1. Matthew 16:16
2. John 7:41
3. John 20:31
4. Acts 9:22
5. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
6. Revelation 11:15

You probably know this. But I want for you to think about it this morning. The Christian faith has its origins in the Jewish faith. Christians believe in the Old Testament, which is the Jewish Bible. Christians believe that God created the world by the word of his mouth, just like Jews believe. Christians believe that God chose Abraham to be the object of his grace and blessing, just like Jews believe. Christians believe that Moses led Israel out of Egypt, just like Jews believe. Christians believe that Moses wrote down the law of God, which was given by God, just like the Jews believe. Christians believe that Joshua conquered Jericho, and that David ruled over Israel, and that Daniel survived the lion's den.

Now, when I say, "Christians," of course, I'm referring to Bible-believing Christians who embrace the tenets of historic Christianity, which holds the Scripture to be true. There are many who would identify as Christian, but are liberal and would reject many of the teachings of the Old Testament. Also, when I say, "Jews," of course, I'm referring to the orthodox Jews, who still embrace the Old Testament as trustworthy and reliable. For there are many Jews who are just as liberal as the most liberal of Christians.

But the point is this: Christians embrace the Old Testament, just as the Jews. So, there is some overlap between the Christian and Jewish faiths. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas! We Christians believe that a Jewish baby was born, in fulfillment of all of the promises that God made to the Jews! The savior of the world is of Jewish descent!

The Messiah has come! That's the message of Christmas! The Messiah is Jesus! That's the difference between Christians and Jews. We Christians believe that the Messiah has come! We can see how the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus. But the Jews say, "We're still waiting for the Messiah. He hasn't come yet." Though the Jews recognize Jesus as a man who lived in history, they still don't see him as the Messiah for whom they are looking.

The Jews are still looking for the one who would come and deliver them from their oppression and hardship. They are looking for one who would come and bring peace to the earth. But we Christians say, "The Messiah is Jesus! He came already! And he came to redeem us from our sin! And he will come again to set things right!"

But back in the first century, when Jesus came and when Christianity was starting, the people didn't immediately believe that Jesus was the Messiah. So, they needed to be convinced. The early church needed to explain to their Jewish friends and neighbors that "Jesus is the Messiah." And in many ways, this became the central task of the early church, not only convincing their Jewish friends that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus. But also convincing the Gentiles that Jesus was the Savior of the world and that he was the Messiah!

The early church did so by showing from the Old Testament how the prophesies were fulfilled in Jesus. They showed how the Messiah would come and die upon the cross and rise from the dead! As Jesus fulfilled all of these things. Such was the message of the early church. And that's our theme this morning, "Messiah Has Come!"

I want to take you through a quick Biblical survey. I want to quickly show you from several different sources in the New Testament the proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah. The message of the early church was simply this: Messiah has come! And the Messiah was Jesus! I have chosen a text from several different sources in the New Testament that all proclaim the same message.

My first text comes from 

1. Matthew 16:16

Peter was talking with Jesus one day, when Jesus asked him the question, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" Peter shared what he had heard from others. "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets" (Matthew 16:14). Then Jesus pressed the disciples to answer for themselves. Jesus said, "But who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15). And Peter responded,

Matthew 16:16
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

In other words, "You are the Messiah! You are the one for whom the people are looking! You are the one who was promised!" Later on, Jesus would say of this confession, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). In other words, Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, is of divine origin! God the Father has revealed this to Peter!

And what Peter needed a divine revelation to understand, became the proclamation of the early church. They proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ! The Messiah has come! Here's Matthew, one of the gospels, giving us insight into the early church faith. The Messiah has come! Jesus is the Messiah!

Let's move along to our second text:

2. John 7:41

Here we have the gospel according to John. In this chapter, Jesus is at the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. On the last day of the feast, Jesus stood up and proclaimed,

John 7:37-38
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'

Jesus is essentially proclaiming himself to be the water of life! "Come to me and find life!" And the response of the people there in Jerusalem at that time was this,

John 7:40-41
When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ."

The people were speculating about Jesus. Who is this man? What's he all about? Some said that he's the Prophet (foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15). Others said, "This is the Christ!" That is, "This is the Messiah!" Now, not everybody was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. In fact, many rejected Jesus. Later on in this same chapter, we read,

John 7:48-49
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.

So, not everybody accepted Jesus as the Messiah. But there were those who did! And it's John, the gospel writer, who is reporting to us this fact. That there were those who said, "This is the Christ!" That is, "This is the Messiah!" The Messiah has come!

Let's move on to our third text:

3. John 20:31

This is the purpose statement of the gospel of John. John tells us why he wrote his gospel. He says,

John 20:30-31
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

This is the purpose of John's gospel! That you might believe that Jesus is the Christ! The Messiah! And that by believing, you might have life! So, from the gospels, we have this testimony that Jesus is the Christ! The Messiah has come!

Let's move along to the book of Acts. Our fourth text is 

4. Acts 9:22

I chose a text from Acts because Luke wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. Luke is reporting the history of the church! In the book of Acts, we see the message of the early church. What was their proclamation? What was their message? It was this: Jesus is the Christ! The Messiah has come!

In Acts 9, we read of Saul's conversion. Saul was a Pharisee, zealous for the law. He persecuted the church. But the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and Saul was converted. He became Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. And what did Paul immediately begin to do after his conversion? He began to preach! And what was his message?

Acts 9:20-22
And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?" But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

Paul's message was this: Jesus is the Christ! The Messiah! He proved it from the Scriptures! This was Paul's message. He went to the synagogues and he reasoned with the Jews from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah!

In Acts 17, we see Paul in Thessalonica. And what did he do there? "Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ'" (Acts 17:2-3).

He's the Messiah. This Jesus is the Messiah. What Paul preached is the same message that we ought to preach as well: Jesus as the Messiah. In Acts 5:42 we get the picture of the early church: "Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus." The early church went house to house, day to day, teaching that the Messiah was Jesus, that he has come.

Now it's interesting for us because we really aren't thinking about the category of Messiah like the Jews were. If you run into a typical American, I don't think they're anticipating a Messiah or even having that category so much in their minds. Some of this is because we're not under bondage. We're part of a free country. We have much freedom here in our day and age. They're not even looking for any kind of deliverance or future. "The Messiah has come." If you preach that message to people, yes, it's true. But it needs to be contextualized a little bit because people aren't looking for the Messiah.

But one of the things that people are probably looking for a little bit, or maybe they don't even realize, is forgiveness. One of the things the Messiah brings is forgiveness. The only way that they can maybe anticipate needing a Messiah is to understand their need for forgiveness. So maybe the whole conviction of sin, which the Spirit does upon people, leads you to speak about how Jesus has come, the one who can grant forgiveness. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). That's a way of proclaiming Messiah. This world is not even looking for a Messiah, but feels the weight of sin upon them if the Holy Spirit indeed is working upon them. Preaching the Messiah, preaching Jesus as the way of forgiveness, even if it's not quite in these religious categories of the Messiah coming.

So, we've looked at passages from the Gospels. We've looked at passages in Acts. Now let's think about the epistles. What sort of passage do you choose from the epistles? Do you know how many times Paul says "Jesus Christ" or just "Christ"? Over 300 times in which he mentions the word Christ. Do you know how the Jews refer to Jesus? Yeshua Hamashiach. Yeshua, that is Jesus, Joshua, which means "the saving one." Hamashiach means, "The Messiah." So when believing Jews speak about Jesus Christ today, it's Yeshua Hamashiach, It's Jesus the Christ. So also when Paul said "Jesus Christ," it's with that in mind that it's Jesus the Christ, Jesus the anointed one who's come and been our deliverer.

So what passage do you choose? In light of the fact that we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper here at the end of my message, I chose 1 Corinthians 15. Out of all those we could have chosen, I chose

5. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

There's nothing special here, but this is very typical of Paul.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Paul's message is that Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day. Notice how Paul says "Christ." He's referring to Jesus as the Messiah. The Messiah died for our sins. The Messiah was raised on the third day. This is the message of the epistles. The Messiah has come! And he died for our sins! And he rose from the dead!

Finally, let's look at

6. Revelation 11:15

This is the last book of the Bible. And it speaks of the future. It speaks of when Jesus will come again. And when he comes again, what will happen?

Revelation 11:15
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."

Notice how it says "his Christ." That is, "his Messiah." The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah. The Messiah is coming! He will reign forever and ever! So, we've looked at the Gospels, we've looked at Acts, we've looked at the epistles, and now we've looked at Revelation. All proclaim the same message: The Messiah has come! And the Messiah is Jesus!

So, as we close this morning, I want us to reflect upon this truth. The Messiah has come! Jesus is the Messiah! He came to die for our sins! He rose from the dead! And he's coming again! This is the message of Christmas! This is the message of the early church! This is the message that we proclaim today!

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on December 26, 2021 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.