9. JESUS CHRIST: GOD’S PROMISED MESSIAH (a)

The Bible explains that Jesus Christ is not only the mediator between God the Father and mankind (Med. 7-8), but also God’s promised Messiah.

The Hebrew word ‘messiah’ means ‘anointed one’.

In Old Testament times, Israel’s kings, priests and prophets were anointed with oil as a sign that they were chosen by God to be his special servants.

They were all forerunners and ‘prophetic illustrations’ of God’s promised ‘ultimate Messiah’.

Israel’s prophets foresaw the coming of this messianic Servant of God who would not be anointed with oil but with God’s own holy Spirit!

During Jesus’ first public appearance in the synagogue (i.e. a Jewish place of worship), he read the following passage from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah who had lived ca. 700 years before: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” (Luke 4, verses 18-19).

Then Luke continues his report of this historic event by saying “He (Jesus) rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently. Then he said, "This Scripture has come true today before your very eyes!” (Luke 4,20-21).

In other words, Jesus acknowledged there and then that he was God’s promised ultimate Messiah, anointed with God’s Spirit!

The prophet Isaiah had prophesied elsewhere about him with the following words: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. He will delight in obeying the LORD.” (Isaiah 11,2-3)

As the New Testament was originally written in Greek, it translated the word ‘Messiah’ with the Greek term ‘Christos’, which we change into our English word ‘Christ’.

Andreas, one of the followers of John the Baptist, told his brother Simon Peter: “We have found the Messiah! (which is translated, the Christ).” (John 1, verse 41).

So ‘Christ’ is not Jesus' surname, but his title.

If we want to understand why Andreas was so excited about his discovery concerning Jesus, we need to know what the comprehensive mission of God’s ultimate and Spirit-anointed Messiah would be. Well, that will be our next theme.