Christmas celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ in human form, Jesus the Messiah, God’s Anointed One. Many Jews have put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, but many still do not believe He is the Messiah or that He has fulfilled any Messianic prophecies. Garry spoke this morning on some of the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus which can encourage us to see that He is indeed God’s anointed and chosen One.
In Luke 24, Jesus gave probably the best Bible study ever, showing how the Messiah had to suffer before entering into His glory (see Luke 24:25-27). He spoke many times about this subject (e.g. to the woman at the well in John 4:25-26 or when He spoke of fulfilling Isaiah 61, a passage that heralded the Messiah’s arrival). When Peter proclaimed that He was the Messiah, Jesus did not refute this claim or rebuke him (Matt 16:16-17). Instead, His birth, life and death demonstrated the fulfilment of many Old Testament prophecies:
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The Messiah would be a descendant of David (see 2 Sam 7:12-16), fulfilled in Luke 1:26-33.
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The Messiah would be greater than David (see Psalm 110), also see Luke 20:41-44
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The Messiah would be preceded by Elijah (Mal 4:5); see Jesus’s response to John’s disciples in Matt 11:11
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The Messiah would be a prophet (Deut 18:15); see Matt 13:27, Matt 21:11
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The Messiah would be born of a virgin (Is 7:14); see Matt 1:22-23.
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The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); see Luke 2:4-7
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The Messiah would know sacrifice and die (see Dan 9:24-26)
We can be secure in our faith because that faith rests on facts and on the fulfilment of so many prophetic words about the Messiah. There are promises still to be fulfilled, but we can be sure that God will bring these to pass as well (see 2 Pet 1:16-19).
