LESSON NINE Christ the Messiah
1. Christ declared himself to be the Messiah. John 4:25, 26; Isaiah 61:1 with Luke 4:16-21 and Acts 10:38. (The Messiah is the Anointed One.)TDOC 22.4
2. He was recognized as the Messiah. John 1:40, 41.TDOC 22.5
3. The time of the coming of the Messiah was definitely foretold. Daniel 9:25.TDOC 22.6
4. When Christ came, he announced the fulfillment of this prophecy. Mark 1:14, 15.TDOC 22.7
5. After the ascension of Christ, the disciples applied to him the prophecy concerning the Anointed One. Acts 4:24-28.TDOC 22.8
6. The works of Jesus of Nazareth testified that he was the Messiah. John 20:30, 31. (Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew for the Anointed, the Messiah.)TDOC 23.1
NOTES: The hope of the people
“Thenceforth the name [Messiah] stood for that ideal character whose actual coming was, under one form or another, the burden of Jewish literature, the center of Jewish faith and feeling, the key to that wonderful sacrificial system which divinely obtained, the image, in dim and distant outline, before the prevision of the seer, the theme of psalmist, the hope of the people through centuries, a belief broadly popular.”TDOC 23.2
Christ’s consciousness of his Messiah ship
“That Jesus believed himself to be the Messiah is another fact that emerges from a careful reading of the Gospels. At the baptism it is evident that Jesus Christ was conscious of his Messiah ship. Matthew 3:15. The name Messiah was frequently applied to Jesus Christ by others. There are three occasions on which he accepted it for himself. Matthew 16:17; Mark 14:61; John 4:26. And although he refused from time to time to reveal himself to the Jews, who were only too ready to mistake his words and oppose his claim, the evidence of the Gospels is far too weighty to allow of any denial of the Messiah ship of Jesus Christ acclaimed, allowed, and implied by him.”TDOC 23.3
Not an Impostor
“Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God, because he pursued that course which would, from the nature of the case, result in his rejection by the nation; which conduct, in an impostor, would be impossible, but in the true Messiah it was the necessary course.”TDOC 23.4