God and Jesus
ISAIAH 61:1 [The Messiah:] The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound
The Old Testament describes him as a remarkable chosen servant of God
ISAIAH 42:1 The Lord says, “Here is my servant, whom I strengthen—the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased".
The Old Testament promises that such a one would arise as a great ruler of Israel
MICAH 5:2 [God:] As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah – from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past.
NUMBERS 24:17-18 [Balaam:] I see someone who will come some day, someone who will come, but not soon. A star will come from Jacob; a ruler will rise from Israel. He will crush the heads of the Moabites and smash the skulls of the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; his enemy Edom will be conquered, but Israel will grow wealthy.
The Old Testament says the ruler will bring justice and salvation to the nations
ISAIAH 42:3-4 [God:] He will not break off a bent reed or put out a flickering lamp. He will bring lasting justice to all. He will not lose hope or courage; he will establish justice on the earth. Distant lands eagerly wait for his teaching.
ISAIAH 49:6 [God, as speaking to the Messiah:] I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
The ruler would be a descendant of King David,
in accordance with God’s promise to David
PSALM 132:11, 17-18 The Lord swore an oath to David. This is a truth he will not take back: “I will set one of your own descendants on your throne. … 17There I will make a horn sprout up for David. I will prepare a lamp for my anointed one. 18I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown on my anointed one will shine.”
The Old Testament also says that he would suffer and die, for people’s sins – but then be raised and exalted
ISAIAH 53:5-6 He was wounded for our rebellious acts. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace, and we received healing from his wounds. We have all strayed like sheep. Each one of us has turned to go his own way, and the Lord has laid all our sins on him.
ISAIAH 53:10-12 But it was the Lord who decided to crush him and make him suffer. The Lord made his life a penalty offering, but he will still see his descendants and live a long life. He will complete the things the Lord wants him to do. “After his soul suffers many things, he will see life and be satisfied. My good servant will make many people right with God; he will carry away their sins. For this reason I [God] will make him a great man among people, and he will share in all things with those who are strong. He willingly gave his life and was treated like a criminal. But he carried away the sins of many people and asked forgiveness for those who sinned.”
Jesus Is the Promised Messiah
LUKE 9:35 Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him!”
Jesus Christ is the one anointed by God, with the Holy Spirit
ACTS 10:38 [Peter:] You know that God anointed Jesus from Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
Jesus is the Messiah
ACTS 3:19-20Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he may send the Messiah appointed for you – that is, Jesus.
Prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ birth and early years
MATTHEW 2:1-6 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him. After assembling all the chief priests and experts in the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “for it is written this way by the prophet: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are in no way least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
MATTHEW 2:13-15 After they [the wise men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to look for the child to kill him.” Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt. 15He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
Prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ life and ministry
In the evening the people brought him [Jesus] many who were possessed by demons. He forced the evil spirits out of people with a command and cured everyone who was sick. So what the prophet Isaiah had said came true: “He took away our weaknesses and removed our diseases.”
LUKE 4:16-21 He [Jesus, in a synagogue] stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to tell them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled even as you heard it being read.”
Prophecy fulfilled in
Jesus’ death
JOHN 19:31-37 Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs broken and the bodies taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the other. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out immediately. And the person who saw it has testified (and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth), so that you also may believe. For these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will be broken.” And again another scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”
1 PETER 2:21-25 [Peter, to believers:] This is, in fact, what you were called to do, because the Messiah also suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps. “He never committed a sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was insulted, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten but made it his habit to commit the matter to the one who judges fairly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep that kept going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ resurrection
ACTS 2:30-32 [Peter:] Therefore, since he [David] was a prophet and knew that God had promised him with an oath to put one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ: ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.’ It was this very Jesus whom God raised, and of that we are all witnesses.
Jesus’ deeds showed that he is the Messiah, the Christ
JOHN 20:30-31 Now Jesus performed many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus himself claimed to be the Christ
JOHN 4:25-26 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
Jesus’ followers acknowledged him as the Christ
JOHN 1:41, 45 He [Andrew] first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated Christ). Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Jesus being the Christ was a central aspect of their teaching
ACTS 5:42 And every day both in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus was the Christ.
ACTS 9:22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
Others also acknowledged Jesus as the Christ
MATTHEW 21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him [Jesus, as he rode into Jerusalem] and those following kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
The Christ is understood to be the Son of God
MATTHEW 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”