The Messiah
What Is a Messiah?
The word "Messiah" comes from a Hebrew word meaning "the anointed one" or "the chosen one". It embodies the Jewish hope of a coming deliverer predicted in Old Testament prophecy, which was fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. Source
What Is the Messiah in the Old Testament?
The idea of the Messiah grew throughout the course of the Old Testament as prophets gave more messages from God. The prophecies stretch back to the very beginning. In Genesis 3:15, while speaking to the serpent who deceived Adam and Eve.
Another early passage that was believed to refer to a Messiah is Deuteronomy 18:15-19. In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses tells the Israelites, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”
Who Is the Messiah in the New Testament?
By the time Jesus was born in the first century, the Jewish people eagerly awaited a deliverer. The study of prophecies and hope for a Messiah had grown in the centuries since the Jews were carried into exile by Babylon.
Though they had been allowed to return to Judah, the Promised Land, it no longer belonged to them.
Freedom fighters, Zealots, and men calling themselves messiahs led scattered rebellions that were crushed by Rome, but the Jews continued to hold out hope for the promised Messiah, a prophet king who would, they thought, deliver them from Rome and install a new and glorious kingdom of Israel.
These prophecies weren’t only known by the Jews. When Jesus was born, wise men from the East came seeking the one born “king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2), whose birth was signified by a star they had followed. They figured out his location through further Old Testament prophecies, which promised a Messiah would come from Bethlehem, as shown in Micah 2:2
As it turned out, Jesus was indeed found in Bethlehem. But in many ways, He was not the Messiah the Jews were expecting. Source
How Does Jesus Show That He Is the Messiah?
Jesus wasn’t the warrior king the Jews expected. He didn’t destroy Rome — or at least, not right away. But Christianity still stands, two thousand years later, while the Roman Empire collapsed only a few hundred years after Jesus walked the earth.
In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed. Then, the three positions were separate. In Jesus, they all came together. He is the ultimate Anointed One.
Prophets proclaimed the Word of God. As a prophet, He both preached and literally embodied the Word of the Lord (John 1:1–18; John 14:24; Luke 24:19).
Priests were supposed to serve as intercessors between the people and God. They were meant to offer sacrifices for the people’s sins and reconcile God and man. Jesus was the ultimate priest, offering the perfect sacrifice of Himself, in His death, to atone for sin. He reconciles us to God, as stated in Romans 8:34: “Christ Jesus who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Finally, Jesus, as the Son of God, is the ultimate King of Kings who rules over all of creation (Ephesians 1:20-23).
It’s estimated that Jesus fulfilled as many as 300 prophecies.
Prior to the birth of Jesus, the people of Israel had experienced a tumultuous relationship with God as a result of their disobedience and sin. God had made them His chosen people (Exodus 7:6) and “treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6), going all the way back to the covenant made with Abraham (Genesis 17:6-7) and Jacob, renamed Israel (Genesis 28), and He had established Himself as their rightful king and sovereign ruler. However, in the days of the prophet Samuel, the Jews rejected God as their God and demanded that Samuel provide for them an earthly king, similar to the kings who ruled over the surrounding nations (1 Samuel 8:5, 19).
Rejected as king (1 Samuel 8:7), God nonetheless gave the people what they wanted, a temporary line of human kings, who would rule over them until Israel’s captivity in Babylon. Some of these kings served the Lord faithfully and were upright, virtuous leaders, Most, however, were selfish, corrupt, and spiritually bankrupt rulers who plunged Israel into an era of sin and idol worship.
Not to be discouraged or dissuaded by Israel’s rejection, God’s plan would introduce a new covenant that would see God’s love and forgiveness extend to all the world, not just the Jews (John 3:16). For generations, the Jews anticipated the arrival of their Messiah and the coming king (Micah 5:2; Isaiah 9:6-7; Psalms 22:27-31). Unfortunately, they were so accustomed to the leadership of earthly kings, they envisioned a Messiah who’d come as a political ruler, revolutionary, or royal lord, not a lowly, humble servant and son of a carpenter (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Matthew 21:1-7). They also didn’t anticipate that God’s kingdom would be a spiritual, heavenly realm (John 18:36).
This is why many in Israel, namely the Pharisees and religious leaders, rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah and “cornerstone” (Psalms 118:22) or mocked him as “king” during his crucifixion (Mark 15:32; Luke 23:29). As it is written, “he came to his own and his own did not receive him” (John 1:11).
Though some would recognize and accept Jesus as Messiah (Luke 19:38; Matthew 16:16), many in Israel would reject their king once again.
Ironically, most references to Jesus as the “King of the Jews” in the gospels come from non-Jews.Source
What Does This Mean?
One day, those who have rejected God as King and Jesus as Messiah will know that Christ is King. And on that day, as it is written, “Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10; Revelations 15:3).
Who gave Jesus this authority which he has today, and did he not always have this authority even in the eternity past?
In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me.” By whom? The answer is: God the Father gave it to him.
Matthew 11:27. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
John 3:35. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
John 17:2. Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Matthew 28:18 “. . . authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” The Father knows his sheep and they are his. He gives them to the Son. He gives life-giving authority to the Son. And the Son gives life to all that the Father has given him!
So when Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” he means “has been given to me by my Father.”
To which we then ask, “Did he not always have this authority even in the eternity past?”
Jesus was — always has been, always will be — God! He is with his Father the creator of the universe. He did not become authoritative at his incarnation or his exaltation.
So we ask now, secondly, How much authority is included in “all authority in heaven and earth”?
The first thing to say is that this authority is not the authorization of Jesus to potentially rule, but the authorization of Jesus to actually rule. The authority of Jesus in heaven and earth is his authorized rule in heaven and on earth.
And the second thing to say is that what the Father has the authority to do, Jesus has the authority to do, because Jesus said in John 3:35, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” So where we have statements in the Bible that God has the right to do something, we know Jesus has the right to do it. Source
So my answer to our second question (How much authority is included in “all authority in heaven and earth”?) is:
The risen, reigning, King of kings and Lord of lords reigns over this world and over his mission with absolute sovereignty. Nothing is outside his sovereign will. If he meets with resistance, he either allows it for his purposes, or he overcomes it for his purposes. His sovereign purposes are never thwarted.
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose. (Isaiah 46:9–10)
This leads to one last question.
What does this confidence unleash in the lives of those who really believe this?
It unleashes a torrent of hope-filled prayer for God in Christ to do what only he can do: Sometimes people say, “Why pray if Christ is sovereign?” To which I answer: “Why pray if he is not sovereign?” Source