In the
days of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, it came to pass that a virgin from
Nazareth (a little town in Galilee, which is a region of the land of Israel),
who had been pledged to be married to Joseph the son of Jacob, who belonged
to the house of David, had a heavenly vision: a holy angel of God appeared to
her and foretold her that she would conceive in her womb and bring forth a
Son, who would be great and would be called the Son of the Most High; and she
had to give Him the name JESUS. The Lord God would give Him the throne of His
father David and He would reign over the house of Jacob forever. When Mary,
this is the virgin’s name, heard those words she asked the angel how that
would be since she was a virgin. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit
would come upon her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her; so
the Holy One who would be born of her would be called the Son of God. Then
Mary answered: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said”
(Luke |
In those
days it came to pass that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census
should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his own town to
register. So Joseph also went up from the town of |
On the
same day He was born, an angel of God appeared to some shepherds, who were
living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. The
angel said to them: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke |
On the
eight day, He was circumcised and was named Jesus, the name the angel had
given Him before He had been conceived. |
When the days
of her purification according to the law of Moses (which states that a woman
who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean
for seven days, and then she must wait thirty-three days to be purified from
her bleeding) were completed, Joseph and Mary took the Child Jesus to
Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to
what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves, or two young
pigeons. |
Then, when
Jesus was a few weeks old, some wise men came from the East to |
However,
when the wise men had found the Child Jesus, they did not go back to Herod,
for they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod; so they returned to
their country by another route. When Herod saw that he was deceived by the
wise men, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in |
Jesus was
brought up by Joseph and Mary in |
When Jesus
was about thirty years of age, He came from |
When Jesus
had been baptized by John, He went up out of the water, and behold, the
heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove, and alighting upon Him. And a voice came from heaven, saying: “This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew |
After Jesus
was anointed, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil. After He had fasted forty days, the tempter came to Him and
attempted to make Him fall into sin, but Jesus resisted the devil
successfully with the law of the Lord, which He had put into His heart, as it
is written: “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall
slide” (Psalm 37:31). When the devil had ended every temptation, he left
Jesus until an opportune time and angels came and ministered to Him. |
After
that, Jesus returned to |
So Jesus
left Nazareth and went and lived in Capernaum, a city in the district of
Galilee, which was upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali,
which the Scripture calls “his own city” (Matthew 9:1). |
Jesus went
through every city and village, proclaiming the Good News of the |
But even
though Jesus went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil for God was with Him, many people did not believe in Him (that is to
say, they did not believe He was the Christ); they said He was a glutton and
a drunkard, a deceiver, a person who was beside himself, a person who had the
prince of demons by whom He cast out demons, a sinner because He did not keep
the Sabbath day, a blasphemer for He said that God was His Father, making
Himself equal with God. But all these things were false accusations, nothing
but false accusations; for Jesus was self-controlled; He never sought His own
gain, unlike the deceivers who teach things which ought not for the sake of
dishonest gain; He was a man full of wisdom, yet not of the wisdom of the
rulers of this age but of God’s secret wisdom; He was a man full of the Holy
Spirit, who cast out demons by the Spirit of God; He never broke the Sabbath
day for it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, it is lawful to save a person
on the Sabbath, and Jesus did just that on the Sabbath by healing all those
who needed healing; He was a truthful man, who did not make Himself equal
with God presumptuously, but He made Himself equal with God because He was
equal with God by nature, being the Only Begotten Son, who existed from
eternity in the form of God with God the Father in heaven. However, even
though the Son was equal with God, He did not consider it robbery to be equal
with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a
bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. For this reason many did not
realize that He was the Son of God, because He appeared to men in the form of
a humble servant, who outwardly was not different from all other men. |
Of course,
those false accusations caused great sorrow to Jesus, for He saw that His own
did not receive Him; He suffered as the prophets of old, who were sent by God
to the people of Israel for their good, yet they were rejected and falsely
accused by the people, who thought that the prophets were not seeking the
welfare of the people but their harm. Thus were fulfilled the words of the
prophet Isaiah, who had said that the Christ would be “a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), and Jesus Christ was indeed a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. |
Among
those who rejected Jesus Christ were the chief priests and the Pharisees,
who, because they did not know the voices of the prophets which were read
every Sabbath, decided to take Jesus and to kill Him. |
A few days
before the Passover, Jesus went up to |
As soon as
it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came
together and led Jesus into their council, and condemned Him to be deserving
of death for He declared before them that He was the Son of God. When the
members of the Council said: “He is guilty of death” (Matthew 26:66), they
spit in His face and struck Him with their fists, and others slapped Him and
said: “Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?” (Matthew 26:68 - NIV). |
Then they
delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor, and asked him to crucify Jesus.
Pilate, having examined Jesus in their presence, decided to release Jesus for
he found no reason for death in Jesus Christ (Pilate sent Jesus to Herod who
was in Jerusalem at that time, and Herod and his soldiers mocked Jesus, but
even Herod found no fault in Jesus concerning those things of which the chief
priests and the scribes accused Him, so Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate), but
since the whole multitude cried out saying: “Crucify Him, crucify Him!,” and
with loud shouts they insistently demanded that He be crucified, their shouts
prevailed, and so Pilate decided to grant their demand. Therefore Pilate
delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified. Then the
soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called
together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple and twisted a
crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and began to salute Him, ‘Hail, king
of the Jews!’ And they struck Him on the head with a reed, and spit on him,
and bowing the knee they worshipped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they
took the purple off Him, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to
the place called |
They
crucified Him that it might be fulfilled what was spoken through David: “They
pierced My hands and My feet” (Psalm 22:16 - NKJV); two robbers were
crucified with Him, one on His right and one on His left, that it might be
fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He was numbered with
the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12 - NKJV). |
While
Jesus was on the cross, the soldiers took His garments and made four parts,
to each soldier a part. As far as His tunic is concerned, they said among
themselves: “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be;’
this happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divide
My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots” (Psalm |
Another
thing that took place while Jesus was suffering on the cross was this: He was
mocked by those who passed by and by the chief priests, the scribes and the
elders; they said: “He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the
King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he
said, I am the Son of God” (Matthew 27:42-43). This happened so that the
Scripture would be fulfilled which says: “All they that see me laugh me to
scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the
LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in
him” (Psalm 22:7-8), and, as another Scripture says, “They gaped upon me with
their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion” (Psalm 22:13). Before He
died, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me’’ (Matthew 27:46).
Some of those standing there, when they heard this, said: ‘This man is
calling for Elijah.’ And immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and
filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
This happened that the Scripture would be fulfilled which says: “They gave me
also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm
69:21). |
After
Jesus breathed His last, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first,
and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the
soldiers pierced His side with a spear. This happened that the Scripture
might be fulfilled which says: “A bone of him shall not be broken” (John |
But why
did Jesus Christ die? Isaiah says: “But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). Therefore
His death on the cross (the Jews decreed that He had to be put to death and
the Gentiles crucified Him, so they were both responsible for His death) was
nothing but the fulfilment of what the prophet Isaiah had said. Therefore we
declare that God turned the heart of the Jews and the Gentiles to gather
together against His Christ and to kill Him, so that through His death He
might set us free from sin. |
Let me
explain this very important concept. Sin entered into the world through one
man, whose name was Adam, and sin passed upon all men, so all have sinned.
What is the strength of sin? The law, for Paul says: “The strength of sin is
the law” (1 Corinthians |
After
Jesus died on the cross, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph,
who also himself was Jesus’ disciple. He went to Pilate and begged the body
of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had
taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own
new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. It was in this way that it was
fulfilled the Scripture which says: “And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death” (Isaiah 53:9). |
But on the
third day God raised Him from the dead, because it was not possible that
Christ should be held by death. God had foretold also the resurrection of
Christ, for David had said: “You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will
You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Acts |
After Jesus
rose from the dead, He presented Himself alive to the apostles whom He had
chosen; He ate and drank with them, and He spoke of the things pertaining to
the |
And at
God’s appointed time, He will come back from heaven with glory and power. |