How Many Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill?
The Bible tells the story of human history, and God’s involvement in it. The death and resurrection Jesus Christ is the most important event in human history. This story is woven throughout the Scriptures. The creation account demonstrates God’s sovereign control over His creation. We need a Savior because of the fall. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Two important things are evident in Israel’s history: 1) The historical context of Jesus’ birth, and 2) Humanity’s inability of saving itself by works. This is why it needs a Savior.
The gospels tell the story about Jesus, the Savior on Earth. Much of the New Testament teaches us how to live in this age because of Jesus’ work for us. The Bible’s prophecies, especially in Daniel and Revelation, but also elsewhere, demonstrate how Jesus is our Savior and saving us from (eternal hellfire in hell).
It is therefore difficult to answer the question “How many prophecies Jesus fulfilled” with any precision. Should we count only direct messianic prophecies? Are repeated prophecies counted twice? What about allusions to Christ’s ministry? And what about types? A type is a prophetic sign: A person or thing from the Old Testament that prefigures another person or thing from the New Testament. Boaz is a type or Christ, and Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will bring good news to the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61,1).
The Bible’s metanarrative is saturated by the story of Jesus, and the Old Testament contains prophecies about His first coming. Micro-references to Him are also found, as many events and people hint at the great work He would do. J. Barton Payne (a scholar) has identified 574 Old Testament verses that refer to, describe, or refer to the Messiah’s coming. Alfred Edersheim discovered 456 Old Testament verses that refer to the Messiah or His time. According to conservative estimates, Jesus fulfilled at most 300 prophecies during His earthly ministry.
5 Hidden Prophecies Jesus Fulfilled At His Birth
I’m going to give you five undeniable prophecies that Jesus fulfilled perfectly at his birth. That proved divine authorship of the Bible.
It’s been estimated that during Jesus’ lifetime he fulfilled more than 300 prophecies. Now for the skeptic out there who just says you know what this was just a coincidence Jesus has happened to be at the right place at the right time.
A study was done to show that the likelihood of any human being able to fulfill eight of these 300 prophecies in one lifetime is like 1 out of 10 to the 21st power.
This basically means if you’re not a mathematician that means it was literally humanly impossible for anyone to be able to fulfill these prophecies. This lets us know that the Bible that we’re reading today my friends was not written by man but it was written by God.
So here are five prophecies that Jesus fulfilled at his birth with perfect accuracy and the first one actually shows up in the very first verse of the Bible.
Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 and says this is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah a descendant of David and of Abraham now that may not mean anything to us today but essentially what Matthew was trying to do is that he was trying to prove that Jesus indeed was qualified and had the right to be called the King of the Jews. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Hidden Prophecy Number 1
He had to prove through the lineage of Jesus was the fact that he was related to Abraham since he was a pure Jew but more importantly than that he also had to prove that he was related to David.
why because if you jump back to the Old Testament God had made a special promise to David.
2nd Samuel Chapter 7 verse 16 says that your house and kingdom will continue before my eyes for all time, and your throne and throne will remain secure forever. There is no way to make the throne permanent if the person sitting on it is eternal.
And this is the reason why throughout his life and ministry Jesus was referred oftentimes to the son of David which essentially is saying he is qualified and he has the right because he’s related to David to be able to sit on the throne and to be called King of the Jews.
Hidden Prophecy Number 2
Jesus fulfilled at his birth is probably the most well-known and most popular one and that is him being born of a virgin. this was prophesied way back almost some 700 years before Jesus Christ was born through the prophet Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.
Which says the Virgin will conceive a child she will give birth to his son and will call him Emmanuel which means God with us so how do we know that this prophecy is really talking about the birth of Jesus Christ and not something that was supposed to happen during Isaiah’s lifetime where my friend it’s simple since the time Isaiah gave this prophecy throughout history.
All the way leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ and beyond there has never at one point in history ever been a man child that has been born through a virgin. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Matthew, Chapter 1, records the fulfillment in verse 22 of this prophecy. It says that all of this speaking about the virgin birth happen to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet look, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a boy. They will call him Immanuel, which means God is with them.
Hidden Prophecy Number 3
Jesus fulfilled at his birth is actually the one that I find the most interesting and that is the very fact that the very place of Jesus’s birth was prophesied in the Old Testament.
Micah chapter 5, verse 2, says that even though Bethlehem is small among the clans Judah, I will send you the one who will be. Ruler over Israel.
now read this now whose origins are from old from ancient times and that little phrase right there lets us know that this prophecy could not be talking about anyone else other than Jesus who was God Himself. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
who had origins that from old of ancient times now you may say well why is that a big deal and how did Jesus actually fulfill that I want you to pay close attention to this is absolutely beautiful?
Hidden Prophecy Number 4
Caesar Augustus decreed that a census be taken of all Roman worlds in those days.
it says in verse 3 and everyone went to their own town to register now I want you to notice where Joseph Jesus’s earthly father’s home was he actually lived in Nazareth.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem.
The town of David because he belonged to the house and line of David verse five he went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him. and was expecting a child.
They were there when the time came to have the baby and she gave birth to her first child.
Now you may say well why is that important well understand that Joseph’s hometown was in Nazareth. which means he had absolutely no business traveling to Bethlehem.
But God set up and orchestrated the events in such a way that right around the time when Mary was supposed to give birth to Jesus a census was called.
And it forced Joseph to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem simply so that for one reason only that Jesus could indeed be born in the city of Bethlehem.
And Matthew records this as being a fulfillment of prophecy in Matthew chapter 2 verse 5 Matthew says in Bethlehem in Judea they replied this is after Jesus was born before this is what the prophet has written but you Bethlehem in the land of Judea are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for out of you will come to a ruler who shepherded my people.
So Matthew sees the very place of Jesus’s birth as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Now because King Herod was insecure about Jesus one day taking his throne the Bible says that Herod issued a decree that all babies that were born male babies that were two years or under should be slaughtered. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
And so what happened was an angel visited Mary and Joseph at night in a dream and told them to flee. Now, where did he tell him to flee look what it says here in verse 13 when they had gone an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream get up.
He said to take the child and his mom to Egypt, but wait what Egypt? Why would they want to go to Egypt? Let’s continue reading. It says here to stay there until I tell you about Herod, is going to search the child to murder him.
So they stayed there until the time of Herod’s death and notice that Matthew sees this move to Egypt as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
He says here in verse 15 and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet out of Egypt.
I called my son so do you see how God is divinely orchestrating all of the events around Jesus’s birth, to ensure that every single prophecy that was written about Jesus in the Old Testament indeed is gonna come to pass.
Hidden Prophecy Number 5
the fifth and final one is a sad one and that is the massacre of newborn children as I said King Herod had issued a decree that went out throughout the land to slaughter.
All of the male boys were two years or under and unfortunately, that sad tragic event did indeed occur. And as you could anticipate many of the women were weeping over the death of their newborn children. Matthew sees this as a fulfillment of prophecy spoken hundreds of years ago by the Prophet Jeremiah.
Matthew chapter 2 verse 17 says then what was said through the Prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled a voice is heard in Ramah a little place just around the city of Jerusalem weeping and great mourning Rachel which is a synonym for Israel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted.
Because they are no more my friends no other religion out there can boast of having such specific details prophesied about their religious leader’s birth.
And then fulfilled by the leader himself with perfect accuracy this and many other prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus lifetime gives me great asura know that the Bible that we have today was not written by man but it was written by God himself. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Prophecies That Prove Jesus Came From God
Let’s look at just six of the hundreds of prophecies that prove Jesus came from God. In the book of Genesis- which was written in about 1450 B.C.- the text talks about the curse that God was going to put on Satan.
And it says in verse 15 of chapter 3,
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Now, the question had always been:
What is the text talking about there? The coming Messiah is going to somehow bruise the head of Satan, but Satan is going to bruise His heel. But the Messiah is going to be the seed of…
Of whom, does the text say?
Prophecy Number 1
The Messiah Was The Seed Of Woman.
The problem with that, for many people who were reading that text hundreds of years ago, was how could the Messiah be the seed of the woman and not be the seed of Adam as well?
And then we go to the story and life of Jesus Christ. We read in the text about His birth.
The Bible says,
“Then the angel said to her (talking about Mary),
‘Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in our womb and bring forth a Son. The Holy Spirit will descend upon you and the power of God the Most will overshadow you. Therefore, also, the Holy One Who is to be born will be called the Son of God.’”
You see, the way that prophecy about Jesus and the Messiah came true, was that Mary did not know a man and was a virgin when the Holy Spirit came upon her.
And that way, the Messiah was the seed of the woman as well as the seed of God there.
And so you can see how the ancients would not have had any way to know how that particular prophecy could have been fulfilled, and there’s no way that Jesus could have manipulated that prophecy before He was born something that would have been impossible for Him to do.
Prophecy Number 2
The Messiah Would Be Born In Bethlehem Of Judah Or Of Judea.
When we look in the Bible at Micah 5, the text says,
“But you Bethlehem Ephrathah. Even though you are small among the thousands of Judah’s, you will still be able to come to Me, the One to Rule in Israel. Whose going forth was from old, and from everlasting.”
The prophecy says that the Messiah is going to come from Bethlehem. And when we look in the life of Jesus Christ,
we read in Matthew:
“When Herod the king heard these things,
He was troubled and Jerusalem was with him. After he had brought together all the chief priests, scribes, and people, he asked them where they were located. The Christ was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,” because it was written by the prophet. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Now, sometimes we miss what’s going on here. Micah the prophet had written his material hundreds of years–hundreds of years–before Jesus came.
Because we have those books in one singular book called the Bible, sometimes we turn a few pages and just simply think,
“Oh, whoever wrote these things must have lived near one another.”
But they didn’t. These records of the life of Jesus where hundreds of years after the things had been penned by those Old Testament prophets.
Prophecy Number 3
The Messiah Would Die Among Thieves.
This doesn’t seem like that unique of a prophecy until we start looking at the pattern here. Many of these prophecies were prophecies that there’s no way the Messiah could have contrived by Himself.
You see, in Isaiah 53:8-9, the text says,
For He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of My people, He was stricken. They buried Him with the poor, but not with the wealthy at His death. He had never committed violence or deceit.
Now, how are they going to make the grave of the Messiah with the wicked?
Something that the Messiah, if He were getting killed and dying, couldn’t have contrived Himself. And then when we look at the life of Jesus in Luke 23:32, the text says,
He was also led by two other criminals. They arrived at Calvary and crucified Him and the criminals on each side.
Jesus, fulfilling the prophecy from Isaiah, which was some 700 years or more before His life, was crucified between thieves exactly like the prophecy had said.
No possible way for Jesus to have contrived that Himself. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Prophecy Number 4
The Messiah Would Be Buried In A Rich Man’s Tomb.
Isaiah 53:9 says,
They buried Him with the wicked, but with the wealthy at His death, since He had not committed any violence or deceit.
So, number one, Jesus could not have contrived how He was going to die, and by whom He was going to die, and once He was dead, He would have had serious problems contriving how He was going to be buried.
And yet, when we look in the life of Jesus, we see the text therein Luke 23:50-53 says,
And behold, there was a man named Joseph,
a council member, a good and just man. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock, where no one had ever laid before. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Prophecy Number 5
The Messiah Would Be Pierced.
His hands and feet would be pierced. When we look in Psalm 22:16 the text says, Dogs have surrounded me; the group of the wicked has enclosed Me.
Of all the people that have died, how many have had their hands and feet pierced? Some, but when you look at how narrow the picture is here, again, these are things that the Messiah could not have contrived because they are things that are done to Him.
And when we go to the life of Jesus, it’s well known a fact that Jesus was crucified, and that crucifixion involved there, Matthew 27:35: “And they crucified Him.”
And it involved the hands and the feet of Christ. You can see that Jesus, some thousand years after Psalm 22 was written, was pierced. His hands and His feet–fulfilling that prophecy. (Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill)
Finally, Prophecy Number 6
A Statement Made By Jesus On The Cross.
Matthew 27:46.
It states, “And around the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud volume, saying,
‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’”
Means, that is to say,
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
Now, many people have analyzed this verse for many years and wondered why Jesus said that. But what’s interesting is if you were to go back to Psalm 22, and you were to look at the very first verse, you would read,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
You see, Jesus, on the cross, was taking those people in the Jewish audience who were watching, who was a part of the mob, who were witnessing the events, and He was taking them to a psalm that was very well known to them.
Psalm 22.
And He said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
He took their mind to that psalm, and then, as they went through mentally what that psalm said, they probably then mentally got down to about verse 18.
And they thought about the words of that psalm. It said that they looked and stared at Me… they divided My garments among themselves, and they made lots of My clothing.
And they realized that they were witnessing in real historic time something that had been predicted a thousand years earlier by the psalmist.
Jesus took their minds back to that psalm with the statement,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
And then that psalm validated the life of Jesus as the Messiah. You see, Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecy that was written hundreds or thousands of years before He was born.
It was no wonder, then, that in the 1st century many of those Jews who knew the Old Testament is the very best believed in Jesus and obeyed the Gospel.
You read there in the book of Acts, And the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
Jesus Christ was the Messiah predicted in prophecy, fulfilling everyone perfectly.
