Isaiah 42.1-9 A description of the coming Messiah who will bring justice, but not in the way people are used to. He will be strong, but not brash or violent. He will be transformative but subtle. Nothing will dissuade him from his aim to share the wisdom he has been given by God to share. The final claim in the passage about why God should be believed in this promise is because other prophecies made before have already been fulfilled.
Psalm 29 This description of the many attributes of God stands in strong contrast with the characteristics listed in Isaiah above that the Messiah will possess. It stands to reason, then, if this is how people see God, Isaiah would feel compelled to explain how unremarkable in appearance and demeanour God's coming messenger would be. Without a heads-up, it would be easy to miss him otherwise.
Acts 10.34-43 Peter distills Christ's gospel down into a few words: “God shows no partiality.” Peter proclaims Jesus as anointed by God, as a judge and saviour of all nations, as a healer, and as having risen from death by God’s power.
Matthew 3.13-17 This is the famous story of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan river by John the Baptist. In this accounting (all four Gospels have their own respective baptism stories), John balks when Jesus asks to be baptised. John argues that it should be the other way around, since he is the one who needs cleansing, not Jesus. But after Jesus explains that this is necessary to fulfil the Scriptures predictions of how the Messiah will come about, he agrees, after which the dove-like presence of the Holy Spirit descends on them both, and God’s voice proclaims that Jesus is God's son.
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