righteous
is this fountain, but for sinners. Not just for the rich, but for
the poor in spirit. Cast in no money. Freely receive
pardon. Not a fountain of works or of
law, it is a fountain of grace. And it is not temporary, but
perpetual. ever flowing, ever giving out,
life-giving power and principle. My friend, this is only found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's life in no other, only
in this fountain Do we drink the water of everlasting life? Only from this fountain are we
cleansed with the blood that washes away our sin. Christ has shed for us. Thank God for Him who endured
every indignity that God appointed him to bear in our stead. And
next week we get to my favorite Zechariah prophecy, the sword
awakened and sent on a mission to smite the shepherd and the
Lord Jesus Christ is that one. Thank God for that, this fountain
of open for our sin and uncleanliness. Our Lord pierced blood and water. Yes, thank God for that.