The Hebrew word for Messiah is ‘mâshîyach’ and it means anointed or anointed one.  It is only used in the Bible two times.  The Greek word for Messiah is ‘Christós’ and it appears in the New Testament over 500 times.  The first time it is used is in the first verse of the New Testament.  Matthew 1:1 says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  From the very start of the New Testament, the Lord Jesus is declared to be the Christ, or the Messiah. 

It is estimated that the Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, contains over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through His life, death and resurrection.  That’s not even counting the prophesies that have to do with His coming again to rule on the earth and then to establish His eternal kingdom.  However, it is important to realize that the Lord Jesus fulfilled EVERY SINGLE prophesy having to do with His first advent. 

Because of the limit of time and space, let us consider just a few prophesies concerning the Lord Jesus coming as the Messiah or Christ.

  • Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  The Lord proclaimed to the serpent (Satan), that the woman’s seed would bruise the serpent’s head.  This means the promised seed of woman would defeat Satan.  Galatians 4:4-5 tells us, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” 
  • Genesis 49:10, “The sceptre 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.”  This shows that the kings of Israel would all descend from the tribe of Judah until Shiloh comes.  ‘Shiloh’ is another name for the Messiah.  If you will read the genealogy of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 1:1-16, you will see that His lineage includes Judah (verse 2) and King David (verse 6).
  • Micah 5:2, “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.  Matthew 2:1 says, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.”
  • Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”  The Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.  John 12:14-15 tells us, “And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.”
  • Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”  Psalm 22 in its entirety is a Messianic psalm, prophetic of the sufferings of the Lord when He was on the cross of Calvary.  The Lord Jesus Himself said these words in Matthew 27:46 while suffering on the cross, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” 

There are many, many more examples we could use to show that the Lord Jesus fulfilled all these prophesies, thus identifying Himself as the true Messiah, the true Christ.  The Apostle John ended his gospel with these words, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20:30-31).  (398.4)