Jesus Christ is the one anointed by God, the Father, and empowered by God's spirit to deliver His people and establish His kingdom. As the Messiah, Jesus is the divinely appointed king who brought God's kingdom to earth or the world. - Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20 - Jesus way to victory was not by unjust war, physical force and violence, but through humility, faith, hope, and love.
Jesus Christ - the human - divine Son of God born of the Virgin Mary; the great High Priest who intercedes for His people at the right hand of God; founder and the head of the Universal Christian Church, and central figure of the human race.
Christian is an adherent or follower of Christ. The word 'Christian' occurs three times in the New Testament. Christians were loyal to Christ. The designation of the early followers of Christ as Christians was initiated by the non-Christian population of Antioch. Initially, it may have been a term of derision. Eventually, however, Christians used it of themselves as a name of honor and its original meaning is a noble one.
It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called "Christians." - Acts 11:26 -
King Agrippa, do you believe in the prophets? I know you do. At this Agrippa said to Paul, 'A little more, and your arguments would make a Christian of me.' - Acts 26:28 -
None of you should ever deserve to suffer for being a murderer, a thief, a criminal or an informer; but if anyone of you should suffer for being a Christian, then he is not to be ashamed of it; he should thank God that he has been called one. - 1Peter 4:16 -
Prior to their adoption of the name, the Christians called themselves believers - Acts 5:14 - brothers - Acts 6:3 - saints - Acts 9:13 - names which also continued to be used as today.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town about ten kilometers south of Jerusalem, toward the end of Herod the Great's reign as king of the Jews ( 37-4 B.C. ) Early in His life Jesus was taken to Nazareth, a town of Galilee. There Jesus was brought up by His mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, a carpenter by trade. Hence Jesus was known as "Jesus of Nazareth" or more fully, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." - John 1:45 -
Joseph apparently died before Jesus began His public ministry. The one incident preserved from Jesus' after His infancy was His trip to Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary when He was 12 years old. - Luke 2:41-52 - Since Jesus was known in Nazareth as 'the carpenter' - Mark 6:3 - He may have taken Joseph's place as the family breadwinner at an early age.
Jesus began His public ministry when He sought baptism at the hands of John the Baptist.
The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, "Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because he existed before me. I did not know him myself, and yet it was to reveal him to Israel that I came baptizing with water." John also declared, "I saw the Spirit coming down on him from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptize with water had said to me, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit." Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God." - John 1:29-34 - Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22 -
In the Old Testament, it is indicated that Jesus was Israel's anointed King, destined to fulfill His kinship as the Servant of the Lord or Servant-Messiah described centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah. - Is. 11:2, 42:1, 52:13, 61:1 -
Apparently, Jesus ministered for a short time in southern and central Palestine, while John the Baptist was still preaching. - John 3:22-4:42 - However, the main phase of Jesus' preaching, and proclaim God's Good News began in Galilee after John the Baptist imprisonment by Herod Antipas. Jesus proclamation of the kingdom of God was accompanied by works of love, humility, mercy, power and miracle, including the healing of the sick and those whose were demon possessed. These works proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God, and when evil spirit, or demon possessed were cast out from the peoples, this proved the superior strength of the kingdom of God.
Jesus' work of miracle and healing aroused great popular enthusiasm throughout Galilee, but the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and teachers found much of Jesus' activity disturbing because at time, Jesus did not bound by their religious ideas, for instance, He befriended social outcasts, He cure a man on the Sabbath and put questions to them: Is it against the law on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it? Jesus forgive sins too, to prove that He has authority on earth to forgive sins. - Luke 5:17-26, 6:6-11 -
This attitude brought Jesus into conflict with the scribes, the elders, the official teachers of the law, and because of their influence, He was soon barred from preaching in the synagogues. But this was no great inconvenience. He simply gathered larger congregations to listen to Him. Jesus regularly illustrated the main themes of His preaching by parables. These were simple stories from daily life which would drive home some special point and make it stick in the hearer's understanding.
From among the large number of His followers, Jesus selected or chosen 12 men to remain in His company for training that would enable them to share His preaching and the proclamation of the kingdom of God. They are later known as disciples to apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is an echo of those visions recorded in the Book of Daniel [The Old Testament] when Jesus announced that the kingdom of God was drawing near. Jesus' announcement indicated the time had come when the authority of this kingdom would be exercised.
In the time of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not pass into the hands of another race: it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms, and itself last for ever - just as you saw the stone untouched by hand break from the mountain and shatter iron, bronze, earthenware, silver and gold. The great God has shown the king what is to take place. The dream is true, the interpretation exact. - Daniel 2:44-45 -
The Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus unleashed the kingdom of God in full power. Only by Jesus passion, death and resurrection could the divine rule be established. Jesus actually injected new life into the ethical principles of the Law of Moses. But He did not impose a new set of laws that could be enforced by external sanctions; He prescribed a way of life for His followers, believers, disciples, and apostles.
Treat others as you would like them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks can you expect? For even sinners do that much. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. - Luke 6:31-35 -
Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured out into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back. - Luke 6:36-38 -
The doctrine of the person of Christ, or Christology, is one of the most important concerns of Christian theology. The various aspects of the person of Christ are best seen by reviewing the titles that are applied to Him in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.
The title Son of Man was Jesus' favorite way of referring to Himself. He may have done this because this was not a recognized title already known by the people and associated with popular ideas. This title means essentially "The Man" but as Jesus used it, it took on new significance. He used the title in a general way, almost as a substitute for the pronoun "I" The Son of Man appeared to speak and act in the appended below cases as the representative man. If God had given man dominion over all the works of His hands, then He who was the Son of Man in this special representative sense was in a position to exercise that dominion.
For John the Baptist comes, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, "He is possessed." The Son of Man comes, eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Yet Wisdom has been proved right by all her children. - Luke 7:33-35 - Luke 9:58; Mark 8:31, 9:12, 14:21, 14:49 -
Jesus was acclaimed as the Son of God at His baptism. - Mark 1:1 - He was also given this title by the angel Gabriel at the annunciation: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you" the angel answered "and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. - Luke 1:35-36 - The Gospel of John makes it clear that the Father-Son relationship belongs to eternity - that the Son is supremely qualified to reveal the Father because He has His eternal being. "No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known." - John 1:18 -
When Jesus is presented as the Son of God in the New Testament, two aspects of His person are emphasized: His eternal relation to God as His Father and His perfect revelation of the Father to the human race. Jesus' perfect revelation of the Father is also expressed when He is described as the Word (logos) of God. - John 1:1-18 - As the Son of God in a special sense, Jesus made Himself known to the apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. - Gal. 1:15-16 - In fact, the proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God was central to Paul's preaching.
After he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus, he began preaching in the synagogues, "Jesus is the Son of God." - Acts 9: 20 -
Do you really think that when I am making my plans, my motives are ordinary human ones, and that I say Yes, yes, and No, no, as the same time? I swear by God's truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you - I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I - was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is 'through him' that we answer Amen to the praise of God. - 2Cor. 1:18-20 -
"Jesus is Lord" is the ultimate Christian creed. "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." - 1Cor. 12:3 - A Christian, therefore, is a person who confesses Jesus as Lord. The title "Lord" in the Christological sense must have been given to Jesus before the Church moved out into the Gentile world. The evidence for this is the invocation "Maranatha" or "O Lord, Come!" - 1Cor. 16:22 -
If Jesus is called Lord in this supreme sense, it is not surprising that He occasionally is called God in the New Testament. Saint Thomas, convinced that the risen Christ stood before him, abandon his doubts with the confession, "My Lord and my God!" - John 20:28 -
Thus, Jesus Christ is presents as altogether God and altogether man/human - the perfect mediator between God and mankind/humankind because He partakes fully of the nature of both.
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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