So today we’re talking about a very important to question about the great Jesus Christ our King. The question is, “What are the prophecies that were fulfilled about Jesus?”
So many of you might be scratching your heads and saying, what prophecies? Well, something that is really astonishing about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, is that in the Old Testament, there were all these books that were written before Jesus was even born. Some of these books, a thousand years before Jesus was even born. And these various books, inspired by God, made these predictions that this suffering servant figure would appear in the future. And that he would do various things, and change the world forever.
And what’s amazing, is if you look at these prophecies, one by one, each of them happened at some point during the life of Jesus. Now I’ve personally read that there are over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled from the old testament, written before he was born.
So I started searching various resources, and found a list of 40 of them, then a list of 100 of them, that’s pretty good I thought. But I thought there were over 300? So at last I found this list, and it lists off three hundred fifty one examples of prophecies fulfilled by Jesus.
So, if I studied one of these a day, from today, Nov 22nd 2020, I could read one a day, and not be done until Nov 8th of next year. Obviously we don’t have time to go through all 351 of them tonight. But I’ll show you some of them.
We can go right to the first book of the bible, Genesis, written about 1500 years before Jesus was born. After the fall of Adam and Eve, you see God giving these prophecy to them. He says, that the seed of the woman, so one of her ancestors would defeat the serpent. And of course we know, that Jesus was born in the line of Adam and Eve, and he defeated Satan the evil one on the cross by dying to remove our sins.
Also in the book of Job, one of the oldest books of the Old Testament, Job declares that “I know my redeemer lives, and he will one day stand on the Earth.” As we know Jesus is God, so he was alive before he was even born into a human body. Job knew even back then, that Jesus was alive, and that one day Jesus would be born into the world.
Job was written around the same time as Genesis, about 3,520 years ago.
But if you’re looking for a book of the Bible that depicts tons and tons of prophecies about Jesus, we of course have to look at the book of Isaiah, which was read for you today in the scripture reading. This book is incredible, it’s chock full of scriptures about the coming messiah.
Just look here at Isaiah chapter 52:13-15 It says, “13 Behold, My Servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and [h]greatly
exalted.
14 Just as many were appalled at you, My
people,
So His appearance was marred beyond that of a man,
And His form beyond the sons of mankind.
15 So [i]He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what they had not been told, they will see,
And what they had not heard, they will understand.”
First of all, “My Servant” is capitalized which indicates we’re talking about God. Jesus came as our servant. This was written before Jesus was born. It says he will be high and lifted up. What happened to Jesus when he was crucified? He was nailed ot the cross on the ground, and lifted up. And on the cross verse 14, it says his appearance was appalling, his appearance was marred. This happened to Jesus, he had the crown of thorns forced on his head, he was beaten and whipped and was so bloody on the cross he was so mangled they turned away from him in shame.
Verse 15 says he’ll sprinkle many nations. And we know that this is true, when we’re born again, we’re sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, that washes away our sin. Kings will shut their mouth on his account, if you recall Pontius Pilate became wordless once he spoke to Jesus. Just incredible, this was all written before Jesus was even born.
God inspired prophets like Isaiah to write these things down. To point his people toward the coming of Jesus.
Let’s look through Isaiah 53, which we heard earlier. This is just one chapter. And there are over 300 prophecies, according to the list I found, 351. Amazing. Let’s take a look.
Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender [a]shoot,
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.
3 He was despised and abandoned by men,
A man of [b]great pain
and familiar with sickness;
And like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.
4 However, it was our
sicknesses that He Himself bore,
And our pains that He carried;
Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,
Struck down by God, and humiliated.
5 But He was [c]pierced for
our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our [d]well-being was
laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us
all
To [e]fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and
afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken
away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off from the land of the [f]living
For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was
due?
9 And His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the Lord desired
To crush Him, [g]causing Him
grief;
If He renders [h]Himself as
a guilt offering,
He will see His [i]offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the [j]good
pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the [k]anguish of
His soul,
He will [l]see it
and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
For He will bear their wrongdoings.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with
the great,
And He will divide the plunder with the strong,
Because He poured out His [m]life unto
death,
And was counted with wrongdoers;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the wrongdoers.
So in conclusion, those are some of the prophecies about the Jesus who would come, the God-man, who would be born of the virgin Mary. But you may be wondering, why, why would God inspire people thousands of years before Jesus came to write about him? Well, perhaps so that today you would look at all these prophecies and be so amazed, what are the chances that one man could fulfill all these prophecies, including where he would be born and how he would die? There’s no way. This is what we call evidence for the fact that Jesus Christ is really real. So if Jesus isn’t really real, then how were all of these prophecies fulfilled a thousand years later when Jesus of Nazareth was born? Explain it to me, I’ll wait. The only way it could be true, is if Jesus Christ is really real, and God really inspired people to write about what Jesus would do many years later. So believe in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Give your life to Him.
