Survey of the Old Testament Prophecies About Jesus

What I'd like you to do right now is grab a Bible. Grab a Bible and open up to Genesis chapter 3.

Now, here's the deal. I might have to post all of the references that I'm using somewhere, but take notes.

Just absolutely take notes on what it is I'm about to show you, okay? I want to tell you some good news, but first I need to explain to you the bad.

And I'm going to do that from Genesis chapter 3. I'm going to start at verse 1.

Now, understand the context here. I'm picking up, kind of, you know, leaving out some of the details of the story.

In chapters 1 and 2, we see that in six days God created the heavens and the earth.

He created the earth, the moon, the sea, the animals, the whales, the fishes, everything.

And he declared it all good. And then he created man in his own image, male and female, and it was very good.

And God rested on the seventh day. I mean, this is an amazing story that tells us of our true origins.

We are not a planet that came about as a result of random chance over billions of years.

No, our planet was thought up in the mind of God and was spoken into existence by his powerful and mighty word.

He said, let there be light, and there was light. He said, let the seas team with fishes according to their kinds, and they were there.

He said, let the earth produce vegetation according to its kind, and it did. It's an amazing, amazing story that tells you of the power and creativity of God.

And at the beginning, he declared it all to be good. But see,

God has an enemy. That enemy is Satan. And he came to the first human beings,

Adam and Eve, whom God created. He actually formed Adam from the mud of the earth and then created

Eve by basically taking one of Adam's ribs and forming Eve from his rib so that Adam was able to declare that she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

Beautiful, beautiful thing that's going on here. It just absolutely boggles the mind and points us to the fact that as things were in the beginning, this is a picture of what is going to be at the end when

God renews all things, a new heaven and a new earth. But Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan.

In Genesis 3, we pick up the story. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the

Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you will die.

Now what's referred to there is that when God put Adam and Eve on earth, he put them in the garden of Eden, gave them a job.

Adam was a gardener. He had meaningful labor that he was to do, you know, literally as God's agent on earth, created in the image of God.

And there was one command, don't eat of that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That's all it is. Satan comes along and he tempts Eve with the deconstructing question that literally undermines

God's word and his authority and questions it and basically impugns God. Did God really say that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

That's not what he said. So you may eat of any of the trees in the garden, but God said you should not eat of the fruit that's in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

That's not exactly right. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

You will be like God. That's the temptation of the devil, is it not?

You can be like God. You can be your own God. That's Satan's work, making you

God. The center of the universe, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate and the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths and they heard the sound of the

Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

Lord among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself or afraid of God after this sin.

He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

And the man said, the woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this thing that you have done? The woman said, well, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this curse, are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field?

And on your belly, you shall go and the dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So the bad news begins there.

God created everything and it was good. God is the creator of heaven and earth.

And he created man, Adam and Eve in his image, gave him one command and they disobeyed it.

And as a result of that, they fell into sin and every human being descended from Adam and Eve via the normal means is tainted with and corrupted by this sin.

But there was a promise. There was a promise given in the garden, a promise regarding one seed of Eve, a seed, an offspring who would crush the head of the serpent.

Right. And that offspring, that promise is regarding the

Messiah. And all throughout the scriptures, then the Old Testament picks up from this story and begins to follow the lineage of a particular genetic line in the human race.

And that genetic line takes us and points us to and leads us to like breadcrumbs on a trail that we're not familiar with.

When we follow the trail, the trail leads us to Jesus.

See, he was the one promised here by the Lord God in the garden, the one who would crush the head of the serpent and who would in the turn have his heel bruised, the one who would decisively defeat

Satan. And so as you read through the Old Testament, along the way, you find bits and pieces of prophecy pointing us to Jesus.

Some of these crumbs are bigger than others. In fact, some of these crumbs are so big that the best way to describe them would be like, well, we've got a full blown slice there.

And many people point to them as like clear prophecies regarding Jesus. Okay, let me show you a few.

In Deuteronomy chapter 18, starting at 15, God there as the children of Israel, having been brought out of slavery to the

Egyptians and brought into the wilderness where a lot of them died because of unbelief, they're literally on the verge of being brought into the promised land.

Moses is winding up his business because Moses isn't going to make it into the promised land.

God has said, you know, nope, you can't go in there. And there's an incident that caused that to be his temporal punishment.

Okay, so Moses isn't going to go into the promised land, but God continues to speak through Moses. And in Deuteronomy chapter 18, here we have a prophecy given by Moses regarding Jesus.

Verse 15, for the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers, it is to him that you shall listen.

Just as you desired of the Lord God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the

Lord, my God, or see the great fire anymore, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him.

And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name,

I myself will require it of him. So there's, you know, more than a crumb.

I mean, that's a full blown slice of bread in this trail that leads us to Christ.

And see, that's what's going on in the Old Testament. Again, we're following a particular genetic line in the human race through history, okay?

And the reason why is because that's the one promised by the Lord God in the garden, the offspring who would crush the head of the serpent.

Moving forward, some more bread crumbs. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah in chapter 7, starting at verse 10, tells us about this promised seed, this promised offspring.

And here's what it says. And again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, again, ask a sign of the

Lord your God. Let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask,

I will not put the Lord to the test. And he said, hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men now that you weary God also?

So therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

And you shall call his name Emmanuel. What does that mean?

Here we have a prophecy regarding Jesus. Again, we're following this line.

We're following the breadcrumbs. And here's a big piece. This is more than a crumb. What do we know then about this coming promised one?

That he would be born of a virgin. And most amazing of all, he would be called

Emmanuel. Emmanuel. What does that mean? Emmanuel is

Hebrew and it literally means God with us. Pointing to the fact that this

Messiah, this promised one, this promised seed, the one whom

Moses said would be a prophet like himself, whom God would put his very words into his mouth, would be none other than God himself with us.

Amazing prophecy. Move forward a couple of chapters in Isaiah to chapter 9.

And we read, starting at verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined.

Verse 6, for to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

The government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The prophet Isaiah continues giving us big pieces of the puzzle regarding who the

Scriptures are about. They're really about this guy. The one who would be born to us who will be called

Mighty God. Amazing to think about it, isn't it?

That here man has fallen into sin and on the day in which man fell into sin,

God himself promised this one, this one offspring, this one person who would crush the head of the serpent definitively.

And as we read through the Old Testament, we run across these passages like this, following these breadcrumbs that are leading us to Jesus.

And what do we learn about him along the way? That he would be born of a virgin, that he will be called

God with us, that he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The prophets even told us where he would be born. Micah the prophet writes in Micah chapter 5 verse 2,

But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler in Israel.

Whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. See, God spoke to his prophets and kept giving us more information so that we would know who he is and what he would do and where he would come from.

And sure enough, where was Jesus born? He was born in Bethlehem. This is what we celebrate during Christmas.

The birth of this promised seed, this promised Messiah, which means anointed one.

The prophet Malachi gave us even a little bit more information about Jesus. And what he told us was that before Jesus would come, before the promised seed would come, that God himself would send a prophet to prepare the way for this promised seed.

Here's what Malachi writes in Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. Behold, I will send you

Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.

So there we go. God himself was going to send the prophet

Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord. And who did that turn out to be?

None other than John the Baptist. David himself.

Jesus is often referred to as the son of David over and over again in the scriptures. He's referred to him.

And yet David himself says of Jesus that he is his Lord. And in Psalm chapter 41,

David, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that the Messiah, the promised one, whom the scriptures are about, that the scriptures point to, that he would be betrayed by a close friend.

Here's what it says. Psalm 41 verse 9. Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

David, prophesying about Jesus, said that he would be betrayed by a very close friend.

Who did that turn out to be? None other than Judas Iscariot. Zechariah gives us a little bit more of the details of this betrayal.

In Zechariah chapter 11, verses 12 and 13, we read about the one who would betray the promised

Messiah. Here's what it says. Then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.

And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the

Lord said, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the

Lord to the potter. This is an amazing prophecy, by the way, because when we read in the

New Testament about the one who betrayed Jesus, Judas, he betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver and then afterwards had remorse, felt guilty for it, went to the temple priest and wanted to give the money back and they wouldn't accept it.

He threw the money into the house of the Lord and what ended up happening is they used it to buy the potter's field, which was a place to bury foreigners.

I mean, here Zechariah, hundreds of years before this actually took place in history, prophesies about it.

Now, some of the more amazing prophecies are actually regarding Jesus' crucifixion and His sufferings and death.

One in particular was written by, again, King David, Psalm chapter 22.

I'll read a portion of it, starting at verse 1 and here's what we read. My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? I'm thinking, man, that sounds familiar. Yeah, that's what

Jesus cried out on the cross. That was Jesus' cry of dereliction. When Jesus was being crucified, this is exactly what

He shouted out. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, these words were written and prophesied about long before Jesus ever walked the earth, penned by David himself in the

Psalms. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?

Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted.

They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who seek me mock me.

They make mouths at me and wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him.

Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. You should be hearing what went on at the crucifixion here.

The tauntings of the Pharisees are recorded long before they ever spoke them. Right here by David.

Verse 9. Yet you are he who took me from the womb.

You made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you I was cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my

God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.

Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like ravening and a roaring lion.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.

It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to my jaws.

You lay me in the dust of the earth. For dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me.

They have pierced my hands and my feet. Yeah, David, long before Jesus walked the earth, prophesied about his crucifixion.

Talks about those surrounding him at his crucifixion and pointed out the fact that his bones were out of joint.

And they had pierced his hands and his feet. Description of crucifixion even before it was invented as a means of capital punishment.

But what is also interesting is that King David also prophesied that Jesus would rise again.

David writes in Psalm chapter 16 verse 10. Says for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let the

Holy One see corruption. So as we read these prophecies, these bread crumbs along the way that point us to Jesus, we learn who the

Old Testament is really about. It's not a mistake. It is not a mistake that Jesus's story in Matthew chapter one begins with a genealogy.

And as you read that genealogy, you go, man, all of these guys are the old people that we had read about in the

Old Testament. Right. Because we're following a genetic line to a particular person, the promised one in the garden.

The prophet Isaiah gives probably the most startling prophecy regarding the

Messiah. Talking about his sufferings and death. Isaiah chapter 52 is where we're at now.

I'm going to start at verse 13 and listen to how the prophet Isaiah describes the sufferings and death and the purpose of the sufferings and death of the promised

Messiah, the suffering servant. Verse 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted as many were astonished at you.

His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

Talking about he's going to be beaten so bad you won't even be able to recognize him. So shall he sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths because of him or that which has not been told them they see and that which they have not heard they understand.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of a dry ground.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the punishment, the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way and the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent.

So he opened not his mouth. 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 living stricken for the transgressions of my people.

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Here not only does the prophet Isaiah prophesy Jesus' sufferings and death for our sins also prophesies that Jesus would be laid in the tomb of a rich man.

It's right there for us in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 9. We continue. Yet it was the will of the

Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring and he shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied and by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted as righteous he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and he was numbered with the transgressors.

Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressions for the transgressors.

Wow! Was that 600 something years before Jesus walked the earth?

Description and prophecy of his death sufferings where he'd be where he would be laid with a rich man and what his death would accomplish that many would be accounted righteous many.

This is an amazing amazing passage and so when we look in the

Old Testament and we walk through the Old Testament there's this anticipation as we get to the end of it.

Could it be time? Has the Messiah come? Will he be here soon? That kind of stuff right?

And so we get this amazing announcement. Now fast forward to Matthew chapter 1 verse 18.

I'm going to skip the genealogy because I've already explained that genealogy is all the Old Testament people that we had read the stories of in the

Old Testament. If you've read the Old Testament when you get to Matthew chapter 1 you're going to go I know who all these people are right?

Matthew chapter 1 verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

Stop. Don't overlook this. Don't let your familiar familiarity with this phrase keep you from understanding what is being said here.

Matthew was a tax collector okay? This was a man who was a tax collector who was despised by his own countrymen for being a turncoat and working for the hated despised

Roman government and extorting money from his fellow Jews right?

And Jesus called Matthew Levi to be his disciple and he was and he was an eyewitness to the very things that he writes about and according to church history

Matthew wrote his gospel to tell the good news of Jesus to the

Jews. And so when you see the phrase now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way you have to understand it from the point of view of a

Jew because they would read this and they would see the word Christos in Hebrew it would be

Mashiach okay? The Messiah. They would see this word and they would be dumbfounded because here

Matthew has dropped a bomb. He is making the claim that Yeshua Jesus is the promised

Messiah of the Old Testament. Those passages that I just read leading us into this passage and more they knew these passages backwards and forwards and they knew the promises of the coming

Messiah and they were anticipating his arrival at this time because they could calculate based upon the

Daniel chapter 9 and his prophecy as to when the Messiah would come that they were right in this time period and here

Matthew now writes now the birth of Jesus the Messiah the anointed one the promised one of the

Old Testament took place in this way this has already happened right? When his mother

Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together she was found to be with child from the

Holy Spirit. And her husband being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to divorce her quietly but as he considered these things behold an angel of the

Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not fear to take

Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name

Yeshua Jesus and here's the reason why for he will save his people from their sins.

He will save his people from their sins.

This is what we read in Isaiah 53 because of his sufferings and death he will cause many to be accounted as righteous the promised

Messiah who would save his people from their sins the one who is talked about and promised by the

Lord God in Genesis chapter 3 who would crush the head of the serpent the one who is discussed by Moses the prophesied as the prophet who would come after him whom

God would put his very words into his mouth the to whom we should listen the one who Isaiah prophesies would be born of a virgin who would be called

Emmanuel God with us mighty God everlasting father whom

Micah prophesied would be born in Bethlehem whom Malachi prophesied would have

Elijah himself making the path straight in preparation for him whom

David prophesied would be betrayed by a close friend in Psalm 41 and Zechariah prophesied would that price of that betrayal would be 30 pieces of silver that would be thrown back into the temple and then used to buy the potter's field the one who said is talked about in Psalm chapter 20 22 who would have his hands and his feet pierced in Psalm 16 that he would not see decay that he would rise again from the dead and whom

Isaiah says he would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities this is the one this is the the person whom all of history is waiting for the one who would set us free and save us from our sins folks this man

Jesus the God man is the one whom we're supposed to be preaching about because the

Bible is all about this man's story because this is not just any old man this is the virgin born son of God God with us let me read a little bit more from Matthew back it up just a bit she will bear a son you shall call his name

Jesus Yeshua where he will save his people from their sins now all of this took place to fulfill what the

Lord had spoken by the prophet behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name

Emmanuel which means God with us so when Joseph woke from sleep he did as the angel of the

Lord commanded him took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name

Jesus in those days now I'm fast -forwarding to Matthew chapter 3 just a little bit here

I want to skip forward because I'm trying to tell the story rapidly but you get what I'm doing

Matthew chapter 3 we learn about the one whom Malachi prophesied the one who had the spirit of Elijah on him

Matthew chapter 3 verse 1 we read in those days John the

Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand for this is he who was spoken by the prophet

Isaiah when he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight his paths now

John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey then

Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river

Jordan confessing their sins but when he saw many of the

Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptizing he said to them you brood of vipers who warns you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves we have

Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham but even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees and every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire

I baptize you with water for repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals

I am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire then

Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him

John would have prevented him saying I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me

Jesus answered him let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness then he consented and when

Jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the

Spirit of God like a dove coming to rest on him and behold the voice from heaven said this is my beloved son in whom

I am well pleased which human being has ever had

God the Father say such words he hasn't said that about me he hasn't said that about you but see he said that about Jesus Jesus is the one who is the beloved son of God with whom the

Father is well pleased he's the one who the entire Old Testament is about it's all about him it's all leading up to him the

Old Testament is following the scarlet thread of the line of this king of this promised

Messiah of the one who was promised who would crush the head of the serpent and we hear that it's all about him

I'll fast forward a little bit in the story read for you some of Jesus's doings

Matthew chapter 8 verse 1 when Jesus came down from the mountain great crowds followed him behold a leper came to him and knelt before him saying

Lord if you will you can make me clean and Jesus stretched out his hand and he touched the leper which is a no -no because lepers are unclean he says

I will be clean and immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him see that you say nothing to anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them so when

Jesus entered Capernaum a centurion a Roman centurion came forward to him appealing to him

Lord my servant is lying paralyzed at home suffering terribly and he said I will come and heal him but the centurion replied

Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof only say the word and my servant will be healed for I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me and and I say to one go and he goes into another come and he comes into my servant do this and he does it and when

Jesus heard this he marveled and said to those who followed him truly I tell you with no one in Israel have

I found such faith I tell you many will come from the east and the west and recline at the table with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and then to the centurion

Jesus said go let it be done for you as you have believed and at that the servant was healed at that very moment and when

Jesus entered Peter's house he saw his mother -in -law sick with a fever he touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him and that evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet

Isaiah he took our illnesses bore our diseases now when

Jesus saw a crowd around him he gave orders to go over to the other side and the scribe came up to him and said teacher