The Word of God is Life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. . . . . . Prov 4:22
It is hard for us to believe that Jesus ever laughed or smiled......
His purpose was serious and great but there were many happy and pleasing moments.
Jesus had to know early in His life that
God's plan for Him was in the scriptures.
The word reveals that He studied them
carefully. Even His continual speaking
of Moses and the prophets, what they
had said and had written was of great
importance to Him.
He knew what Isreal was expecting in
their Messiah 'an earthly king who would
lead them in this world' but that was not
what His Father had in mind.
His Father saw a world that was lost and
perishing needing a way back to himself.
At the time Jesus lived in Nazareth He did not have the fullness of the Spirit. But continually in communion with His heavenly Father.
He often went to the mountains and desert to be with His Father.
Jesus knew from the time He was a child that he was from heaven and that he had a great purpose here on earth.
The book of Isaiah must have shown Him much about himself and his part in God's plan from the beginning up to now.
Jesus' character was formed by many of the circumstance and events of his life. But there was one thing not accounted for.
There was a part of His personality that wasn't given to Him by his surroundings. It was the spiritual aspect.
His body was entirely human but His spirit was not. His awareness of His Father was not like that of others.
He is "the only begotton Son of the Father".
The fullness of truth, the reason for His mission, and how it would be accomplished, had to be worked out.
Jesus was to become the Resurrection and the Life. It was our Father's will that Jesus experience and take part of all the sorrows of the human race. This also included the greatest enemy of all, death. But one day he would conquer and destroy this enemy and it's power forever.
Jesus was made sin for us. He took our sins, yours and mine, so He had to take the judgment that would have been ours.
Salvation then is finished forever. He completed it for us so we wouldn't have to.
All we have to do is accept what he did. "BECAUSE I LIVE, YE SHALL LIVE ALSO" John 14:19
God has done every thing possible to bring us to eternal life. Are we going to receive what He did for us or are we going to reject it??
We as humans are not complete so we must have a Saviour.
Not everyone will receive His call to repentence.
But whether He is accepted or rejected, every human's future is settled forever.
Unless we are born of the spirit, we can not enter the kingdom of God. There has to be a great change in our natures.
"....the assembly
of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." Psalms 22:16
This portion of prophecy in Psalms describes death that only he could fulfill as Daniel 9:26's prophecy that the Messiah was to be "cut off, or killed".
Many in those days thought he was going to set up an earthly kingdom.
But prophecy told he was to die!
These prophesies were told almost a thousand years before fulfillment.
" Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command- ment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." Daniel 9:25 &26
Daniel prophesied, inspired by the Holy Spirit, 500 hundred before Jesus was born, what was going to happen.
Jerusalem was to be rebuilt. And predicted the exact time of Jesus' birth.
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14
The prophet Isaiah predicted 800 years before it happened that Jesus would be born of a virgin.
He was born of the Holy Spirit, not of man, He was the Son of God. It was the only way He could be our Savior.
Jesus' birth was not only
foretold many years before;
so was the place he was to
be born...Bethlehem.
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though
thou be little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth
unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old,
from everlasting." Micah 5:2
Circucumstances sent Mary and Joseph
from their home in Nazareth to the little
town of Bethlehem where he was then
born to fulfill this prophecy.
When Jesus was resurrected, He had a new body. It was not just a spirit. It was similar to his other body because it had the nail and spear marks. They knew his voice. He could eat and walk.
John 20:26-28 "And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God."
This new body he had was able to adjust to both worlds. It adapted to physical laws but wasn't limited to them. He walked through locked doors and seemed to go distances quickly. I was a heavenly eternal body.
Many famous people
and world leaders have died and are
still in their graves.
But only one grave is empty " two men stood by them in shining garments:.....Why seek ye the living among the dead?" Luke 24:5&6
Jesus had overcome death "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all." Acts 4:33
Proving He is the Saviour!
God wrote the Bible
(the word) through the prophets of the
Old Testament, 500 to 1500 years before
Jesus was even born.
They prophecied His coming to earth and the things that happened in his life centuries before they happened.
Those that follow Jesus who were inspired of God; told us in the New Testament how Jesus' life fulfilled those old prophesies.
"Truly this was the Son of God" Matt 27:54
Many in history
like Alexander the
Great, and Caesar to name a couple tried to
build their empires by shedding the blood of
others.
Jesus came to build an eternal kingdom,
not with other's blood but by giving His
own. His kingdom is not of this world
except in the hearts of his people.
"And they shall fall by
the edge of the sword, and shall be led
away captive into all nations: and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of
the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke 21:24
Jesus even predicted that the Jews would be scattered through out the nations because of their rejecting Him.
By their rejection they gave up the divine protection that God wanted them to have.
And now after decades, the Jews have returned to their land proves that it is close to the time for Jesus to return.
When Jesus came near Jerusalem, He wept over the city because the people had rejected Him and He knew it meant judgment for them. Read Luke 19:41-44
Later in Luke 21:32 that generation would pass away when an enemy would come against it and destroy them.
They had been persecuting the christians.
It happened as Jesus said it would 40 years later. Titus broke through the walls and destroyed the city.
The cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum did not repent and were destroyed in spite of the fact Jesus did many miracles in them.
In Matt. 11:21-24 Jesus even predicted there fall.
Jesus even lived for a time in these cities so they heard the word preached and saw the Holy Spirit working miracles through Him. They were blessed with the Son of God among them.
But Jesus compared them to Sodom and other evil cities. And judgment was on them.
"Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." John 9:32-33
By healing the man who had been blind from birth, Jesus proved that he was the creator and had the power to do mighty miracles that no other man had ever been able to do.
When people see real miracles, most of them will believe.
He is showing He is alive today by the miracles that are taking place in His Name!
Jesus made an impression on people by His sinlessness. Not only his miracles.
They really couldn't accuse him of anything.... doing good on the Sabbath or eating with sinners, maybe.
That He was without sin was amazing because we are a fallen race....we have disobeyed which is sin. But he was without sin and perfect.
"But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man." John 2:24 & 25
Jesus knows in innermost thought of every person. Every evil thought and deed is open to him.
And one day every person will stand before Him to give an account for their deeds bad or good.
But 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of our pasts.
HAPPYBIRTHDAY AMERICA !
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chron. 7:14
"And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Matt. 7:28-29
"............for his word was with power. Luke 4:32
"The officers answered, Never man spake like this man." John 7:46
"As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground." John 18:6
"Truly this was the Son of God." Matt. 27:54
He was like no other man because he spoke with authority and power.
In the years Jesus was growing up, there was no sign that he was an extraordinary person to the world around him.
"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him." Mark 6:3 They had not seen any thing unusual about him. He was just a carpenter in their village.
Yet, 3 years later, his ministry brought eternal life to all man through is word, preaching and anointing of the Spirit.
"Jesus said unto them, Verily,verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." John 8:58
The word says that Jesus said he lived before Abraham. Before he came to earth, he was in heaven with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Father God gave Jesus power to give eternal life to humanity.