Throughout the books of the prophets, God made many promises about the Messiah.     

Those who have placed their faith in him believe Jesus of Nazareth is the long awaited Messiah sent from God.  In his birth, life, death and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about the Messiah.  Most of these prophecies were made 500-1000 years before Jesus was born.

It is important to realize God wanted you to know for sure who the Messiah was and he gave many specific details about him.  Doubt is a normal human emotion but the evidence is available for anyone who wants to know for sure.  

Even Jesus' own followers experienced doubt.  What took place when his disciples were filled with unbelief about him? After Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them, he said, 

"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?"  Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.  Luke 24:27       

What did Jesus say to the religious leaders of the day when they did not believe in him?  

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the same Scriptures that testify about me but you refuse to come to me to have life."  John 5:39-40

Read on to find out for yourself what is said in the Scriptures concerning the Messiah.

The Lord himself will give you a sign:  A young woman will be with child and bear a son and she will call his name Immanuel.  Isaiah 7:14  written 700 b.c. 

As for you Bethlehem, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.   His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.  Micah 5:2  written 600 b.c.

I will open my mouth in a parable.  I will utter dark sayings of old.  Psalm 78:2  written 1000 b.c.

Rejoice greatly daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph daughter of Jerusalem!  Your king is coming to you.  He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9  written 520 b.c.

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.  

Psalm 41:9  written 1000 b.c.

I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay but if not, keep it."  So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them."  So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.  

Zechariah 11:12-13  written 520 b.c.

I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out my beard.  I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting.  Isaiah 50:6  written 700 b.c.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.  Psalm 34:19-20  written 1000 b.c.

"It will come about in that day," declares the Lord God, "that I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight."  Amos 8:9  written 750 b.c.

I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint.  My heart is like wax, it is melted within me.  My strength is dried up like a broken pot and my tongue sticks to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me.  A band of evil men has surrounded me.  They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones.  They look and stare at me.  They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.  Psalm 22:12-18  written 1000 b.c.

For you will not abandon my soul to the grave nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay.

Psalm 16:10  written 1000 b.c.

wr

Many Jews do not believe Jesus is the Messiah because he was killed.  How do they explain the following passage?

While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.  He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.  As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you because you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:  

Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy.  

Know and understand this:  From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah comes, there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens.  It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench but in times of trouble.  After the sixty-two sevens, the Messiah will be cut off but not for himself.  The people of the ruler to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary."  Daniel 9:21-26 written 580 b.c.   

The entire following chapter was written about God's future servant and marvelously parallels the life of Jesus.

 

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  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.  He was despised and rejected by men.  He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.  Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray.  Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth.  He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before their shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Who can speak of his descendants?  He was cut off from the land of the living.  For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death  though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth.  Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.  After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.  By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.  Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the violators.  He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.  

Isaiah 53:1-12  written 700 b.c.