The Ministry of Jesus Christ

Jesus is the only begotten son of the living God. He is part of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He was born a man, a human being like you and me, yet He never sinned. He experienced emotion. He laughed. He cried. He got angry. He experienced pain and fear. He had compassion for the sick and the oppressed. He loved and forgave those who tortured Him and sentenced Him to die.

Jesus was wounded for our crimes; He was bruised for our wickedness. He died on a tree to set us free from our sins, our bondage, our addictions, and our emotional and physical pain. He was put in a tomb and on the third day He rose again. He conquered death, defeated satan and took back the keys to the gates of hell.

Jesus is called the Word. He spoke and the heavens and the earth were created. He gave up His throne in heaven to be born in a stable on earth.

In bible prophecy, Jesus' birth, death and resurrection were foretold hundreds of years before He was born. His fulfillment of these prophecies is indisputable. Let's just say that if Jesus fulfilled only eight prophecies out of the hundreds that were prophesied, the chance would be 1 in 100 trillion! How amazing and exciting is that! (As in bible prophecy Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 are major prophetic scriptures. They are revealing and uplifting to read in their entirety.)

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! He is the giver of eternal life. He is our healer, our savior, our redeemer, our best friend.

Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the King of Hope. He is the King of Honor. He is the King of Glory.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the Beginning and the End. His name is above all names. This is Jesus, the soon coming King!

"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants." (John 3:16-21 NLT)

Two Images

I was feeling very depressed one day because of certain situations happening in my life at the time. I received an image which showed that I was surrounded by demons who were beating me. I covered my head to protect myself from the blows and I ended up on the ground in a fetal position, beaten and defeated. I then saw Jesus standing to the side simply watching. Of course, this image made me feel even worse. I felt so alone because even my Savior didn't seem to care enough to protect me from the enemy and wasn't doing anything to help me.

The next day I was feeling really low again but this time I received a different image. Again I saw myself surrounded by demons who were beating me. Once again I covered my head to protect myself from the blows and I fell to the ground. But this time, Jesus wasn't standing to the side merely watching, He came and knelt beside me and commanded the demons to leave. After the enemy fled, Jesus picked me up in his arms and carried me to a stream. He laid me down gently beside the water, went to the stream and came back with a glass filled with pure living water. As I drank He washed my cuts and bruises from my face and cared for me.

This is the real Jesus. This is the Jesus we all know. Satan tried to show me that Jesus doesn't care what happens when the devil attacks. But Jesus loves us and He is always there. He promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Sometimes when we go through the pain of life's situations we don't always feel His presence, but just remember Jesus is right beside you, closer than a brother, closer than your very own breath.

I hope the images shown to me will help you if you are having a painful time in your life. God loves us and sometimes He allows bad things to happen to us. Everything happens for a reason. We may not understand why, but God has a purpose for the trials and tribulations in our lives.

The scriptures that come to mind are:

"As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil." (Genesis 45:20)

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

So be encouraged and know that Jesus loves you and will never leave you.

Visit PRAISE-AND-WORSHIP.COM for more information on Jesus Christ - His ministry, His birth and death in prophecy, and much much more!

Why did Jesus, Creator of heaven and earth, give up everything to take on the form of a man and suffer so much here on earth?

"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)

The reason for Jesus' ministry can be summarized in one scripture verse. "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)

When sin entered the world through Adam and Eve every person born since then was born in sin. We suffer from spiritual death and separation from God because of that sin. Hardly seems fair, does it? A little baby, a few minutes old, is full of sin? God is such a holy God that we can't measure up to His standards through our own good deeds. Our own righteousness is ridiculously inadequate when confronted by His holiness and goodness.

God's solution? In the Old Testament He instituted a system of laws, priests, and sacrifices, culminating every year in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, where the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. If he survived the people knew their sins were forgiven for another year. But because of our sinful nature we had no ability to comply with all the Laws and live a sin free life. However, God had a plan.

The blood that was shed each year only covered our sin each year - it did not wash away our sin forever and it could not break the power of sin in our lives forever. God had to send someone to overcome sin once and for all. Someone had to defeat satan, to conquer sin and to pay the price for all time. No sinful human could do that. God chose to pay that price Himself when He sent His Son to earth in human form. Jesus, the son of God, gave up His heavenly throne for a pile of straw in a manager, lived a sinless life on this earth for 33 years and had His own blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat at the cross. At the moment of His death, the veil in the Temple, separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, was torn from top to bottom. The High Priest was out of a job! We now have access directly to the throne of God. The price was paid forever. Satan thought he had the victory but when Jesus rose from the dead on the third day satan's power over sin was broken and his authority was destroyed forever.

"(Jesus) having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:15)

This was the culmination of His ministry. For the three years leading up to the cross He dealt with the result of our sin. He announced at the beginning of His ministry this was fulfilling prophecy from Isaiah 61 written about 700 B.C.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; (Luke 4:18)

The word "gospel" simply means "good news". The message that Jesus came to preach is that He is the answer to sin, sickness, poverty, and death.

During His ministry: Jesus revealed Himself as the Source of Eternal Life.

We are composed of three parts - a spirit, a soul (our mind, will and emotions), and live in a body. Our spirit and soul are eternal, created at conception. They never die, ever, while our bodies die and return to dust from which we were originally made by God. As our souls and spirits are eternal it's vital to understand where we go when our bodies cease to function. We have a choice - heaven or hell. The choice is ours to make. We can spend eternal life with Jesus in heaven or with satan and his demons in hell. Remember, the choice is ours to make.

John 5:24
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

John 14:6-7
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jesus was not shy in making claims about Himself. Whether we believe Him or not will determine where we spend eternity. I know that I believe in Him and will be spending eternity in heaven. I would love for you to join me.

He came to forgive our sins.

John 8: 3-11 tells of the story of the woman caught in adultery (funny thing about this - her partner in crime, the man, is nowhere to be seen. Makes you wonder if this was a setup for Jesus.).

John 8:3-11
"Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?" This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."

Jesus came to heal our minds and spirits from demonic oppression and possession.

There are also several instances in the Gospels and in Acts where Jesus and the disciples exercised authority over the forces of darkness by casting out demonic spirits that dwelt in people. Many healings of Jesus commenced with the casting out of demons which were behind the sickness. The same applies today, maybe even more so because of the fatal attraction to things of the occult and new age practices. Getting involved in those activities are an open invitation to demonic spirits to take up residence in your life, no matter how harmless they may seem. You only need to see the themes portrayed in movies, videos, television, games and the internet to understand why society is like it is. Remember, satan came to steal, kill, and destroy. In John 10:10-11 Jesus says, "the thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

If only the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were the religious rulers and scholars, had understood their own scriptures and prophets then a lot of Jesus' claims and statements would have made a lot more sense. But they considered him a threat to their powerbase and had Him crucified. However, without realizing it, they became part of history, fulfilling prophecy from Psalms and Isaiah written 700 and 1000 years before.

'IT IS FINISHED.' JOHN 19:30

George MacLeod said: "Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, the language of the religious, Latin, the language of the barbarian, and Greek, the language of the cultured. It was the kind of place where cynics talked smut, thieves cursed and soldiers gambled. But it's where He died, and it's what He died about." Are any words more victorious? Jesus draws a deep breath, pushes His feet down on those Roman nails and cries: "It is finished!" What was finished? The history-long plan of redeeming you and I was finished. The work done by Jesus as a man on earth was finished. The task of selecting and training ambassadors was finished. The song had been sung. The blood had been shed. The sacrifice made. The curse of sin broken. The sting of death removed. It was over. The words, "It is finished" were the same words they wrote across a receipt when a debt had been paid in full. Was any less acceptable? No! Would any more be required? No! It is finished! The cross is a trading post. At the point of believing faith, God takes all your sin and lays it on the shoulders of Jesus, while at the same time taking all of Christ's righteousness and wrapping you up in it. What a transfer! And how do you get it? By working for it? No! You receive it by trusting in Christ alone! (Devotional by Bob Gass)

In summation, Jesus Christ came to reveal that He is the only way to eternal life. He came from God the Father, our Creator. He left his heavenly throne to suffer unspeakable torture at the hands of sadistic Roman soldiers and was nailed to a tree so that we can come before the Father pure, spotless and without sin. And because of His sacrifice we can now rest assured that we will be joining Him in heaven when we leave this earthly plane. Yes, He did it for me, and He did it for you!

Thank You, Jesus.

Visit PRAISE-AND-WORSHIP.COM for more information on Jesus Christ - His ministry, His birth and death in prophecy, and much much more!

If you would like to spend eternity with Jesus Christ, please pray the following simple prayer or a prayer of your own, and you too can become a child of God and live in His presence forever and ever.

"Father, I know that I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and thank you for your forgiveness. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your son. That He died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I ask Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Father, I will follow you from now on. I put my life into Your hands. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."

If you have prayed this prayer, you are now a child of the living God. You are no longer a slave to sin or satan.

I recommend you find a church that teaches from God's Word - the Holy Bible. Find a church where you can be baptized and grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ, your savior. Discipleship is very important at this stage.

God bless you and welcome to the family of God.