When you think about the way Jesus was born in comparative obscurity, he never did all the typical things that usually denote greatness.
He never led an army or navy into battle. It doesn’t tell us that he ever wrote a book. He didn’t do any of the things that we typically think of as greatness. We don’t know what he looked like, though there are a lot of artists’ renditions of what we think Jesus looked like, and there’s nothing contemporary from this day.
Yet he changed all of history around the world in the three and half years of his ministry. When we talk about biblical history, you have B.C and A.D. before Christ and after death, the year of our Lord. If you look in the encyclopedia or go to a museum of science, it doesn’t cast doubt on whether or not he lived.
While Buddha and India might have had some profound sayings along with Krishna, Mohammad, and different religions of the world, nobody spoke like Jesus and none of them died as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. There’s something very clearly different about Jesus. None of the other religious leaders of the world said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
There are over 300 Old Testament prophecies that talk about what to expect when the Messiah comes. In the first prophecy, God was speaking to Adam and Eve after the fall in Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and he shall bruise his heel.” This promised seed came through humanity as the Messiah or Christ.
In the New Testament, you will see that they were looking for a savior from the seed of a woman that would come to defeat the serpent who caused the fall of man and the loss of paradise, the Garden of Eden.
When Jesus came to the Jordan River, he knew his time had come, and right at his 30th birthday he was baptized. John 1:29: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin the world!” Jesus was that Lamb that they had been looking for. Isaac said to Abraham, “We have the wood for the fire, but where is the sacrifice?” Abraham said, “My son, God will provide it himself.”
When Philip found Jesus, he went to tell Nathaniel. John 1:45: “We have found him of whom Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
In a validation of Jesus, the Pharisees challenged him. John 8:14-18 “Even if I testify on my behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I came from and where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are right because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
During the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate asked him, “Where you are from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. John 19:10-11: “‘Do you refuse to speak to me?’ said Pilate. ‘Don’t you realize I have the power to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’” From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar!”
Jesus was born in a very unique way as it was told in Genesis, Chapter 3, over 1,400 years before his birth through the seed of a woman. Isaiah 7:14: ”The Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.”
Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together, and she was found to be with child, the seed of the Holy Spirit, while traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The word “Bethlehem” means house of bread, and you probably didn’t know that there are two Bethlehems. If you notice, it specifies the Bethlehem Ephrahah. This is where Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, which was just outside Jerusalem where King Herod saw the wise men coming and interrogated them, saying, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
You never hear anything about the miracles of Jesus before he was 30. For the first 30 years of his life, he lived as a man among men, just as you and I, for a priest could not begin to teach until he was 30. King David did not begin to reign until he was 30. Joseph administrated over Egypt when was 30. When Jesus was anointed by John the Baptist, you never did hear anything about his miracles until he began his ministry, and where he quoted these very words in his hometown church of Galilee (Isaiah 61:1).
Still today, in the three and a half years of his ministry, he turned the world upside down. Furthermore, it tells us that he would speak and teach in parables as King David said in Psalm 78:2-3: “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, as our fathers told us.”
Matthew 27:3-7 tells how, during the trial of Christ, Judas was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt. Judas finally realized that he betrayed the son of God as they were preparing to crucify Jesus. Then as he went into the outskirts of the Temple where Jesus was being tried and the Sanhedrin was meeting, he said, “I’ve betrayed innocent blood,” and he threw down the 30 pieces of silver for the potter’s field (Psalm 22:16).
During a crucifixion, it was a standard practice to break their legs. Psalm 22:16: “The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” This was prophesied almost 1,000 years before Jesus was born. Psalm 34:22: “He guards all his bones. Not one of them is broken.” They broke the bones of the thieves on the right and the left of Jesus because Jesus was the Passover lamb, and they were never to break the bones of a Passover lamb. They didn’t break any of his bones just as the prophecies had said: “He guards my bones.”
From end of the Old Testament until the New Testament starts with Matthew, there are about 400 years of prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus would come. Three quarters of the way through the Bible there should be a page that says there were 400 years between the Old Testament and The New Testament, which doesn’t begin until the birth of Jesus.
We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that these things were written before Jesus was born. So how could you fabricate, counter¬feit, or manufacture the prophecies after 400 years went from Zechariah to Matthew where Jesus would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver who would then throw it to the potter’s field into the house of the Lord?
C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “A man who was merely a man that would do the sort of things that Jesus did wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d be a lunatic on the lev¬el of a man who says he’s a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else he was a madman or something worse.” Someone else put it this way: “Christ was either a conscious deceiver, deluded, or divine. He is a lunatic, liar, or Lord. There is no escap¬ing these three options.”
Jesus lived for thirty three and a half years among men, and he said, “I want to show you how to live. How to love each other. I’m not just going to show you how to turn the other cheek; I’m going to show you how it’s done.” And he did, through his trial. I’m going to show you how to love and forgive each other the way he forgave us, uttering his last words on the cross: “Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Why is it you hear people using his name in profanity so frequently? You never hear people get mad and hit their finger with a hammer and say, “Oh Buddha, Allah, Krishna!” or cite Mohammad’s name in damnation. Why is there a diabolical focus to specially scorn the name of Jesus? That in itself should tell you there’s a spiritual battle out there. The world should know who Jesus is, and he came to show us what the Father is like. He said in John 14:9: “Have I been with you so long you don’t know me, Philip?”
Jesus came to trade places with us, for we are all under a death sentence because of our sin and our selfishness. Christ does not want to lose us. He loves us, for he said, “I will come and I will take the penalty for your sin. I will not only take it, I will give you my strength. I’m going to be your substitute and trade places with you.” He said, “I will give you my goodness and I will take your badness. I will give you my strength and will take your weakness. I will give you my life and take your death. Give you might and peace and take your suffering and your misery.”
HE IS OFFERING IT ALL AS A GIFT BY FAITH!
Martin Luther said, “In his death, he sacrifices himself for our sins. In his resurrection, he is a conqueror. In his ascension, he is a king. In his intercession, he is a priest. He is everything that we need.” In every volume of this book, it is written. When we see Abraham with Isaac, we see Jesus. When we see Moses leading a nation from slavery, we see Jesus. When we see Joseph forgiving his brothers for mistreating him, we see Jesus. We see Jesus in Samson when he stretches out his arms to defeat the enemy of God’s people. We see Jesus in Gideon, defeating the enemy with his small group. When I open up the Bible, all I see is Jesus everywhere. This book is all about him, and he wants you to know who he is! God became a man, and his name is Jesus. KNOWING HIM IS EVERLASTING LIFE!
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