ESCHRISTMAS06 Fulfilled Prophecies of the Messiah

Luke 24:13–32 NKJV

13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. 17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” 18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” 19 And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” 25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. 28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. 30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Following on from this morning about the 400 silent years when there was no Word from God until the angel Gabriel broke into human history again with the news that John the Baptist was to be born to elderly parents and how we need to turn to the Scriptures to hear from God today, I wanted to speak of the hundreds of prophecies that speak of Jesus Christ’s first advent. The fact that there are all these prophecies mean that we can truly rely upon the Scriptures as God’s Word.

In the passage Irena read we see Jesus walking with two of His disciples and He explained to them all the words concerning Himself and how it was necessary for Him to be born and to die and to rise again. We may wish to have been there whilst He was doing this but we couldn’t be but we do have the Scriptures for ourselves to check them out.

Jesus is the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, indeed the whole of the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus.

I have a list of 365 prophecies in relation to Jesus and perhaps many more can be said to be about Him as the whole of the Old Testament is forward looking to the time of Jesus in his first as well as His second coming.

Indeed,

Augustine of Hippo said over 1600 years ago

“the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed”

Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that blessing would come upon the Gentiles (Gal 3:14) and He fulfilled God’s promises through the prophets:

Acts 10:43 NKJV

43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

As Jews grew up they would learn the Scripture. They would refer to it all the time so that as they grew up they knew the Scriptures inside out – of course the Scriptures to which we refer is the OT. They would recite OT over meals and at events – they really did know their Scriptures. They also knew that one day a mysterious Man would turn up who was going to fulfil the covenants promised by God to Israel.

The Jewish women would wonder whether they would be the mother of the Messiah. Why? It was inbuilt every time they celebrated the Passover. It was the woman who started the festival off by applying fire to the candle at the Passover for there can be no redemption without a woman.

This man that they waited for was called by many names: that is, titles for the man they were looking for:

· The Branch

· The Stem of Jesse

· The Servant of the Lord

· The Son of Man

· The Rock

· The Corner

· The Nail

· Emmanuel

· The Shepherd

· The Messiah (Christ)

Thinking of that last one particularly, Messiah, means Anointed One. What is so special about that? Well, Samuel, a prophet, was one of those whom God sent to anoint people with oil. And when you were anointed by him on God’s say so it would radically change your life’s direction, you knew that the moment you were anointed you had changed your job. You would either be anointed to be

1) Prophet,

2) Priest, or

3) King

But the Messiah was to be all three in one:

Prophet:

First, what is a prophet? A prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God. They generally do two things: They forth-tell God’s Word and sometimes foretell something about the future. Their main role is to speak God’s Word. Moses said in:

Deuteronomy 18:15 NKJV

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

Deuteronomy 18:18–19 NKJV

18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

Jesus, is also known as the Word of God Himself.

PRIEST

First, what is a priest? A priest is someone who mediates between God and man and, man and God.

Psalm 110:4 NKJV

4 The Lord has sworn And will not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Zechariah 6:12–13 NKJV

12 Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; 13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’

Of course, we also know that Jesus is ascended and is our High Priest in Heaven who is interceding on our behalf.

King

First, what is a king? This one is fairly obvious. A king is one that reigns over a kingdom, he rules over his domain.

1 Samuel 2:9–10 NKJV

9 He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. “For by strength no man shall prevail. 10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; From heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. “He will give strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed.”

God knew that there would be many who would come and claim to be the Messiah. But there was to be only one who could fulfil all - some could fulfil some of the prophecies but only one could literally fulfil them all. Remember that the Jews had studied these Scriptures so that the real Messiah would not need to announce who he was. It would be obvious!

And so we see in:

John 7:37–43 CSB

37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. 40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was divided because of him.

They discovered that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the One who is Prophet, Priest and King.

Not only that but Jesus claimed the title for Himself:

John 4:25–26 NKJV

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

John 5:39 NKJV

39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

John 4:42 NKJV

42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

The Samaritans worked it out!

And at the very beginning of His ministry see Philip and Nathaniel:

John 1:44–49 NKJV

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

And Peter finally got it too!

Matthew 16:13–16 NKJV

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

John’s Gospel was written so we would know it:

John 20:30–31 NKJV

30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

The Reason for writing: Jesus is the Messiah!

And they could have checked out the other prophecies, say about, His birth:

The most obvious one is

Isaiah 7:14 NKJV

14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

and

Isaiah 9:6 NKJV

6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Then there are others that speak of where He would be born:

Micah 5:2 NKJV

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”

And Jesus’ childhood

Hosea 11:1 NKJV

1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

But let us come also to the reason He came which was to save us from our sin in the first prophecy of Jesus foretold in

Genesis 3:15 NKJV

15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

First we should note that her seed means that the one to come would be human and the fact that Genesis states that it is ‘he shall bruise your head’ make this first clue about the one who comes to save: He will be a man born of a woman making him completely human.

Clearly the seed here is of the woman – biologically it is not a woman who normally has the seed but the man. Clearly this is a virgin birth. These verses indicate that the Messiah would be a man born of a woman it also established that the Messiah would be born of a virgin.

Then Jesus lived the life and fulfilled many other prophecies but note that on Palm Sunday, what happened? the common people for they laid their garments laid out – only done for a King – after 3 years of ministry that were saying we are your humble servants. Now we come to another remarkable prophecy:

Zechariah 11:12–13 NKJV

12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.

30 pieces of silver is the price of an ox or a slave yet we hear the sarcasm of Zechariah in calling it a princely sum but, it is here so that it would be fulfilled literally for it was the price of betrayal for the Prince of Peace:

Matthew 26:14–16 NKJV

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

Matthew 27:3–10 NKJV

3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” 5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

I’ve given a very potted history of the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Jesus Christ. And that was such small portion of what I could have shared with you this evening. We have no excuse not to trust the Scriptures and what they say and is also one of the best ways to show to unbelievers that God’s Word is reliable and accurate and trustworthy. No other document could possible contrast with the Bible. What it says has happened and what is left to happen will happen - to the very letter, as we saw with the princely sum.

You have the tools to tell people this Christmastime that Jesus came in fulfilment of the Bible as Paul says in:

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 NKJV

3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

The Scriptures talked of here are passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. I do not have time to do into all these today but these were written up to 1000 years before Jesus came, and fulfilled to the letter.

We have glad tidings to tell this time of year. Let’s make sure we invite all we can to the services and when we are with our families may God’s Word also be in our mouths forth-telling the wonderful things God has done through our Messiah, our Prophet, Priest and King. I hope our hearts are warmed as the disciples were that day.

Benediction

Romans 15:13 NKJV

13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bibliography

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