Revealing The Mysteries of Jesus Christ 1: 1

To, GOD ALMIGHTY

INTRODUCTION

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Committing our lives to Jesus Christ is having a relationship with Him. But this relationship has to be developed and this involves getting to know Him better. Jesus wants us to know Him and that was why He asked His Apostles a question connected to His identity in Matthew chapter 16. In verse 13, He asked them; Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

When Jesus asked the above question, His Apostles gave different answers in response. Continuing from verse 14 of Matthew chapter 16 it says; And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist; some; Elias; and others; Jeremias or one of the prophets. But He said to them; But whom say ye that I am? Then Peter spoke up and said; Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Apostle Paul was keen on knowing Jesus as the Son of God. The evidence is recorded in his writings in Philippians chapter 3: 10 where he said; That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death. This is very deep.

For us today, the best way for us to get to know about Jesus is to read the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit so that we can have revelations of Him as it appears on every chapter and pages of this wonderful book. Only then can we be able to see His claims concerning Himself and the writings of others in the Gospels.

Even though there are revelations of Jesus in the Old Testament of the Bible, the first four books in the New Testament are the Gospels or the good news of Jesus Christ. They were written in the first century A.D. and were based upon eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Following history records, Jesus was born about 4 or 5 B.C. (Our calendars today are a little off.) The nation of Israel was under Roman government occupation and the Jews fought to maintain national identity. Every faithful Jew had the hope that one day a Messiah would appear and provide salvation for the nation by overthrowing the Roman rule. The word Messiah is a Hebrew, meaning the anointed one.

Majority of the Gospel accounts is devoted to the three years that Jesus spent ministering around the Sea of Galilee. They tell us of the life and teachings of this unique person called Jesus. Hence the Gospels explains, demonstrated His divine powers which He showed by healing the sick, the blind and the lame; raising the dead; walking on water and calming a storm at sea.

Because His teachings lacked, the exacting legalism and piousness that characterized so much of the contemporary Judaism, He became tremendously popular among the masses in Galilee. Throughout His ministry, He kept pointing the people to Himself. Although the masses wanted a political liberator and the religious establishment wanted their positions of power and piety recognized, Jesus pandered to neither group.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 5, Jesus was accosted by Jewish religious leaders for healing an invalid on the Sabbath which is the Jewish (Day of Rest). They widely considered any expenditure of effort on that day a violation of God’s command to maintain it as a day of rest. Over the centuries they had meticulously codified what was permissible, and Jesus’ action flaunted their strict rules.

Jesus defended His action of healing on the Sabbath by explaining that God, as the sustainer of the universe, never rests but continually keeps working. And God is always doing good in human history. He explained that God cannot stop His work and said; My Father is constantly working, and I follow His example. For this, the Jewish leaders were all the more eager to kill Him because in addition to disobeying the laws of Sabbath, He had spoke of God as His Father, thereby making Himself, equal with God. See (John 5:17, 18).

His claim to deity was seen as a virulent blasphemy. During the centuries of occupation by foreign nations, many Jews had endured terrible sufferings to remain faithful in their worship of Jehovah, the one true God. How could this Jesus, a good Jew, ever think of saying that He was equal with God?

Three chapters later in John’s Gospel, Jesus is conversing again with the Jewish leaders. He was in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles, a celebration commemorating God’s direction to Moses and the nation of Israel during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

During this conversation in John chapter 8, Jesus made several claims. He said that He was the light of the world, that He could free men from sin and that anyone who believed in Him would not die. Again the Jewish leaders were incensed by His seemingly preposterous claims but apparently decided to humor Him, hoping to reveal His inconsistencies.

The Jews wondered that not even Abraham, the venerated founder of Judaism, had claimed to be immortal, so how could Jesus claim this? Jesus replied: Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad. The Jews said to Him; You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham! He again responded and said; I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am! At this, they picked up stones to stone Him... (John 8:56-59).

His remarks were even more inflammatory because of His use of the words, I am. It is recorded in the Old Testament, that Moses saw a burning bush as he was tending sheep in the desert. Approaching the bush, God suddenly spoke to Moses and told him to return to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of bondage.

When God assured Moses that He would be with him, Moses asked God who he should say sent him and God replied: I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’ (Exodus 3:14). I AM was not so much a label for God as it was an indication of God’s complete ability to deliver the Israelites from bondage. Jesus ascribed this same name and power to Himself.

This third claim is recorded in the tenth chapter of John. It occurs at the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah. Jesus is again in Jerusalem, and there is considerable speculation among the crowds and religious leaders: Will Jesus announce that He is the Messiah? Tradition had always taught that the Messiah would be revealed at one such feast.

The Jewish leaders gathered around Jesus and asked Him if He was the Messiah. It may have been genuine curiosity, but more likely they intended to set a trap for Jesus, forcing Him to say something that would warrant his arrest and execution. Instead of giving them a direct answer; Jesus said that He had already told them who He was and that they had not believed Him:

My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me...my Father has given them to me...I and the Father are one.

Then again, the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill Him.

Jesus said, At God’s direction I have done many a miracle to help the people. For which one are you killing me?

They replied, Not for any good work, but for blasphemy; you, a mere man, have declared yourself to be God (John 10:27-33).

Jesus made what seemed to be extravagant claims about Himself: equality and oneness with God, eternal pre-existence, and the source of everlasting life. These are not the statements of a mere mortal (at least a sane one). Jesus also declared that He had final authority over all the earth, that He would one day return and judge the earth, that He could forgive sin and that He was the only way to God. He said He could give life and fill man’s greatest hunger. He called Himself the Son of Man, an Old Testament prophetic term for the Messiah. He allowed others to worship Him even though Jews were to worship God alone.

During the trial preceding the crucifixion, the Jewish leaders said this to the Roman governor Pilate: We have a law, and according to that law He must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God (John 19:7). Jesus of Nazareth was killed not for what He did, but for who He claimed to be.

Of all the founders of major world religions in the world today, Jesus Christ alone claimed to be God! Abraham, Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha—none claimed to be God. Buddha, for example, told his disciples near the end of his life not to worry about remembering Him, but to remember his teaching about the Way of enlightenment.

Each of these founders of world religions can be divorced from his teaching without a total and irreparable loss to that religion. But Christianity is built upon Jesus the Christ: who He claimed to be and what He did. His teaching is almost embarrassingly self-centered. What else can be said of someone who declares: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)? But if Jesus’ claims are true, then His statements are full of hope. We can know God because Jesus is God.

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CONTENT

Chapter one:  He Is the Beginning

Chapter two:  The Greatest Gift

Chapter three:  The Word 

Chapter four:  The Truth

Chapter five: The Rock

Chapter six:  The Son Lamb

Chapter seven:  The Savior

Chapter eight:  The Mediator  

Chapter nine:  The Door

Chapter ten:  The Light

Chapter ELEVEN:  The Healer

Chapter TWELVE:  The Lamb

Chapter THIRTEEN:  The Giver

Chapter FOURTEEN:  The way

Chapter FIFTEEN:  The Wisdom

Chapter SIXTEEN: The Lord

Chapter SEVENTEEN: The True Vine 

Chapter eighteen:  The Good Shepherd

Chapter NINeteen: The King of Kings

Chapter TWENTY: The Kings of Sabbath Victor

Chapter TWENTY ONE: The Tree of Life

Chapter TWENTY TWO: Resurrection and Life

Chapter TWENTY Three: Victor

Chapter one:  He is The Beginning

John writing in the first chapter of his book tried to introduce Jesus in the best way he could. He John; says, that Jesus was in the beginning with God and all things were made by Him. John also said that without Him was not anything made that was made. See John 1:1-3.

On this note therefore, one can understand that Jesus was with the Father although the time of creation. He was there when God made the heaven, the earth and everything that were created. He is a part of the God head hence when the Father said let us make man in our image and likeness; He was a part of that discussion.

Solomon, writing in the book of Proverbs made an expression in chapter 8 that represents the Son of God Jesus Christ and His Father during creation. From verses 22; he wrote "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. 23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was, I brought forth:  26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

This is a wonderful description that fits only the Son of God confirming that the Lord possessed Him from the beginning. The Bible has this to say in 1 John 5:7; For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Before anything was created, He was there watching and He saw it all. As God prepared the heavens, He was there and saw when He (God) set a compass upon the face of the depth. He saw the establishment of the clouds above and when the fountains of the deep were strengthened.

The Son was there when the Father gave instruction to the sea, that the waters should not pass His commandment. He also saw when the Father appointed the foundations of the earth. He was by Him, as one brought up with Him and He was His Father’s daily delight, rejoicing always before Him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth and His delights were with the sons of men. Proverbs 8:22-31.

When John met Jesus at the Island of Patmos, He directed him to write down His statements to him and as did so, he wrote the book of Revelation. In this book, Jesus introduced Himself as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:8. Before then, John knew him as Lord and Master, but in that occasion, He introduced Himself differently.

At another time, Jesus was faced by the Jews who always asked Him questions and He answered them saying, "If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honour me; of whom ye say, that He is your God: Yet ye have not known Him; but I know Him:  and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know Him, and keep his saying.  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.  John 8:54-58. 

The record, has it that the Jews became offended by His statement because they wondered how He could say that He had seen Abraham and He was not up to fifty years on earth. Where did He see him? They therefore took up stones against Him but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through their midst and passed by. 

But why should they be offended? After the Lord told Abram to leave his father’s house and go to a place He will show him, the Bible recorded in Genesis chapter 15 that the Word of God came to Abram in a vision to encourage him. Abram even asked Him what He would give him since, he had no son.

There was another incident in Genesis