This word links Jesus to the promises of God through the prophets of the Old Testament (= the ancient Hebrew Scriptures). Through the Messiah (the Hebrew word normally translated Christ, meaning ‘The Anointed One’), God would intervene personally to bring the chance of reconciliation between God and his damaged creation. Through the events surrounding his birth and childhood, his life and his death, Jesus fulfilled dozens of prophetic messages in a way that could not have been done intentionally by anyone seeking to pretend to be the Messiah.
However, he did not fulfil the political hopes of the Jewish people that they had added to the prophecies, or abide by the traditions which they had added to God’s laws.
This is the primary reason why he was not fully recognised at the time by many of the people who encountered him.