Subject:
PROOF THAT YAHSHUA IS THE CHRIST ‑By Bertrand L. Comparet
Date:
Tue, 14 Aug 2001 19:11:11 ‑0700
From:
"Bob Jones" <[email protected]>
To:
"Pastor Bob Jones" <[email protected]>
PROOF THAT YAHSHUA
IS THE CHRIST
By Bertrand L. Comparet
As we approach the anniversary of the greatest day in all
history, the day of Yahshua's resurrection, it would be well for us to
give some thought and study to just what it is that we celebrate
with such faith and joy. What is the foundation upon which our faith
is built? What is the meaning of the tremendous events of that last
week in Yahshua's earthly life? What was accomplished thereby?
For the answers, we must look to both the Old and New
Testaments, for they are the parts of one book and each proves the
authenticity of the other.
We know the Old Testament is truly the inspired word of
Yahweh, because its greatest prophecies were fulfilled in the New
Testament. We know the New Testament is also the inspired word
of Yahweh. Its great events were those, which had been
prophesied in the Old Testament.
Remembering this, let us review the Scriptures dealing with
Yahshua's ministry and see just what He accomplished. I need not
review the fall of Adam, causing the loss of our original position in
Yahweh's plan. This made necessary a Redeemer for Yahweh's
children, eventually to be known as Israel, this is familiar to all
Christians. The Redeemer is one of the principle themes of the
Bible. Most of it in the Old Testament is not generally understood
because so much of it is stated in the form of symbols and ritual.
The first promise of a Redeemer is found in Genesis 3:15,
Yahweh had called Adam, Eve and Satan before Him to account for
their actions. Yahweh told Satan, "I will put enmity between thee
and the woman and between thy seed and her seed: He shall crush
thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Redeemer, who
destroys the power of Satan, is to be a descendant of Eve. The time
when He would come is not stated yet. It is obvious from certain
other verses of Scripture, that Yahweh further told them, in
considerable detail, that He Himself would be the Redeemer. He
would pay the price for us and the penalty of death.
Abel knew this, for he understood the necessity and the
significance of the blood sacrifice. In Hebrews 11:4 Paul tells us,
"By faith, Abel offered unto Yahweh a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain". You can't possibly have faith in something that you have
never heard of, so this confirms Abel's knowledge of the promised
redemption. There is also another clear evidence of this. Yahweh
had said, in the presence of Eve, that the Redeemer would be of
her seed or descendant, though He didn't specify in which
generation He would come.
When Eve bore her first child Cain, the King James Bible quotes
her as saying; "I have gotten a man from the Lord". In the original
Hebrew, what she said was, "I have gotten a man, even Yahweh."
Yahweh, as most of you know, is the name of our God. Eve
thought that her first‑born child would be the Redeemer, Yahweh
born in a human body. Well, she is not the only one who has hoped
for redemption before the appointed time. Note however, Eve
understood the Redeemer was to be Yahweh.
In further corroboration of this, the great prophecy of Isaiah 9:6,
which all agree refers to Yahshua says, "For unto us a child is born,
unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His
shoulders: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the
mighty Yahweh, the Prince of peace." In fulfillment of it, Yahshua
told the apostle Philip, recorded in John 14:9, "He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father." It was not merely death alone that could
make the sacrifice, which brings redemption, for all things die
under the curse of sin. Emphasis was always laid upon the
shedding of blood, a violent death of the sacrifice, not the natural
death of ordinary mortality. In Leviticus 17:11 we are told, "For the
life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, upon the
altar to make an atonement for your soul." In Hebrews 9:22 Paul
says, "For almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and
without the shedding of blood is no remission."
The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were never intended
to be considered as sufficient in themselves. They were just
symbolic of the great sacrifice, which was to be made, not by us
but for us, by Yahweh. In the thousands of years this knowledge
was carried down from generation to generation, it
was heard by the surrounding pagan people, who lacked the
spiritual insight which Yahweh gave to His own people Israel. The
pagans wove it into their own pagan religions in a distorted and
parodied form. To the pagans, man had to make the sacrifice to
appease angry gods. Only in our own religion have we the pure
truth that Yahweh made the sacrifice to save us.
The great Patriarchs understood this. Consequently we find the
incident, recorded in the Genesis chapter 22, where Yahweh tells
Abraham to take his only son Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice, a
burnt offering. Abraham cheerfully starts out to do this, not with the
grief of a loving father about to lose his only son, but with serene
confidence. When Isaac asked his father, "Behold the fire and the
wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham replied,
My son, Yahweh will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
Abraham understood the reality that Yahweh would provide the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world as the sacrifice for us.
Even in the symbol, the burnt offering, Abraham's faith was
rewarded. Yahweh did provide the ram, caught in the thicket as the
sacrifice, so this saved Isaac.
Yahshua's authenticity and authority as Redeemer depend upon
His being the one named in the Old Testament as such, the one
who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. He recognized this as He
always cited these prophecies as proof of His authority. Yahshua
opened His ministry this way, Luke 4:16‑20
tells it as follows. "And he came to Nazareth where He had been
brought up; and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered
unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened
the book, He found the place where it is written, The spirit of
Yahweh is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the
gospel to the
poor; he hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of
Yahweh, And He began to say unto them, This day is Scripture
fulfilled in your ears." At the very start, He quoted
Isaiah 61:1‑2 as His authority.
In John 5:39,46 Yahshua told the Jews, "Search the Scriptures:
for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and it is they which testify
of Me. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for
he wrote of Me." When John the Baptist was in prison, he began to
wonder if he could have been mistaken and
sent some of his disciples to ask Yahshua, "Art thou He that should
come, or do we look for another?" Yahshua again based His
authority on the Scriptures, for in the Matthew chapter 11 He told
John's disciples, "Go and show John again those things which ye
do hear and see: the blind receive their sight
and the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to
them."
Yahshua was not merely saying report that I do miracles, for this
would not have been proof. The magicians at Pharaoh's court were
able to duplicate a number of the miracles that Moses performed.
The things which Yahshua reminded them of were all mentioned in
Isaiah 3:5‑6 & 29:18‑19.
What Yahshua really was telling John the Baptist was, "John you
know the Scriptures, remember what Isaiah said, you see I am
fulfilling his prophecies. I need not boast of Myself, the scriptures
identify Me." In Matthew 5:17 Yahshua said, "Think not that I come
to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfill."
As Yahshua recognized, the proof of His identity and of what He
accomplished, does not rest upon His ability to perform miracles.
The shallow and unspiritual Jews constantly demanded that He
perform a miracle as a sign to prove who and what He was. He
always refused, for that would prove nothing. The
proof must and did consist in His fulfillment of those Old Testament
prophecies, which foretold what the Messiah, the Redeemer, would
do when He came.
Much of the Old Testament prophecy is found in its symbols and
rituals. For example, all of the great feasts or holy days were
symbolic of either the first or second coming of Yahshua. The
spring festivals were symbolic of His first coming, crucifixion and
resurrection. He fulfilled the reality, of which these were the
symbols, each on the day of the appropriate festival. The fall
festivals are symbolic of His second coming, for which we are now
waiting expectantly. We know that in whatever year He comes, He
will fulfill the realities symbolized by these fall festivals, each on its
own day.
The first of the spring festivals was the Passover, for the
salvation and redemption from death, Yahweh's deliverance of His
people Israel. This was so important that in Exodus 12:14, Yahweh
commanded that
celebration of the Passover should be an ordinance forever among
His people Israel. Clearly it symbolized the sacrifice of the Lamb of
Yahweh, slain from the foundation of the world.
The celebration of the Passover was first commanded when the
people of Israel were still in Egypt. Moses had performed many
miracles as proof that he was sent by Yahweh to command that
Pharaoh release the nation of Israel. Some of these miracles
wrought great devastation in Egypt, but still Pharaoh
would not yield. In Exodus chapter 12, Yahweh warned Moses that
He was going to pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the first
born, from the cattle in the fields to the first‑born son of Pharaoh.
The people of Israel would be spared if they would follow the
instructions, to kill and eat the Passover lamb
and put its blood on the doorposts outside their front door.
They could not just secretly eat the lamb while hiding at home.
There must be a public proclamation of their faith, by putting the
lamb's blood on the doorposts. By the death of the lamb they would
be delivered from death. It was by showing Yahweh that they relied
upon the blood of the lamb that they
would be saved. By eating the flesh of the lamb, they gained
strength for their journey out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. All
this is symbolic of our salvation and redemption by Yahshua upon
the cross; let's examine it in detail.
The lamb for the Passover offering was to be selected on the
10th day of the Hebrew month Nisan (Nee‑sawn), but not actually
sacrificed until the 14th day of Nisan. Yahweh instructed Moses in
Exodus 12:3,6, "In the 10th day of this month they shall take to
them every man a lamb, according to the household of their
fathers, a lamb for an household, And ye shall keep it until the 14th
day of the same
month; and the whole assembly (qahal) of the congregation (edah)
of Israel shall kill it in the evening." The Hebrew words translated
here, in the evening, actually mean between noon and sunset, or in
the afternoon.
Then Yahweh commanded Moses to tell Israel in Exodus 12:22,
"They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and
on the lintel of the door of the houses where they shall eat it". The
flesh of the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs. The
families were to be ready to march out of the
land of Egypt immediately. This command further provides that not
a bone of the lamb may be broken.
So much for the symbol of the Passover, now let us see how the
reality fulfilled it. On the 10th day of Nisan, Yahshua was selected
for death, Mark 11:15‑18 records it. "And they came to Jerusalem;
and Yahshua went into the temple and began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the seats of the
money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And He
taught, saying Unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called
of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of
thieves! And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how
they might destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the
people were astonished at His doctrine."
On the 14th day of Nisan, Yahshua was crucified, the day the
Passover lambs were killed. In fact, He died at the very hour, which
was in the midst of the slaughter of the lambs. The Hebrew day
began at sunset. The night was divided into four watches of three
hours each. The day was divided into 12 hours,
beginning at sunrise, which at that time of year was about 6 A.M. in
our time. He was crucified somewhere around noon, the sixth hour
of the day in Hebrew time.
John 19:14, speaking of the end of His trial before Pontius Pilate,
says it was about the sixth hour. Luke 23:44, speaking of the time
just after Yahshua was nailed to the cross, also says it was about
the sixth hour. Since neither man carried a wristwatch, John
estimated the end of the trial to be slightly before noon, while Luke
estimated the crucifixion to be soon after noon.
All the Biblical accounts agree that there was darkness over the
land from the sixth hour (noon in our time) until the ninth hour, or 3
P.M. in our time, when Yahshua died on the cross. Remember, the
Passover lambs were to be killed between noon and sunset and
this was in the very middle of that period. John 19:33,36 records
that while the legs of the two thieves were broken to hasten their
deaths,
not a bone of Yahshua's body was broken, thus fulfilling the
rules regarding the Passover lamb. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul
reminds us that Yahshua, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
This sacrifice made for us by Yahshua was, in every respect, His
own voluntary act, even to the instant of death itself. In the King
James Bible Matthew 27:50, "Yahshua when He had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost". This is not an adequate
rendering of the Greek, which says He dismissed His spirit, an act
of His own will. This fulfills His own words in John 10:17‑18, "I lay
down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me,
but I lay it down of Myself."
Since Yahshua's sacrifice upon the cross was the fulfillment of
the Passover, Yahweh expressly commanded in Exodus 12:14,
"This day shall be unto you for a memorial: and ye shall keep it a
feast to Yahweh throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a
feast by an ordinance forever." Perhaps you are wondering why we
no longer celebrate the Passover in the old way. There is a good
reason for this. The Passover, as the ordinance in the Old
Testament prescribed it, looked to the future, to something, which
had not yet happened. It was the believer's proclamation, "I believe
that my Redeemer will someday in the future, come and make the
true sacrifice for me, giving His life to redeem mine."
As long as Yahshua had not yet come, this was the proper form
for it. After He had actually come and given His life for us, we could
no longer say that we were still waiting for something to be done in
the future. To do so would be a rejection of what He had already
done for us. It was still to be an ordinance forever, but its form must
be changed so that it now recognized that our redemption has
already been accomplished. This is why Yahshua taught us the
new form of it, Yahshua's supper or communion. We still
symbolically eat the sacrifice for the nourishment of our spirit,
"Take, eat, this is My body." Matthew 26:26 and Mark 14:22. We still
symbolically proclaim our faith that by His blood we are redeemed.
Matthew 26:28 says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which
is shed for many for the remission of
sins." The form is changed, to show our recognition that our
Redeemer has already come and redeemed us. However, the real
meaning of the sacrifice is indeed eternal.
Yahshua's crucifixion came at the prophesied time. His ministry
covered three years. The Gospel of John records at least three and
possibly four Passovers in this time. The first Passover is recorded
in John
2:13‑25, which also records Yahshua's first cleansing of the temple
by driving out the moneychangers. John 5:1 mentions, " A feast of
the Jews; and Yahshua went up to Jerusalem". It is not further
identified, while it might be the second Passover, we can't be sure
of this. John 6:4 records what is at least the second and possibly
the third Passover. John 11:55 shows that Yahshua's last visit to
Jerusalem, ending in the crucifixion, was also for a Passover, this
was just possibly the fourth Passover. As Yahshua's ministry had
already begun before the first of these Passovers, either three or
four is consistent with the ministry of three years.
For the significance of this, let us first turn to the prophet Daniel.
In Daniel 9:26‑27 the prophet says, "And after three score and two
weeks shall the Messiah, the Prince be cut off, but not for Himself:
And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in
the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation
to cease". We know that the three score and two weeks, sixty‑two
weeks, or 434 days, had worked out correctly on the prophetic
scale of one year for a day.
The people of Judea knew the Messiah was due and were
restless in anticipation of their deliverance. This is why the Romans
were so worried about what even a small disturbance might cause.
As to the words, in the midst of the week, a week on the prophetic
scale being 7 years, then in the midst of the week, would be any
time after three years. As we have seen, Yahshua's ministry
fulfilled this. That He did confirm the covenant with many, is
proclaimed by Paul in Romans 15:8 where he says, "For I say that
Yahshua the Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of Yahweh. To confirm the promises made unto the fathers".
Paul shows us that Yahshua did cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease, as Daniel prophesied. In Hebrews 10:11‑18 we
read, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering
often times the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down at the right hand of Yahweh; For by one offering He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now where remission of
these is, there is no more offering for sin." Although the Jews still
curse and revile Him, even they seem to have recognized the
futility of offering any more animal sacrifices. Nowhere in the world
today have they revived the ancient sacrifices.
On what day was Yahshua crucified? This will indeed surprise
you. One thing is certain; He was not crucified on a Friday! Yes, I
know that nearly all churches celebrate Friday as the crucifixion
day, but they are certainly wrong. Note that the word Sabbath not
only means the regular weekly Sabbath Saturday, but it also means
several other holy days, which are expressly called Sabbaths in the
Bible. For example, let's take the New Year, the so‑called feast of
trumpets. In the Hebrew Leviticus 23:24‑25 reads thus: "Speak unto
the sons of Israel saying, In the 7th month, on the first of the month,
a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile
work and ye shall bring near a fire offering to Yahweh." You will
note that this was on the first day of the seventh month; regardless
of the day it might be it was always a Sabbath. Let's take a look at
the Day of Atonement. In the Hebrew Leviticus 23:27‑28, 31‑32
says, "On the tenth of this seventh month is the day of
atonements: ye have a holy convocation: and ye humble
yourselves and bring near a fire offering to Yahweh; and ye do no
work in this selfsame day, for it is a day of atonements, to make
atonement for you before Yahweh your
God. Ye do no work, a statute age long to your generation in all
your dwellings. It is a Sabbath of rest to you."
The words holy convocation and Sabbath are practically
interchangeable as every holy convocation is a Sabbath. Let's take
Leviticus 23:2‑3 to illustrate this. In the Hebrew, it says "appointed
seasons of Yahweh which ye proclaim, holy convocations are
these: they are My appointed seasons: six days is work done and
in the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation".
The Passover began with the evening of the day of the
preparation. This is the day on which the lambs were killed and on
which day Yahshua was crucified. Nobody can dispute the
Passover is a holy convocation, a Sabbath, Leviticus 23:5‑8 makes
it so. Here is how it reads in the Hebrew. "In the first month, on the
fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to
Yahweh; and on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of the
unleavened things to Yahweh; seven days unleavened things do
ye eat; on the first day ye have an holy convocation, ye shall do no
servile work; and ye bring near a fire offering to Yahweh seven
days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye do no servile
work."
Yahshua was crucified on Nisan 14th, the Passover, the day the
lambs were killed. The next day Nisan 15th, was the first day of the
7 day feast of unleavened bread, a holy convocation or Sabbath
day. This was regardless of the day of the week on which it fell. All
the gospels agree that the day following the crucifixion was a
Sabbath. John 19:31 also mentions, that Sabbath was an high day,
not just an ordinary Saturday Sabbath of every week, but a special
Sabbath, a high holy day. It was a special day for it was the first day
of unleavened bread.
The next thing to note is that all four gospels say that Yahshua
was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbaths. Note that
Sabbaths here is in the plural. The King James Bible doesn't show
this, but in the
original Greek, all four gospels Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9, Luke
24:1, and John 20:1 show this. These plural Sabbaths shows Friday
was the high holy day Sabbath, the first day of the feast of
unleavened bread, followed by Saturday, the ordinary weekly
Sabbath. So, the Sabbath necessarily occurred on a Thursday, not
Friday. Note that if the High Holy Day Sabbath had fallen on
Saturday, this would not have made two Sabbaths of it.
Yahshua said in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah was 3 days and 3
nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth." Nobody can make 3 days
and 3 nights out of the time from 4 or 5 o'clock Friday afternoon,
until sometime early Sunday morning before
dawn. Two nights, one day and a tiny fraction of another is all you
can count. However, if He was in the tomb part of Thursday, all of
Thursday night, all of Friday and Friday night, all of Saturday and
most of Saturday night, you have two whole days and part of a third
day, two whole nights and most of a third
night. He did not say that it would be 72 hours, so it need not be full
days and nights down to the very last minute.
We see that in His crucifixion Yahshua fulfilled, on the correct
day, all the realities of salvation and redemption of which the
Passover was the symbol. Yahshua is fully identified as the true
Messiah or Christ, promised to us in the Scriptures. We have an Old
Testament high holy day to consider, the feast of the firstfruits. On
the morning after the Sabbath following the Passover, each
Israelite was to bring to the temple some of the firstfruits. This was
in the spring when the grain was harvested. The barley ripened
several weeks before the wheat, so the firstfruits offering was of
barley. The offering was to be a sheaf of barley, containing many
kernels of grain.
This was a symbol which Yahshua fulfilled in His resurrection, as
Paul recognizes in 1 Corinthians 15:20,23, "But now is Christ risen
from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits: afterwards they
that are Christ's at His coming." On the morning of the day after the
Sabbaths, the exact time of the feast of firstfruits, Yahshua became
the firstfruits from the dead. Note another thing, the firstfruits
offering was a sheaf of grain, containing many kernels of grain.
Yahshua also fulfilled this because at the same time, He also
resurrected many people. We read in Matthew 27:52‑53, "And the
graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept
arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went
into the holy city and appeared unto many."
The firstfruits offering was both a pledge that the tithe would be
brought into the temple when the harvest was complete and also a
symbol of that tithe which represents Yahweh's elect. In the
Hebrew they were called the qahal and in the Greek the ekklesia,
the called out ones, translated into English as the word church.
Was the resurrection something new and unheard of? No,
Yahweh had prophesied this in the Old Testament. In Hosea 13:14
Yahweh promised us, "I will ransom them from the power of the
grave: I will redeem them from death." How would this be done?
Isaiah 26:19 clearly prophesies exactly what Yahshua did, for it
says, "Thy dead men shall live: together with My dead body shall
they arise! Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is
dew of light, and the earth shall cast out the
dead." Truly, together with His dead body they did arise, when
Yahshua presented His firstfruits from the dead. Clearly He had the
authority and power to make and to fulfill His wonderful promise. In
John 8:51 Yahshua states, "Verily, verily, I say unto you: if a man
keep My saying, he shall never see death."
This is recognized and confirmed in the New Testament. In
Hebrews 2:9, 15 where Paul says, "But we see Yahshua, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor; that He, by the grace of Yahweh,
should taste death for every man. And deliver them who, through
the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
Some other religions have preached a form of immortality, but
only in a spirit world to which none of the dead could go. Also from
which none could ever return and where their life was really little
more than mere existence. It was not inspiring and they have had
few martyrs willing to die for their faith. Only
Christianity has the tangible evidence, proven by many
eyewitnesses, of the fact of the resurrection. Some 5,000 people
saw this over a period of 40 days. We have more than just faith. We
can say, not just I hope or I believe but, "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 Yahweh: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold and not another." Job 19:25‑27.
There remained one more spring festival to be fulfilled, that of
Pentecost. It was called in the Hebrew, the feast of weeks. As we
saw, the firstfruits offering was just a pledge, made before the
principal harvest was ripe. The wheat needed another month to
ripen, to be ready for the harvest. Leviticus 23:15‑21 gives the rules
for the feast of weeks. "And ye shall count unto you from the
morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of
the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even unto
the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days:
and ye shall offer a new meal offering
unto Yahweh." By this time the whole grain harvest was complete,
what had been merely promised in the firstfruits offering, could
now be fully given.
Yahshua fulfilled this symbol also, on its own day. When His
followers had seen Him with their own eyes after His resurrection,
they were filled with triumph and wanted to start their work at once.
However, it was not time yet, so Yahshua told them in Acts 1:4‑5,
"You should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of
the Father, which ye have heard from Me. For John truly baptized
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days hence." The apostles were impatient and asked Him,
"Yahshua, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or
the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye
shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
Acts 1:6‑8.
It is not enough that they were now ready to be His witnesses. It
must be done in the way and at the time Yahweh had prophesied,
in order that it might bear the proof of its genuineness. Accordingly
we read in Acts chapter 2 that on the exact day of Pentecost, the
feast of weeks, Yahweh gave the fullness of His Spirit upon them,
the power to do what up to that time, they could only wish for. In
the resurrection they had seen the firstfruits, the demonstration of
Yahweh's power and that Yahshua the Christ was the one who had
it, the promise of what was yet to come. It was as Yahshua had
promised, and on the exact day when the Scriptures symbolically
foretold its coming, they received the power upon themselves. The
New Testament records they now had the power to heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, even raise the dead, acting under the Holy
Spirit, which Yahshua had promised them.
We started out this lesson with the proposition that just the mere
ability to work miracles was not enough to prove the One who did
them was our Redeemer. There were many men in ancient times
who could do
things we cannot now duplicate or explain. Only the One sent by
Yahweh to redeem us could be the Christ. Proof of His identity and
authority, must be found in the prophecies in which Yahweh had
given us the signs which would identify Him.
We saw that Yahshua agreed with this. In John 5:31,36 Yahshua
said, "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is
another that beareth witness of Me: and I know that the witness
which he witnesses of Me is true. I have a greater witness than that
of John: for the works which the Father hath
given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me
that the Father hath sent
Me."
We have examined in detail the great prophesies in which
Yahweh had pointed out what the Messiah, would do and what He
would accomplish by it. We have seen that Yahshua correctly
fulfilled, even to the exact day when He did each of the works,
which Yahweh had set out for Him to do.
We have the proof in actual demonstration He is our Redeemer.
He has paid the penalty for us; He has brought us the gift of eternal
life and by His resurrection has proven it to be a fact. There can be
no possible doubt that Yahshua is in truth the Christ. Truly, I know
that my Redeemer liveth.