Is Yeshua the Messiah?

By David Daniels

Given that our entire faith rests in the person of Yeshua (Jesus), that He was indeed the long-awaited Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of the world, it is critical that evidence be found for this claim in the Scriptures.

Following His death and resurrection, the New Covenant Scriptures (New Testament) record the following conversation that Yeshua had with His disciples:

” ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them,  ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’ “ (Luke 24:44-49 NKJV)

In this passage, Luke, a 1st Century disciple and a chronicler of Yeshua’s life (Gospel of Luke), records Yeshua’s assertion that the Jewish Scriptures (i.e. Law of Moses, Prophets, Psalms) repeatedly spoke of the coming of Messiah in terms of His life, death, and resurrection. Not only do the Jewish Scriptures speak of this suffering Messiah, Yeshua further declared that “repentance and forgiveness of sins” came through Him, and that this message was to be proclaimed throughout the entire world, beginning in Jerusalem.

Luke’s assertion that Yeshua “opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” is further indication of the disciple’s firm belief that Yeshua was the very Son of God, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

Another of Yeshua’s disciples, John, also recorded the life and ministry of the Messiah. He makes explicit statements regarding the person and character of Yeshua as he describes the ministry of John the Baptist, who came preaching a message of repentance, warning Israel to prepare for the coming of her Messiah.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)  And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:1-18)

There can be no doubt that John believed Yeshua was the Messiah, a belief which included his conviction that Yeshua was the incarnate God Himself. His commitment to Yeshua’s deity concurs with the prophet Isaiah who had prophesied the coming of Messiah some 700 years earlier.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Early in Yeshua’s ministry, as recorded by John, we see evidence that others recognized the messianic credentials of Yeshua. Here’s how John records it:

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’  Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’  Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’  Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’  Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’  Nathanael answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’  Jesus answered him, ‘Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’  And he said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’ ” (John 1:43-51 NKJV)

Numerous citations from the New Covenant Scriptures demonstrate both Yeshua’s claim and the disciples’ belief that he was indeed Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. This understanding had its roots in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures).  I invite you to explore the messianic prophecies of the Tanakh along with the New Covenant claims that those prophecies were fulfilled in Yeshua ha’Notzri (Jesus of Nazareth).

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