Christ’s ministry lasted only 3 years, but they were years packed with incident and instruction, beginning, as we have said in our previous article, with his baptism by John, at which, coming up out of the water, God’s spirit power was conferred upon him, and a voice from heaven proclaimed :
‘Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’. (Mark 1 v 11)
Almost immediately he was led away into the wilderness, where an Adversary, styled ‘the Devil’ tempted him to use that God given power to his own advantage. We can read of these three temptations in Matthew 4 v 1-11. It was to test his resolve to obey God rather than give way to his own fleshly desires, and he countered each one by reference to Old Testament Scriptures. Three important principles come forth in his answers for believers to follow.
- ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God’.
- ‘Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God’.
- ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve’.
Christ was to adhere to these commandments throughout his short life, and we are required to do the same if we wish to follow his example.
Much has been written about the life of Christ, but God has determined that the inspired records of the four Gospel writers are all that we really need to understand the way of true Christian living his own life portrays. It has been reckoned that, in three years he performed some 35 extraordinarily miraculous acts, proving that it was God’s immense power that was at work through him. These included miracles as diverse as healing the blind, deaf, deranged, to raising the dead and stilling the power of storm and waves; these acts were witnessed by many so that their actuality could not be denied. John goes as far as to say.
‘ And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name’. (John 20 v 30-31).
His preaching too was to astound his hearers, ‘For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes’. (Matthew 7 v 29); and his words centered upon the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the immense value a true knowledge of that ‘Good News’ (for that is what Gospel mean) can be to mankind.
He showed that the things which men value, gold, silver, possessions, have, by comparison, no value at all, for their value is transient; instead, he said,
‘ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’.(Matthew 6 v 19-21).
The treasure in heaven, to which he refers, is not a place in heaven, but that which will come from heaven at Christ’s return, even an eternal place in God’s Kingdom on earth to be established by Christ when he comes. But long before that, Christ had a vital role to fulfil in God’s purpose.
His success with the common people, who believed that he had been born to free them from the Roman yoke, was to bring great animosity against him, and this began to grow, essentially from the religious leaders of his day, who, despite the God given miracles he performed, failed to recognize him as God’s Son, and out of jealousy accused him of blasphemy, until at last, they determined to kill him. In this they were aided and abetted by one of his disciples, Judas. This must have been very difficult for Jesus to deal with for Judas had been a close companion along with the other disciples, but from his knowledge of the Scriptures he knew it was to be and with resolution he faced the trial and subsequent crucifixion that would follow.
When you have a quiet moment read the prophetic, heart rending, accounts of the agonizing death that awaited him, contained in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 to be astounded at his fortitude in the face of such hostility and evil. Throughout, Christ stressed his total dependence on his Heavenly Father as John 5 records.
‘I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.’ (John 5 v 30-36)
He conquered his own natural wish to escape crucifixion to such good effect that it is recorded of him that he did no sin.
‘ For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth who, when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not: but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed’. (1 Peter 2 v 21-24)
He suffered for us as ‘a sacrificial lamb’ as was earlier said,
‘Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world’.(John 1 v 29).
Paul, writing to the Galatians said,
‘He gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father’. (Galatians 1 v 4)
In Christ a plan of salvation has been brought into being from which all can benefit, providing we believe in him and desire to follow in his footsteps.
‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (i.e. remain in the dust of the grave), but have everlasting life’.(John 3 v 16)
Because of His righteousness and utter obedience God in His mercy raised Christ from the dead through resurrection, and his reappearance among his disciples led to scenes of unrestrained joy for they now knew the truth of all he had taught them. The closing Chapters of all four Gospel records will amply repay study for they along with 1 Corinthian 15 tell of the true Christian hope, which is Resurrection, Christ’s own being the guarantee that we require.
It is the corner stone of the Gospel message – that of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, to be established by Christ at his return. May it be said of us that we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that we too might gain eternal life in his Kingdom. If Christ can give us that hope – this must be the most important birth that ever was!
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