Right from Genesis and the whole of the Bible, beginning with Abel, followed from with the specific call of Abraham, in chapter twelve, God reveals that the final destination of a believer is heaven. ‘The Lord said to Abram, (when he was still in Ur of the Chaldees) Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you… ‘And they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there”.  (Genesis 12: 1-5) In those days, as far as we know, there were not any drawn maps, yet Abraham reached Canaan safely because he followed God’s instructions who told him go: “to the land I will show you.” To have God as a guide is to have a very august companion, ~ with such a friend and guide who can stray?

More than twenty centuries later, the writer of the Book of Hebrews dedicates the whole of the eleventh chapter, to bring to our knowledge what faith is ‘an unshakable trust in God’ that powerfully drove men through life, beginning with Abel, who right from the beginning trusted Jesus-Christ the Son of God, who was appointed to be the promised deliverer, and thus they attained their final reward, an entrance into the City of God. We read: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going(that is true faith). By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise; for he was looking to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11: 8 -10) That is a heavenly country, were he received a eternal abode!

This statement reveals that with them began the pilgrimage of all believers, who through good times, bad times and very bad times, never lost faith in the promise. Their life, as pilgrims, had a twofold aspect; firstly, there is the temporary aspect: “They lived in tents”, secondly, the permanent aspect leading to perfection: “They looked for a city with foundations”. Every believer in the Old Testament, as every believer in the New Testament, right up to our days, inherit by faith these twofold promises, God’s presence, guidance and protection while on earth, and a glorious entrance into the Holy and Eternal city, the capital of the heavenly country; their Home.

The Bible says concerning all these champions of faith, (named in the chapter 11 of Hebrews as mentioned), that: “all were commended for their faith, yet none received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us, Christians, so that only together with us they would be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39.) So, there is a multitude in Paradise that still waits for that trumpet call. From Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others, including all those that have fallen asleep in Christ, right up to those alive today, a multitude, through many generations, have died in faith, but none of them, whilst still in Paradise with Jesus-Christ, will miss the final awakening and enter their inheritance. Believers, be happy and content with everything God is giving you through your faith in Jesus-Christ while on earth, being certain that the eternal promise is as sure as is the present. Do not lose hope, in the midst of all the good times and the bad ones, trust in the Lord and don’t despair, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus.I love to sing a chorus which fits well for every day of life on earth, which says:

                   It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus,

                        Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ,

                        One glimpse of His dear face all sorrow will erase,

                        So, may we run the race till we see Christ!

Having quoted this chorus it does not mean that I am one of those that thinks that the life of a Christian is filled with woes and troubles, some Christians do give that impression, they are bad representatives of the Christian life. Of course, as Christians we have our troubles, we shall be sick, we will know all that makes up a normal life on earth, but we must not lose the joy of our salvation, for we are saved! that should thrill every believer! Life with Jesus-Christ does take us through trials, yet in the midst of them Jesus is with us, and we can always sing a song, even if it is in the minor key. How could we know the joy of victories without tests! Jesus said to His disciples, “In the world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”    

From the beginning of these series of studies, I have faithfully followed the outworking of the plan of God for the salvation of men and their restoration into fellowship with Him through the CROSS of Christ. From Genesis to the coming of Christ into the world, God has followed minutely what He decided before He even created the world, a plan He shared with His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, this plan Jesus began to fulfil it the moment He was born in Bethlehem. His coming to earth changed history. Many revelations were given to men chosen by Him, mighty prophets, who in the time appointed to them, by the Almighty, prophesied faithfully; predicting the coming of Christ to the world to accomplish His part of God’s plan to save those the Father gave to Him.

So, before Jesus ever came into the world these prophets spoke under the anointing of the Holy-Spirit, foretelling the coming of the redeemer just as God promised to Adam in the Garden of Eden, from Genesis to Malachi we have the promise repeated constantly. These men predicted, Jesus’ coming into the world, his birth, the place of His birth, his suffering, the purpose of it, and finally the glory into which Christ would enter once all His work on earth was ‘finished’. In heaven He is still the High Priest for all His brothers, representing them before the Father until everyone is gathered home! 

We also went into various events that had an important rapport with the glorious reality that God works in His own way, and that His way cuts across men’s expectations. Men, more often than not, disagree with His will, rebel against it and will not submit to His sovereignty, yet, He never deviated from the purpose of His mission His last words were spoken on the cross when He said: “It is finished.” (John 19:30.) All is accomplished, or as it is mentioned in the verse 28 of the same chapter: “Later, knowing that all was now completed.”  In other words, Jesus said: “Beloved Father, all that was spoken concerning thy will for me in your plan of salvation, is done!

One of the most amazing chapters in the whole of the Bible is John 17. I find it absolutely dynamic and every word extremely special. If anyone is in doubt as to the fact that the Holy Trinity works to an established plan, one must read and study carefully all that Jesus says to His Father in this special prayer, which He prayed audibly, as He was in the Upper Room with His disciples. It struck John the apostle very deeply so much so, that many years later, with the help of the Holy Spirit, he could faithfully record the amazing position of every believer in God’s economy! Almost everything we need to know concerning what drove Jesus to the very end is found there. It reveals especially the character of Christ our Redeemer. His love for all His disciples, His deep concern that He has for them, is very moving. Now in heaven, at the right hand of God, He remains their Great High Priest, representing them as His own!

In the previous chapters (13 to 16.) rather than think about Himself, knowing that He was about to suffer, Jesus-Christ was concerned about His disciples and reveals the divine unity that exists, until now, between HIM and all that are His, by the will of God. Jesus in His prayer for his disciples says: “those that you have given me.” ‘I desire Father that those you gave me, be with me where I am’. During three years as Jesus lived with His disciples, he established this bond, this oneness, they were not outsiders anymore but they had become an integral part of Him. As the vine and the branches make one plant, so all believers in Christ, right to the very last one, have become one plant with Jesus.

The fulfilment of all prophesies concerning Jesus-Christ, the Son of God began really in Jerusalem, at the time an angel of God appeared to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, as he was fulfilling his duties in the temple, and said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name of John. He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous ~ to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:13-17.) 

This was announced to Zechariah in fulfilment of Isaiah 40: 3-5 who prophesied the coming of a great prophet who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, stating that he would be: “A voice of one calling in the desert: ‘prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God”. (Isaiah 40:3-5) These revelations given to Zechariah were prophesied during the later end of King Uzziah reign, around 740 B.C. The angel, sent to Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, said: “He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy-Spirit even from birth.” (Luke 1: 15.) King James Version says: “Even from his mother’s womb” which is better translation, this eventually happened when at the sound of Mary’s voice, who was going to birth into the world Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John, still in his mother’s womb, leaped and was filled with the Holy-Spirit as Mary greeted Elizabeth his mother. As says the Bible: “From the moment his mother Elizabeth heard the voice of Mary, Jesus’ mother, John leaped in her womb and she too was filled with the Holy-Spirit.”

John started his ministry before Jesus-Christ came to be baptised by him. Crowds came to the Jordan to be baptised of him. “During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zachariah in the desert. He went into all the country around Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert”, ’Prepare the way for the lord, make straight paths for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.” (Luke 3:1-6 and Isaiah 40:3-5) 

John the Baptist was appointed by God to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. He said: “I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy-Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and He will clear the threshing-floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12.) As we gather all the statements John the Baptist made, concerning Christ, we realise the importance of prophesies, especially their fulfilment. 

There is, in all that John the Baptist said about Jesus, a well of doctrinal treasures that are cherished by all those that love the Lord Jesus-Christ, choice words that prove that Jesus was divine, the Son of the living God. This introduction is most important, because being the last prophet of the Old Testament, John the Baptist links all that they prophesied concerning Jesus and reveals that this man that came to be baptised of him, was the man they prophesied about. He is like a bridge between men of God in history, with those that will arise in the New Testament as a new people, the redeemed of the Lord.

 The Jewish clergy and leaders of the people did not really believe in John’s message, just as they did not believe in that of Christ.  “Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him (John) who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ!” or Messiah. (Christ in Greek or Messiah in Hebrew, both mean the anointed one.) The envoys asked him: “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said: “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered: “No.” Finally they said: “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah: “I am the voice calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.” Now some of the Pharisees who had been sent, questioned him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” “I baptise with (or ‘In’) water,” John replied, “But among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:19-26.) He will baptise men with the Holy Spirit and with fire!

John the Baptist had never met Jesus but he knew that Jesus was already there among them, because God told Him things about Jesus-Christ so that when they actually met, The Holy-Spirit would declare, through him, that Jesus is the Messiah. God told John that He would see something very special, and this would show him, when it happened, that he was truly Jesus, the Messiah. This special revelation happened when Jesus came to be baptised by John, as recorded by Matthew. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, “I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness. Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went out of the water. At that moment heaven opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17.) 

John the Baptist saw the Holy-Spirit descend from heaven and rest on Christ. The Holy Spirit as a dove came down from heaven and rested on Christ and filled Him. This special baptism of Christ in the Holy-Spirit, was what John needed to see to confirm that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God.  “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the One I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me, because He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that He might be revealed to Israel. Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I would not have known him, except that the One who sent me baptising with/in water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34.) This passage of Holy Scriptures is of immense importance, for it settles to the world, as it did to the people of Israel, that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the divine Son of God, the very Saviour who would save His people from their sins.

So, the meeting of John with Jesus was willed of God, it was John’s given privilege to introduce God’s Messiah, His Only Son as the Christ, promised to Israel. The real nature of Israel’s Messiah would not have been known if John refused to baptise Jesus, for One greater than John bore witness to it, when the people heard God’s voice saying: “You are my Son whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22.) Then John cheerfully obeyed Jesus who said, in no uncertain manner: ‘John, we have got to do this.’ I know that it is a hypothetical statement, but if Jesus had not been baptised, the Holy-Spirit would not have filled Him, and the people would not have heard God’s voice declaring that Jesus was His beloved Son. 

Jesus Christ shows how important it was for Him to fulfil everything that was prophesied about Him, right up to His death on the CROSS, including His resurrection. John said I did not know Him, but the reason I came baptising in water was that He might be revealed to the people. But the Holy-Spirit filled Jesus there and then and John saw plainly that the man he just baptised is the Son of God. Some people may say to me: “Why do you see it so important to state all this here? What has it got to do with the Gospel that you are trying to explain, so that people can feel their sins and accept Jesus as Lord and be saved? I do so, because Jesus did it. He did not find it futile, and what He did and what He taught openly, to the people that followed him, is the Gospel.

Every Gospel, from that of Matthew right up to that of John, starts with these events and they record, first and foremost, that Jesus was born, that the divine Son of God became man, and God reveals, from the very beginning of his public ministry, that Christ-Jesus, this MAN, the One and Only, whom He sent came “to save HIS people from their sins.” After all, the Bible states: “If you confess with your mouth: ‘Jesus is Lord’, (that He is Yahweh – Jehovah) and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) It is therefore the duty of every preacher to say who Jesus is, truly man and truly God, and preach fearlessly the Gospel that reveals what Jesus came to do. This is why He is Jesus: “You will call his name ‘Jesus’, (Saviour) for He will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21.)

It is stated here, before Jesus ever pronounced one word of His message, that something completely different was happening, and the message of John the Baptist was given, under the authority of the Holy-Spirit, winding up the Old Testament and introducing the New Testament, in which Jesus fulfils faithfully all the prophesies of The Old, by the Gospel that is Christ’s message of salvation for all mankind, Jews and Gentiles. It was new and necessary, but the Jews, had a spirit so obnubilated, (darkened) through pride that they could not discern that their Messiah would not rule the world by force of arms but by a message of salvation, born out of God’s love, a salvation applied purely and only by His grace without merit on man’s part. 

Politics and human governments, together, will never be able to come together to fulfil the plan of God, yet Jesus did it two thousand years ago. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves: ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9.) 

Thus, To Jews and Gentiles the only way back to God is trough repentance. Religious bigotry is of no value. The modern idea that promotes that all religions are different ways, by which man comes to God, is catching and is readily accepted by the broad mind of modern man, but the broad road, as Jesus says, leads to hell and destruction, and He says also that He alone is the narrow way, that leads to everlasting life: “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14.)

The Jews inherited the belief that they had nothing to fear because they were descendants of Abraham, but having Abraham as father cannot save, that is why the Gospel was first preached to the Jews, for to them God sent Jesus His Son. From the times of John, the Baptist, followed by Jesus-Christ and then his apostles, the first requirement of the Gospel is for men to, ‘repent.’ Pride of nations, or religions, are very powerful impediments to repentance, to find acceptance with God one has to humble oneself and realise that any good thing one can do, will never secure acceptance with God, repentance is the first step that takes man back to God, and only Jesus is the way! Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

 Repentance is not regretting a wrong one may have done; it is a confession from a broken heart for one’s sinful attitude to God. Repentance is the result of a work of the Holy Spirit, He reveals to man the true reason for the Cross of Jesus-Christ and His sacrificial death. A person touched so deeply by the Lord, feels personally involved in what happened on Calvary and the Holy Spirit reveals to that person, that Jesus offered Himself willingly for her or his sins. This conviction always leads to one’s surrender to Christ. It is stated: ‘That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.’  (Romans 10:9-10) Such faith and such confession are not truly possible unless the heart is conditioned by the Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus Christ!

Repentance springs from a broken heart and leads to a different way of life. The Gospel is a great divider, it has divided husband from wife, children from parents and from families, friends, that one might have had for many, many years, suddenly change at the sound of Jesus’ Name. It divides society, countries and finally will set the whole world on fire. The last world conflict will be very spiritual, so destructive that only the return of Jesus-Christ will put an end to it! There are, in the eyes of God, only two sorts of people, the saved or the unsaved, the believers or the unbelievers, the children of light or the children of darkness. I have felt it important to draw your attention to what was the first angelic utterance as to the coming of Christ into the world. This took us, by its natural development, to the day that John the Baptist actually fulfilled his ministry, when he introduced Jesus to the people. But we are now, by necessity, drawn back to the time when, in God’s economy, He put the plan of salvation into motion, and the first step was Christ’s incarnation. 

If Jesus had not come to earth in a human body, He would not have shared our humanity. To be the Saviour of men and their true representative before God, which He is now in heaven, Jesus had to be truly man, through a natural, as such He is called ‘the last Adam’. To be truly man he had to be born as every other child is born, but without sin, hence this could only happen if He were born of the seed of the woman. To do so, Mary was chosen of God to bring into the world His Son, as says the Word of God: “she was found to be with child through the Holy-Spirit.” But Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph. Joseph, says the Bible, was a righteous man. When he discovered that his wife was with child before they ever came together, he could not believe it possible, he loved Mary very deeply and facing the fact that she had been unfaithful to him, it the beginning of a personal tragedy. 

Days have passed bringing a decision unavoidable, so he decided not to disgrace her publicly; he had in mind to divorce her quietly. It is a very natural feeling, it took the intervention of God in a dream to change Joseph’s mind, God spoke to him in a dream, it is written: “but after he had considered it, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said.’ Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy-Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name of Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had promised right back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve fell into bondage to the devil through their disobedience to God, he took with him all his descendants; it is there that God promised, in this moment of deep crisis, the coming into the world of a deliverer, a ‘Saviour’ who would be born from the seed of a woman.

Ever since then, the Bible has basically only one message, it is concerning Jesus-Christ, and the saving power of the faith that man puts in this deliverer by which ‘Abel’ (the second son of Adam) proves the efficiency of grace: “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, (He was not righteous by his own efforts, but he was justified by an act  of God) when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead” (Genesis 3:15 ~ Hebrews 11:1-3.) The amazing miracle of the virgin birth of Christ was foretold by Isaiah more than seven centuries before He was actually born: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they shall call Him Immanuel ~ which means: God with us.”(Isaiah 7:14.) No-one can save himself, man needs God’s help and His help comes in the man, Christ Jesus!

God does not work to a human calendar, in eternity it does not exist. God only works when circumstances, which in His wisdom are ripe for His intervention. After forty centuries suddenly came the day, and the hour. For forty years, after his escape from Egypt, Moses fed the sheep of his father-in-law, never expecting what God was planning, but when the cry of Israel for deliverance reached the Heart of God, He met Moses whom he prepared during eighty years for this moment and sent him to Egypt, and by the mighty hand of the Lord, He led them out of bondage and delivered Israel from Pharaoh’s might. Thus, God fulfilled what He revealed to Abraham, when He said to Him: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years,” but actually Israel was a slave for four hundred and thirty years, because that is when the situation WAS RIPE FOR God to deliver His people. “But I will punish the nation they served as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, (God could only do what He planned when the time was right) for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15: 13-16.) And when it did reach the fullness God intervened!

How does one measure sin? How can one weight sin? We humans can only see that some sins are worse than others, that is if one still does believe that sin exist or that they are committed, many do not believe that they do. But whatever one may think about it does not alter the fact that God, who owns the earth, still regard disobedience to Him as a sin and that He has to judge man for committing it. So, we cannot measure it or weight it, but God has a measure man knows nothing about, He is merciful and always waiting for men to change their ways, turn to Him and repent from their godless way of life. This timing happened also with Sodom and Gomorrah. 

When God revealed what He was going to do to these cities, Abraham led by the Holy-Spirit approached God and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous people in the City? Will you really sweep away and not spare (or forgive) the place for the sake of fifty righteous people in it?” ~ The Lord said: “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Finally, in his pleading Abraham came to say to God. “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “for the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” But Abraham could not find ten righteous men and spare the Cities, Yet, ten would have been enough for God to save Sodom and Gomorrah.  But God found Lot, Abraham’s nephew and spared him, an angel was sent to drive him out of Sodom ~ Then the Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah ~ from the Lord out of the heavens, thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain.”(Genesis 18:22-33 and 19:23.) The Dead Sea in Palestine remains as a reminder that God must deal with sin and destroy it. Sin is a direct action against God directed at Him by Satan, an attack against who He is, and being absolutely righteous he cannot look at it and He does wipe it out! He never spares sinners either, but he does give him ample time to repent.

The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous man avails much. Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was blest because of Abraham’s faithfulness. Lot wasted all his substance for a wayward wife that loved the world, yet God spared his life and that of his wife, which sadly turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying God, as Lot was running for his life as commanded by the angel. God also spared Lots two daughters. There comes a time when sin is finished, God’s pleading ceases and man is left to bare the weight of God’s wrath. We do not say that with glee, for we wish that all men would know God and His love manifested in and through Jesus-Christ, His Son, but as in the days of Noah, when sins reached to the very heaven, so it is now, men’s heart has hardened, they cannot hear the call to repentance anymore. God gave those people one hundred and twenty years to repent, while Noah used built the ark, he pleaded with them according to God’s dictates, to no avail, they would not listen.

The people, with one accord, ridiculed Noah until God shut the door of the ark and the rain came down, and all that had the breath of life perished. God measures time and the weight of sin, there are balances in God’s economy that are very precise; He weighed the sin of Belshazzar king of Babylon, the hand of God wrote on the wall: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting” (Daniel 5:30) He was too light, too much of a joker, He made a great banquet, indulged in over eating and heavy drinking. He learned nothing from his father’s experiences and even used Holy Vessels from God’s temple, and blasphemed but that very night Darius, under the hand of God came upon the land and took Babylon, and the life of Belshazzar came to a sudden end. The Bible says: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap” (Galatians 6:7.) There is time set by the Almighty for every man to account for what He has done in is life time, whether it be good or bad.  God is sovereign and does what pleases Him with and in His property.

What about now? God has spoken over centuries, by many prophets about Jesus-Christ, and the time were set for all of it to happen and thus was ushered God’s plan of redemption which was set before the world began, and the words of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled, a virgin, called Mary was with child by the Holy-Spirit. Whilst Joseph was deeply disturbed that his beloved Mary was with child, such a thing seemed so impossible, an angel was sent to appease him, and learning the truth by a dream from God, he believed so that his trust in God relieved the deep distress of his soul: “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name of Jesus.”(Matthew 1:18-24.) 

All this happened in Nazareth and nobody knew a thing about it. The world was going to be shaken; its history shows even today the impact that the birth of Jesus had on the world as we know it. Prophecy reveals that right from His birth the plan of God became alive, and as prophesied by Micah Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clan (or rulers) of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be the ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. (Micah 5:2). How was it going to happen? The time of His birth was approaching, prophesy had to be fulfilled, there was a feeling of emergency filling the air, thousands of angels were sent to announce His coming, what an electrifying event affected heaven and yet on earth all was quiet, while Mary and Joseph were trusting a donkey to bring them safely to Bethlehem! 

I wonder how often Joseph heard the Word of God as it was read in the synagogue in Nazareth? All the inhabitants of that little town must have heard portions of Isaiah’s prophesy read again and again; he must have heard it quite often! Did he believe that it would actually happen, and yet it has, for the ‘woman with child by the Holy Spirit’ was now a reality, his sweet Mary was the chosen vessel, and together under the watchful eye of God and the protection of thousands of angels, they were pressing on towards Bethlehem, obeying the order of the Roman Emperor! Our God performs His great miracles in the most natural way and what Micah prophesied concerning the birth of the Son of God started with Him prompting Caesar Augustus to: “Issue a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world”….We can’t imagine what a upheaval such a decree has created when suddenly millions of people, from the whole Roman Empire had to journey to the place of their birth, and yet it was thus that God meant  Joseph and Mary, his sweetheart, to be in Bethlehem on that day, to fulfil the words of a prophet! God really does things well!

“And everyone went to his own town to register. So, Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to a son. She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:1-7.) No room for the King! But that is how God wanted it, He has not much time for the great, the rich and all those that pride themselves to be a degree or two above the rest!

The whole event is a very exciting story! It makes me laugh and rejoice, and I say to myself: “Why be boring about such a tremendous event!” God said, let us move heaven and earth, and thus the whole of the Roman Empire was on the highways and byways struggling to get where they should register, according to a whim of the Caesar Augustus! I find it absolutely wonderful, God took pleasure in putting a huge empire on donkeys, horses, walking on foot, by any means available, mile after mile so that an important prophesy could be fulfilled to the letter, because this was not just another baby, it was ‘His Son, Jesus,’ who would shortly be born, in a manger, in BETHEHEM! The future king of Israel destined to rule the whole world!

Mind you, to complete this great event, and to make it known everywhere, even choirs of angels came to earth to announce his birth, not in the Palace of King Herod, nor in the quarters of the high priest, but to some humble shepherds minding their sheep in the plains of Bethlehem. It was a night like every other night, they watched over their flocks, but what was routine turned out to be a special night, that changed the history of the world. God chose these humble men to announce to the world the birth of His Son, Jesus-Christ, destined: “to save His people from their sins.”  

To shake the world God sent angels, to tell to those humble men the greatest news, and his appearance terrified them: “But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” (Luke 2:8-14.) 

Angels are mighty beings sent with a mission to protect those who are His people, or to announce great events. But never before did an angel have to bring to men news of such great event! It baffles me that God did this so simply to a band of shepherds! This was World news indeed, because since the fall of Adam the world waited for His coming. God has great regards for small people, those that are despised of men are important to God. The pride of world rulers, be they governors or Kings, has no bearing upon Him. The whole religious hierarchy of Israel, at the time of Jesus’s birth, had sold out to the devil, so God ignored them completely and chose to turn to humble people, it is to them that Jesus was sent, to preach the gospel and save those that God gave to Him, it is said in Scripture: “that the common people heard Him gladly”. This was not an envoy with a message to the rulers and the well to do, God left them to their own devices a long time, and He made it impossible for such folk to believe in the greatness of this moment, which decided in heaven from eternity, became a reality on that momentous day, awesome day, when THE SAVIOUR OF MEN WAS BORN! Jesus came into the world to open a highway to heaven, the final destination for those that would believe in Him.

When the heavenly host left them, the shepherds said: “Let us go the Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. So, they harried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in a manger. When they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about the child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered hem in her heart.” (Luke 2:16-19.) None of these events have been forgotten, they are repeated round the world again and again, every time the Good News is preached to the peoples of all Nations. All of heaven was involved in the miracle of the incarnation of Christ the Lord. Heaven was never the same without Him, it was for a short time, yet God and angels were constantly fully involved in the life of Christ, but He alone, He had to face the wrath of the devil while He lived in a world hostile to Him, His Father and the whole of heaven watched over him every step of the way, for Jesus had to fulfil the amazing plan of God which was unfolding before their eyes.

His birth and life were joyful events as far as heaven was concerned, and yet his birth was also a very poignant event; it involved a very normal family on earth, Joseph and Mary, the things they lived through and heard were amazing to them, and no wonder that she pondered them over in her heart. Every time God uses dreams as this one, the person awakes very certain that God had spoken. Not every dream does so! But God has chosen, at times, to use dreams to speak to man and reveal His will, whether he is a saint or a sinner. This whole scenario was carefully planned by God; Jesus came at His appointed time, to begin the greatest mission that the earth would ever know, that of saving man from sin, death and from slavery to the devil. 

Following all these amazing events Joseph with his family settled in Bethlehem. The eighth day was for them an important day for on that day Jesus had to be circumcised as the Law commanded: “The Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.” (Leviticus 12:1-3.) This was done because, an important part of Christ’s mission, which was very essential to man’s salvation, was the fulfilling of the Law.Had the Law not been fulfilled there would be no salvation. He had to obey the Law to the letter, for all disobedience is sin, as say the Holy-Scriptures. Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5:17.) “And the prophets”?  Yes indeed!  Everything that the prophets prophesied about Him had to be fulfilled, most of it is now fulfilled, but much more has yet to be, before the last chapter of the book of Revelation becomes history. 

Holy Scripture often states the following: “and this was done that so and so (various prophesies concerning Christ) might be fulfilled” their fulfilment proves that the Life of Christ was mapped out before he came, and so whatever Jesus said and did, or wherever He went, was to fulfil every prophesy concerning Him. There are many years of the life of Jesus- Christ that are completely out of human view, but they were not unknown to His beloved Father with Whom He enjoyed daily fellowship, be sure that every one of them had to be completely sinless, so everyday His life was a fulfilment of God’s will. Jesus although he was ‘The Lord,’ chose to live in the humblest home. Think of it; He just left heaven and emptied himself of all His glory, to submit to a complete obedience and fulfil everything that was spoken of Him, especially the Law, and to start His earthly life in the home of a poor carpenter! 

God rightly chose Joseph and Mary for He knew that they feared Him, and that the first step in the fulfilment of the law, so important in the life of Christ, would be carried out faithfully. It was on the eighth day that He had to be circumcised (Leviticus12:3.) It was on this day, too, that Christ first publicly received His name. From the days of Abraham, the father always named his son. His wife “Sarah ~ bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac, to the son Sarah bore him.” (Genesis 21:1-5.) Since then it became the custom in Israel for the father to name his child. In this case God named His Son, proving once more that Jesus was the Son of God, Joseph accepted that and faithfully fulfilled God’s command, as revealed to Him by the angel Gabriel. (Matthew 1:20-24.) …and Mary gave birth to a son, and he (Joseph) gave Him the name ‘JESUS’ in obedience to God. 

The ceremony was not a simple family ordinance. Circumcision was a very solemn procedure but very painful, which some religious groups still practice to this day. As a father I trembled when my children had their immunisations! The child’s cry of pain moved me, let alone having to carry out a circumcision! So early in His life, Jesus had to suffer pain for our sake. It had to be carried out in the presence of witnesses and was followed by a celebration. Much of what is practice in the baptism of infants in the State churches, is based on what happened in the circumcision of Jewish boys under the Law. Incidentally, baptism in the early church was always by immersion; people that confessed faith in Christ had to be baptised as Jesus was. It is still obligatory, according to the teaching of Christ and His disciples, to initiate all believers into the Christian faith by total immersion; it is still the only scriptural way to baptise believers. 

The person that decides to follow Christ and make Him the Lord of its life, through baptism dedicates itself to walk in a newness of Life, it has nothing to do with the new birth as those that were baptised in the Bible way were already born of God by an act of the Holy-Spirit, it happens the moment one confesses one’s sins and believes in the Lord Jesus-Christ. It was Christ, who by His baptism in the river Jordan, declared that baptism was fulfilling the will of God. For this very purpose, John the Baptist was commanded to baptise people thus preparing the way for Jesus to be introduced to the people of Israel as the Son of God. He was thirty years of age when he came to John to be baptised and said to him: “Thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.”

Christian parents do not have to circumcise their boys, because circumcision was abolished by the New Covenant, but they are still responsible to bring their children according to the teachings of Christ and His apostles, more by example then the rod. If they lay the true foundation of faith in CHRIST, as they are instructed to do, the child will keep it when he becomes an adult even if for a time he may not surrender to Jesus-Christ, one must respect God’s timing, because it is only when the Holy-Spirit moves upon him that he will become a believer. The Bible is always right, it says: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6.) A good way to do it is to live faithfully a normal Christian life in the home, it is there that the child will take part in it, so, at any time, the Holy-Spirit can move upon his soul and lead him to Christ to save him.

‘Good works’ is today’s greatest error; it has become a dangerous substitute to the Gospel, it has helped the Church to lose its true ‘raison d’etre’. The emphasis on ‘Good Works’ is a return to the Law it influences the people to disregard the true teaching of the Gospel which remains the only foundation of the true Church of Jesus-Christ. To go to heaven, as people like to call it, misses the true meaning, one must be saved, start at the CROSS, it is a spiritual experience, a moment when one commits oneself to follow Christ, when truly made from the heart, it can never be forgotten! True faith in Christ is born in the heart of man by the Holy-Spirit, through the living Word of God: mainly called ‘The Bible.’ Faith is not a creed that one recites in Church usually on a Sunday, true faith is a power, an integral part of a Christian and he lives by it.  God has not given anything else; all that God has said to humanity and what it needs is to believe in Christ as taught is in the Bible. You can ‘Trust God and believe in Jesus right now and you will be saved! Christ is the true character of Christianity; one does not have to be a Christian to be upright or moral, almost every religion lives by some sort of moral conduct and an uncertain spirituality, and yet it is simply a practice, a way of life, without any allegiance or recognition of Christ. It does not work!

The next step in the life of Jesus could not have been made until Mary was ceremonially clean, as specified by the Law. Jesus was the firstborn son of Joseph and Mary, and as such every first-born male had to be redeemed according to the Law. On the fortieth day after its birth ~ until which time Mary could not leave the house, ~ Joseph and Mary took Jesus and presented themselves for their purification in the temple in Jerusalem. This they did according to the Word of the Lord. The Law says: after the circumcision of her child: “The woman must wait thirty-three day to be purified from the bleeding. During that time, she must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. When the days of her purification are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting (which in the days of the Lord was ‘the Temple’ in Jerusalem) a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. He shall offer them before the Lord to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.” (Leviticus12.) 

Still, we must return to the main subject, with a question: “Think of what would have happened if Joseph did not circumcise Christ? I know that it is a hypothetical statement, but it makes one think! It proves once more that the Word of God is not given just for reading, but it is given to create faith, and true faith works and it is proved by practice; the Word of God is to a Christian his spiritual food. It is a foolish thing for men to think that a person goes to heaven because of the good that it has done. By chance one hopes one has done enough? Submitting one’s life to an uncertain moral law, which is often established by a personal code of practice, gives to man the unhealthy character which promotes self-righteousness which is idolatry! 

It was after this very public ceremony, that Mary was able to redeem Jesus-Christ from the duties to the Temple. At the birth of a daughter the ceremony was slightly different. As someone said, ‘thus they brought the Lord of the temple of the Lord!” So the proper offering on such occasions was a yearling lamb for the burnt- offering and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin- offering. Later on, because the poorer people of Israeli society a yearling lamb was too expensive, it was substituted by two turtle doves for a burnt offering and two young pigeons for a sin offering, this is how Mary was declared ceremonially clean. God never looks at the price of an offering but He looks for the right condition of the heart! 

We find here a supreme and wonderful example of Christ’s humility, proving that He chose, of His own free will, to come from heaven and be born into a poor family, in which He lived for thirty years of His life, after which He left it, to preach the Gospel; so from Nazareth Jesus came to and settled in Capernaum, situated on the northern shores of the ‘Sea of Galilee’. So Joseph and Mary proceeded with the presentation of Jesus to God, and in accordance with the law redeemed Him also from the Temple service by the ordinary payment of five shekels of the sanctuary. This was according to the word of the Lord: to Aaron: “You must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. When they are a month old, you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel. (This amounts to 55 grams of pure silver.)

Luke records the procedure as applied to Jesus, as a further proof that He came to fulfil the whole Law, thus according to what we read from the Old Testament was faithfully carried out by His parents for that purpose. “When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Him the Jerusalem, (about six miles from Bethlehem,) to present him to the Lord as it is written in the Law of the Lord: ‘Every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord) and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pairs of doves and two young pigeons for his redemption from temple duties. (Leviticus 12:8) 

I am trying to be as concise as I possibly can to establish that for the Christian faith to be effective Jesus had to fulfil the whole Law, which until He came no man has ever done it. There will not be one soul in heaven that got there through obedience of the ‘Ten Commandments’ for all have sinned and come short of the glory. Christ by fulfilling the Law put an end to it, took it out of the way, so now, by His righteousness, those that believe in Him, are made perfect. Before Jesus could save one sinner, He had to do certain things, He had to come to earth and destroy, by shedding His blood, the power of sin, He had to vanquish death by His resurrection, and disarm the devil who since Christ’s victory cannot hold in bondage those that Jesus died for! So now His servants can preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and say: “Believe on the Lord Jesus-Christ and you will be saved”. (Acts 16:31) The right version of it is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are saved.” Eternal life begins on earth, “Heaven is the Home for men of faith, it is their final destination!” not any faith, but true faith given of God to every man that surrenders his life to Jesus-Christ!

A very wonderful thing happened, at the presentation of Jesus to the Lord. A man called Simeon, which is not recorded anywhere else in the Bible but in the Gospel of Luke, who says: ‘that Simeon was a righteous and a devout man and that: He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.’ (Luke 2:25) At one point in His life God made him a very unique promise. Now this man was completely unknown, only a very few people heard of him, so that Luke could say that: “The Holy Spirit revealed (to him) that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:26.) God does not do this kind of thing very often, I am glad that the Lord has willed it so. I have met people to whom God was constantly speaking and revealing things. They were bragging about it constantly, but they were soon found out and made themselves look foolish. So Simeon: “was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy-Spirit was upon him.” (Luke 2:25.) 

This consolation of Israel had to do with the manifestation of the Messiah, of whom much was expected, for He was to be the Great King, a descendant of David, who would establish a new Kingdom and usher in the glory of ‘Yahweh’. It is obvious by now that this Messiah, Jesus Christ, did not, nor will it ever suit, the mentality of the Jews, because He is not the political Christ which they expected and still do, they are still waiting for Him! Firstly, the kingdom that Jesus-Christ came to bring in is a fulfilment of the promise God made to Abraham stating clearly that in Christ He will bless all the nations of the world, secondly that His Kingdom would be a spiritual Kingdom in which the present order would be abolished. Sadly, when Jesus came, the glory of God in Israel was lost already, due to a backslidden clergy and a rebellious people, which at the time, languished for the coming of God’s Kingdom; so, to them Jesus was a disappointment. 

God would not say to a corrupt clergy He revealed it to one man, Simeon, of whom we know so little, a devout, a pious man, and I repeat that: “The Holy Spirit revealed that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:26.) The Holy-Spirit has for mission to glorify the Son of God, and to this day, that is what He is doing. People use the ‘Holy-Spirit’ for a lot of things and blame Him for a lot of their carnal mistakes. They use Him also to give a serious slant to their erroneous, foolish ideas, but the Holy-Spirit has one purpose only, it is to reveal to the world the glories of an exalted Christ, the true Messiah and the only Saviour of men., and He does it through men of His choice, men that He empowers and fits for the ministry of bringing the glories of Jesus Christ to the world! Jesus is destined to be: “The KING of kings and the LORD of lords”, the day of His crowning is not that far! 

When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took Him I his arms and praised God saying. “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32.) ‘The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.’ The gentile nations were in total darkness, enslaved by the prince of darkness, Satan, Jesus Christ came to bring to them the light; it is he who said: ‘I am the light of the world.’ What light the Jews had had, for the glory of God did shine amongst them, but that light went out on them, because of their unbelief, and to them also Jesus came to open their eyes that they might see His glory!  We do not know how long Simeon waited for this moment, but he was sure that he would see the fulfilment of God’s promise, he did see it and thanked God for it as He held Jesus in His arms. This is why the Holy-Spirit inspired Luke to search out and find this wonderful fact of history, proving that what the Bible says is true when it reveals forcibly step by step the details of God’s plan of salvation. 

It is comforting to every believer to see the faithfulness of God proven time and time again, and what could have been easily bypassed and forgotten, could not be: “because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”. You who read this let me say: ‘that if you are a believer or not, one thing is important for you to realise: God has spoken some very awesome words, which are recorded in the Bible, spanning millenniums, words that have baffled human intelligence to this day. Men have erred into great errors and heresies right through the ages, trying to understand God’s mysteries with their puny minds. Yet in the midst of great controversies, whilst the world seeks to find errors with God, millions have found that God is true and enlightened by the Holy Spirit have discovered, by His grace, that eternal life is given freely to those who have dared, against great odds, believe that Jesus Christ died for the sinner and that He lives to save those that believe in Him, men that have been given to Him by His Father!

Most of what God has revealed to his servants has happened, just like this promise to Simeon. There still remain many prophesies that are as yet unfulfilled, but the past is enough for all to know that they will be fulfilled. The world will shortly see Jesus returning to the earth with power and great glory, to take vengeance on His enemies and establish His reign on earth. The Bible says that on that day, every knee shall bow to Him. If you are an unbeliever bow before Christ now, do not wait, as says the Bible: ‘Today if you hear His voice harden not your heart.’ take Him as your Saviour now and on that day, you will receive the recompense for your faith in Christ, which God would have given if you believed in Christ, for the saving of your soul. Jesus is coming again! SOON! Even so ‘Come Lord Jesus’Believe in Him now, then all the promised blessings will be yours as well! Forever.

It is said that: “The child’s father and mother; Joseph and Mary, marvelled at what was said about Jesus.” What was said, concerning Jesus, merited serious thinking and still does in this twenty-first century, in which general knowledge has increased so rapidly to the detriment of what is still the greatest science, that of knowing God and together with Him that of His wonderful Son Jesus-Christ, who, by divine choice, is the central Subject in the Bible. The statements made concerning this enigmatic character baffled men through centuries, and is still does today, it is the most captivating subject. He is destined to: “cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thought of many hearts will be revealed.” (Luke 2:34.)

Secrets long hidden will be brought to light, when Christ, anointed from eternity will rule the nations with a rod of iron, it will happen when He sets up His kingdom for a thousand years. All the things that have been spoken of Christ, by Simeon and then by a dear widow called Anna, caused His parents to marvel at the utterance of this simple prophet who said to Mary: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:33-36.) Mary felt it cruelly thirty-three years later, when she, with John the apostle, and some women stood by the CROSS on which hung Jesus-Christ the Son of God, who to all true Christians has become the most important person, their beloved Master and Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth! 

I find it astonishing, yet it is so true, that since the coming of Jesus into the world there exists an unavoidable division among the peoples of the world. As spoken by the prophet: “The falling and rising of many in Israel.” The revolutionary Gospel, which is HIS story, started to divide his own nation ‘Israel’, for to them was Christ sent, and it is from among them that He raised His Church. JESUS never left the boundaries of his country, yet today those that have believed on Him, as their Saviour and Lord, are found in the whole world. Simple people, most from the working class, people despised by the higher echelon of society, have known and are enjoying what is the greatest privilege given to men, for by faith in Christ they have become: ‘Sons of the Living God’, they are blest as was this lowly prophet called Simeon, who fulfilled his life by holding in his arms,  the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16.)

Such confession of faith raises a serf to be a King, a son of darkness to a son of light, a child of the devil to a son of God. “What does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your hear,t that is the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess ‘JESUS IS LORD (meaning JEHOVAH, or Yahweh) and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that you confess it and are saved.” (Romans 10:8-10.)

‘For the rising of many in Israel’, and from there to the uttermost parts of the earth! So, this Christ, the Son of God, came to earth for ‘The falling of many in Israel’ and for the dividing of all men on earth, into those that are for Him and those that are against Him. Speaking to the rulers of Israel, Jesus said: “You snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so, upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berakiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth; all this will come upon this generation. (And it did.) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say: ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” (Matthew 23:33-39.) This prophetic utterance will be fulfilled, on that day, when every eye shall see HIM and every tongue shall confess that Jesus-Christ is Lord! There is a gulf one cannot cross between the Christians and the non-Christians; each has his own destination and destiny! Where do you situate yourself? Jesus said: “He that is not with me is against me”! Full stop! (Matthew 12:30) 

Jesus came to earth to do the will of His Father and to accomplish the whole Law. I believe that God knew, before He ever gave the Ten Commandments, that man could not justify himself, meaning that: man could not obey the Holy Law, because of the power of sin that had masters him. Because of the power of sin, it is impossible for man to submit AND OBEY God, because by his very nature, he is rebellious to every command God gives. This is not only true of people outside of Christ, it is also true of those that believe in Him and are in Him by faith. It was because of this power working in man’s nature, that God instituted the sin and the trespass offerings. Certain animals had to be sacrificed for sins committed by disobedience to the Commandments. 

Those sacrifices and the shed blood spoke of what Jesus was going to do on the cross for us guilty sinners, therefore faith in Christ and grace was already in operation under the Old Covenant. I said this because the whole Law was fully fulfilled when Jesus offered Himself to die on the Cross. Jesus Christ alone could obey it utterly and justify man by the offering of Himself as a lamb without spots, meaning that He was the perfect sacrifice that avails even today and guaranties forgiveness of sins to those that believe in Him and accept Him as their Saviour. Jesus did not die for His sin, for He was sinless, but He died for the sins of every man, and by faith in Him alone man is justified, and until now, in Christ, God sees the believer sinless as sinless as is Christ. 

This is what the Bible calls ‘an imputed righteousness’. Christ’s complete righteousness is freely given by grace, to those who repent from their sins and accept that, on the CROSS, Jesus-Christ died for their sins and destroyed the power of sin by His death. By a divine operation of the Holy-Spirit, a man that believes in Christ is born again and becomes a child of God. God sees such a man as if he had never sinned. Only one man obeyed the Law perfectly, that man is Jesus, the man-God, and as a man he did justified all his brothers!

To show the next fulfilment that had to happen in the life of Christ we must mention that, when Christ was born, God chose to confirm His birth hundreds of miles away from Bethlehem, somewhere in Mesopotamia, where wise men (astronomers) studying the heavens saw the birth of a star. It is said that Daniel, God’s prophet, a mighty man of faith, wrote about it in his historical annals during his years of captivity in Babylon, he recorded, that a special divine king would be born to the Israelites and that at his birth a star would appear in the sky! Almost six centuries later the very thing happened. If it was not written in their history by Daniel, we shall never know how they got to know of it, nevertheless God willed it so, and their trip to Bethlehem was preordained by Him. 

People still do not believe that God works to a plan, yet events have always proved that God inspired prophets throughout the history of Israel, as mentioned in the Old Testament, foretold amazing events that were fulfilled to the letter in God’s chosen time. There is not a book more exciting to read than the Bible. I cherish profusely the grace God gives to His children, not only to read this book, with such interest and love, but that they have actually experienced everything God says in it, trough the faith that is inspired in their heart by the Holy-Spirit through the Word, they wait patiently for God to fulfil, in His own time, everything that concerns His Son, Jesus Christ will happen!  

Therefore “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi (wise men) from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen his star (when it rose) in the east and have come to worship Him”. The very special star shone to them and so, they packed their baggage and their treasures and covered the long journey to Bethlehem, led by that star.  God in His wisdom chose the home of a carpenter and blessed Joseph to be the earthly father/guardian of His Son Jesus. We do not know if Joseph was good at his job, but we believe that he was and we know that he was poor. It is to the poor that Jesus was sent to preach the Gospel of Salvation, and he chose himself to be born poor; he despised riches and chose the life of a worker. Later on, when He became a preacher of the Gospel, it is said: ‘that the poor heard him gladly’, Jesus spoke their kind of language.

To realise this more fully I quote the following: “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards (they lacked further education) No many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things ~ and things that are not ~ to nullify the things that are, so that no man can boast before Him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God ~ that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) Jesus said: ’It is easier for a camel to go through the eyes of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God! 

I said this because it has a bearing on the choice the Magi naturally made; they thought, as would any man, that to find a new king you must seek him in the king’s palace. But it is to Nazareth that the angel of the Lord was sent to share with Mary and Joseph the precious news of the promised deliverer, that He was sending to the world, and that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit. Whether in the British Isles, or any other kingdom, when a child is added to the royal family, people know, that one of them, in his life time will reign. Even today, folk would feel that a future king would never be born to a carpenter, in a stable in Bethlehem, but it had to be so, because this is how God planned it in eternity long before it ever happened. I think that it is absolutely terrific. The Saviour of the world, Called Jesus ~ who would save His people from their sins ~, the Son of the Living God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, felt completely at home with Joseph a carpenter and his wife Mary, and from Joseph He learned a trade to earn his living, this humble man that so many despised, is the Son of God. 

In the previous chapter we have looked at the work of God, who through the preaching of the Gospel is creating a new people fit for a new world, men of faith. This chapter is really a part of the same. Nevertheless, there could not have been any possibility of a new life and a new people, if Jesus did not come to fulfil the will of God as prophesied in the Holy Scriptures. If God sent signs by the words of the prophets it must be important, therefore a detailed study is necessary to prove to men and all of heaven, how Jesus finished His work by fulfilling, step by step, every prophesy concerning Him, thus fulfilling perfectly the will of His Father, written in the history of men, and that the man they wrote about over centuries, is this Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 

Now we may not understand that, and we should not try to. All of God acts are mysterious to men because they belong to another dimension, there is a natural dimension and there is a spiritual dimension, and the language of each is different. God speaks to men by words they understand, but the meaning is not natural, therefore man will never understand what God says, unless he becomes spiritual, and that can only happen by a spiritual birth, to be born again of the Spirit, born from above. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship that we do know, for salvation comes from the Jews. Yet the time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:22-24.) There is so much to say about these verses, but we must leave it till later.  

When King Herod heard this (that a King was born) he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the Law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ (Matthew 2:3-5) (Quoted from Micah 5:2)

King Hero was told from the Magi, (they were wise men) that a new king was born to the Jews; the news they brought to the King disturbed him greatly; he felt threatened. He is known in history as a despot, a very violent man, he got where he did by caning devious means and murders. Men can do what they want to belittle the coming into the world of the Son of God, but from the day of His birth, a process of miracles would progress, until men had to confess, that from that baby, born in a manger of a stable, grew a man that would prove to be God. When we read in the Gospel of John, that this Christ was the creator of the world our minds boggle; add to this the first four verses of the epistle to the Hebrews and you get a picture, of the greatest of all truths, and it is this: God became man for the sole purpose of dying for those that He came to save, and to destroy, by His death at the same time the power of sin, death and the devil! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ~. And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and Only Begotten, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14.) 

John, James his brother and Peter, apostles of Christ, saw His glory on the mount of Transfiguration. Both John and Peter show, in their writings, just how they were moved by this tremendous experience. It is clear that, from the moment King Herod heard that the Messiah of Israel was born, he determined to get rid of Him. Satan hates God and went as far as to revolt against God, and with him many angels fell and are reserved for total destruction. From that monstrous act he is still at war with God and all those that are His. Through sin men also are prone to do Satan’s bidding; it is through sin that he holds sway over all of humanity. He knows many things and he is powerful, but he knows very well that he can only do what the Almighty allows him to. There are things he only knows when God actually reveals them by the mouth of the prophets. He heard the proclamation of the angels who proclaimed to the shepherds near Bethlehem the birth of the Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Thus, under his personal control when Herod heard from the wise men what had happened, and that the Messiah of the Jews was born, he immediately thought of a way to kill the child, Christ the Lord! 

At that point, as many times before, the devil found a man to do his bidding, and so, king Herod determined to kill the Son of God, who at that time was but a child between six months to two years of age. Herod devised his plan and He gave orders to the Magi to come and tell him where they found the Lord, but before their return the Magi were: “Warned by a dream not to go back to Herod. This is why I have said that the devil knows less than we may think, but as soon as he knew that Jesus was born, he thought: “Now that God became a man, I shall be able to destroy Him”; but he should have known better. He could not even approach the vulnerable small child, who was Jesus-Christ the Son of the living God, whom Joseph took to Egypt, as he was warned in a dream that Herod, was seeking to kill the child.

It followed that: “When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.”(Matthew 2:16.) Many evil kings have followed Herod the Great, and history shows that they were evil brutes that had no respect for human life. Not only Kings did so, but autocrats and governors of all races and types, have slaughtered millions of people through unnecessary wars, they looked at men as if they were vermin of the worst kind. If they did not kill men, women and children to satisfy their devilish appetites, they worked them to death. Power corrupts, money corrupts also, it inspires inequality in society; few only realise that, whatever fortunes they have got, someone else got it for them, often by hard work and little pay. It is sad that this still goes on in many civilised countries, greed knows no barriers.

Yet what such men acquire only lasts during their life time, ultimately everything they have accumulated through greed and unrighteous deeds, they leave to others. We cannot read the Bible without realising what God takes vengeance on human powers, whether they be kingdoms or empires; before they reach their height of power, He has already prepared their end, it is written: ‘The lord has established his throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all.’ (Psalm 103: 19) Kingdoms and Empires have come and gone at the word of the Lord, but He is still on the throne and rules over all. Under Herod’s decree darkness fell on Bethlehem, great wailings were heard from many homes where little helpless boys, two years and under, were savagely killed by the swords of an evil ruler. Foolish Herod thought that he would, by violent means, destroy Jesus the Messiah. God foresaw these horrible things in the days of Jeremiah who prophesied: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”(Matthew 2:18, quoted from Jeremiah 31:15.) 

In spite of all that happened, yet Christ had to come, for without Him and His death there would not be any hope of salvation. From the moment Jesus came on earth His life was in danger, and in adulthood he would be hated by His own siblings. It has been prophesied concerning Him: “He grew before the Lord like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow, and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” (Isaiah 53: 1-3.) Of whom the world was not worthy.

Today men have not changed in their attitude; most religions despise the Son of God and His disciples. A corrupt, so called church, gives more honour to idolaters than to Jesus-Christ, whom they hardly mention, but Jesus knew what He should expect, but he loved those the Father gave Him, so in spite of it, His true love, made Him come to live amongst men, for on Him depended the salvation of all those who would see His real beauty, and believe on Him. It is as says a hymn: “Man of sorrow what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, Hallelujah, what a Saviour!” Can you not love Him too? Men have despised everything God has ever said or commanded; they despised Him and His Son and will do so until the end.  All His judgements, as revealed in the Old Testament, show how terrible it is to disobey and despise God and those that belong to Him. Men have never learned, today more than ever, men of all backgrounds, hate Jesus and His true Church, but they will not escape from the day of His wrath, it will bring the whole world to its destruction! This is why men of God sought to review, so to speak, everything that has been prophesied concerning His Son, Jesus-Christ the God-man; they found how miraculous their fulfilments were, how important they all were and still are for men’s salvation! 

Firstly, as we proceed with the life of Christ right up to the cross, we discover that all prophets, at various time in history, uttered things concerning Jesus and His role in God’s plan of salvation. From Moses to Malachi details are foretold about Christ and, as we have seen so far, minutely fulfilled. It proves the most important truth about God: ‘He always does what He says’. His words are like seeds put in the ground, they are there in the soil unseen but alive, in their time they suddenly die and from that death, life springs up. Men generally think that what God has said is senseless, they read His word or hear a preacher, it makes no effect on them and they soon forget it; it has fallen into a hard heart; but some fall on prepared soil, hearts that God has softened and they believe in His promise, through faith in Christ they bear their fruits in abundance. 

I my life as a preacher of the gospel, I have often spoken to unconverted folk, the same sermon has made no effect on most, yet some were moved in the depth of their being, and surrendered to Christ. The words spoken by God are living words, and they have their purpose from the moment they are uttered, some hear it unto salvation others hear it unto condemnation. This fact is dealt with the following verse: “A man without the Spirit (the natural man KJV. – the man that is not reborn of the Spirit) does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2: 14.) Such a natural man has not got the faculties to understand what the Holy Spirit says, one must be born again, through a spiritual birth he enters into the spiritual realm, where all things spiritual are appreciated and understood. What God has said about Christ, which is not yet fulfilled, like His second coming for instance, rest assured, it will happen, Jesus is coming back! 

Secondly: Every fulfilled prophesy concerning Christ is like an identity proof, stating that He is the Messiah, the deliverer, Jesus-Christ, the Son of the living God. God testifying step by step, as He still does, that Jesus is the One and only Redeemer, which He promised to Adam and in Adam to the whole world, men that were then in his loins.

Lastly: In the light of it, foolish is the man that looks at the future prophesies as fables, because they are happening all around him pointing to the return of His Son, who is coming to set up His kingdom amongst men and nations; and, no one will stop Him!

I have been made to state these things; I find, at times, that there is a witness in my heart that certain things have to be said, even if they seem out of context, whether in preaching or as now in writing, it is unavoidable. All I can say is that God has purposes we know nothing about! But we must continue with the subject at hand, and it brings us to Egypt! What an important place Egypt has had in the history of Israel, and once again it plays its part, for it is there that the Almighty has decided to send and hide His Son from the wrath of an evil king! The following happened at the departure of the wise men. “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So, he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.” (Matthew 2:14-15.) 

There arose a sudden emergency, imposed by an angel in a dream and immediately after awaking from his dream, Joseph packed their belongings and fled to Egypt by night. Joseph was an exceptional man. We do not hear much about him, but he was a man of God who listened to Him and could easily discern when a dream came from God or not; and he harkened immediately, did what he was told. I often wish we knew a bit more about this lovely man, Joseph, I admire him for to him God intrusted the welfare of His Son, Joseph was a man that played such an important part in the birth of Jesus-Christ and in his infancy! He possessed a spiritual intuition that is only found in true men of God

We are facing here a great mystery, for we see just how very human was this child, the incarnate Son of God, the Word by which all things were created! He humbled Himself and was fully dependant on his earthly father and his mother, who nourished Him and loved Him as parents do! Although here is God incarnate, yet He needs human means to save Him from a hunter who seeks to kill Him. Jesus was as normal as any other child born of a woman. God could have found many miraculous ways to keep Jesus safe in Bethlehem on that awful day, why send this family to Egypt, such a long way from Bethlehem? But if He had, this unique family would have lost its natural character, and everything concerning Jesus-Christ would not be as human as it was, and the Holy Scripture would not have been fulfilled, because as it is written: “so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15 quoted from Hosea 11:1.) 

It all holds together, statements made by the prophets more than seven centuries before Christ was born, were inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus they had to have their fulfilment so, that Jesus when on the cross was able to say: ‘It is finished’, or as says the Bible in French: ‘Tout Est Accompli’ everything is accomplished or fulfilled.’ This important acts of God show how committed He is to fulfil His words, therefore He says: “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35.) I sense such a divine strength in this declaration which shows that the word of God is a sure foundation, to this Jesus commits himself as well saying: “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law (Jesus was here referring to the Old Testament) until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18.) You can indeed trust yourself into the hands of God and He will fulfil every promise to you as well, in Christ we have this surety.

We are not told how long Joseph had to stay in Egypt? If we had time and the possibility to study Josephus, that great Jewish historian, maybe we could find when Herod actually died. Jesus could have been six months old, when they had to flee to Egypt. It is believed that he could have been about two years old, when the Magi came to Bethlehem, where they found the child and His parents. Nevertheless, what is important is that He was not forgotten and that being in the will of God, they were safe for as long as they had to live there. However long they lived in Egypt it had to come to an end. A certain time elapsed, before an angel was sent to Joseph to tell him what would be the next step he had to take. We see how that, although Jesus was on earth, heaven’s angels, especially His Father followed him closely every day of His life. We cannot appreciate what heaven was like without Jesus? 

We often think and ponder on what it meant to Jesus to come down and live amongst sinners and the influence of evil and be tempted just as we are. Jesus knew what it was like to resist evil, and live daily in a spiritual victory. But we rarely think how His absence was deeply felt by His Father for the time HIS throne was empty and all of heaven saw it and felt it, longing for His return. This only happens to loving beings, and heaven is full of it because God is love, and absence of loved ones touches deeply loving people on earth, how much more in heaven. We know by the words and life of Christ just how much He loves and honours His Father. In the same way God loves also His Son, Jesus-Christ and those for whom He was sent! 

So, the events continue, the time has come as it is said: “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said: ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those that were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” (Matthew 2:19-20.) Evil purposes have their end, and nothing can harm the sons of God unless He allows it. Why He allows evil to exist and work we do not know and it would be wrong for us to question it or try to search it out. We know, by experience, that the believers are not spared from trouble and that they will have their trials, even though they are assured of the presence of God every day of their lives. But the proof of His involvement in the coming of His Son lies in the fact that in Christ, God continues to save those that he chose before the foundation of the world. (Read Ephesians 1: 1-14) 

If He could save men like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace, (Daniel 3:19-30.) Then He can see His children through much smaller ills and all kinds of troubles. But in all circumstances the true Christian can rejoice in the Lord by realising the blessings of salvation and a real relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The deep concern for every Christians is to make sure that he lives in the will of God, and that where he finds himself, he is there in His will, just as Joseph was in Egypt for a time. God knew where Joseph was for, He never left Jesus from His sight, to find Him was easy and He gave the angel the right address! “Get up!” Joseph heard Gideon’s voice so often he recognised it immediately! He knew a lot about emergencies and broken nights, but what a wonderful life it must have been, to be under angelic protection, and divine communication! I tell you, living for Christ and obeying Him is never dull, it is the best life one can live on earth; it is exciting and fulfilling to walk with the Master Jesus! What the angel brought to Joseph teaches that man in all his pride is but a breath away from eternity, and He who gives life ends it just when He want; thus, chapters are closed and others open, at all times God is in control: “For those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead”. 

The purposes of God never change, but we discover in Scripture that even God has to suspend them and allow the natural elements to come to their fulfilment. Going right back to the days of Noah, we note that he started to build the ark immediately he received the order, yet during one hundred and twenty years, as Noah was building the ark under God’s direct tuition, God gave a chance for men to repent of their evil way, through the preaching of Noah in who’s heart burned the fire of the Holy Spirit, But after all the pleading and warning, not one did repent; so came the time for God to shut in Noah and his family into the ark and the floods came! 

Thus, Joseph with Mary and Jesus had to be in Egypt until Herod died. God had the situation in hand in the days of Noah was now timing the events in Egypt concerning Jesus Christ His Son! God’s perfect timing AND His sovereignty is seen in Holy Scriptures, the Herod’s end had to come and it came! It is written that: “Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father, he was afraid to go there.” (Matthew 2:19-20.) We must always give place to the natural life, and its evolvement with the spiritual realities are always present in the life of a godly man. Joseph saw things from a natural perspective, and he had to evaluate the situation at hand, the son of Herod was aware of what happened in Bethlehem, who could forget the cruel event during which so many boys were murdered by his father. It follows that if the news came to his ears that Jesus was alive after all, that he would try everything possible to finish Jesus off, just as his father wanted to and could not. 

There was naturally that possibility! So, it was sensible for Joseph to avoid returning to Bethlehem at all cost! He was a very spiritual man and it was wise for him to be afraid and instead he went back to Nazareth, which was prophesied long before, so that we see how God had a hand in Joseph’s wise decision. So, once again the Lord came with His guidance to resolve the problem, that’s how God deals with all those who are His, he guides them because they seek and desire to do what is right, according to His will, and Joseph’s fears were proved to be right in the will of God and He confirms it to Joseph in another dream: “So, having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:21) 

God the Father, and His angels, as I said, were constantly involved in the life of His Son, Jesus, from the manger to the cross, the salvation of men is a heavenly enterprise, and to fulfil His purposes, God does the same with every member of His family: The Church of Christ! In our daily occupations, as Christians, for the glory of God and the salvation of men, we are saved to take our place in this divine purpose and as we spread the Gospel, The Holy-Trinity angels and archangels are with us; guiding, keeping and protecting us from Satan and his army of demons. It is the ministry of the whole Churchto evangelise the world while we are in it, God has set up ministers but in the book of Acts we see constantly, that the Church stood with them, and in the tribulations, they suffered, they all rejoiced. This is clearly seen in the following few verses: “In that day (the day that Stephen was martyred) a great persecution broke out against the Church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria…Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to the City of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ.” It is everyone’s business to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ. If we do it as our work, it becomes worthless, but if we do it with Jesus and in obedience to Him, we work the works of God for the glory of God, there is for the faithful an eternal reward.  

As I was said it already, Joseph was obviously a spiritual and wise man; so, he was very conscious of his responsibilities to his wife, but especially towards the Son of God who gave him this trust. He left Egypt as directed by the angel sent from the Lord. As a responsible man of God, he enquired about the political situation and discovered that Herod’s son ruled Judea in his stead. It is absolutely possible for a man that follows faithfully the leading of the Lord, to use also his own initiative, as Joseph did, but he did it not do it because he was fed up of being in Egypt, he did it because he was told in q dream to return tp his homeland, we must always act on the word of the Lord. Having heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, ruled in his place, it is said that: “That Joseph was afraid to go to Bethlehem.” Joseph felt uneasy and disturbed in his spirit; this also was from the Lord! It is important for me to pinpoint it, because I have met people who think that men walking in the Spirit, lose the right to personal evaluation that possess all human beings, and because they think that to be spiritual means, that they cannot allow themselves to decide what to do on their own initiative, yet at all time we must be certain that we are doing His will! It is written: ‘Having been warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went to live in a town called Nazareth.’ (Matthew 2: 22)

Men walking with God can come to spiritual decisions without depending on dreams, or some special visions, for at all times they have the presence of the Holy Spirit who in His own way confirms or disapproves; ‘when in doubt don’t’, is the saying, it is quite scriptural men, living close to the Lord sense it and know it! Joseph was naturally afraid to go to Bethlehem, and had God not decided to speak to him in a dream, He would still have made the right decision; in fact, it is the Lord who decided at first that he returns to Nazareth, and God confirmed that Joseph was led by the Holy-Spirit!  That is how I read it, and it rhymes perfectly with the experiences of men keen on obeying the will of God. 

I have personally made mistakes, but I have learned through them. God leads us always but He also teaches us how to become mature in the faith. I have also had dreams from the Lord that led me into places, I have never thought possible! As it happens, Joseph by returning to Nazareth, which he left for few years, fulfilled what the prophets said about Jesus-Christ: “He will be called a Nazarene”.(Matthew 2:23.) Later Jesus and His disciples were called Galileans; as such they were despised by religious authorities in Jerusalem, who said: “No prophet ever came from Galilee.” And yet, the very Son of God grew up in Galilee and there He started His divine mission. But Jesus clearly came to be a thorn in the flesh of the rebellious clergy of His day, and they chose to vilify Him for being a Galilean, what religious bigotry! Nevertheless, it is sad how prevalent it is nowadays, even in Evangelical-Pentecostal churches! It is true even among them that: ‘It is not what you know, but who you know’.

“Galilee”, in Hebrew means ‘a circle. Originally the name was given to the twenty towns in the circuit of Kadesh-Naphtali. These cities were given by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre, for his help in the supply and transport of all cedar and pine logs needed for the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. “At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings ~ the temple of the Lord and the royal palace ~ King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and the pine and gold he wanted. But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother? He asked. And he called them the Land of ‘Cabul’ a name they have to this day. (1 Kings 9:10-14.) Cabul sounds like the Hebrew word for, ‘useless, good for nothing, even disgusting!’

It seems that the destiny of Galilee was to be despised! After the Grecian empire ended with the sudden death of Alexandre the Great; Galilee became the home of people of mixed background, Phoenicians, Arabs, Greeks, that remained there and the Greek language was an integral part of the Galileans. We understand better the reasons that the religious rulers despised so much Christ and His disciples whose origin was from “Galilee of the Gentiles”. So, from his childhood, Jesus was raised among a mixed population, He who was destined to the Saviour of the world was at home with them, people that a true Jew would call ‘Dogs’. It is in that atmosphere that the child Jesus reached his twelfth year, which was an important day in the customs of His Nation!

The age of twelve years was a critical age for a Jewish boy. It was the age at which, according to Jewish legend. Beginning with Moses, who left the house of his parents to dwell with Pharaoh’s daughter as her son, and serve Pharaoh as an officer in his army. 

Samuel was twelve when he heard the voice of God that summoned him to the prophetic office; and Solomon had given the wise judgement which first revealed his special wisdom. 

At the age of twelve a boy, of whatever rank was obliged, by the injunction of the Rabbis, and the custom of the nation, to learn a trade for his own support. At this age he was so far emancipated from parental authority that his parents could no longer sell him as a slave, which did happen! They could not force a boy of twelve years of age to serve a master against his will. When he fulfilled his twelfth year he was accounted as grown up, up till then He was called ‘little’. He was still tied up to his mother’s apron, so to speak. He began then to wear, what is called the ‘tephelin’, or ‘phylacteries.’ (It was a small leather box containing Hebrew texts on vellum, worn by Jews during morning prayers as a reminder of their obligations to keep the law and religious observances. So, Jesus too, having to fulfil the law, had been presented by his father in the synagogue of Nazareth on the first Sabbath after his birthday! From then on, Jesus was a fully responsible citizen of the Jewish nation. Hence Jesus had to attend the local synagogue, and fulfil obediently the whole Law, and He, who was destined as Lord in the House of the Lord, had to submit to the local Rabbi!

There could have been at least twenty-five years, or more, between the second and the third chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. We would not know anything more about those years in the life of Christ, if it were not for Luke who mentions an event that happened when Jesus was twelve years old. Let me remind you that we are still interested in the fulfilment of prophesies concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who said “I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it.” Our mind, due to the fallen nature in us, does not fully realise, even Christian don’t realise fully, the importance of what I am communicating concerning the importance of prophesy and the obligation that was laid on the Son of God to fulfil everything that was spoken of Him by the prophets. Had Jesus not applied himself to fulfil the whole law there would not be any hope for us. But thank God that Jesus did it, and that every Christian in the world in a man, or woman, full of hope, living on earth as eternal beings, saved and sanctified full of the joy of true fellowship with God, sharing His own life forever.

We have to point out how minutely Jesus applied Himself to His tusk, so that He would finish His life as a lamb acceptable to be sacrificed for the sins of the whole world, a man without blemish and without spots. If it was so important to Christ it is important for us because right up to the final prophesy, which was fulfilled on the cross, Jesus never failed and when the last one was fulfilled Jesus surrendered His spirit into the hands of His Father. The Holy-Spirit inspired men of God to write the Bible, so, God He willed that this part of the life of Christ be recorded, for it has a great importance in proving that the divine Christ was totally human and obedient to the Laws, given by His Heavenly Father; through Moses, they were given for the direction of the life of the people of Israel, and the reveal the awful destructive power of sin. The complete fulfilment of the Law made Jesus to be the sinless, pure and perfect man, willing and ready to pay with His life the redemption of all His brothers.

At the age of thirty Jesus left Nazareth, after an eventful parting from His home town, He began to preach the Gospel, whose divine power is able to save the sinner from doom and make of him a child of God. Jesus never came not to make bad man better, Jesus came to make new man, being created anew such a man is not only better but he can never die the death of as sinner, for since Christ rose from the dead He gives eternal life to all that have believed on Him! That is clearly the power of God! The apostle Paul could put it so perfectly and says: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, (or from faith to faith) just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith” (Quoted from Habakkuk 2:9.) (Romans 1:16-17.)

I want to finally state that all after that Jesus accomplished everything so faithfully, went to heaven, where He is preparing a place for His people and made heaven, God’s country, their FINAL DESTINATION! To His disciples Jesus before His death said this: ‘Do not your hearts be troubled. Trust God, and trust also in Me. In my father’s house are many rooms, (or mansion KJV – it is not a tower bloc) if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me where I am!’ (John 14: 1-3)

In the book of Acts (of the apostles) Jesus and his disciples were together on the Mount of Olives, (also called Olivet). Prior to this, He gave them strict instructions to go into all the world to preach the Gospel, thus was opened the door to the gentile nations, and all that believed, Jews and Gentiles, were given right to become sons of God, as I have explained! He also gave them some instructions on this Mount and said: ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. After he said this, He was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. (Acts 1: 8-9) That is the Final destination of all that believe that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!

I invite you to follow the next chapter to grasp the full extent of Jesus’s ministry and the full scope of the eternal wonderful gift God gives freely to all those who believe, which is “ETERNAL LIFE.” I am not trying to promote a new faith, nor is my aim to draw anyone to my faith, or to change a religion. Yet, I am very keen of speaking the truth just as the Lord and His disciples preached it! My sole aim is to present Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, just as the Gospel speaks of Him; a gospel He brought from the very heart of God, the very Gospel that the apostles that Jesus appointed took to the world and changed it forever! If God uses my sincere effort, to share with you all I know about my wonderful Saviour, so as to draw you to Him and accept Him as your Saviour too, to the glory of God! Then I shall be the happiest of men!