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The Prophetic Drawing Of Christ

Events Have Drawing Power

You don’t have to be a genius to know that events in history have drawn the attention of masses of people. Whether they are for good or bad, people take note of them and many are pulled into their unique ability to be seen, to be noticed, to be given undue attention. Whenever there is a blood red moon, people want to see it. When there is a total eclipse of the sun or the moon people, and especially Christians want to know everything about it. I know growing up I and oh, about 93% of all Americans or around 650 million people watched Neil Armstrong leave the lunar module and put his foot on the moon. It drew international attention as well. Few events have drawn the public interest than that one moment in time. However, if there had been cameras, newspapers or any even basic recording equipment way back in ancient Rome there was one single event that , if seen would fascinate even us more today. In fact it continues to change the world now. I may be making more of this than did the world back then, but time has shown us that one man was born, lived, and died and then came back to life around 33AD and still fascinates billions of people in our time. That man was Jesus Christ.

A Very Special Birth

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem there was a considerable buzz about it, but it wasn’t an internationally known birth like so many famous people experience today. In fact, when lists of famous people in even the last 100 years, few were famous when they were born. We never knew people like Darwin, Einstein, Bach, Beethoven, Lincoln, Hitler, Marx, or any of the people we say now would be famous at the time of their birth. But Jesus? He was certainly different. He was the long awaited Messiah and his birth was predicted all the way back in the Garden of Eden. According to an article from answersingenesis.org The virgin birth of Jesus was unlike any other famous person’s birth before or since:

There are no prophecies foretelling details about the birth of other religious leaders. No prophecies alerted the world to the coming of Muhammad (Islam), Joseph Smith (Mormonism), David Koresh (Branch Davidians), Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses), Siddhartha Gautama (Buddhism), or any other founder of the world’s religions. Yet the Old Testament pinpointed numerous details about the life of the Son of God and Savior of the world.

The article then goes on to note the uniqueness of His life, too:

So what do these prophecies tell us about Jesus? In just the first two chapters of Matthew, we see that God foretold the virginal conception of the Messiah, who would be born in Bethlehem, yet in some way would come out of Egypt and be called a Nazarene. We also see that bitter agony would grip the mothers in that area.

A Prophetic Life

Aside from his birth being predicted in the Bible, His life fulfilled prophecies as well as we continue to read in the gotquestions.org article:

In the genealogy recorded in Matthew’s first chapter, we discover the fulfillment of several other Old Testament prophecies. Jesus was from the line of Abraham (Genesis 12:3), Isaac (Genesis 26:4), Jacob (Genesis 28:14), Judah (Genesis 49:8–12), Jesse (Isaiah 11:1), and David (Isaiah 9:7). But that’s not all. A search through the rest of Scripture would reveal dozens of other details prophesied about the Messiah, including the following facts:

He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (Matthew 21:4–10; Zechariah 9:9).

He would be betrayed by a friend (John 13:18; Psalm 41:9).

The betrayal would be for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–16; Zechariah 11:12).

The money would be used to purchase the potter’s field (Matthew 27:3–10; Zechariah 11:13).

The Messiah would die a sacrificial death for us (Matthew 27:50; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:8).

He would die with criminals but His burial would be with the wealthy (Matthew 27:57–60; Luke 23:33; Isaiah 53:9).

He would rise from the dead (Matthew 28:6; Psalm 16:8–11; Isaiah 53:10).

He would say certain words on the Cross. He would be mocked, and people would gamble for His clothes (Psalm 22:1, 8, 18).

According to some Bible scholars, Jesus fulfilled between 456 to 574 prophecies, numbers that are astronomically impossible to happen by chance. However, there is one statement that Jesus made about His eternal mission that tends to get overlooked.

A Strong Drawing Power

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32, NIV)

Jesus uttered these words right after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem which was predicted in the book of Daniel in astonishing accuracy, but I digress. And for some it only has one meaning and actually, John the Apostle actually tells in the very next verse:

He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:33, NIV)

To some, that’s it. Move along, nothing more to see here. But it was more than that that. You see, He speaks of a drawing that is unique to His death, burial, and resurrection. No other man did what He did and it would reverberate through all of history, past, present and future. Yes, there are some whose influence lived on after their demise, but this influence is not what Jesus spoke about. I like how Bible commentator John MacLaren elaborates on this distinction:

‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ That ‘if’ expresses no doubt, it only sets forth the condition. The Christ lifted up on the Cross is the Christ that draws men. Now I would have you notice the fact that our Lord thus unveils, as it were, where His power to influence individuals and humanity chiefly resides. He speaks about His death in altogether a different fashion from that of other men, for He does not merely say, ‘If I be lifted up from the earth, this story of the Cross will draw men,’ but He says, ‘I will’ do it; and thus contemplates, as I shall have to say in a moment, continuous personal influence all through the ages.

MacLaren then connects the dots for us:

Now that is not how other people have to speak about their deaths, for all other men who have influenced the world for good or for evil, thinkers and benefactors, and reformers, social and religious, all of them come under the one law that their death is no part of their activity, but terminates their work, and that thereafter, with few exceptions, and for brief periods, their influence is a diminishing quantity. So one Apostle had to say, ‘To abide in the flesh is more needful for you,’ and another had to say, ‘I will endeavour that after my decease ye may keep in mind the things that I have told you’; and all thinkers and teachers and helpers glide away further and further, and are wrapped about with thicker and thicker mists of oblivion, and their influence becomes less and less.

The Cross is the magnet of Christianity…

It Extends To All

Jesus’ death on the cross did more than influence to those who lived when He lived. It was prophetic in that it extended to those who were looking forward to it and used blood sacrifices to cover their sins until Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice. And it surely reached out to those alive at the time of the cross. But it is it’s power to draw to people now that made His statement prophetic as well. And we can’t stop with us. No this drawing continues until eternity running all the way through the Tribulation and to the end of the Millenium. Another gotquestions.org article helps tie a bow on the strength of Jesus’ words and the distinctive drawing power of the cross:

Jesus wasn’t implying that every person without exception would put their faith in Him for salvation. Clearly, many did not. Jesus meant that people of all ethnic groups and from every part of the world would be drawn to Him through His exaltation in death. The “all people” included the Greeks who were seeking Jesus right then and listening to His voice.

This reaching out and pulling is personally administered by Holy Spirit and no one can be saved without it. And it doesn’t discriminate on who it touches:

When Jesus said, “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself,” His primary reference was to the cross, but His words also include the resurrection and ascension in its meaning. Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension are all linked to His glorious exaltation and the drawing of sinners to Himself (Romans 6:9–10; 1 Peter 3:18–22; Revelation 1:18). But it is the cross that is the centerpiece of the gospel and the magnetizing force of Christianity. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, in all its magnitude of meaning revealed by the power of the Holy Spirit to human hearts, appeals to the whole wide world. No class, social status, race, nationality, sex, or age group is excluded from its attraction.

And that’s a good place for an amen!