the Savior of the world |
In the days of Emperor Caesar Augustus, a young virgin from Nazareth (a Galilean citizen) who had been promised a wife to Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was from the house of David, was visited by a holy angel of God, who announced that she would conceive and bear a son who would be great and would be called the Son of the Most High; his name would be Jesus. To him God would give the kingdom of David his Father and He would rule over Israel forever. Mary, this the name of the young virgin, when she heard him say these words, asked how all this could happen since she knew no man; and the angel answered him that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of God would cover her with her shadow, so the saint to be born would be called the Son of God. |
And so it came to pass, that Mary became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit, without Joseph having known her. But when Joseph realized later that his betrothed wife was pregnant, he proposed to leave her in secret, but as he projected these things an angel of God appeared to him in a dream and told him not to bother to receive Mary as his wife because what was generated in it was of the Holy Spirit; and that he should give to the child to be born the name of Jesus which means ‘ YHWH saves ‘ ( YHWH is the Hebrew name of God pronounced Yahweh). Reassured by these words, Joseph as soon as he woke up received as wife Mary, knowing for sure that the messenger of God that had appeared to him had not lied to him. |
And it came to pass in those days that a decree came out from Caesar Augustus that a census of the whole empire should be made. So Joseph took his wife, who was pregnant, and went to Bethlehem to sign up because, as we said before, he was from the house of David. And it came to pass that while they were in Bethlehem of Judea, Mary bare a child; and when he was circumcised after eight days, the name of Jesus was named. |
On the very day that Jesus was born, there appeared to the shepherds of the district of Bethlehem an angel of the Lord who announced to them the good news that on that day in the city of David the Savior, who was Christ (from the Greek Christòs meaning ‘Anointed One’ ), the Lord. And when they heard these things, they went to Bethlehem, and found the child, and told them of the child. When they heard these things those who were present there were amazed. |
When the days were completed, according to the law, the woman who had given birth to a male child was to be cleansed of her blood, her parents brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, and also to to offer the burnt offering and the sin offering which the law of Moses commanded. |
Then when Jesus had yet a few weeks, they came to Bethlehem, near the house where he was, and wizards came from the east, who worshiped him, and opened their treasures offering to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. How had these men come to Bethlehem? This way: While they were in the East, their star that had brought them to Israel appeared to them. When they had come to Jerusalem, they had asked where the king of the Jews who had been born had come to worship him. And the King of Judea, Herod, calling the scribes and the chief priests, asked them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. The king had sent the magicians to Bethlehem (after learning of the time when the star appeared to them), telling them to come back to him later when they found the boy because he too wanted to go and worship him. But the magicians, after they had found the child Jesus, did not return to Herod because they were divinely warned in a dream, that they should not pass through Herod again; and so on another way they returned to their land. |
This naturally made Herod enraged that he was deceived by the magicians; and he commanded that all the males that were in Bethlehem and in all their territory, from the age of two years down (according to the time which he had inquired from the magicians) be cut off. But the boy Jesus was not killed because God gave him an angel in time to tell Joseph to take the boy and his mother and to go to Egypt and stay there until further notice. When Herod died, then God, even by his angel, warned Joseph and told him to return to Israel. |
Arriving in Israel, Joseph went to Galilee more precisely to the city of Nazareth. Here in Nazareth, Jesus was raised by his parents and grew in wisdom and stature, strengthened and the grace of God was upon him. |
When Jesus was about thirty years old, he left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist, who had appeared some time in the wilderness of Judea preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Who was this? He was neither Elijah nor Christ, as he himself answered those Pharisees who had questioned him one day beyond the Jordan where he was baptizing; but he was the one of whom God spoke through the prophet Malachi when he said, “Behold, I send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3: 1). A man for that God had sent before his Anointed to prepare the way. But how would the messenger of God prepare the way before the Anointed of God? Witnessing of him that all should believe through him; and this was indeed what John did. |
When that day the Baptist baptized him and Jesus came out of the water it happened that the heavens were opened and he saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him bodily like a dove and he heard a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased “(Matt 3:17). Since then the Baptist began to testify to the multitudes: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on it.” And I did not know him, but he who told me to baptize with water said to me: that you may see the Spirit descending, and resting on it, that is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and I have seen, and I have testified that this is the Son of God “(John 1: 32-34). At that time, because of his baptism in the water, Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit. |
After Jesus was anointed, the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. After having fasted for forty days and forty nights, three times the tempter tried to make him fall into sin; but Jesus objected to it effectively by quoting the law of the Lord which he had put in his heart as it is written, “The law of his God is in his heart, his steps shall not slip” (Ps 37:31 ). The devil then left him until another time, and the angels of God came and served him. |
After this, Jesus returned to Galilee where he began to preach and teach, glorified by all. Nazareth was also where he was raised, but here his fellow citizens were filled with wrath against him because after he had read in the synagogue that passage from Isaiah where it says: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; he hath anointed me to preach good news to the meek: he hath sent me to restore the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to the prisoners, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord “(Is 61: 1) he affirmed that on that day this Scripture had been fulfilled, and that no prophet is well received in his homeland. And they cast him out of the city, and sought to pluck him out of the top of the mount which Nazareth was built, |
Jesus walked from city to city and from village to village preaching and announcing the good news of the kingdom of God. He said to the crowd, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15); therefore he exhorted all to repent of their sins and to believe in the good news that he was the ambassador by the will of God. The prophet Isaiah had indeed said of Christ that he would bring good news to the poor. But what was this good news about which Jesus commanded men to believe? In the fact that God in the fulness of time had sent forth his Son into the world, that whosoever believed in him should not perish but had everlasting life. In other words, the wonderful news that God in His great love had sent His Son into the world so that the world through him might be saved, and that to be saved was necessary, |
In addition to announcing to the Jews repentance and faith in him, Jesus taught many things in parables to the multitudes, and thus the words of the prophet were fulfilled: “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will speak puzzles of old” (Psalm 78: 2). |
But Jesus also worked many healings in the midst of the Jews. He also raised the dead and cast out many demons from the bodies of those who possessed them, because God was with him. |
But though Jesus walked in the land of the Jews doing good, and healing all those who were under the dominion of the devil because God was with him, there were many who did not believe in him, and said that he was a glutton and a drunkard, someone who deceived people, a madman, one who had the prince of demons and through him expelled demons, a sinner because he violated the Sabbath, a blasphemer because he called God his Father and became like him. Slander, only slander; because Jesus was a man tempered in all things; a man who has never sought his interest as do the deceivers who teach things they should not have done for gross greed; a man full of wisdom, but not of that of the princes of this world but of the mysterious and hidden God; a man filled with the Holy Spirit who drove out the demons by the help of the Spirit; a man who never violated the Sabbath because on the Sabbath day it is lawful to do good; it is lawful to save a person and he did precisely that on that day by healing those who needed healing; a true man who was not made equal to God by presumption but because he was equal to God by nature being his Only-Begotten Son coming from next to Him. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. a man who never violated the Sabbath because on the Sabbath day it is lawful to do good; it is lawful to save a person and he did precisely that on that day by healing those who needed healing; a true man who was not made equal to God by presumption but because he was equal to God by nature being his Only-Begotten Son coming from next to Him. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. a man who never violated the Sabbath because on the Sabbath day it is lawful to do good; it is lawful to save a person and he did precisely that on that day by healing those who needed healing; a true man who was not made equal to God by presumption but because he was equal to God by nature being his Only-Begotten Son coming from next to Him. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. it is lawful to save a person and he did precisely that on that day by healing those who needed healing; a true man who was not made equal to God by presumption but because he was equal to God by nature being his Only-Begotten Son coming from next to Him. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. it is lawful to save a person and he did precisely that on that day by healing those who needed healing; a true man who was not made equal to God by presumption but because he was equal to God by nature being his Only-Begotten Son coming from next to Him. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. But though he was equal with God, he did not regard this equality with God as something to be grasped, but he humbled himself into the form of a servant, becoming like the sons of men. This is why many did not recognize in him the Son of God, because he presented himself in the form of a humble servant who apparently had nothing different from other men. |
These calumnies naturally made Jesus suffer because he was rejected precisely by those in his house; he suffered like the prophets who had been before him who had been sent by God to the people for their good and yet were rejected and slandered in any way, as if they sought their evil. If they fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah with which he had defined the Christ: “Man of sorrows, and tried in works” (Isaiah 53: 3), and so was Jesus Christ indeed. |
Among those who rejected Jesus were the chief priests and the Pharisees, who, when he and the prophets who had read all the Sabbaths were ignorant, decided to arrest him and kill him. |
Some days before the Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem and entered the city on a donkey. It happened in those days before the Passover that Satan entered into one of the disciples of Jesus, named Judas Iscariot, who went to the chief priests to deliver them to him. And they rejoiced at this, and promised to give him money, in exchange, thirty pieces of silver. From that moment on Judas Iscariot sought the opportune moment to betray him. |
It so happened that during the feast of the Passover, after Jesus had eaten the Passover with his disciples, Judas went out from where they were gathered. Shortly afterwards he came to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus had gone with his disciples to pray, with a great multitude that had swords and clubs. After they had received the signal from Judas, they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. exactly as they would have done to a malefactor. All his disciples then left him and fled. |
They took him first before the Sanhedrin who condemned him as a death-defender because he had declared himself the Son of God, and therefore for blasphemy. When the members of the Sanhedrin said, “He is guilty of death” (Matt. 26:66), they spit on his face and punched him; and others slapped him, saying, “Prophesy to us, O Christ, who has struck you?” (Matthew 26:68). Then, tying him up, they took him to Governor Pontius Pilate to ask him to crucify him. He had at first purposed to set him free because he found nothing worthy of death in him (he had also sent Herod who in those days was in Jerusalem who had mocked him with his soldiers, and he also had not found in Jesus some of the guilties accused by the chief priests and the scribes), but as the multitude cried out with great shouting to crucify him, he consented to what he asked, and therefore commanded that they first be beaten and crucified. The governor’s soldiers then took him into the praetorium and dressed him in purple, put a crown of thorns on his head, and a reed in his right hand, and they fell down before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! And they beat him on the head with the reed and spit on him. King of Jews! And they beat him on the head with the reed and spit on him. King of Jews! And they beat him on the head with the reed and spit on him. |
And when he had stripped him of purple, and had put on his garments, he was led out into a place called Golgotha, where he was nailed to the cross to fulfill the words, “They have pierced my hands and my feet” (Ps. : 16), in the midst of two evildoers, and this to fulfill the words of Isaiah: “And he was reckoned with transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). |
While it was hanging on the cross, the soldiers took their garments, and made them four parts, for each soldier a part, while on the tunic they cast lots to see who it would be; this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “They divide my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothes” (Psalm 22:18). |
Another thing that happened while Jesus was hanging on the dying cross was that he was mocked by those who went by there and by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, who said to him, “He saved others, and he can not save himself, if he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him: trust in God, deliver him now, if he loves him: for he said, I am the Son of God “(Matthew 27: 42-43); and this was done that the words of David might be fulfilled: “All that see me make fun of me, they grin at their faces, and shake their heads, saying, Trust in the Lord: let him deliver him: let him save him, pleasure “(Ps 22: 7-8), and again,” They open their mouth against me like a lion that teareth and roareth “(Psalm 22:13). |
Before Jesus expired he cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachanani? What does it mean: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), and at that moment one of them that was there ran, and took a sponge, and dipped it in vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. This was done to fulfill what had been said by David: “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 69:21). |
After Jesus had expired, the soldiers came to break their legs to those on the cross, they broke their legs to the two who had been crucified with him, but they did not break Jesus, because they saw him already dead, that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, “None of his bones shall be broken” (John 19:36; Ps 34:20). That night also the Scripture was fulfilled: “And they shall look unto me, whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10). |
But why did Jesus Christ die? “He was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53: 5), says Isaiah. Therefore his death on the cross, dear and decreed by the Jews and executed materially by the Gentiles, was no more than the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah. And so we say that it was God who caused the Jews and the Gentiles to gather themselves against his Anointed to kill him so that with his death he would free us from sin. |
Let us now explain this very important concept. Sin entered the world through one man named Adam and this sin passed to all men, for which all have sinned. But what makes sin sin in man? The law, because, as Paul says, it is “the strength of sin” (1 Cor. 15:56). Yet Paul explains this when he says that “sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” (Romans 7:11), in other words sin uses the law to bring death to man. The law is good and holy, but sin is used to cause death in man. To make a comparison, it is as if a murderer were using a piece of wood made by God to murder another man. Who kills is not the wood made by God and good in itself, but the murderer who uses it to fulfill his criminal design. So the homicidal sin is used of the law, given by God to Israel and therefore good, to kill people spiritually. Therefore it was necessary to annul sin, that is, to strip him of his power which he had over man. And Jesus did just this with his sacrifice, he canceled out sin; he could do this because he was burdened with our iniquities dying on the cross for us all. That is why he who believes in him is freed from sin, because on the cross Jesus crucified his (old man’s) believer. Therefore the believer in Christ died with Christ for sin; and therefore the law ceased to dominate him because the law has dominion over man only while he lives and not also after he has died. And the believer through the body of Christ died to the law, |
After Jesus expired on the cross, there came a certain Joseph of Arimathea who was a rich man and who had also become a disciple of Jesus, who asked the body to Pilate, took the body of Jesus, wrapped him in a clean cloth of and laid it in his sepulcher which he had opened there in the neighborhood, and in which no man was yet put. This is how this other Scripture was fulfilled which says, “They have appointed the grave to the wicked, but to the rich he died” (Isaiah 53: 9). |
But on the third day God raised him from the dead because it was impossible for Christ to be held back by death; and his resurrection had also been announced by God in his word, for David had said, “Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hades, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27). Of course David did not speak of him because his body remained in the sepulcher and saw the corruption, but spoke of the resurrection of Christ, of one of his descendants, because he knew that God had promised him with oath that would make him sit on his throne eternally as it is written: “The Lord has sworn to David truthfully, and will not depart from it: I will put the fruit of thy bowels upon thy throne” (Psalm 132: 11). |
After Jesus was resurrected he was made to see for those whom he had chosen, he ate and drank with them, and discussed with them things concerning the kingdom of God and gave them commandments; Then it was received in the heaven on the right hand of the Majesty that the words of David might be fulfilled: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Ps 110 :1). And from heaven, in due time, he will return with glory and power. |
Repent and believe in Him |
One of the things that Jesus before being received in heaven ordained was to preach in his name to men repentance and remission of sins (Luke 24: 46-47). This is what the apostles did after he was received into heaven, and this is what we do today at the distance of almost two thousand years in obedience to the order of Christ Jesus. |
We therefore exhort you in the name of Christ to repent of your sins and to believe in Jesus Christ, FOR ONLY BY FAITH IN HIM YOU CAN GET THE REJECTION OF YOUR SINS AS IT WAS written, “To him all the prophets bear witness that all that in him believing shall receive the remission of sins by his name “(Acts 10:43). Jesus Christ, in fact, has the authority to forgive men of their sins, as He had when He was on earth (cf. Mar. 2: 5-11), because He is the Son of God, and that He does PERSONALLY to those who believe in him. There is therefore no need of any other mediator between God and men, besides Jesus Christ, in order to obtain the remission of their sins. We repeat it to you: none (cf. 1 Tim. 2: 5-6). |
Fall therefore in thyself, believe in the name of the Son of God, and thou shalt obtain the remission of thy sins. And not only will you also obtain eternal life as it is written, ” He that believeth on everlasting life ” (John 6:48), WHY YOU WILL BE SURE THAT WHEN YOU WILL DIE TO PARADISE – a wonderful heavenly place where there is neither pains and tears, and where peace reigns (2 Corinthians 12: 2-4, Job 25: 2) – and you will therefore begin to desire to depart from the body and dwell with the Lord in Paradise (cf. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5: 8). |
Do not delay, do not delay this decision for tomorrow or any other day (2 Corinthians 6: 2), it might be too late to do so because SUDDENLY YOU CAN DIE without even having time to repent and believe in Jesus and YOU WILL GO DIRECTLY TO HELL – A HORRIBLE PLACE THAT EXISTS IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH WHERE FIRE IS BURNING AND THE SOULS OF SINNERS SUFFER FROM THE ATTRACTIONS AND TERRIBLE STORMS PRODUCED BY FIRE (cf. Luke 16:24) – without having another opportunity for eternity to repent and believe in Jesus. This is indeed the end that awaits all who do not repent and do not believe in Jesus Christ (Psalm 9:17). |
Two paths are before you: that of the sin that leads to hell and about which you find yourself, and the saint that leads to the paradise where we find ourselves by the grace of God and which we indicated to you: abandon the path of sin and guide you will never repent because it is written that from repentance to salvation no one repents (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:10). Credit: https://portoghese.lanuovavia.org/portoghese_messaggio_la_storia_di_gesu_di_nazareth.htm |