Jesus said: “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” Luke 24:26
TOPIC: Jesus rightly claimed to be the Messiah.
BACKGROUND: These words were spoken after Jesus’ resurrection on the road to Emmaus. Jesus was about to explain why he had come to earth.
Andrew’s first contact with Jesus is insightful to read. After he and John spent time with Jesus, Andrew quickly ran to his brother Peter and exclaimed, ‘’‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ)” (John 1:41). Andrew was convinced that Jesus was the promised Anointed One that he had learned about in his Bible study.
The Old Testament Jews knew about the Messiah. As the Christ, or the Anointed One, the Messiah would fulfill the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus was the one who was to come to be the culmination of these three offices, anointed by God himself. Daniel prophesied about the Messiah in Daniel 9:26, “The Anointed One will be put to death.”
The New Testament Jews were also still in search of the coming Messiah. Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well where he told her about her past. She was astonished at such great prophecy and said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he” (John 4:25,26).
Even Satan recognized the Messiah when we read that “demons came out of many people, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah” (Luke 4:41).
Those in the early Christian Church knew that Jesus was indeed the true Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. In Thessalonica Paul made it abundantly clear, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah” (Acts 17:3).
We rejoice knowing that the Anointed One came to serve as our Prophet, Priest, and King!
PRAYER THOUGHT: by James Cox
His mission thus confirmed from Heaven,
The great Messiah came,
And heavenly wisdom taught to man,
In God the Father’s name.
LUKE WRITES ABOUT JESUS: “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Acts 2:36
From At the Feet of Jesus by Reynold R. Kremer