Imagine for a moment that we had no way to identify the Messiah. The problem would be that everyone in history would claim to be the Messiah and there would be no way to verify if they were the one from God.

But because there was so much prophecy about the Messiah, things like where he would be born, where he would come from, what he would do, etc… we can look at Jesus and say “yes, he’s the one.”

So much so that when John the Baptist asked, “Are you the Messiah or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus didn’t answer yes. He answered based on Scripture showing he was the fulfillment (Mt 11).

Matthew is all about showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of Scripture. From the opening verse it is screaming that this is Him. He is the one.

And thank the Lord we have a long list of prophecies to make sure that is indeed the case.