THE MAN CHRIST JESUS
Jesus looked like an ordinary man of his era. The Bible teaches that he had “no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). Jesus would have looked indistinguishable among a crowd of men. The Scriptures record no spectacular events during the childhood of Jesus, other than an incident in the holy temple, in which during the passover, he taught the lawyers out of the Scriptures, and it happened that Mary and Joseph left Jesus behind a day’s journey and had to caravan back to fetch him.
Otherwise, it appears Jesus lived an ordinary life, as a child—except for one very peculiar anomaly: that he, unlike the rest of humanity, was without sin.
BORN INTO THE WORLD
“But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20).
Jesus, son of Mary, wife to Joseph of Galilee, was conceived miraculously by the Holy Ghost and born in Bethlehem of Judaea, during the reign of Herod I, known as “Herod the Great”.
Wise Men from the East, following his star, brought Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, as heavenly angels heralded his birth to lowly shepherds at night. Herod, the client king of Judaea, a Roman provence, desperate to destroy the prophesied King of the Jews, orders the Massacre of the Innocents—all the children of Bethlehem and the coasts, two years and under, to be slaughtered by royal decree. “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matthew 2:18). Jesus was born into an holocaust, to the dying screams of Rachel’s little children.
Not much else is recorded about Jesus’ childhood. His parents fled into Egypt for a time, in fulfillment of a Hosea prophecy, until Herod I died, and his kingdom was split into a tetrachy, ruled by his three sons and their sister. Jesus’ family, now out of harms way, then migrated to a conquered Israel, to the city of Nazareth, where Jesus spent his early years in close fellowship with God and his family.
THE LAMB OF GOD
“… I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord …” (John 1:23).
John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner, came baptizing in the Jordan, eating locusts and wild honey, having his raiment of camel’s hair and wearing a leather girdle about his loins. He preached repentance and proclaimed Jesus, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
“He must increase, but I must decrease,” cried John (John 3:30). “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose” (Mark 1:7); he is the one, John said, who has his winnowing fan in his hand and who will completely purge his threshing floor and—“gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).
John baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan river—flowing through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea—as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove, and lo a voice from heaven said, “… This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
After his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil, where he fasted forty days and forty nights. Tempted in all ways, yet not succumbing to sin, Jesus rebuffs Satan with scripture and begins his public ministry, after being ministered to by heavenly angels.
ANCIENT OF DAYS
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
Jesus is from everlasting to everlasting. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2:). Daniel the prophet describes Jesus the same way as Saint John, in Revelation: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire” (Daniel 7:9). “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:14-15). Jesus Himself said, “… Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
Jesus was the Angel of the Lord in the burning bush and the cleft of the Rock in which God hid Moses when He passed before his eyes. From everlasting to everlasting, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Jesus is God, The Son. But he is also man: the hypostatic union in which Christ’s humanity and divinity are united in one hypostatis (or individual existence). This is what Jesus meant when he referred to himself as The Son of Man. It not only signified his humanity, but also his hypostatis, as God made flesh—the One referred to by the prophets of old as the Eternal Messiah: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him” (Daniel 7:13). It not only signified Jesus’ humanity, as is commonly taught, but his deity, as the One who co-eternally existed with and is The Ancient of Days. “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? … And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God“ (Matthew 16:13,16).
As a man of thirty, Jesus began his public ministry, and was followed by twelve disciples whom he chose, knowing that one of them was a devil from the beginning (John 6:70).
And Jesus began to preach: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
FISHERS OF MEN
“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).
After Jesus called his disciples, he taught them how to be fishers of men, going about all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Gospel, casting out devils, and healing the sick. This drew a great multitude to Him, at which point he went up a mountain and began to teach. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:3-5). And with such words, he taught and comforted them, and pointed them to His Father.
Jesus called them the salt of the earth and the light of the world—a city set on a hill—and elevated the standard of the Law to higher ground (Matthew 5-7). He told the multitude to love God with all their hearts, minds, and souls, and their neighbors as themselves, and that: “… whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12, 22:35-40).
Jesus spoke often against the religious traditions of his day, and this angered the religious leaders, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who sought for ways to trap and accuse him. Yet Jesus advocated loving our enemies, praying for them, and blessing them: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44).
Jesus spoke of the End Times and Judgment, and of separating the sheep from the goats. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-13). He knew who were his from the beginning. And once his, he promised to never let them go. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
SCRIBES AND PHARISEES
“The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him …” (Matthew 19:3).
Jesus’ message was one of sacrificial love. But he also spoke truthfully about people’s transgressions. He did so in a way that—rather than demeaning them—convicted them of their sins, and drew them unto him.
He forgave men’s sins, spoke of limitless faith, and exposed the hypocrisy of false teachers and the wicked. He was especially hard on the outwardly religious. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess … Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous … Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:25, 29, 33).
Jesus hated every false way, especially those who dealt falsely with God’s people for personal fortune, preeminence and prestige, in the name of His Father, and those who lifted themselves up with pride and self-righteousness.
He demanded that those who follow Him, do so with their whole heart, mind, strength and soul, and be willing to sacrifice everything that they have, even their own families if necessary, to be his disciple (Matthew 19:29). “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). Whether forsaking houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands for his sake, he told men to count the cost, explaining to them: “… The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Luke 9:58); He said: “Folllow me; and let the dead bury their dead” (Luke 9:60). He demanded total and complete devotion—even to the point of hating father and mother, wife, and children, brother, and sister, and even our own life, compared to our love for God (Luke 14:26).
All of this made the political and religious authority of Jerusalem angry and afraid. Yet some from among the people claimed to be willing to lay down their lives to serve and follow him, as though he were the king of Israel, or the long awaited Messiah, prophesied long ago by the prophets of old. “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43).
MERCY NOT SACRIFICE
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
Jesus understood that nobody could be righteous by themselves, and so he desired mercy from men, rather than empty religion, humility rather than sacrifice.
One of the most heartfelt stories of humility that Jesus tells is the story of the publican and the tax collector:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Jesus justified the despised tax collector who understood his sinful position before God and sought God’s mercy, but he condemned the socially respected, self-righteous religious leader who believed that his works justified him before God, and who looked down on the sinner.
Another of my favorite Bible moments is when Mary, the sister of Martha, washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, showering them with kisses, and pouring costly ointment on them.
The pharisees, disgusted with this outward display of seemingly inappropriate affection from someone they considered a great sinner, infuriated their unregenerate, religious souls.
But Jesus showered this woman with praise, and publicly rebuked a pharisee, named Simon, who had invited Jesus to his house: “… Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:44-47).
Of course, Mary, the sister of Martha, likely unbeknownst to her, was anointing Jesus with precious oil for his death, burial and resurrection, as the Lamb of God.
God always hated empty ritual and when the unredeemed pretend to honor Him, by placing heavy burdens on men that He Himself did not demand.
PARABLES
“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;” (Matthew 13:3).
From the countryside of Roman-occupied Judaea to Cana of Galilee (where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding), to Capernaum and to the coasts, to the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim, Jesus continued to preach and to heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out devils, open the eyes of the blind, bring peace to captives, and even raise men from the dead!
All of this fulfilled the words of the prophets, but it also continued to anger the scribes and Pharisees, who thought within themselves how they could find ways to kill Jesus.
Jesus forgave men their sins, when only God was in a position to do so. The Pharisees even hated that Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, because they had built up traditions of men, which forbid things that God Himself never forbade.
But Jesus continued to teach, sitting by the seaside, teaching in parables, using common things like seeds and sowing, crops and harvests, speaking with wisdom the things of God, and taking time to care for the hungry. He spoke to the poor and downtrodden, giving them great hope of greater riches and blessings in heaven, as He called the lost back to God:
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. With such words he taught men about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus especially loved the little children, telling his disciples not to forbid them to come to Him, and decreeing harsh death sentences against those who would harm them. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
But the scribes and Pharisees continued to accuse him before men and seek ways to trap him into blaspheming God publicly, so that they could put him to death.
OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH
“Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21:5).
Jesus often referred to himself as, the Son of man. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This is a testament of his humanity, the man Christ Jesus. But Jesus was also, as scripture reveals, the eternal Son of God, God incarnate, God in the flesh.
Having all authority and power, He humbled himself by taking on the form of a man and dying on the cross as the one-time, final atonement, to bridge the gap between God and man, becoming our one and only mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (1 Timothy 2:5).
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).
After Jesus left the coasts of Capernaum, he came to Jerusalem and rode in on a lowly donkey, signifying a king coming in peace, rather than one riding to battle on a warhorse; in Revelation, Jesus will return on a white horse, to judge and to make war on the wicked. But first, he came riding, humbly, on a donkey, offering peace. The people, at first, welcomed him with palm branches, crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9).
Jesus continued to teach, to heal and to purify—even zealously cleansing the temple of God, which had been overrun by commerce for filthy lucre, instead of devout worship of the One True God; Jesus also continued to call out the hypocrisy of Jerusalem’s spiritual leaders. “Ye fools … ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel … ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:17, 24, 33).
At long last, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people had enough and presented themselves before Caiaphas, the High Priest of Israel, in his palace, and sought how they might put Jesus to death.
THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:14-15).
Before his death, Jesus observed the Passover and revealed to his disciples what was to befall him; and He continued to teach them, about Himself, and His return, and the end of days.
Judas Iscariot, a devil from the beginning, whom Jesus had chosen for this purpose, went to the chief priests and betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and afterwards, hanged himself. Jesus said of Judas, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24).
The night before his trial and crucifixion, Jesus prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, and was in such agony and distress, that he sweat drops of blood; but Jesus remained obedient to His Father, even unto death on the cross. “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done,” he prayed (Luke 22:42).
It was then that they came, under the cover of darkness at night, to arrest Jesus, with swords and clubs—after Judas betrayed him with a kiss. Jesus went voluntarily, telling his disciples, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).
BEHOLD, THE MAN
“Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!” (John 19:5).
When asked by Caiaphas, the high priest, whether He is the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus told Caiaphas that he himself has rightly affirmed it, as high priest of Israel. Tearing his clothes in an official display of rage for blasphemy, Caiaphas pronounced Jesus guilty on the spot, and worthy of death, as the Pharisees proceeded to spit in his face, beat him repeatedly, and mock him.
Isaiah the prophet said, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief …” (Isaiah 53:3). This was Jesus before the Sanhedrin, an illegal trial by the religious authority of Israel, the very nation of people Jesus had come to save.
But the High Priest and the Sanhedrin had no political authority, by themselves, to execute him; so, in the morning, they took Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea.
Pontius Pilate, after questioning Jesus, finds no fault in him, and tries to release him by offering the multitude a choice between Jesus and a rebel and murderer, named Barabbas (Mark 15:7). The multitude cries for Barabbas—at the prompting of the chief priests—and Jesus is sentenced to death, upon which time Pilate washes his hands of the matter. And they cried, “Let him be crucified” (Matthew 27:22,23).
Pilate then had Jesus whipped, and sent down the winding path of the Via Dolorosa, to be crucified.
The Roman whip was called the flagrum or flagellum. It contained lead-tipped leather strips of varying lengths in which shards of glass or bone were affixed. As the Roman whip struck down with full force against Jesus’ back and thighs, the sharp shards of glass would attach and tear off Jesus’ flesh.
“The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.”
Isaiah said, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). They mocked him, and spit on him. By the time they were finished, Isaiah says: “… his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men …” (Isaiah 52:14).
But this was only the beginning of the pain and suffering that Jesus would endure for us.
GOLGOTHA
“And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:” (John 19:17).
After the Roman guards beat Jesus, they placed a crown of thorns upon his head, a scarlet robe upon his shoulders, and a reed in his hand, which they also used to beat his head, further driving the crown of thorns into Jesus’ skull. After mocking him again, they put his clothes back on, and led him away to be crucified at Golgotha—the place of a skull—otherwise known as Calvary (from the Latin calva, “skull”), where they crucified the Lord of glory.
“And they crucified him …” (Matthew 27:35).
The Bible records that Jesus died at about the ninth hour (about 3pm our time). What Jesus endured during the crucifixion has been medically described by modern doctors. After nailing Jesus’ hands and feet to the wooden cross with iron nails, the Romans erected Jesus’ body upright. The force of the cross being lifted—with Jesus’ limbs outstretched beyond their natural limits—would have torn Jesus’ ligaments and caused his joints to come out of place; doctors say he may have even dislocated his shoulders. Psalm 22:14 says, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
As the crucified slowly start to sag from loss of blood, sheer physical weakness, being near the point of death, additional pressure is placed on the hands and feet as the nails are driven further into tissue and nerves. “As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act.”
In this position, it is a struggle to even breathe without asphyxiating. “Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen … Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins—a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart …”
It was during these brief moments of painful exhalation, as he lifted himself on the cross, that the Lord Jesus was able to utter short sentences, like: “… Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do …” (Luke 23:34); or “… Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:26), in fulfillment of prophecy, when the sins of the whole world were placed upon Him, in propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2); or when Jesus forgave the repentant thief who was crucified next to him on the cross (Luke 23:39-42).
Before Jesus’ death, there was darkness on the land for three hours—“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:” (Luke 23:46); then Jesus yielded up the ghost (Matthew 27:50).
THE BEGINNING AND THE ENDING
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
Being God, The Son, Death could not hold Jesus down: “… because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). On the third day, Jesus would rise again and reveal himself literally to the apostles, and to Mary and the women, and to over five hundred witnesses. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Paul would later echo, calling himself, the least of the apostles, having seen him also, last of all (1 Corinthians 15:8-9, 55). Job, one of the most righteous men who has ever lived, said: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:” (Job 19:25-26). Jesus’ mission was clear: he came to declare the righteousness of God’s eternal Kingdom, exalt and give glory to His Father, be an example to us all, and make atonement for us with his own broken body and precious, shed blood. He was, in the words of John the Baptist, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The Apostle John said of Him, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written …” (John 21:25). There is not enough time to convey all of the details and accounts of Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection, such as when Jesus entrusted the care of his mother, Mary, into the hands of his beloved disciple, John, as he hung on the cross (John 19:26-27). Or when Jesus told his disciples to, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:13-14).
Jesus will, one day, return again to judge the living and the dead at His Second Coming—except this time He will not return as a sacrificial Lamb to be slain, but as the fierce Lion who comes to conquer and reign. “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:10). “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire …” (Revelation 20:12-14).
JESUS IS COMING SOON
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
Jesus is coming back. “Behold, I come quickly …” (Revelation 22:7). The signs of Bible prophecy are all around us. It seems like time has sped up and we’ve exponentially shifted into a new age of onsetting darkness. But Jesus has promised that He will never leave or forsake those who genuinely call upon His name. “… and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:20).
No one knows the day or hour, but the Lord Jesus tells us to look for signs of His coming. “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:29-31).
Are you sure about where you will spend all eternity? The Bible says that we have one life to live, and then we must face God at the judgment: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:27-28).
Are you ready to meet Jesus? Have you been born again? Have you laid hold onto eternal life? “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).