One of the great truths of Scripture is the fact that Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). We have great news to tell the world that there is one who cares enough and loves you enough that he laid down his life for you so that we can have a full and meaningful relationship with God. One of the great truths of Scripture is that Jesus died for you.

Now admittedly, when you hear this, you could think to yourself, “This is the best news I have ever heard. I need a Saviour, this is fantastic to know that Jesus died for me.” OR when you hear this you could shrug your shoulders and think to yourself, “So what? I don’t really care that Jesus died for me.”

How you respond to that message depends a great deal on your perception of Jesus - it depends a great deal on who you think Jesus is. If you think Him only to be a good teacher, or if you think Him only to be a gifted man, or even a joke, or a name to be uttered in anger whenever you hit your thumb with a hammer - then it doesn’t really matter that He died for you. After all what difference could His death possibly make in your life?

But if Jesus is the promised Messiah, if Jesus is the promised Saviour sent from God then the statement “Jesus died for you” means a great deal for you and for me. For then it means that His death was not meaningless but has something to do with you and me getting right with God.

How you respond to the statement “Jesus died for you” depends on who you think Jesus is. This is vital for us to understand. Imagine someone coming up to you on the street and saying “You are seriously ill and you will die unless you receive medical treatment now.”

How you respond depends on who said this to you. If it is the mailman, or the nosey next-door neighbor you probably won’t pay any attention. If it’s an insurance salesman you will be suspicious. But if it is the Chief Medical Doctor of Markham-Stouffville Hospital you’ll listen. So it is with the good news we have. How you receive the good news depends a great deal on who you think Jesus is.

So we come to the important question of Jesus in prophecy. Is He the promised King and Saviour of the Old Testament? Is He the promised One of God? If He isn’t, then we can ignore Him. But if He is, then we need to pay attention to His words and His actions.

It is a vitally important question, and it was vitally important in Jesus' day. Even John the Baptist had to send a little note to Jesus and in it he asked “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect another?” (Luke 7:19). Are you the one the prophets spoke of or should we expect God to send someone else? And Jesus had to reassure John and sent a little note back that said, “Yup it’s me”. Well, He said more than that, but that was the essence of His response.

And at another time after His death and resurrection Jesus had to show His disciples that He was the one the prophets spoke of. I love the story in Luke 24 (turn to it now) of the two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus. I just preached on this passage at Easter so you know how the two of them were walking disappointed, dejected and their faces and hearts filled with sadness. And Jesus comes alongside them and begins to walk with them. But they don’t recognize Him. I think it's because they aren’t expecting to see Him; after all they just saw Him die on a cross. So He is the last person they thought they would see. But Jesus has risen from the dead and He walks alongside them and asks them, “What’s up?”

And the two begin to tell him in verse 19 about Jesus of Nazareth,

“who was a prophet (That’s their perception of who Jesus was) mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. (verse 21) But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” We had hoped that he was the promised one.

And you can imagine Jesus slapping His forehead and saying, “aye-yi-yi” and He says in verse 25,

“How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

And with great patience and grace Jesus opens the Bible and has a Bible study with them as they walk along the road. The text says at verse 27 that “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the scriptures.”

Have you ever seen those aerial photographs? They are so neat, because you are able to get a glimpse the whole area and are able to see where your house is in proportion to everything else. This is the what Jesus is doing, He is giving them the big picture.

We don’t know His exact words but we do know that everything that Jesus taught them was about Himself. He is the focus of all prophecy, He is the one to whom Scripture point. He is the all-pervading subject of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. Jesus is the unique one sent from God.

Consider the prophecies of His birth. Think of the place of His birth. As we read the prophecies it seems that there are many places where the Saviour would be appear at birth.

In Micah 5:2:  “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old from ancient days.”

We are told that Bethlehem will be the place of the Saviour’s birth. But in Hosea 11:1:  “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

We read that Egypt will also be involved. And as you read the birth accounts of Jesus in Matthew and Luke we discover how all this came about. We discover how Jesus’ parents had to go to Bethelehem to be registered for a tax, and then flee from there to Egypt because of a threat to Jesus’ life.

Think also of the miracle of the virgin birth. The virgin birth is a great mystery but it was prophesied by Isaiah that the promised one of God would be born to a virgin.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

To fulfill this prophecy God performed a biological miracle. Mary was pregnant, but Scripture clearly states that she did not have sex with Joseph. Then how did Mary become pregnant? It’s the same question Mary asked in the gospel of Luke. And the Angel tells her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:34,35).

It’s interesting that when the Bible speaks of the birth of the Messiah in prophecy reference is made to His mother, or to the womb, never to a human father.

The virgin birth is incredible, and amazing but to my mind so logical. I mean if we are going to have a Saviour who can cleanse us from all sin we need someone who is like us, yet who is not like us. We need a person who has not inherited all the sin that is in us. In order for Jesus to be sinless and save sinners He had to be born of God, He had to be born to a virgin.

It is so logical to me, and at the same time blows my mind and I have to say as Mary was told, “Nothing is impossible for God.”

So, is Jesus the one that was promised by God? “Yes”, says scripture. Look at His birth and how precisely He meets all that is prophesied about His birth. And there is so much more, prophecies about His name – "He shall be called Immanuel, that is God with us.” And prophecies about His lineage. He will be in the line of David, the great King to whom God promised an heir on the throne forever. And so Luke and Matthew meticulously map out His lineage. And so all that is prophesied about His birth.

Next consider His life. We read of His nature in Isaiah 53. Here the Messiah is described:

“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2,3)

Isn’t true? There is no record of people flocking to Jesus because of his great abs. There is no record of people flocking to Jesus because He was a GQ man. No, He comes ordinary as ordinary.

We read of His ministry in Isaiah 42:

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” (Isaiah 42:1-3a)

When you read that who do you think of? Do you not think of Jesus immediately who did not cry out, did not raise His voice in the streets but quietly and humbly went throughout Galilee proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Does it not remind you of Jesus who continually came across broken people and who gently mends them and brings new life to each one?

Finally consider the prophecies of Jesus' death. We only have time for one, and that is Isaiah 53:3-5, 7:

Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him, his own countrymen rejected Him.

He was whipped, slapped, and hung on a cross.

As He hung on the cross people walked by Him and hurled insults at Him.

The Pharisees screamed, "Come down from the cross if you are the son of God.”

One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear.

All this time He did not cry out, He did not protest. He took it all quietly and silently for our sakes.

This is the uniqueness of Jesus in prophecy. He is the one to whom all the prophets point, in every way He meets what is written about the coming Messiah of the Old Testament. He is the unique son of God.

In the musical "Godspell" it starts with people dressed in grey come on to the stage one by one, about 16 of them in the end. Around their necks is the name of a famous person in the world history. Plato, Aristotle, Confucius and so on. Each say his or her piece. Then they all talk together and the program note neatly calls it “The tower of Babel.”

Suddenly they all move to the side of the stage. And there in the center of the stage is the person representing Jesus. It’s dramatic in its impact.

It says in effect, you name the greatest people who have ever walked this earth. You name them. For none of them, none of them compare to Jesus Christ.

For He alone is promised one of God. He is the unique one who died for you and for me so that we may have a new relationship with God.