E. Jesus and Fulfilled Prophecy

Jesus stated that in many places the Old testament spoke of Him and made predictions about His life, death and resurrection. If these statements are true then this in itself would be a stunning miracle!

JESUS CLAIMED THE OLD TESTAMENT SPOKE OF HIM

First, we will consider a statement made by Jesus where He refers in a general way to the entire body of Old Testament scriptures as bearing witness to Him.

“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; {40} and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life. (John 5:39-40)

On another occasion, being more specific, Jesus mentions that Moses who lived some 1500 years before Jesus wrote of Him.

“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. {46} “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. {47} “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47)

When Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem He knew that He would be arrested by the Jewish leaders and crucified by the Romans, and He took the twelve apostles aside to warn them in advance, explaining to them that this would all take place as had been predicted by the Old Testament prophets.

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said. (Luke 18:31-34)

After His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, we read that Jesus explains to the disciples once again that it was necessary for Him to suffer and die to fulfill all that was written about Him in Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.

And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44-47)

OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF JESUS

When Jesus makes reference to Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms He is using terminology by which the people of His day would know He was referring to the entire Old Testament. The following examples from these different areas of scripture demonstrate how the Old Testament did in fact speak of Jesus and predict many important aspects of His life.

1. Jesus Virgin Birth spoken of by the prophet Isaiah.

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. ……….{22} Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)

2. Jesus Birth in Bethlehem predicted by the prophet Micah.

“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2)

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, (Matthew 2:1)

3. Jesus anointed by God’s Spirit as spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

The Jewish people were waiting for the messiah who was to come from the line of David whose father was Jesse. The prophet Isaiah spoke of Jesus the Christ as a shoot coming from the stem of Jesse and revealed that He would be anointed with the Spirit of God.

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. {2} And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:1-2)

During the course of His ministry Jesus often spoke in the synagogues, and on one occasion He read from Isaiah where the prophet pictures one who would be anointed by God’s Spirit to preach the Gospel and rescue the people. Upon completing the reading Jesus announced that this scripture was being fulfilled that very day!

And He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21; see Isaiah 61:1-2)

4. Jesus the great Prophet to come foretold by Moses:

In the following scripture, Moses spoke of a great prophet like himself that God would raise up amongst the people. The Jews had long understood this to be a prediction of someone to come in the distant future to lead the people

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. ….The LORD said to me,….I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. (Deuteronomy 18:15-19)

In the New Testament we read that the people recognized Jesus as this great prophet who was to come. Like Moses, Jesus performed many miracles by the power of God to authenticate His prophetic identity, as is the case here where Jesus raises a widow’s son from the dead.

Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, accompanied by a large crowd. Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.” And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!” (Luke 7:11-16)

On other occasions the people recognized Jesus as this great prophet who Moses spoke of centuries ago.

When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:10-11)

Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:14)

5. Jesus Death by Crucifixion as foreshadowed in the Psalms:

For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalms 22:16)

And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. (Luke 23:33)

The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)

6. Jesus God’s Son raised from the dead as predicted in the Psalms:

On the day of Pentecost Peter spoke boldly to the people concerning what had recently taken place in the arrest and execution of Jesus. He reminded them that the great king David was also a prophet and had spoken of the resurrection of the Christ in the sixteenth Psalm.

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. For David says of Him,

‘I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE;

FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN.

‘THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED;

MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE;

BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES,

NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.

‘YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE;

YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.’ (Psalm 16:8-11)

“Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. (Acts 2:22-32)

On one occasion while on his first missionary journey traveling from city to city, the apostle Paul was addressing the people gathered in a synagogue. The Jewish people he was speaking to were well acquainted with the Old Testament when he quoted from Psalm two and Psalm sixteen to show them how God had fulfilled His promises made in the scriptures by raising Jesus from the dead.

“Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you (Acts 13:26-38)

7. Jesus the Lamb of God predicted by the prophet Isaiah:

In Acts chapter eight we read of an encounter between Philip the evangelist and an Ethiopian court official who was heading back home from a visit to Jerusalem. When Philip came upon this man he was reading from the prophet Isaiah but needed help in understanding this portion of scripture which spoke of Jesus who was pictured there as a lamb being led to slaughter.

So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

“HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER;

AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT,

SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.

“IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY;

WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION?

FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.”

The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. (Acts 8:27-35)

In numerous other places in the New Testament we read of Jesus being referred to as the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:17-19; Revelation 7:9-17)