The
Place Of The Skull
John 19:17 “And he bearing his cross went
forth into a place called the place of a skull,
which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
18 Where they crucified him, and two other
with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the
midst.
19 And Pilate wrote a
title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was
JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
20 This title then read many of the Jews:
for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to
the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek,
and Latin.
21 Then said the
chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The
King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the
Jews.
22 Pilate answered, What I
have written I have written.
23
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,
took his garments, and made four parts, to every
soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was
without seam, woven from the top throughout.
24 They said therefore among
themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for
it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be
fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among
them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These
things therefore the soldiers did.”
1. Golgotha
2. The Title
3. The
Coat
4. The Scripture Fulfilled
1. Golgotha
Verse seventeen, we read this: ”And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:”
Now, the skull is the bone that forms the exterior of the head, and encloses the brain.
The word skull appears five times in our King James Bible. The number five is a number that is connected with death, thus, the place of the skull is the place of DEATH.
There is something else here, too. The place of death is the place of a PERSON. I can hear you, now. You are asking me this question. “What do you mean by this “place of a skull” being the place of a PERSON? Who is this person?”
Patience, my friend! When we run it down in the BOOK, we find that DEATH is that person who hangs around the “place of a skull”.
We can see the first part of this connection by going to the book of Revelation to chapter two, in verse twenty-three. Are we ready to begin? “And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” [Revelation 2:23]
Did you see “I will kill her children with death”?
Maybe you are not convinced yet, that Death is a person, indeed. We are now ready to see the second part of this connection by going to the book of the Revelation, in chapter six, verse eight: “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” [Revelation 6:8]
Conclusion! DEATH is a person, and he is riding on pale horse.
Have you, my friend, ever heard the expression: you look pale as death? You see, one day DEATH is coming for you and I. Have you ever thought of that before? You need to think about it!
2. The Title
Verse nineteen: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Here is the government of Rome [the earthly authority] TITLING the Cross on which they hung the SON of GOD.
Now, a title is an inscription. An inscription puts a name on something by which a thing is to be made known to everyone, forevermore.
So for the last two thousand years, everyone who reads the Bible here [in John nineteen] can see this title that the earthy powers [a Gentile government] inscribed on the Cross of Calvary. The Roman government by inscribing this inscription: “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS” recognized unwittingly their own future demise. One day the Gentle governments will be blown to bits when the Son of God sets up HIS throne from Jerusalem.
In [Haggai 2:22] it says this: “And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.”
And in [Micah 4:7] we have this: “And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.”
There is one more thing to take notice here in this title or inscription. The three primary languages that dominated the world at that time were “Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin”.
Two of the languages in two thousand years later are now … dead languages.
The Hebrew language, in spite of the destruction of Israel and the casting to the Jews to the four winds, has survived. This is a supernatural preservation of a language, and nothing less.
3. The Coat
Verse twenty-three: “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.”
Now, they crucify God, Who was “come in the flesh” [1 John 4:2-3]. They strip HIM of HIS clothes. It is, as Job said of the wicked, “They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;” [Job 24:10].
In the Song of Solomon we see the Son of God has “put off” HIS coat.
Look with me there in chapter five, verse two and three: “I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?” [Song of Solomon 5:2-3]
In the book of Micah, SOMEONE in the future [according to prophet] will wail and will howl and go stripped and naked. We will read from there: [Micah 1:8] “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.” Who is this?
In verse fifteen of this chapter HE appears again: “Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.” [Micah 1:15]
Jesus Christ is the GOD, the GLORY of Israel!
4. The Scripture Fulfilled
Verse twenty-four: “They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”
King David of Israel [before the year of 1015 B.C. which is the year he died] wrote Psalm 22 by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
Turn to there. Read verse eighteen. “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” [Psalm 22:18]
Now, this psalm is totally Messianic, and it is pointing to a then future event in history which would occur one thousand forty-eight years later in 33 A.D.
I need to say something now. The prophecies found in the Bible [Scripture] will come true [be fulfilled] 1oo percent of the time. The BOOK will have a perfect record when it is all said and done. You can count on it.
There is not another BOOK [The King James Bible] on the face of this earth that has ever, ever, come close to THIS BOOK!
The fact that HIS garment [the coat] was not divvied up by the rending of it, and that it was kept whole, and was given instead to one soldier by the casting lots … literally fulfilled the Scripture.
The whole thing was prophesied by the prophet
[David] for this reason … so “that the
scripture might be fulfilled.”