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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

Who Is the Messiah?

We're happy to be with you today for this worship service, and we hope that it will bring to you the encouragement that you have come for.

God has promised us great blessing as we worship together, hasn't he?

There has been a question asked within the Hebrew ranks or the Jewish community.

My father, HMS Richards, is presenting that subject to us today.

The historian Suetonius, who was once Emperor Hadrian's private secretary, wrote all of his books between the years AD 98 and AD 138.

In 1 of them, Lies of the Caesars, Chapter 25, he says that the Emperor Claudius banished from Rome all the Jews who were continually making a disturbance at the instigation of 1 Crestus.

It is believed by students of history that this word Crestus refers to Christ.

The name Christ was confused with the more familiar Greek and Latin name of Crestus.

It seems that from the way the Christians spoke of Christ's presence with them, the pagans of that time believed that He was alive and living among them and causing all the excitement.

Well, Christ is still a disturbing subject in the minds of thousands.

People are continually faced with a question first asked by Pilate, What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?

Now, of course, the word Christ is simply the old Hebrew word Messiah in its Greek form.

As we would say in English, the Anointed 1.

As the people of Israel would say, Who is the Messiah?

This is made clear in John 1, chapter 41, where we are told that Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ, or as the margin says, the Anointed.

The words Jesus Christ really mean Jesus the Anointed, Jesus the Messiah.

Now if Christ is the true Messiah of the ancient prophets of Israel, then in His life He must fulfill certain prophecies found in the writings of the Old Testament.

These prophecies plainly picture the Messiah, what He would do, what he would be like, the wonders of his character.

For instance, the Messiah was to be anointed with the Holy Ghost in a greater degree than any other man.

This was literally fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.

Read in Luke 3, verse 22, that when he came up from the waters of his baptism, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son and thee I am well pleased.

The Messiah was to be of a meek and lowly disposition.

We find the description in Matthew 11 in the 28th verse.

Messiah was prophesied to be endowed with peculiar wisdom and understanding.

Jesus Christ, His own enemies being the judges, spake of Him as a man who taught as never any other man taught.

The proof of this is found in John 7, verse 46.

The officers who went to take him answered, Never a man spake like this man.

In confirming his divine mission, the Messiah was to display many wonderful works among the people, that deaf were to hear, that lame be healed, and so forth.

This was fulfilled in the life of Christ as we know by His many miracles.

The Messiah was to have but little success in preaching the gospel among His own countrymen, to be rejected by them.

Isaiah 53, verse 3, He was despised and rejected of men.

We know this was fulfilled by the record of the 4 Gospels.

Messiah was to be rejected by the builders as we read in the prophecy of Psalm 118, verse 22, and yet He was made both Lord and Christ.

Isaiah 8, 13, and 14, and this is fulfilled as we know in the New Testament records.

And here's something that the people of his day could hardly believe.

Because there were 2 great lines of prophecy, 1 showing the exaltation of the Messiah, the other his humility.

The prophecy was that the Messiah was to be seen riding into Jerusalem sitting upon a young ass, a token of humility.

Our Savior fulfilled this as we find in Matthew 21.

The people at that time thought that he was to be the king on the throne of David and they said, Hosanna to the son of David.

Some of the leaders condemned the people for this and asked Jesus to stop them.

He said if they should stop, the very stones would cry out.

By this he meant that the prophecies of the Old Testament, prophecies of Israel, would be fulfilled in some way.

Messiah was to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies by the treachery of an intimate friend we read in Psalm 41.9.

Christ was betrayed by Judas as we all know.

Messiah was to be sold for 30 pieces of silver.

Notice the very amount as mentioned in the prophecy of Zechariah 11, 12, written hundreds of years before our Savior's birth.

That exact amount was given for his betrayal, see Matthew 26, 14.

And those 30 pieces of silver were to be cast to the potter in the house of the Lord, as Zechariah predicted in the eleventh chapter, thirteenth verse.

So Judas threw them down in the temple after he had betrayed our Lord.

The money was taken to purchase a potter's field in which to bury strangers, thus fulfilling the prophecy to the letter made hundreds of years before.

The Messiah, or Christ, was to be condemned in judgment and suffer death under the color of public justice, Isaiah 59, 8.

So Christ underwent a mock trial at night, was declared innocent by His very judge, yet delivered over to be crucified.

According to the same prophecy, all the followers of Messiah were to forsake Him in his time of need.

This happened to Jesus as we read in Matthew 26, verse 56.

The Messiah was to be scourged or whipped by his persecutors, Isaiah 50, verse 6.

Christ was treated in this manner, Matthew 27, verse 26.

The Messiah was to have his face be fouled with spittle, and for our sakes Jesus Christ condescended even to this indignity without complaining too.

Isaiah 50 and Matthew 26 The Messiah was to be smitten on the face in the day of His humiliation.

Isaiah 50, verse 6, fulfilled in Matthew 26, verse 67.

The Messiah was to be afflicted and persecuted.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

He was to be numbered with the transgressors.

And so our Savior was crucified between 2 thieves.

The holy Messiah of ancient Israel's prophecies was to be buried in the sepulcher of a rich man.

Our Savior was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich counselor.

And here is something especially important.

The Messiah of the prophets was to be put to death at the end of 486 1⁄2 years from the time that a commandment should go forth to restore and build Jerusalem.

Now it is a remarkable historical fact that from the seventh year of King Artaxerxes of Persia from whom Ezra received his commission to rebuild the city, Ezra 7, verse 8, To the death of Jesus Christ there were just 486 1⁄2 years.

This is substantiated by the prophecy of Daniel, the ninth chapter.

The Messiah was to be presented by His enemies with vinegar and gall during His sufferings.

This prophecy found in Psalm 69, 21 was actually literally fulfilled.

The Savior was treated in this manner when He hung upon the cross, Matthew 27, 34.

Don't forget, friends, that the prophecy made over a thousand years before declared that the persecutors of the Messiah would pierce his hands and feet.

So did those who crucified our Lord treat the Redeemer of mankind.

Read the great prophecy in Psalm 2216, They pierced my hands and my feet, and see its fulfillment as the Saviour hung upon the cross." Matthew 27, verse 35.

Crucifixion, by the way, was not known among the ancient Jews in the time of David or for many ages afterwards.

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Who Is the Messiah?

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