I pray the series Pastor Derek presented over this past month has challenged you to examine the person of Jesus Christ. I have the honor of presenting one last essential fact about the Christ this weekend. It pertains to His often missing or misunderstood identity. At the bottom of this post you will find solid web info that gives a great deal of material to review and consider about the identity of Jesus Christ. If you have had little exposure to His story, the following will give you a some background.Jesus Christ (also called Christ the king) was born in Israel 2000 years ago. Modern civilization marks his birth by dividing time B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini - or the year of our Lord Jesus Christ). For his first thirty years, Jesus Christ lived a traditional Jewish life, working as a carpenter. During this time, all of Israel was under Caesar's Roman dictatorship, including Bethlehem, where Jesus Christ was born, and Nazareth, where he was raised. In his thirties, Jesus Christ began his public teaching and display of recorded miracles, yet still never travelled more than 200 miles from his birthplace. Over a three year period, despite his efforts to keep a low profile, Jesus Christ's reputation spread nation wide. The Roman governors and rulers of Israel's provinces and the leaders of the Jewish people (the religious counsels) took note of him.
Jesus Christ's most controversial act was that he repeatedly claimed to be God, which was a direct violation of the Jewish law. Therefore the religious leaders asked the Roman government to execute him. In each of several official trials, the Romans found that he was not guilty of breaking any Roman law. Even the Jewish leaders recognized that other than Jesus Christ's claim to be God, Jesus Christ followed the Jewish law perfectly. Still the religious leaders, using the argument of political disfavor, persuaded Pilate, a Roman governor of the Southern province of Israel, to authorize an execution. Jesus Christ was brutally tortured and then hung by his hands, which were nailed to a horizontal wooden beam (cross). He lived for three hours, then expired. However, according to more than 500 witnesses, Jesus Christ returned from the dead three days later, and over the next 40 days journeyed in both the southern and northern provinces of Israel. To many, this was conclusive proof that Jesus Christ's claims to be God were real. Then Jesus Christ returned to Jerusalem, the city where he was recently executed, and according to witnesses, he left the earth alive by rising up into the sky.
As a result of these miraculous events, the number of his followers increased dramatically. Only a few months later in that same city of Jerusalem one record states that some 3000 new followers were added in a single day. The religious leaders responded by trying to stomp out Jesus Christ's followers. Many of these people chose to die rather than deny their belief that their Lord Jesus Christ was truly God.
Within 100 years, people throughout the Roman empire (Asia Minor, Europe) became followers of Jesus Christ. In 325 AD, the following of Jesus Christ, Christianity, became the official religion of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Within 500 years, even Greece's temples of Greek gods were transformed into churches for followers of Jesus Christ. Today, followers of Jesus Christ number in the multiple millions and can be found in every people group in the world.
1 comment:
Great teaching on Saturday night!
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