What Can We Believe About Christmas? Does Jesus Match the Prophetic Fingerprint?

Did Jesus offer credible credentials to back up his divine claims? Yes!

Miracles: John 10:37 told John to look for his miracles. Isaiah said Miracles would be one way the Messiah would authenticate himself.

  • Power over nature: walking on water
  • Power over sickness: healing leprosy & blindness
  • Power over death: raising Lazarus

Jesus’ opponents never denied his miracles. Even the Talmud admits miracles, and Mohammed, the founder of Islam, admits Jesus’ miracles and his virgin birth.

Character – often the closer we get to others, the more we see their flaws, but the opposite happened with Jesus!

John & Peter saw him up close and personal: their assessment:
1 John 3:5 – in Him is no sin
1 Peter 2:22 – committed no sin, no deceit was in him.

Who can have the same said about them?

The way he fit the fingerprint of divine prophecy.
Only the Messiah could fit this fingerprint:

He was:

  • Born of a virgin
  • Of the seed of Abraham
  • Of the tribe of Judah
  • Of the house of David
  • Born in Bethlehem
  • Heralded by angels
  • He cleansed the Temple
  • Rejected by the religious leaders

The Old Testament contains a description of Jesus being crucified 100s of years before crucifixion was implemented as a means of execution by the Romans. Could Jesus have intentionally maneuvered his life to fulfill these predictions? i.e., as he was going into Jerusalem, telling his disciples to go get him a donkey because Zechariah 9:9 says he is going to ride a donkey into Jerusalem, and he’s anxious for people to think he’s the messiah so they will torture him to death.

There’s no way Jesus could have maneuvered himself to intentionally fulfill all these prophecies: how could he arrange his place of birth? His ancestry? How he was betrayed for a specific amount? How his bones were unbroken on the cross unlike the others on the cross?

Mathematical odds of any human being fulfilling just 48 of these prophecies: 1 chance in one hundred million billion! Or one chance in a (say trillion 13 times). Have a blindfolded person find an atom out of a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, billion universes the size of ours.

Odds are astronomical, but Jesus came to fulfill them.
Luke 24:44 – all writings must be fulfilled.

All through history, the only one to fulfill all these prophecies is the baby in the Manger.

This message was derived from Lee Strobel's The Case for Christmas. Click on the title for more information.

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