"But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His
prophets...He has thus fulfilled" (Acts 3:18).
To claim that you are God is one thing-but to convince people
that you are indeed what you say you are is quite another. So how did
Jesus' closest followers come to be so convinced that they would lay
down their lives for that belief?
Many Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in precise
detail by Jesus of Nazareth. Neither the Jews nor the disciples of Jesus
understood at the time that Jesus was fulfilling the messianic prophecies
of the Old Testament-even though at times He told them this was
the case (Luke 18:31; Matthew 26:56). They were looking for a far different
Messiah than the One so many prophecies actually described.
One of Jesus' defenses to the Jews was to appeal to the Old Testament
Scriptures themselves, which identified Him as the One to come. "You
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life;
and these are they which testify of Me," He told them (John 5:39).
After Jesus was resurrected, He began to help His disciples understand
the Scriptures, and the disciples were inspired to declare that Jesus
was indeed the Messiah. The proof they offered was the very Scriptures
they had not previously understood.
