Jesus the man

The Old Testament foretold that Messiah would be a Jew, born in Bethlehem in the royal line of David the king, of the tribe of Judah. These are clear and detailed prophecies. Look at these examples:

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” (2 Samuel 7:12,13)

“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 have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

These are promises of an illustrious son of David who would be born in Bethlehem. Solomon was the immediate successor-son of David, but he was not born in Bethlehem. He certainly built a temple for God, but his throne was not established for ever. Moreover, Micah’s prophecy, about Messiah being born in Bethlehem, was written some two or three hundred years after the death of David. Messiah had still not come. About seven hundred years later Jesus was born in the little town of Bethlehem a few miles from Jerusalem in the land of Judah.

Jesus, son of God

The prophecies said Jesus was not only to be the son of David; he was also to be Son of God. This is variously described in the Old Testament:

“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)

“I will be his Father, and he shall be my son;” (1 Chronicles 17:13)

“He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.’ Also I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” (Psalm 89:26,27)

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to me, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” (2:7)

Therefore Messiah would be a descendant of David but not of a Jewish father. As the New Testament later tells us, he had a mother who was a virgin, but no human father.

“Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’.” (Matthew 1:22,23)

“Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” (Romans 1:3)

Surprisingly, the very first promise of the virgin birth (Genesis 3:15) calls the promised Deliverer: the seed of the woman, not the seed of the man. It was God, not man, who would provide the Redeemer; nevertheless, he would be born of a woman:

“when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law …” (Galatians 4:4)

The forerunner

The public ministry of Jesus was preceded by the witness of John the Baptist who declared himself to be the one who ran ahead to prepare the way for the Messiah by preaching in the wilderness. This too was made plain by the prophets:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’.” (Isaiah 40:3)

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.” (Malachi 3:1)

The message of John Baptist stirred the hearts of thousands of Jews to repentance and preparation. John told them to get ready for Messiah, and when Jesus came to the River Jordan where John was preaching and baptizing, one of John’s disciples said:

“We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth …” (John 1:45)

The message of Jesus

The wonderful message of the Lord Jesus Christ came as comfort and healing to the minds of the ordinary people, and they said, “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:29). “They were astonished at his teaching”, and people of all kinds, high and low, rich and poor, sick and well, came to him and were comforted by his words of relief, care and salvation. But this was exactly what the Old Testament prophets had foretold of him:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn …” (Isaiah 61:1-2)

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as the learned.” (50:4)

No wonder the gospel is called “glad tidings”. People who had been locked in dead formalism and made afraid by their teachers and rulers found release and joy and hope – just as the prophets had promised. They caught the meaning of all this, and sick people repeatedly called Jesus, “The son of David”, the one promised to David by God. He was their Messiah.

Miracles

The good news Jesus brought was called “the glad tidings of the kingdom of God”. He is the One who, at his second coming, will reign as king on David’s throne. Meanwhile, his message was the royal law by which his disciples were being prepared for the kingdom. His miracles were not simply ways of drawing attention to hs teaching. They were a living proof that he was Son of God as well as son of David, and by doing these things he was bringing them a foretaste of the kingdom age:

“Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; he will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 35:3-6)

Some people understood this: they saw that his words and miracles proved that Jesus was the promised Messiah:

“Then one was brought to him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’.” (Matthew 12:22,23)