'Understandest thou what thou readest?'

The famous passage in Luke 18 reads, [31] Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
[32] For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
[33] And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
[34] And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

Jordan explains, “The disciples don’t understand what’s going on. They read the passage but it’s a blank to them. Let me give you an illustration.

“In Acts 8, there’s an Ethiopian eunuch who’s a proselyte into Judaism. He’s been to Jerusalem, he’s worshipped and he’s coming home. The passage reads, ‘And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
[31] And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
[32] The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth.’

“Now, where’s that found? That’s in the great chapter everybody knows about—Isaiah 53. If you ask anybody where’s the Cross in the Old Testament, they’ll say Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Those are the only two chapters anybody knows about. Isaiah 53 is the one this guy’s reading.

Philip says, 'Do you understand what you’re reading?’ and he says, ‘How can I?’ Watch what he says in verse 34: 'And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?'

“You see, it was hid from him what the verses meant. He didn’t get it. When Jesus told the apostles, ‘I am going to go die and be resurrected the third day,’ they didn’t get it. He gave them the information but it was hid from them; they didn’t understand it.

“Now when that changed is Luke 24. After the resurrection Jesus walks with the two on the way to Emmaus that Sunday night; He goes down and meets with the apostles in the Upper Room, and He says to them in Luke 24:44, ‘These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.’

“If you go back to verse 25, 'Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
[26] Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
[27] And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.'

“You see, the things He’s talking to them about are His suffering and His glory. And He goes through Moses, the Law, the prophets and the Psalms. A Hebrew Bible is divided into those three sections. The Torah, the Nebiim and the Kethubim.

“And He just goes through all the Old Testament Scriptures and opens their eyes and says, ‘See that?’ and explains it to them. And when He does that, He begins to spend time with them and they have, in essence, a 40-day Bible conference. He opens and expounds the Scripture to them.

“Acts 1:3 says, ‘To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.’

“He takes the Word of God and opens their eyes and now they’re able to see what the prophetic scriptures are talking about when it talked about the Crosswork.

“Look at Acts 8 and notice what Philip does when he answers the guy. Acts 8:35: ‘Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.’

“He said, ‘You know who Isaiah 53 is talking about? It’s talking about Jesus.’ And he preaches to him the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In verse 37, Peter says, ‘If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.’ The eunuch answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’

“ ‘He’s the son of David. He’s the Messiah. I believe that; I see.’ So now they understand what’s going on.

“Acts 3:18 says, ‘But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.’

“Now, they know all those scriptures in the law of the prophets and the Psalms that say Christ should suffer, and Pete says, ‘He’s fulfilled them all.’ God’s opened their eyes and they get what the prophetic scriptures say.

*****

“The next verse says, ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.’

“How does prophecy say their sins are going to be blotted out? God’s going to provide for them a Redeemer who will come out of Zion.

“Isaiah 53:8 says, ‘He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.’

“That’s the verse the guy’s quoting over in Acts 8. They begin to understand the value of His death but notice who it’s restricted to. It’s restricted to the nation Israel. He’s going to be a ransom for His people.

“Isaiah 59:20 says, ‘And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.’

“How’s He going to redeem them? That’s what He’s declared to be; their Rdeemer. They didn’t understand that back here. Peter then did. That’s why he says in I Peter 1:18, ‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.’

“Look at what Isaiah 53 says. He’s going to come to Zion. He’s Israel’s Redeemer. That’s the point there.

“Jeremiah 31:11 says, ‘The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.’

“In the prophetic Scripture, the Redeemer comes to redeem the nation Israel. Now they understand that the Crosswork is the basis upon which He’s going to be their Redeemer. When He told them in Acts 20:28, the night before He died He said, ‘This is my blood, the new covenant, which is shed for MANY.’

“By the way, if you go down to Jeremiah 31: 31-34 you’ll see there is the new covenant that He makes with the house of Israel. Here’s the blood of the covenant I made with Israel to redeem many. The many is always Israel.

“So back here the value of the Cross is focused on God’s purpose and program in the earth through His earthly people. Hosea 13:14 says, ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.’

“How does He ‘redeem them from the power of the grave’? Hebrews 2 says He does it through His death.

“You and I, knowing Hebrews and Romans, can go back and understand that, but a Jew reading that in the Old Testament wouldn’t understand what it meant.

“It’s important to understand that Peter and the Little Flock did have some understanding about the value of the Crosswork. They had exactly the understanding the Old Testament would say to them. He’s going to be Israel’s Redeemer.

“If you wonder what Peter knew, he understood the issue of remission of sins--that it had to do with Messiah providing it through his death and resurrection, and He understood He’s providing it for the people that believed.

“Now, when you come to Timothy, you see where the Apostle Paul takes that same ransom issue from back in Jeremiah and so forth and he says, ‘He gave  himself a ransom for all (not just for Israel) to be testified in due time,’ but now there is a completion of the information about the Cross.

“Without Paul’s revelation in here, you wouldn’t have the finality of understanding about what happened on the Cross. What Paul’s preached about the Cross was a mystery. There was a meaning about the Cross that was hidden. Why? Because if it hadn’t been hidden, Satan would have never crucified the Lord of glory.

“When he says, ‘He gave Himself a ransom testified in due time,’ it couldn’t be revealed until the due time arrived. Israel’s been set aside, the dispensational change has come in and now everybody’s down here at the foot of the Cross and Paul says, ‘You know He didn’t just come to save Israel and accomplish His earthly program in the flesh. He came also to save a bunch of Gentiles and put them in a new agency and use them in the heavenly places.’

“The events of the Cross were prophesied. The meaning was hidden and the ultimate meaning was not revealed until you come to Paul about how God was going to be a Redeemer, and that was the contention between Him and Satan.

“He would say, ‘I’m going to do it,’ and Satan would say, ‘You can’t do it. I’ve got you covered. I’ve got Israel held as a lawful captive. For you to redeem them you have to violate your law. If you violate your law, I win because now you’re a sinner. And I’m the father of sinners.’

“And God says, ‘No, I know how to do it. It’ll cost me the blood of my Son but through His blood I’ll make a new covenant that will pay for the old one, take it out of the way, and replace it with a new one that will give Israel everything I ever told them I’d give them on the basis of my work, not there’s.’

“Satan would have never crucified the Lord if he’d known that was the meaning and accomplishment of it.”