Can you name some of the 109 specific First Coming prophecies fulfilled by Jesus Christ?
On Friday, September 27, 2013, I was interviewed on The God Solution Show with Nate Herbst which airs on KDUR 91.9 and 93.9 in Durango, Colorado. Nate’s show is special because he’s the only Christian program on a totally secular station. With such a fantastic opportunity to share the Gospel with an unbelieving audience, he focuses on apologetics which defend the Christian faith. I came on to share one of the best defenses for why we can trust the Bible as God’s word and place our faith in it — fulfilled Bible prophecy.
Jesus Fulfills Prophecy
Nate Herbst: Nathan, why don’t you go ahead and keep going with some more of the 109 prophecies Jesus fulfilled concerning His First Coming. I’d love to hear some more. Do you have any others you could share with us?
Nathan Jones: Oh, like I said, I have 109 of them that’s just related to Jesus as the Messiah. The Bible is filled with prophecies that involve the nation of Israel and that involve the Church Age, which are those who have been saved who live during this age. The Bible is also just filled with future prophecies called apocalyptic prophecy.
Besides all those other subjects that have fulfilled prophesy, let’s just keep going about Jesus’ First Coming, because this is important. This is huge, because all of history centers on Jesus Christ. Jesus dying for our sins to provide the way, as Jesus said in John 14, the only way for man to come back to Christ. That’s through Jesus’ death on the cross. And, Jesus promised in Revelation 22:20 that He will return as King again.
Okay, let’s talk about when Jesus came into Jerusalem the last week before His crucifixion. Zechariah 9:9 foretold that the Christ would be riding in on a donkey. Now, that seems like a minor thing that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and in Matthew 21:4-9 that was fulfilled. Jesus did ride in on a donkey, and not just any donkey, but a donkey that had never been ridden before. No king rides a donkey, so this prophesy about the coming king was very specific.
Another fulfilled prophesy is that Jesus would be rejected by His own people, the Jews. Psalm 53:3 and 118:22 said that Jesus would be rejected by His own people. That’s why we have a First Coming and a Second Coming. Certainly it grieved the Lord to be rejected by His own people, but i the people of Jesus’ time had accepted Him as Messiah, He would be King of the Earth right now. But, to fulfill the need for Jesus to live out His passion to save people so as to bring people to God, He first had to die in our place. Jesus is the perfect man dying for the imperfect man. That’s what Jesus did.
Concerning the Messiah’s death, it was prophesied that Jesus would endure a humiliating death. You can read all of Psalm 22, and really Psalm 22 is probably the best prophesy concerning this. If anyone has to read Bible prophecy, please read Psalm 22, because Psalm 22 is the passion of the Christ. David may have been writing it, but it is Jesus 1,000 years earlier giving a first person account of His agony on the cross. As you read through that chapter, everything that Jesus said on the cross can be read in Psalm 22. That’s amazing! In Psalm 22 you get a step-by-step personal experience through the crucifixion. Jesus fulfilled that word for word.
Another fulfilled prophesy concerned how the Messiah would be betrayed by a friend. Psalm 41:9 tells us that. We know from Luke 22 that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. Amazing that one of His own apostles betrayed Him.
Not only did Judas betray Jesus, but we are told that he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12 foretold that the Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. That’s exactly the amount of money that Judas was given by the Pharisees and the High Priest to betray Jesus Christ.
Another prophesy from Isaiah 53:7 said that when the Messiah would be put on trial that He would be silent before His accusers. He wouldn’t speak. We then read in Matthew 27 that Jesus was silent while He was on trial. He didn’t speak.
Psalm 22:7-8 tells us that the Messiah would be mocked and beaten, and Jesus was mocked and beaten. He would be spit upon by His own people according to Isaiah 56, and we are told that Jesus was.
Here’s another fulfilled prophesy, Nate, that really impresses me. Psalm 22:16 says that Jesus would be pierced through His hands and His feet. That’s a Roman crucifixion that’s being talked about there. In the time that this was written in the Psalms, a thousand years before Jesus came to the world, the Romans hadn’t even invented crucifixion yet until 300 years before Jesus came. So, here the Bible is talking about crucifixion 700 years before crucifixion was even invented.
Nate Herbst: That’s incredible! I’m reminded of a similar prophecy about Cyrus that we find in Isaiah, which was written before Cyrus was even born, and it names him by name. We see these prophecies that go beyond prophetic. So, it’s incredible to read a prophecy about Jesus dying by crucifixion well before Jesus was even born and before crucifixion was even invented. Incredible, incredible!
In the sixth part of the God Solution interview, Nate and I keep sharing prophesies from the 109 prophecies Jesus fulfilled concerning the First Coming of the Messiah.