If someone claims to be a messiah or the messiah, how do you test the claims? There have been plenty of applicants for jobs as messiahs over the centuries, and experience has proved nearly all of them to be false. In John chapter 7, Jesus and some people debated his claims to be the Messiah. One thing which led people to suspect that he might be the Messiah was his authoritative teaching.
When Jesus was teaching in the Temple, the people asked, “How does this man have such learning if he has never been educated?”. Jesus’s response was, “My teaching is not mine, but belongs to the one who sent me. Anyone who wishes to do his will can recognise whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am making it up myself.” Merely being a compelling teacher doesn’t make Jesus the Messiah, but it is one of the features which you would expect the Messiah to have.
Another thing which led people to suspect that he might be the Messiah was the miracles which he was said to perform. Some people said, “When the Christ comes, surely he won’t do more signs than this man has done.” But interestingly Jesus said about this, “You are all amazed because I did one miracle… Don’t judge according to appearance, but make a righteous judgment.” Although the crowd might be impressed by what appeared to be a miracle, Jesus regarded it as a less important factor in establishing his credibility as the Messiah.
Some people said, “We know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes no one will know where he comes from.” The “mystery man” approach to messiah-ship, which requires the messiah to arrive mysteriously from nowhere, is also a poor indicator of the truth of the matter. Others said, “Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the bloodline of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” Ironically, Jesus really had been born in Bethlehem, whereas the people thought he originated from Galilee. So fulfilment of the predictions of the ancient prophets is an important indicator of the truthfulness of a person’s claims to be the Messiah.
Then there were the claims which Jesus made about himself. He said, “Anyone who is thirsty should come to me and drink! As the Scripture predicts, rivers of living water will flow within anyone who believes in me.” In the Old Testament, the primary test for a true prophet was whether his predictions came true. In the case of Jesus, one way to find out is to come to Jesus, have a drink, and see whether rivers of living water start flowing within you.