“Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:10-11

I have been blessed this year to teach Bible classes a couple days a week and to serve as a Spiritual Life Advisor at Heritage Christian School. Being semi-retired affords me this privilege. I love it! I remind students they are not merely reading another #1 Best Seller, but this is the Book of God! This Book will outlast the heavens and the earth. At every turn, I find myself asking the students two of the most life revealing and riveting questions, “Who is this Jesus?” and then, “Who do you say Jesus is in your life?” Some of the testimonies are soul touching and bring tears to my eyes because of their sincerity of Jesus being their friend, Savior, and God. When you meet Jesus, there is no turning back. You are positively, magnificently, and absolutely changed. Fear and darkness are ousted, light penetrates the soul, and sanctification of the Holy Spirit begins. With Easter just passed, I am always moved when I consider the evidence that surrounds the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the enormous claim that the Jesus of the Bible has fulfilled prophecy…He has indeed resurrected and He is deity!

“Who is this?” is a question asked nearly 2,000 years ago when Jesus entered Jerusalem…His triumphal entry, the final act in the drama of Jesus’ life (Matthew 21:1-10). The crowds of Jesus’ day who were coming to Jerusalem for the Passover asked this very question. The Passover is the single most significant season of celebration in Jewish life. Jerusalem is packed with people, possibly more than one million men, women, and children are crowding the streets as they attend this Jewish festival.

Then, in verse 10, there is one little word tucked into the text that you don’t want to miss. It says that the entire city of Jerusalem “was stirred” (NIV). The word used in the Greek for “stirred” is the word we get translated for our word, “seismic.” Basically, the impact of Jesus’ arrival is as though the entire city of Jerusalem is shaken or stirred as though hit by an earthquake! Everyone is impacted and asking this same question! A question that needs to be answered in our life today.

When we think of the evidences of the resurrection, the truth and power that Christianity is founded upon, and we see this Jesus as indeed the Messiah sent by God the Father from heaven, we do so not without wisdom. We believe with confidence that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed the “risen” Messiah, the one whom biblical prophecy proclaims.

First, in 1 Corinthians 15:2-8, Paul writes of those who were still living who had witnessed firsthand the resurrected Christ. Paul says, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also…”

Bible scholars Geisler and Turek agree. “If the Resurrection had not occurred, why would the Apostle Paul give such a list of supposed eyewitnesses? He would immediately lose all credibility with his Corinthian readers by lying so blatantly.”

Legal scholar John Warwick Montgomery stated, “In 56 A.D., the Apostle Paul wrote that over 500 people had seen the risen Jesus and that most of them were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6ff). It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus.”

British Bible scholar Michael Green remarked, “The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity…there can be no rational doubt that they occurred.”

No one has adequately explained why the disciples would have been willing to die for a known lie. But even if they all conspired to lie about Jesus’ resurrection, how could they have kept the conspiracy going for decades without at least one of them selling out for money or position? Moreland wrote, “Those who lie for personal gain do not stick together very long, especially when hardship decreases the benefits.”

The Apostle Paul reminds us that if we have only believed in Christ in this life then we are to be pitied most of all men (1 Corinthians 15:19). In this same passage, Paul debates the premise of Christ’s resurrection as he shares with those believers in Corinth that, “…if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 15, 17, 20).

Chuck Colson, implicated in the Watergate scandal during President Nixon’s administration, pointed out the difficulty of several people maintaining a lie for an extended period of time. “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world – and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” (Charles Colson, “The Paradox of Power”)

Secondly, let’s consider the magnitude of fulfilled prophecy that points to Jesus that validates His deity and His being who He said He was—the Messiah. Many of the prophecies attributed to the Christ are between 500 and 1500 years before Jesus’ birth. According to the Hebrew requirement that a prophecy must have a 100% rate of accuracy, the true Messiah of Israel must then fulfill every single prophecy with 100% accuracy, or else, He is not the Messiah (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Let’s consider the scriptural veracity and the probability of prophecies fulfilled by Jesus.

Professor of Mathematics, Peter Stoner, “…did the math and figured out that the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. He calculated that if you took this number of silver dollars, they would cover the state of Texas to a depth of two feet. If you marked one silver dollar among them and then had a blindfolded person wander the whole state and bend down to pick up one coin, what would be the odds he’d choose the one that had been marked?” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000).

It’s important to note that Stoner’s work was reviewed by the American Scientific Association, which stated, “The mathematical analysis…is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound, and Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way.”

Bible scholars tell us that nearly 300 references to 61 specific prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The odds against one person fulfilling that many prophecies would be beyond all mathematical possibility. It could never happen, no matter how much time was allotted. One mathematician’s estimate of those impossible odds is “one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 262.

“The odds alone say it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies, yet Jesus—and only Jesus throughout all of history—managed to do it.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).

Another important note when considering the use of probabilities is, “When forensic scientists discover a DNA profile match, the odds of having the wrong person is frequently less than one in several billion… It would seem we are in the same neighborhood of odds, and numbers of zeros, in considering a single individual fulfilling these prophecies.” (Y-Jesus article, The Path of the Prophets: Was Jesus the Messiah?).

Jesus said, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). “It was fulfilled, and only in Jesus—the sole individual in history who has matched the prophetic fingerprint of God’s anointed one.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).

The bottom line is that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the life of Jesus proves conclusively that He truly was God in the flesh. It also proves that the Bible is supernatural in origin.

I ask you, “Who is this Jesus in your life?” He is the truth that has shaken and rocked the world for centuries. My beautiful granddaughter, oldest of four, whenever she hears of a new person’s name in conversation, or meets someone new, she will with such innocence and purity ask, “Do they know Jesus?” I love her heart for Jesus.

As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” By believing in his Name you shall receive salvation that can only be found in the name of the Son of the Living God, Christ Jesus (Acts 4:12).