HOW TO RECOGNISE THE MESSIAH
How to recognize the Messiah!
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (of Jesus Christ) which is the power of God unto salvation; to The Jew first and than to the Greek” Romans 1:16
Though we live in a rather hostile world to the Jewish people nowadays, God’s Words still stands clear and unchangeable that God had sent His Son Jesus (Yeshua) to redeem mankind from the bondage of Sin and unto Himself. Out of the whole world population the first group of people to have had Jesus preached to them is the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself even preached the good news of the kingdom to the Jewish people first and He made it clear that He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel first and foremost. Why this is so, is because the Jewish nation was and still is the only people group with a covenant with YHWH – God. (See Matthew 10:5-6, Matthew 15: 21- 28, Luke 19:9-10, Acts 2:36 etc…)
Even Christians as a matter of fact are considered to be the only other people group with a covenant with the True and Living God. No other religion in the world have a covenant with God - YHWH. So we can safely say that the Christian faith is neither Catholic, Orthodox nor Protestant. It is neither Roman, European nor American. True Christianity, though an identity of its own is infact a Jewish faith, and no wonder that the devil hates no other groups of people as much as these two.
We must keep in mind that Jesus wanted to use His people to bring redemption and salvation to the whole world through them and that is what He did. The majority of His early disciples were in fact Jews and not gentiles and to these same people He gave the commandment to bring the good news of salvation to the whole world, regardless of religion, creed, color, status, education or background! (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-21, John 1:29, John 10:14-16, Acts 10:9-29;35-48, Ephesians 2:11-22, etc…)
This is clearly spelled out in the Bible in many places both in the Old and New Testament.
No one who claims to follow The True and Only Living God –YHWH – can in any way express hatred towards the Jewish people. In actual fact, no one who claims to be a follower of The Lord Jesus Christ can have a hatred toward any one, not even his/her own enemy!
Christians and all the people of the world cannot afford to forget that Jesus Christ is a Jew, born in the Jewish land, spoke the Jewish language (possibly as well as Greek and Aramaic) and came from a long line of Jewish ancestry even as clearly prophesied by the prophets hundreds of years before His birth, as we shall see.
Jesus never rejected His own people though many of His people have rejected Him, yet in that case there have been people from all races, languages and skin color who have both rejected Him and accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. So there is no reason for any one to point their finger and accuse the Jews for rejecting The Messiah, since in every nation and tongue there have been people who rejected Him too. (Apart from that, since the time of Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, there have been thousands that have recognised Jesus to be the true Messiah that the Scriptures foretold. Let not the worls forget that the majority of His disciples have been Jews)
The Jewish people at large accept the Old Testament books as their inspired Holy Books but reject the writings of the New Testament as Holy Writ. Why this is, is rather not that complicated to understand!
The answer is a lot simpler than one would think. It is very much like me, that though I was religious all my life, I was not a real Christian until the age of 23years when I started to search for the Truth of God’s Holy Word and quit relying upon the teachings and sayings of my old-past church background, so is the same principle applicable to many beloved Jewish friends I have met in my own life. They practically never read their own books – The Old Testament books. Thus they remain in the dark and unaware of how clearly spelled out it is in the Old Testament of Who is The Messiah; how to recognize Him when He comes and where is He coming!
Let us draw some points and see how one who is truly searching with a hungry and a humble heart can check and see for himself and recognize the Messiah!
1. The Messiah will have to be the seed of Abraham and that through him all the nations will be blessed.
• Moses recorded the promise of God to Abraham in the following way, “In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”. Genesis 22:18.
• Isaiah 52:15,“…He will sprinkle many” NASB
• Isaiah 60:3, “…and nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” NASB
• Matthew 24:14, (Jesus said…) “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” NASB
• Mark 13:10-11, (Jesus said…) “And the gospel must…be preached to all the nations.”
• Luke 24:45-48, (Jesus said…) “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” NASB
• Romans 16:25-27, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.” NASB
• Galatians 3:8-10, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” NASB
2. The Messiah must be of the tribe of Judah. (There were 12 tribes; that means that here the chance is already one out of 12).
• “When Jacob was dying, he said to his son Judah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” Genesis 49:10.
3. He must be of the house of David. In Isaiah’s prophesy of the Messiah we read: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, to establish it with justice and with righteousness” Isaiah 9:7.
• Jesus fulfilled the above scripture with great accuracy. He was often even regarded and called as being the ‘Son of David”.
• Matthew 1:1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham…” NIV
• Matthew 12:22-23, “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" NIV
• Matthew 20:30-31, “Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us! The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” NIV
• Matthew 21:9, “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!” NIV
• Mark 12:35-36, “While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?” NIV
4. The Messiah must be born of a Virgin. The Prophet Isaiah wrote: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14.
• Luke 1:26-28, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
• Luke 1:32-34, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. “How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" NIV
• Matthew 1:22-23, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us". NIV
5. The Messiah must be born in Bethlehem as foretold by the prophet Micah: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be a little among the thousands of Judah, yet of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” Micah 5:2.
• So, just it was foretold, Jesus out of the thousands of places, little towns and villages He could have been born, He was born in Bethlehem.
• Matthew 2:1-6, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah”. NIV
• Luke 2:4-7, “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” NIV
• John 7:42-43, “Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.” NIV
6. The Messiah must also be some one unique in His nature and person. He must be God.
• The prophet Isaiah clearly stated that the Messiah will be God.
• Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” NIV
• No doubt this has raised more eyebrows than any other prophesy about Christ The Messiah than any other scripture because it would mean that the God of the Jews –YHWH would have to Himself will have to be born through the Virgin (Mary) and be Himself the deliverer and Savior of His people. Again all eyes are turned to Jesus because there could not possibly be two Gods in the world and would certainly violate many other scriptures both in the Old and New Testament where it clearly say that there is only one God (Isaiah 45:22). Therefore it leaves us no other option to see that the Son that would be given through the virgin had to be God incarnate! YHWH (Jehovah) and the Son-Child who would be born and called ‘Mighty God’ had to be the same One!
7. Who is the Messiah that would be able to meet all the requirements? No other but Jesus of Nazareth! As a devout Jew, Jesus lived a remarkable life. He restored sight to the blind (and still does till this day), healed crippled limbs and even raised the dead (and still He does that till this day). He astounded the Jewish leaders of that time by His insight, wisdom and teaching of the Scripture (Not to mention that He is called the Word of God Himself: Ref John 1:1, Revelations 19:13, etc…). By His words and works He proved Himself to be God’s Anointed One.
8. Than, according to the predetermined plan of God, Jesus gave Himself as God’s Passover Lamb – He died for the complete removal of the sins of His people and those of the rest of the world (1 John 2:1-2, John 1:29).
9. The Prophet Isaiah tells it best as He wrote hundreds of years before:
• Isaiah 53:3-6, “People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet Adonai laid on him the guilt of all of us.” Complete Jewish Bible
10. Jesus, the Redeemer, the Suffering Servant of God, died on the Cross of Calvary and was buried. On the Third day He rose from the dead and appeared to hundreds of eyewitnesses and still till today He still is touching hearts, transforming lives and appearing to hundreds of people all over the world, even to many of His own people the Jews!
• Clearly, all who recognize Jesus as Messiah recognize that something amazing happened when Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, appeared on the scene. At the very least, He fulfilled prophesies in a miraculous way. One researcher who analyzed only eight of the Old Testament prophesies (hundreds of years old) predictions about the Jesus came to this conclusion: “The chance that any man might have in any way fulfilled eight prophesies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” If we can trust the prophesies in their accuracy of factual information about Jesus’ arrival on this planet, we can surely trust those prophesies when they use titles and designations to indicate that Jesus is The Messiah and that the Messiah is God!
The Gospel in The Old Testament:
Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53:12
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely and shall prosper; He shall be exalted and extolled and shall stand very high.
14 [For many the Servant of God became an object of horror; many were astonished at Him.] His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man's, and His form beyond that of the sons of men — but just as many were astonished at Him,
15 So shall He startle and sprinkle many nations, and kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which has not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall they consider and understand. [Rom 15:21.]
1 WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? [John 12:38-41; Rom 10:16.]
2 For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. [Matthew 8:17.]
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. [1 Peter 2:24,25.]
7 He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah's] people, to whom the stroke was due?.
9 And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. [Matthew 27:57-60; 1 Peter 2:22,23.]
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. When You and He make His life an offering for sin [and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord].
12 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious). [Luke 22:37.] AMP
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (of Jesus Christ) which is the power of God unto salvation; to The Jew first and than to the Greek” Romans 1:16
Though we live in a rather hostile world to the Jewish people nowadays, God’s Words still stands clear and unchangeable that God had sent His Son Jesus (Yeshua) to redeem mankind from the bondage of Sin and unto Himself. Out of the whole world population the first group of people to have had Jesus preached to them is the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself even preached the good news of the kingdom to the Jewish people first and He made it clear that He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel first and foremost. Why this is so, is because the Jewish nation was and still is the only people group with a covenant with YHWH – God. (See Matthew 10:5-6, Matthew 15: 21- 28, Luke 19:9-10, Acts 2:36 etc…)
Even Christians as a matter of fact are considered to be the only other people group with a covenant with the True and Living God. No other religion in the world have a covenant with God - YHWH. So we can safely say that the Christian faith is neither Catholic, Orthodox nor Protestant. It is neither Roman, European nor American. True Christianity, though an identity of its own is infact a Jewish faith, and no wonder that the devil hates no other groups of people as much as these two.
We must keep in mind that Jesus wanted to use His people to bring redemption and salvation to the whole world through them and that is what He did. The majority of His early disciples were in fact Jews and not gentiles and to these same people He gave the commandment to bring the good news of salvation to the whole world, regardless of religion, creed, color, status, education or background! (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-21, John 1:29, John 10:14-16, Acts 10:9-29;35-48, Ephesians 2:11-22, etc…)
This is clearly spelled out in the Bible in many places both in the Old and New Testament.
No one who claims to follow The True and Only Living God –YHWH – can in any way express hatred towards the Jewish people. In actual fact, no one who claims to be a follower of The Lord Jesus Christ can have a hatred toward any one, not even his/her own enemy!
Christians and all the people of the world cannot afford to forget that Jesus Christ is a Jew, born in the Jewish land, spoke the Jewish language (possibly as well as Greek and Aramaic) and came from a long line of Jewish ancestry even as clearly prophesied by the prophets hundreds of years before His birth, as we shall see.
Jesus never rejected His own people though many of His people have rejected Him, yet in that case there have been people from all races, languages and skin color who have both rejected Him and accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. So there is no reason for any one to point their finger and accuse the Jews for rejecting The Messiah, since in every nation and tongue there have been people who rejected Him too. (Apart from that, since the time of Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, there have been thousands that have recognised Jesus to be the true Messiah that the Scriptures foretold. Let not the worls forget that the majority of His disciples have been Jews)
The Jewish people at large accept the Old Testament books as their inspired Holy Books but reject the writings of the New Testament as Holy Writ. Why this is, is rather not that complicated to understand!
The answer is a lot simpler than one would think. It is very much like me, that though I was religious all my life, I was not a real Christian until the age of 23years when I started to search for the Truth of God’s Holy Word and quit relying upon the teachings and sayings of my old-past church background, so is the same principle applicable to many beloved Jewish friends I have met in my own life. They practically never read their own books – The Old Testament books. Thus they remain in the dark and unaware of how clearly spelled out it is in the Old Testament of Who is The Messiah; how to recognize Him when He comes and where is He coming!
Let us draw some points and see how one who is truly searching with a hungry and a humble heart can check and see for himself and recognize the Messiah!
1. The Messiah will have to be the seed of Abraham and that through him all the nations will be blessed.
• Moses recorded the promise of God to Abraham in the following way, “In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”. Genesis 22:18.
• Isaiah 52:15,“…He will sprinkle many” NASB
• Isaiah 60:3, “…and nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” NASB
• Matthew 24:14, (Jesus said…) “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” NASB
• Mark 13:10-11, (Jesus said…) “And the gospel must…be preached to all the nations.”
• Luke 24:45-48, (Jesus said…) “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” NASB
• Romans 16:25-27, “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.” NASB
• Galatians 3:8-10, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” NASB
2. The Messiah must be of the tribe of Judah. (There were 12 tribes; that means that here the chance is already one out of 12).
• “When Jacob was dying, he said to his son Judah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” Genesis 49:10.
3. He must be of the house of David. In Isaiah’s prophesy of the Messiah we read: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, to establish it with justice and with righteousness” Isaiah 9:7.
• Jesus fulfilled the above scripture with great accuracy. He was often even regarded and called as being the ‘Son of David”.
• Matthew 1:1, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham…” NIV
• Matthew 12:22-23, “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" NIV
• Matthew 20:30-31, “Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us! The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” NIV
• Matthew 21:9, “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!” NIV
• Mark 12:35-36, “While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?” NIV
4. The Messiah must be born of a Virgin. The Prophet Isaiah wrote: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14.
• Luke 1:26-28, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
• Luke 1:32-34, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. “How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" NIV
• Matthew 1:22-23, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us". NIV
5. The Messiah must be born in Bethlehem as foretold by the prophet Micah: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be a little among the thousands of Judah, yet of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” Micah 5:2.
• So, just it was foretold, Jesus out of the thousands of places, little towns and villages He could have been born, He was born in Bethlehem.
• Matthew 2:1-6, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah”. NIV
• Luke 2:4-7, “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” NIV
• John 7:42-43, “Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.” NIV
6. The Messiah must also be some one unique in His nature and person. He must be God.
• The prophet Isaiah clearly stated that the Messiah will be God.
• Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” NIV
• No doubt this has raised more eyebrows than any other prophesy about Christ The Messiah than any other scripture because it would mean that the God of the Jews –YHWH would have to Himself will have to be born through the Virgin (Mary) and be Himself the deliverer and Savior of His people. Again all eyes are turned to Jesus because there could not possibly be two Gods in the world and would certainly violate many other scriptures both in the Old and New Testament where it clearly say that there is only one God (Isaiah 45:22). Therefore it leaves us no other option to see that the Son that would be given through the virgin had to be God incarnate! YHWH (Jehovah) and the Son-Child who would be born and called ‘Mighty God’ had to be the same One!
7. Who is the Messiah that would be able to meet all the requirements? No other but Jesus of Nazareth! As a devout Jew, Jesus lived a remarkable life. He restored sight to the blind (and still does till this day), healed crippled limbs and even raised the dead (and still He does that till this day). He astounded the Jewish leaders of that time by His insight, wisdom and teaching of the Scripture (Not to mention that He is called the Word of God Himself: Ref John 1:1, Revelations 19:13, etc…). By His words and works He proved Himself to be God’s Anointed One.
8. Than, according to the predetermined plan of God, Jesus gave Himself as God’s Passover Lamb – He died for the complete removal of the sins of His people and those of the rest of the world (1 John 2:1-2, John 1:29).
9. The Prophet Isaiah tells it best as He wrote hundreds of years before:
• Isaiah 53:3-6, “People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet Adonai laid on him the guilt of all of us.” Complete Jewish Bible
10. Jesus, the Redeemer, the Suffering Servant of God, died on the Cross of Calvary and was buried. On the Third day He rose from the dead and appeared to hundreds of eyewitnesses and still till today He still is touching hearts, transforming lives and appearing to hundreds of people all over the world, even to many of His own people the Jews!
• Clearly, all who recognize Jesus as Messiah recognize that something amazing happened when Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, appeared on the scene. At the very least, He fulfilled prophesies in a miraculous way. One researcher who analyzed only eight of the Old Testament prophesies (hundreds of years old) predictions about the Jesus came to this conclusion: “The chance that any man might have in any way fulfilled eight prophesies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” If we can trust the prophesies in their accuracy of factual information about Jesus’ arrival on this planet, we can surely trust those prophesies when they use titles and designations to indicate that Jesus is The Messiah and that the Messiah is God!
The Gospel in The Old Testament:
Isaiah 52:13 through Isaiah 53:12
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely and shall prosper; He shall be exalted and extolled and shall stand very high.
14 [For many the Servant of God became an object of horror; many were astonished at Him.] His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man's, and His form beyond that of the sons of men — but just as many were astonished at Him,
15 So shall He startle and sprinkle many nations, and kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which has not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall they consider and understand. [Rom 15:21.]
1 WHO HAS believed (trusted in, relied upon, and clung to) our message [of that which was revealed to us]? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? [John 12:38-41; Rom 10:16.]
2 For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. [Matthew 8:17.]
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all. [1 Peter 2:24,25.]
7 He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah's] people, to whom the stroke was due?.
9 And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. [Matthew 27:57-60; 1 Peter 2:22,23.]
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. When You and He make His life an offering for sin [and He has risen from the dead, in time to come], He shall see His [spiritual] offspring, He shall prolong His days, and the will and pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord].
12 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious). [Luke 22:37.] AMP
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