September 26, 2024

Prophecy Fulfilled: Proof That Jesus Is the Messiah

Treasures

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Hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Old Testament prophets predicted His coming. There are messianic prophecies of His birth, His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His betrayal by Judas, His trial, His crucifixion, and His burial and triumphant resurrection. Their predictions were not just general ones that “a messiah will come,” but specific prophecies about places, times, and events that have been fulfilled in only one person—Jesus Christ.

In this article, several of the most outstanding Old Testament messianic prophecies are arranged chronologically with the verbatim text of the Scriptures, followed by their New Testament fulfillments.

The birth of Jesus

Nearly 750 years before Christ’s birth, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah prophesied, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

As the Bible records, Mary was a young virgin engaged to be married to Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth, when the angel appeared to her, saying, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you: therefore the child to be born will be called the son of God” (Luke 1:35). Immanuel means “God with us,” and when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God is with us.

Another prophecy from Isaiah foretells, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). This scripture prophesies that God’s son would take on human form and be born in the likeness of men, whom the prophecy said was to be called “Mighty God.” (See John 1:1; Philippians 2:5–8.)

Micah, prophesying in the eighth century BC, predicted: “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” (Micah 5:2).

The Gospel records that “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea” (Matthew 2:1). Although the Jewish nation didn’t accept Him as their ruler, the prophecy foretells that He “is to be ruler.” This takes place spiritually now for those who voluntarily accept His Messiahship (John 1:12; John 3:3–6). It will take place literally at His Second Coming, when the Bible says that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

Jesus’ “goings forth” or His existence “are from of old, from everlasting.” Jesus said, “Before Abraham was [around 2000 BC], I am” (John 8:58). His words here echo the words God spoke when He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush as “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Jesus is the eternally present Son of God.

Triumphal entry into Jerusalem

In the book of Zechariah in the Old Testament, there are recorded several prophecies that foretell aspects of Jesus’ ministry, death, and crucifixion, starting with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Zechariah commanded the people by the Spirit of the Lord to “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9; 450 BC).

Five days before His crucifixion, Jesus returned to Jerusalem and told His disciples, “‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.’ … The disciples went, and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 21:2–9).

Some of the Pharisees tried to silence the crowd, but Jesus, knowing that the scripture had to be fulfilled said to them, “If these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:38–40). The same people who were waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” would demand His crucifixion five days later.

In the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, after quoting the prophecy in Zechariah, the Scriptures add: “His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:12–16).

His betrayal

Zechariah also predicted Jesus’ betrayal: “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter” (Zechariah 11:12–13).

We see the fulfillment of this prophecy in Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, described in the Gospel of Matthew: “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 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” (Matthew 26:14–15).

Later in the same Gospel, it recounts: “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 the elders, saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. 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.’ And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in” (Matthew 27:3–7).

His trial

A prophecy from the book of Isaiah tells us, “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression of My people He was stricken” (Isaiah 53:8). In the course of Jesus’ trial, Pilate asked the Jews, “‘Do you want me to release to you [from prison] the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’” (John 18:39–40). Pilate, after questioning Jesus, went before the Jewish people three times, proclaiming, “I find no fault in Him at all.” His judgment, therefore, was that Jesus was innocent of the charges laid against Him (John 18:38; 19:4–6).

But the people weren’t satisfied with leaving Him in prison nor with the judgment of His innocence, and by using their political leverage on Pilate, they finally got him to give in to the bloodthirsty mob. And he took Jesus “from prison and from judgment” and “delivered Him to them to be crucified” (John 19:16).

His crucifixion

About 1000 BC, King David prophesied: “For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me: they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones: they stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22:16–18). (See also Zechariah 12:10; 13:6.)

We see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the New Testament. “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be’” (John 19:23–24).

Crucifixion was not practiced by the Jews of David’s time (rather they used stoning), but in this prophecy David predicted this type of death for the Messiah, a method of execution virtually unknown to the Jews of his time 1,000 years before it happened.

Another prophecy in a later psalm says, “He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken” (Psalm 34:20). Jesus was described by the prophet Isaiah as “the righteous one” who through His death would justify many or “make many to be accounted righteous” (Isaiah 53:11–12). Jesus suffered a terrible death for our sins, and “he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors,” but God didn’t allow any of His bones be broken.

Jesus was crucified on the eve of the feast day of the Passover, and to ensure that the bodies of the two thieves and Jesus wouldn’t remain on the cross during the Jews’ holy day, they broke the legs of the thieves to precipitate their death. “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” (John 19:31–34).

The soldier pierced Jesus’ side to ensure that He was dead, and in so doing fulfilled another prophecy of Zechariah: “When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).

Many people would mourn and regret Jesus’ death, as we read in the book of Acts, when Peter boldly proclaimed the gospel message after the day of Pentecost. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” In response, we read that when the people heard this, “they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ’” (Acts 2:36–38).

His burial

Chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah is a prophecy about the life, mission, death, and burial of Jesus. In it, we read: “They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9). This prophecy was fulfilled in the events surrounding Jesus’ death. Although He was condemned as a criminal, and died “with the wicked,” as two thieves were crucified with Him—one on each side of Him (Matthew 27:38)—He was buried in an expensive tomb belonging to a rich man.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that after His death “a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” After Pilate ordered the body be given to him, Joseph “wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb”—a grave of a rich man as foretold in prophecy (Matthew 27:57–60).

His resurrection

A psalm of David predicts Jesus’ resurrection, stating, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol; or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). The Hebrew word “sheol” refers to the grave or the place of the dead. Peter quoted this scripture in the book of Acts as a prophecy fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried. … Being therefore a prophet … he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:27–31).

When mourners came to Jesus’ tomb, the angel said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen!” (Luke 24:5–6). Jesus is alive! The scriptures show that He walked the earth for 40 days after His resurrection and was seen by hundreds of followers, and He spoke to them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3 and 1 Corinthians 15:4–6). He then ascended up to heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God, and one day He will return to earth to establish His kingdom on earth (Acts 1:9–11; Mark 16:19).

The general consensus among scholars is that there are over 300 prophecies about Jesus Christ, all written down hundreds of years before His birth, that were fulfilled during His lifetime on earth. These prophecies foretold the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and have been fulfilled in no other person. Who else was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, was called God, rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on an ass, was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, was proclaimed innocent yet condemned unjustly to crucifixion while soldiers parted His garments, was associated with the wicked, was buried in a rich man’s tomb, and rose from the dead—all in fulfillment of prophecy? The answer, of course, is no one else but Jesus.

Jesus came to this earth and died on that cross because He loved you and me and every person in the world. He loved us enough to take our punishment, to die and be separated from His Father so that we could receive the love of God and His gift of eternal life. As another prophecy says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yet it was the will of God to crush him; he has put him to grief: when his soul makes an offering for sin. … By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:6–11).

Jesus died for us—and God ensured that all these prophecies were written down and preserved so that our faith might be strengthened by them to believe that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

From an article in Treasures, published by the Family International in 1987. Adapted and republished September 2024. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

Posted in: audio, bible, other author, prophecy, salvation, treasures

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