Why is Yeshua the Messiah?
We know that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah since He has fulfilled so many of the Messianic Prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the ones that He has not fulfilled yet, He will fulfill when He returns one day. For example:
1. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be born a Jew of the descendants of King David.
Isaiah 9:6-7 says, ‘For a child will be born to us, … There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David , …’
2. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2 says, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, … From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
3. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would ride as king into Jerusalem on a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9 ….Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, …mounted on a donkey …
4. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be rejected and die for the sins of the people.
Isaiah 53:4-5 says, ‘:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, … :5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; ….And by His scourging we are healed.’
5. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be rejected and die before the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Daniel 9:25-26 predicts, :25 … from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince … :26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off [or killed] and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [Temple]…’
6. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be crucified.
Isaiah 53:5 ‘He was pierced through…’
Zechariah 12:10 ‘…they will look on Me whom they have pierced…’).
7. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would die with criminals but pray for His enemies.
Isaiah 53:9 ‘His grave was assigned with wicked men’, 12 ‘And interceded for the transgressors.’)
8. Yeshua fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be raised from the dead.
Psalm 16:10 ‘Neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.’
Isaiah 53:10 ‘He will prolong His days’.
A mathematician named Peter Stoner determined that the probability that any man (like Yeshua) might have lived down to the present time and just by chance fulfilled eight of the biblical prophecies about the Messiah (like we just showed) was 1 in 10 to the 17th power! This is the same probability that someone just by chance could pick a designated silver dollar out of a two foot high stack of silver dollars covering the state of Texas!
Then he determined that the probability that just by chance someone (like Yeshua) could fulfill 48 prophecies about the Messiah and not be the Messiah was 1 in 10 to the 158th power, or mathematically impossible!
Yeshua has fulfilled many more than 48 Messianic prophecies (some estimate as many as 300 prophecies!) So it is mathematically impossible for Yeshua not to be the Jewish Messiah!
II. We know that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah because of the countless Jewish and Gentile lives He has transformed for the better over the last 2000 years.
It is estimated that there are around 300,000 Messianic Jews worldwide (Jewish people who have recognized Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah). There are around 200,000 of them in the United States and around 20,000 of them in Israel. There have been conservatively hundreds of millions of true followers of Yeshua (both Jews and Gentiles) over the last 2000 years.
The fact that they came to know the God of Israel in a personal way and their lives were changed for the better through following Yeshua also supports that Yeshua is indeed the Jewish Messiah.