Thou Art the Christ: A Devotional on the Life of Jesus

By Jonathan Jenkins

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John give four different views of the story of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Their accounts are compelling, but they give a fragmented and scattered view of Jesus’ life. In this devotional, the author pieces together the life of Jesus within these accounts, walking readers through His life chronologically.

In the process, he seeks to answer questions such as:

• What would a typical day with Jesus have included?

• How did Christ interact with Scripture, especially messianic prophecies?

• When did the plot to kill Jesus begin, and how extensive was it?

• How many witnesses were there to the resurrection?

The author also examines how Jesus was first recognized as the Messiah and declared as the Son of God, whether any court declared Him innocent, and what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John’s insights tell us about Jesus and His teachings.

Thou Art the Christ provides a nonbreaking narrative of Jesus’s life, connecting it to Old Testament prophecies about God’s promise to send the Messiah for the whole world for any whosoever believing him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973657736

Jonathan Jenkins

Jonathan Jenkins holds Bible degrees from William Carey University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. After teaching secondary English for more than two decades, he became his parents’ caretaker in their final years. During his mother’s forty-three-month battle with colon cancer, he began steps to enter the writing ministry. His passion for God’s Word has been his comfort and his inspiration through life. He attends Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Gallion, Alabama.

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Copyright © 2019 Jonathan Jenkins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5772-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5771-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5773-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019903517

WestBow Press rev. date: 4/12/2019

Contents

Preface

Part I: His Incarnation

The Never-Ending Story

Researched for One Person

The Divine Nature of Christ

Messiah Brings Adoption

Incarnation of Grace

Child of Promise

Child of Hope

The Forerunner Cometh

The Silent Witness

Child of Fulfillment

The Handmaid of the Lord

Holy Ghost Confirmation

God of Salvation

His Name Is John

Praise Led by the Holy Ghost

The Forerunner of the Messiah

Our God is with Us

Away in a Manger

Angels Heard on High

Away to a Manger

Birth Announcements … God’s Way

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

Mine Eyes Have Seen Thy Salvation

Prophecies about a Baby

Urgency of Action

Return to Israel

About His Father’s Business

Part II: His Offer of a New Life

Pointing to the Messiah

Faith with Repentance

Finger-Pointing Confirmations

Satan versus Jesus

The Disciple’s Commitment

More Than He Bargained For

It’s about Jesus—Not Wine

Cleaning the Temple: The First Time

The Sign of Signs

You Must Be Born Again

What More Do You Need?

What Will You Do with Jesus?

Jesus Tarries—Do You?

The Bridegroom’s Voice

Who Is He?

It Was Never an Afterthought

Living Water

Jesus Is He

Disciples Aren’t Perfect—Just Purposed

The Samaritan’s Savior

A Prophet without Honor

With Power

A Second Stop in Cana

Scripture Fulfilled

Joseph’s Son Must Die

A Great Light

Forsook All

All Authority

Fulfilling More for Us

The Living Tabernacle

Looking for Jesus

He Is Willing

Thy Sins Be Forgiven

Who Is This Jesus?

Focused Jesus

Jesus Is the Bridegroom

At Bethesda

The Authority of the Son of God

Calling the Witnesses

Jesus as David’s Heir

Authority versus Control

For the Whole World

Choosing the Twelve

Part III: His Sermon on the Mount

The Great Teacher

Inward Beatitudes

Outward Beatitudes

Just Part of the Path

Salt and Light

Jesus and the Word

Murder or Reconciliation

Doorway Sins versus Deliverance

Except for Unfaithfulness

No Oaths Whatsoever

Retaliation versus Trust in God

The Same Love

Do It His Way

Restoration of Prayer

Pray Like This

Forgiveness: The Three-Way Street

True Fasting

God’s Reward

Only One

Check His Resume

What’s Your Standard?

Pray to Only God

Only God’s Law

Only One Way

Known by Fruit

Not Everyone Enters

Two Eternal Destinies

Altar Call

Part IV: He Trains the Twelve

Trading Lords

The Compassion of God with Us

Faith Defeats Doubt

Who Is This?

Dance to His Own Tune

Wrathful Jesus? Yes, He Is!

Why Do You Come to Jesus?

Never Left Hanging

Skipping To—Not Over

Lying on Jesus

One Rejection Leads to Another

What Sign Do You Want?

Who Is Jesus’s Family?

Why Tell Parables?

Sowing Seeds

This Little Light of Mine

Destiny of Tares

How Does the Kingdom Grow?

Mustard Seed Kingdom

Leaving the World

The Price Tag

Emptying the Net

The Open Door

Who Is He?

Who Are You?

Interrupting Jesus

Power Over Death

Is the Day Over?

Return to the Lion’s Den

Sent Forth

Fear of the Living Dead

One Sin Leads to Another

Enough for Everyone

More Than Enough

Same Temptation

Stroll on the Sea

In Search of Jesus

On Different Pages

True Manna Offered

Evidence of Things Not Seen

The Incarnated Bread of Life

Abandoning Jesus

God’s Law or Man’s Law?

Declared to Be Defiled

Crumbs from God

Did All Things Well

They Glorified God

Beware Their Leaven

Only One Healed

Part V: The Turning Point

What Is Your Answer?

Why He Came

Knocked Off Their Feet

Fulfilled Prophecies

Master of War

Guilty as Charged

The King Like No Other

These Little Ones

It’s All about Him

Responsibility of the Victim

Benefits of Unity in Christ

Pass On Forgiveness

Do You Want Us to Destroy Them?

Why You Cannot Follow

Tempted to Do It Man’s Way

Spinning the Spin Doctors

The Judge Presents Evidence

Why He Fought the Good Fight

Living Parables

The Wrath of the Plotters

The First Stone

The Second Witness

He Is Who He Is

Who’s Your Daddy?

He Is the Great I Am

Seeing and Being Seen

A Practice Trial

I Know You Are—But What Am I?

Are You Blind? Or Are You Blind?

The Shepherd’s Voice

The Authority of the Good Shepherd

Part VI: He Trains the Seventy

Here Am I, Send Me

Have Joy over Salvation

The Good Samaritan

Giving and Receiving in Service

Teach Us to Pray

Jesus With? Jesus Plus? Jesus Alone!

Sign of Jonah

Bear the True Light

That Old-Time Pharisee Religion

Jesus, Lawyers, and the Law

Whom Do You Fear? And Why?

God or Stuff?

Jehovah-Jireh

Faithful Servant? Or Unfaithful Servant?

Christ Gets Harsh

Are Suffering and Punishment the Same?

Our King the Deliverer

Are Few Saved?

Threatened—But Not Derailed

Evil versus God’s Law

Jesus’s New Etiquette

You Have Been Invited

Why Are You Following Jesus?

Rejoicing in Heaven

The Prodigal Son

Prodigal Restored

The Other Prodigal Son

The Parable of the Steward

God Alone

Two Men, Two Destinies

No Get-Out-of-Hell-Free Card

Duties of Followers

Part VII: His Point of No Return

Lazarus Is Sick

Going to a Funeral

Christ Unites Faith and Hope

Jesus as Fully Human

Jesus as Fully God

Someone Has to Die

Go to the Priests

Jesus Is Coming Again

Taken or Left

Will You Be Found Faithful?

Is Your Prayer Real?

Marriage, Divorce, and Singleness

Come, Little Children

What Must I Do?

We Have Given Up All

How Much Is That Penny Worth?

Eternal Life Assured

Prophecy Gains Details

Kingdom of Servants

Blind Bartimaeus

Little Zacchaeus

The Landlord’s Vineyard

An Unfaithful Servant

Center of Attention

Betrayer Reveals His Heart

Worthy unto Death

Part VIII: His Passion Week

Riding on a Colt

Rebuke, Tears, and Destruction

Recleaning the Temple

Greeks Seek Jesus

Public Prayer, Public Response

Unbelievers and Secret Believers

Jesus’s Testimony

A Fig Tree, Faith, and Forgiveness

Is Authority in the Truth or a Lie?

Will You or Won’t You?

Let’s Kill the Heir

The Rejected Stone

Rejection of an Eternal Reward

Whosoevers in Wedding Clothes

Lying Lips Meet the Truth

Whose Wife Is She?

Just One More Question

Whose Son Is Jesus?

Who Deserves Your Respect and Honor?

Is It God’s Way or Not?

Repeating the Call to Repent

For Such a Time as This

All She Had

The End Is Not Yet

Are You Waxing Cold or Enduring?

Be Alert! Deception Is on the Loose

The Second Coming

Day and Hour Unknown

Are You Faithful or Evil?

The Bridegroom Cometh

Watch Therefore

Parable of the Talents

The Wicked, Slothful Servant

Welcoming the Sheep

Rejecting the Goats

Part IX: His Last Supper

A Completed Conspiracy

Go Follow a Man

The Bread and the Cup

Clean or Unclean

What Do Whosoevers Do

Satan Entered Judas Iscariot

The Last Sermon Begins

He Goes to Prepare a Place

No Other Way

Prayer and the Holy Spirit

Conditional Unconditional Love

Last Words before Heading Out

Abide in the Vine

Abide in Love

Hated—But Still Holding Hope

Persecution and the Holy Spirit

From Sorrow to Joy

Jesus as Intercessor and Teacher

Ready to Be Glorified

Prayer for the Eleven

Prayer for Whosoevers

Part X: Our Good Friday

Thy Will Be Done

That Deadly Kiss

The First Trial

The Second Trial

Three Denials

The Third Trial

The Fourth Trial

The Son of Perdition

The Fifth Trial

By His Stripes

The Truth Comes Out

The People’s Choice

The Final Verdict

Judgment and Joy

The Humiliated Christ

Forgiveness Rejected

Faithful Rewards

Finishing Prophecy

Signs at His Death

Not a Bone Broken

Burial by Secret Believers

Guarding the Son of God

Part XI: His Resurrection Commissions Us

He Is Not Here!

Evil Persists

His Body Is Missing

Rabboni!

Telling Jesus about Jesus

Jesus Breaks Bread

Jesus Appears to the Ten

My Lord and My God

The Immutable Jesus

How Much Do You Love Jesus?

Do What You Are Called to Do!

What Should Whosoevers Do?

Praising His Name

Afterword: The Continuing, Never-Ending Gospel

To my parents, J. Clanton Jenkins and Betty W. Jenkins, who introduced me to Jesus Christ. As far back as I remember, they modeled faith, hope, and love at home, at work, and in the community throughout their lives.

Preface

I n December 2013, I quit teaching to take care of my octogenarian parents. Their health had been in decline for a decade, and I had delayed the decision to become a full-time caretaker far too long.

Within a month, Mama was diagnosed with colon cancer. Although I sensed Dad needed medical reassessment, he was determined for his efforts and mine to be focused solely upon her. For March and April, we lived in a guest room for the Manderson Clinic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while Mama took radiation five days a week and chemo every Friday.

Dad and I ate three meals a day in the cafeteria. Our conversations carried me back to childhood at the family dining table. Regardless of the topic, we always came back to scripture, just like in my childhood.

Watching his true love of sixty-three years endure the rigors of cancer treatments, Dad began to decline. Although his heart doctors were in the same complex, he insisted that I needed to focus on Mama’s recovery. In July, Dad’s heart could no longer bear the strain of eighty-seven years.

After his funeral, Mama was lost—and so was I. For several weeks, the dining table seemed too quiet. One afternoon, Mama said she missed listening to the Bible discussions Dad and I had during meals.

About the same time, several friends confronted me about sitting around doing nothing while being Mama’s caretaker. A longtime friend, Scott Collier said, You can write. A seminary buddy, James Brandon said, You can spread the gospel through writing. A teaching coworker, Deborah Shepherd, added, Don’t just write—publish!

Through social media, a former student, Marcus Lee, requested a devotional for himself and other former students to stay focused upon God’s path. That settled all the motivational needs.

Despite having two Bible degrees, I rejected dependence on scholarly commentaries. Instead, I settled on a chronological devotional about the life of Jesus from announcement to ascension. I sat down with my laptop, my Bible, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, A. T. Robertson’s A Harmony of the Gospels, and a whole lot of prayer. For interpretive keys, Mark 1:1 and John 3:16 became my guides when I was uncertain of verse meanings and purposes. Who Jesus was and what He came to do held center stage. Each day, I took another passage and wrote for that day’s set of verses. Mama read every entry.

After the entry involving the woman with the issue of blood, she looked at me and said, Although I still miss your Bible conversations with your Dad, I can hold these and revisit them as often as I wish. My son is writing about the Son.

Mama read the last entry two weeks before her colon cancer returned. Six weeks later, she went to live eternally with the Son.

One of our last conversations was about this book. Mama recounted some of her favorite Jesus stories and then quoted His teachings on heaven. Finally, she reached for my hand and said, Promise me you will publish the devotional.

Well, Mama, promise kept.

Jonathan Jenkins

November 2018

PART I

His Incarnation

The Never-Ending Story

MARK 1:1

T he gospel story began with a sentence fragment. Perhaps it is the most theologically sound fragment in the Bible.

Jesus was the who of the gospel He took center stage and never relinquished the spotlight to anyone. His relationships showed His connections to God and human beings. His vertical relationship as the Son of God revealed His divine nature and made Him worthy of worship as God Incarnate on earth. His horizontal relationship as the Messiah fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies of the long-expected Anointed One.

Matthew’s account spent its first seventeen verses to establish Jesus as the promised Messiah. John’s account opened with eighteen verses to reveal Jesus as God Incarnate. Luke’s first two chapters gave lengthy evidence for Jesus as both. Yet Mark’s version wasted no time and no argument that Jesus fulfilled both roles of God Incarnate and Messiah.

The what of the story was the gospel message itself. However, the gospel was not a biography or a novel because the good news was for someone in need of it. In fact, recipients of this message lived in desperation. Life was ill, possessed by demons, and lost without faith, without hope, and without love. Into this life burst Jesus, and He gave healing, freedom, and direction with faith, hope, and love pouring from His very being.

This was the beginning of Jesus’s story. This truth was meant to bring great joy to the soul. Mark’s opening verse appealed to the confidence of the hope placed in Jesus. Why? There was no verse saying the gospel was ending or would end. Why? The only begotten Son of God came to grant believers eternal life with Him in heaven’s glory. By placing faith in Jesus, the never-ending story began with Him.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Do you know Jesus as the who of the gospel story?

• Do you know the good news of Jesus?

• Have you begun a life with Jesus?

Researched for One Person

LUKE 1:1–4

I n first-century communities of faith, did it matter whether gospel accounts were accurate?

In his opening verses, Luke gave three truths about his presentation. Luke’s record of the life of Jesus was not the first to be written down or even attempted. Perhaps Mark’s and Matthew’s accounts had already been published by the time Luke began to write.

Luke verified his research through interviews of eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. When these gospels were written, there was a high likelihood of eyewitnesses still living in and near where the events had happened. One such eyewitness to the announcement and the birth of Jesus was His mother, Mary.

Finally, Luke explained the purpose of the gospel was for one-on-one discipleship of another believer who was not an eyewitness. By this admission, the entire research into the incarnation, birth, life, ministry, miracles, teachings, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had the purpose of building up the assurance of faith of just one person to whom Luke was ministering: Theophilus.

As Paul later taught Timothy to do (2 Timothy 2:15), Luke studied to show himself approved. Likewise, as Paul had done with Timothy, Luke chose to invest all he had learned into just one person: Theophilus.

The gospel story was written to disciple whoever believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, until the Second Coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Are you prepared to take up the gospel story to study it for yourself about Jesus?

• Are you prepared to pass on the gospel story to another with accuracy to build that disciple in his or her faith in Jesus?

The Divine Nature of Christ

JOHN 1:1–5

W ith the Bible filled with dynamic passages, the first eighteen verses of John’s gospel account revealed the person of Jesus.

John’s account launched immediately into Jesus’s divine nature. In the beginning drew from Genesis 1:1 and reminded readers that God existed before all else. Likewise, the Word, as John identifies Jesus, was preexisting. Wasting no time, the phrases was with God and was God revealed the Trinitarian nature of God. This mystery of the Trinity announced that Jesus the Son was with the Father and the Spirit (Genesis 1:2) in the beginning and was God Himself at the same time (John 10:30). Despite the Trinity being a difficult doctrine to explain, the apostle John stated it as the fact of an eyewitness.

Jesus went from being the Word to becoming the light, and verse 5 mentioned constant spiritual warfare between the Light and the prince of darkness (Satan). Jesus became the light of hope promised to Satan in Genesis 3:15 by God Himself, who would crush the power of Satan by the coming of the Light into the world.

John wrote his account after the resurrection of Jesus, after His ascension, and after the spread of the gospel message throughout the Mediterranean. John was telling that Genesis 3:15 had been completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As a venomous spiritual serpent, Satan repeatedly struck to kill Jesus through Herod (Matthew 2:16), through his neighbors (Luke 4:28–30), and through the cross.

Yet John 1:5 revealed that the darkness did not overcome the Light. Why? The Light rose from the grave to bruise thy head (Genesis 3:15). The head of every venomous snake contains its fangs and venom sacs. Due to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, Satan’s power was broken by the promise of God.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• In your viewpoint, who is Jesus?

• Is Jesus the second person of the Triune God?

• Has Jesus overcome the power of Satan?

Messiah Brings Adoption

JOHN 1:9–13

A shift began in this description of Jesus from being divine to being messianic as foretold by the Old Testament prophets. As far back as Genesis 3:15, and even later with King David, there had been the promise of a coming Messiah, the Anointed One, who would make right the world through Himself. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets stirred the hope of Hebrews in expectation and longing for the Messiah.

Just as the apostle Paul would later write in Galatians 4:4 about Jesus Christ coming in the fullness of time, John wrote about Jesus coming into the world. In hindsight, everyone should have flocked to Jesus when He showed up. However, human nature was human nature.

Three human responses occurred as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world. First, despite being the Word of God in person and despite being the Light of the World, the world refused to recognize Jesus for who He was. This may have been due to His lowly birth or His avoidance of the earthly status quo. Next, Jesus was not received by His own, meaning the Hebrews. There were rejections in Nazareth, among the Sanhedrin, as well as the multitude who shouted, Crucify Him! Finally, Jesus was received by many, and these people were rewarded for their response.

The act of receiving Jesus carried with it rewards beyond measure. He gave those who received and believed in Him the power to become the sons of God. Throughout the four gospel accounts, Jesus encouraged His followers to consider the Father as their own, as in the Lord’s Prayer.

This adoption was unique because it was a new birth through Jesus Christ. Were believers adopted because they had been born into a special earthly family by blood? No. Were they adopted because other human beings chose them to be in the family by law? No.

They were adopted as children of the living God by the choice of God Himself for God Himself to love. There was no greater love than God’s.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Do you struggle with rejecting Jesus?

• Do you struggle with receiving Jesus?

• How would you respond to God’s decision to adopt you into His family?

Incarnation of Grace

JOHN 1:14–18

W hy did the divine, Trinitarian, fully God, person of Jesus Christ give up all of heaven to come to earth for His ministry and mission?

What was the mystery of the incarnation? Jesus was fully God and fully man. The Word became flesh linked verse 14 back to verse 1 by returning to the metaphor Word for Jesus and revealed that He became man.

The apostle John admitted that he had beheld Jesus for himself by seeing Jesus with his own eyes, eating with Jesus, walking along dusty roads with Jesus, witnessing Jesus laying His hands upon those needing healing, and later, watching the blood and life drain from Jesus’s body on the cross. This apostle first knew Jesus as a human being.

Yet the apostle had come to know about the divine Jesus. He was indeed the only begotten Son of God. In His human walk upon earth, Jesus was the epitome of grace and truth.

Through Jesus, John received grace (verses 16–17). This was not just any grace but a grace fulfilled through Jesus in place of a grace promised by the Old Testament. Like Genesis 3:15, Moses had passed down the law that told how to receive God’s grace through Old Testament animal sacrifices. However, Jesus brought God’s grace and truth through His sacrifice on the cross (Hebrews 10:10).

By the time Jesus came to earth, many religious people had made up what God’s personality was like. As the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and later the Romans conquered the land occupied by the Israelites, the understanding of the person of God had been blurred and distorted. Yet Jesus came to reveal God Himself.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Are you willing to turn to the Word to find life?

• Would you allow the Light to expose the darkness within you?

• Do you seek adoption into God’s family?

• Are you willing to seek grace and truth in Christ alone?

• Do you admit your need to turn to Jesus to know God?

Child of Promise

MATTHEW 1:1–5

M atthew’s account reached into the history of God’s messianic promise and focused on Jesus being the fulfillment of hopes. Jesus’s genealogy centered upon two major covenants: Abrahamic and Davidic.

When God established His covenant with Abraham, He had promised the patriarch, And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:3 KJV). At the time, Abraham only hoped to have a son as an heir. He did not understand God’s plan reached down through history to change the world.

Even those of other religions expected the coming Messiah. Balaam prophesied, There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel (Numbers 24:17 KJV). Thus, God’s plan provided a Messiah for the whole world.

As Jacob lay dying, he foretold the coming Messiah: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be (Genesis 49:10 KJV).

The promise was about redemption of all (Genesis 38). Seeking her own style of justice, Tamar posed as a prostitute and conceived twin boys by Judah. The event changed Judah as he began to take responsibility for others and provided justice for those around him. Tamar was the first non-Hebrew mentioned in the lineage of Jesus. Later, God chose a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab because she went one step beyond to trust all to the hands of God’s followers. Next, God placed the Moabite widow Ruth in Jesus’s genealogy due the commitment she made before she ever saw Boaz: Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16 KJV).

Little did these three non-Hebrew women know at the time, but they would be included in the genealogy of the fulfillment of the promises. Why? This Child of Promise would be for all the world.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Have you ever considered that you also need the Child of Promise?

• Do you understand that God so loved the world long before those five words were ever written down?

Child of Hope

MATTHEW 1:6–17

I f Abraham’s offspring was to be the child of promise for the whole world, David’s offspring would be the child of hope in the darkest of days (1 Chronicles 17:13–14 KJV). God did not choose a perfect lineage into which to bring forth the Messiah (2 Samuel 12). In fact, even in the first-century Holy Land, Bathsheba’s name was still too uncomfortable to be written by Matthew. She needed a Messiah for her messed-up life. God’s promise to David also became Bathsheba’s hope.

With each generation after David, the questions were always: Is this the One? Is this the Messiah? Yet, the answer had always been, No. Solomon’s heart wandered after the false gods of his harem. Rehoboam’s arrogance caused rebellion. Abijah’s revival failed to remove idols. Asa and Jehoshaphat campaigned against idolatry, but ungodly alliances with neighboring nations showed they did not trust God. Jehoram married the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and she tainted his reign with ill advice.

After centuries, the Davidic lineage seemed to have forgotten who gave the messianic Promise. Uzziah offended God by offering the sacrifice himself. Jotham wavered in trust for God. Ahaz offered one of his sons as a sacrifice to Molech. Although Hezekiah was one of the best, his son Manasseh was among the worst, and his grandson Amon was the most evil. Then, Josiah went to war when God told him not to do so. The Messiah had been promised, and the reason was clear.

From the promise to David until Jesus was about one thousand years. Many people had placed their faith in those promises. The time came when the messianic Hope was all some had left of their faith. In the darkest days of human history, God chose to keep His promise, to answer the hope of all the people of the world, and to send the Messiah—His only begotten Son.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Have you ever thought Jesus was plan B or C?

• Do you lose hope and drift away from God?

• Have your days become so dark only God’s intervention can make things right?

• Do you realize God’s plan all along was to send Jesus?

The Forerunner Cometh

LUKE 1:5–17

A s God prepared to do something new, He repeated something He had done a few times in the Old Testament by granting a child to a barren couple. God had blessed Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and, Manoah and his wife with children in their old age.

As a priest of the order of Abijah, Zechariah was among the most faithful servants of God. His wife Elisabeth’s lineage could be traced all the way back to Aaron, the first high priest. Despite service to God, they had only one unanswered prayer on their list.

So, on this day, Zechariah went inside the temple while everyone else stayed outside praying. As Zechariah began to tend the altar, an angel of the Lord appeared next to it.

Recognizing Zechariah’s fear, the angel comforted him with three quick statements. God had not ignored Zechariah and Elisabeth in their prayers, and He was ready to answer. God’s answer was yes. Elisabeth would become pregnant. Since he would a special gift from God, the child’s name would be John.

Although the Jews were living under the iron heel of the Roman Empire, John would be a spiritual warrior, great in the eyes of God, and filled with the Holy Ghost, even as an embryo.

The angel stated John’s God-given spiritual mission would have two parts. First, John would turn the hearts and souls of many of his fellow Jews back to almighty God. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, John would be accompanied by mighty deeds of God, which would cause many to repent of their sins and return to the holy path of God.

The second part of John’s life purpose would fulfill the Isaiah 40:3 prophecy. He would prepare the way of the Lord. Being a student of the Bible, Zechariah knew this meant the long-desired Messiah’s arrival would not be far behind his son’s. John would be the promised forerunner signaling the Anointed One of God was coming.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Have you prayed and wondered if God heard you?

• Has God answered greater than what you requested?

• Do you realize your purpose is to point to Jesus?

The Silent Witness

LUKE 1:18–25

E ncountering an angel of the Lord while tending the incense altar inside the temple’s sanctuary, Zechariah experienced what no one would have expected. Surely, he would have been exhilarated. Or would he?

Despite all his years of studying scripture and applying it to his daily walk, Zechariah lacked one thing in his relationship with almighty God. He did not possess unquestioning faith. As the angel finished, doubt manifested within this most faithful of priests. Instead of praising God, he questioned the message. Zechariah became proof that being faithful was not synonymous with having faith.

Zechariah could not find the faith to believe the God he had served so faithfully was greater than his circumstances. For all he had learned in studying and applying scripture, he had no faith equal to the message he had just heard from the angel.

As Gabriel finished his God-sent message and speechlessness swept over Zechariah, God’s reality must have consumed the priest. He had been in the temple far longer than it should have taken him to stoke an incense fire. He knew the people outside waiting on him to finish would not believe him just as he had not believed Gabriel.

When Zechariah came out and could not speak, the people understood something unique had happened to him inside the temple, but they did not understand the gestures he used in his futile attempt to explain what had happened. In a matter of a few minutes, he became the silent testimony that God was working.

When the month of service ended for the priestly order of Abijah, the muted Zechariah returned home to his wife. When Elisabeth became pregnant, she withdrew from society for over half the term. Zechariah was speechless, and Elisabeth was hiding in her pregnancy. For five months, there was utter silence regarding the activity of God. Only two people in Judea knew what God was about to do, but the world heard silence.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Have you ever doubted God could do what He claimed?

• What if God’s testimony was silent from your life for nine months?

Child of Fulfillment

LUKE 1:26–33

D espite the silence of Elisabeth and Zechariah, God was neither silent nor absent. The pinnacle of history neared its revelation, and God worked every detail to provide the redemption for humankind.

As the betrothed bride-to-be of Joseph, Mary was already blessed to be engaged as most young women of the first century would have been. Now, an angel pronounced a triple greeting to Mary for being highly favored, living in God’s presence, and being chosen from all women on earth.

That final blessing hearkened back to the first messianic prophecy delivered by God to both Satan and Eve. Promising to ultimately defeat all the work of Satan, God said, And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15 KJV).

Hebrew women had clung to this promise that one day, one woman would give birth to the Messiah who would destroy all the works of Satan. As much as David’s line hoped the Messiah would come to the throne, all Jewish women knew one chosen woman would bring Him into the world.

In the pause, the young Mary feared Gabriel and pondered the meaning of what he had said. From growing up in synagogue, she had heard about angels visiting patriarchs and prophets, but she was neither.

The answer to her unasked questions had nothing to do with Mary or any favor she may have earned with almighty God. Instead, God had completed His timetable to send Jesus into the world according to His own promises ever since the garden of Eden.

God fulfilled His promise to bring forth a child from a woman without the help of any man. Jesus’s name, meaning God saves, fulfilled His promise to redeem the world from the clutches of Satan.

The greatness of Jesus fulfilled God’s promise in Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (KJV).

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Have you missed that Christmas story was about God’s promise?

• Do you realize Jesus’s First Coming fulfilled God’s promise?

• Do you trust He will fulfill each promise of His Second Coming?

The Handmaid of the Lord

LUKE 1:34–38

F or all the hope they stirred within Jewish culture in the Holy Land, these messianic prophecies had become little more than old religious tales by the first century.

On the surface, Mary’s response seemed similar to Zechariah’s six months earlier, but they were not the same. Zechariah did not question a biological process of childbirth; instead, the priest had questioned God’s ability to bring about His own plans. Zechariah had no faith.

Rather than challenging God’s ability, Mary expressed wonderment for how God would change the process her mother had already explained to her a few years earlier. Her fear gone, she was curious about God.

Gabriel introduced the person and work of the Holy Ghost. To Zechariah, the angel had stated that John would be filled with the Holy Ghost even in Elisabeth’s womb. Now, he informed Mary that the Holy Ghost would play a role in her conceiving Jesus.

Gabriel refuted any misconceptions that might linger about Jesus as Messiah. He would be more than just a fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies. Fulfilling the promise to Eve of a Savior would not be Jesus’s primary role, nor would fulfilling the promise of an Eternal King to David. Above all, Jesus’s ultimate title would be Son of God.

Yet, Gabriel had not finished with all he had been sent to tell Mary. The young virgin learned that her cousin Elisabeth was six months pregnant with a son who would become John the Baptist. Mary knew that her older cousin had been declared barren for years. The angel gave her this insight to prove that God could do anything He desired.

Having heard all the biblical stories from Genesis through Malachi, Mary understood that she had just received a calling from God. From the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish faith before her, she had learned that being called by God was both an honor and a responsibility. Like those before her, Mary submitted herself as God’s handmaid to the will and purpose of almighty God.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Are you in wonderment of how God will accomplish His will?

• Are you missing that it is all about Jesus?

• Do you follow Mary’s example of submission to God’s will?

Holy Ghost Confirmation

LUKE 1:39–45

M ary had encountered the angel Gabriel. Who would believe her? If she publicly declared the truth, many would call her crazy or claim she was a prostitute. Still, her heart burst with the need for confirmation. Gabriel mentioned her elderly cousin Elisabeth was pregnant.

As she entered Zechariah’s home, Mary gave the standard greeting one Jewish family member gave another. The words held no magic power.

As Elisabeth’s ears began to soak in Mary’s greeting, the unborn John the Baptist leaped in his mother’s womb.

One of the Holy Ghost’s roles established by God was to teach all things (John 14:26). Over thirty years before that role was explained by Jesus Himself, the Holy Ghost fulfilled His role in the lives of these cousins by moving one to speak truth and confirmation to the other.

As Elisabeth opened her mouth to speak, she could not have known what she was about to say except the words originated with the Holy Ghost. She used the same words Gabriel had spoken days earlier: Blessed art thou among women (Luke 1:28 KJV). However, Elisabeth’s blessing added that Mary was indeed pregnant. This information came by the teaching of the Holy Ghost since no one else on earth knew.

Elizabeth asked Mary why she came to visit since the courtesy visit should have been given by Elisabeth. Mary’s child was no ordinary child; He would be Elisabeth’s Lord.

Elisabeth was not the only person to know the truth from the Holy Ghost. Gabriel had told Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Ghost even in Elisabeth’s womb (Luke 1:15). The fulfillment of Gabriel’s words occurred as the unborn John the Baptist leaped at the recognition that Mary was pregnant with the Son of God.

Having hidden in silence since becoming pregnant herself, Elisabeth’s final blessing to Mary was also her own confession of her disbelief. Mary had believed every