The Greatest Story Ever Told

Introduction

The Bible tells the greatest story ever told.

What makes it more special than any other story? Perhaps because the story relates directly to each one of us personally, yes, to you also.

It’s essentially a love story, but a love story with a difference because the object of the love, humanity, overwhelmingly rejects and even hates the lover.

The lover of humanity is God, almighty, omnipotent, God.

In this greatest story ever told, we dive into a summary of the past, present and future according to the wonderful story of the bible.

It’s a birds eye view, an overview of the beginning to the end.

Where does the story start and where does it end?

The story the bible tells is more and more unpopular today and this may be partly due to a general rejection of old, ancient, wisdom which is seen as irrelevant in this high tech, instant information world. Who needs the bible? is What’s widely believed today is that it’s only a collection of ancient fables and fairy tales. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The story of the bible is just as relevant, just as critical to the life of the individual today as it was thousands of years ago. The fact that we don’t believe that changes nothing.

It’s only when the bible is studied and learnt and all the pieces of its jigsaw are slipped into place that we see our own lives, our own destiny clearly.

Without the bible we’re lurching from situation to situation in life, not knowing, and, for the most part, not even caring about our eternity.

But what about the countless numbers who attend church every Sunday? Surely, they have a knowledge of the greatest story ever told?

Sadly, no.

Multitudes of people who regard themselves as Christians and regularly attend church, do so with an ignorance of the Word of God in general and a sketchy idea at best.

Across the world the most bizarre rituals and ceremonies are performed almost non-stop like Pilipino Catholics nailing themselves to crosses, parades of hideous idols and buildings ornately decorated in precious metals with equally ornately decked out priests, while the populations are in poverty, all in a terrible misunderstanding of the bible and the Great God Who inspired it.

Perhaps the most bizarre of these is more subtle, like the people who sit in a church pew every Sunday and have done for years but have grasped the message of God to man and have never read or tried and learn the bible.

On asking a bible question of one of these people one day I got the answer, “You can’t consider the bible, everyone has a different interpretation of it.”

What then is the basis for their endless church attendance? What doctrine, what foundation of truth is their church built on? Is it just a social get together to portray some sort of moral goodness to the world around them?

The bible to these people is a picture or a model of a baby in a manger and three wise men standing around it at Christmas time. It’s hot cross buns, fancy eggs, chocolate and egg hatching bunnies at easter time.

What a terrible mockery this makes of the greatest story ever told.

The greatest story starts in Genesis, which is, of course, the first of the 66 books in our Bible.

We start with what surely is the simplest yet most extreme, all-encompassing statement that’s ever been made.

Genesis 1:1,

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

We find a universe made complete and at that time was even more breathtakingly beautiful than the wonders and beauty of creation we see today.

When God created, He left a signature of Himself on that creation which absolutely proves His existence and displays the awesome power, might, intelligence and beauty that can only be denied by wilfully rejecting Him. Every man will stand before God without excuse one day because of this magnificent proof of His reality.

The fact that man has the freedom to totally reject God is part of the greatest story.

When was “The Beginning”? How long ago was it?

Our minds simply can’t grasp “The Beginning”. I can understand that infinity exists, but I can’t understand infinity. I can’t understand timelessness, eternity, yet I know it exists. I believe that God is eternal and therefore outside of our earthly time dimension, but I find it impossible to really grasp. It’s beyond my capacity, my limited faculties to grasp.

You can’t go back any further in our universe time than “In The Beginning”.

For as long as God alone existed, there was no time. And even that statement reduces our eternal God to time as soon as we used the word “long”.

The awfully pompous, proud, and self-assured scientist and evolutionist cannot possibly explain how something came into existence from absolutely nothing. As soon as we say there was a chemical, a gas, or a minute cell or piece of matter or a force, that everything we know came from we haven’t gone back to “The Beginning” yet no matter how many billions of years we attribute to that starting point.

Elohim is the human, Hebrew name that we’ve used to attempt to explain God.

The best we can do is understand that He is what’s known as a composite unity. That is, one God with three distinct personalities that can be apart yet are never separated. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is just as impossible for our human minds to grasp as eternity or timelessness, but we should never let our failure to understand what cannot be understood be a reason to doubt God’s existence.

God is completely whole within himself, and he’s eternal. He’s always existed, and He always will. He’s the beginning and the end, the Alpha, and the Omega.

And he’s the only one in existence who can be described this way.

The rest of us need a huge range of things to work in perfect unison in order for us to exist and to even take our next breath.

The most powerful human on earth is still at the mercy of his health and the environment that he lives within.

God stands alone in needing nothing, in being wholly self-sufficient. He certainly does not need man. He needs nothing from us. That simple fact can be very offensive to our human nature – that part of us that wants to be somebody special, somebody needed.

Although God certainly does not need man the undoubted and plainly obvious fact is, He wants man. Why? For His own good purpose.

So, in Genesis 2 we see that God created man.

In Genesis 2:7 we see,

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

God’s life became man’s life. God’s life was transferred into man.

In Genesis 2:9 to 15 we see God creating a spectacular environment for His beloved man. Man needed or wanted for nothing.

Could man have had the ability at that time to move between dimensions? Probably. Although God did not tell us that, there are hints.

Then, in Genesis 2:21 to 23 God makes woman from Adam and in Genesis 2:24 we’re given the formula for a sweet and fulfilled existence in the institute of marriage,

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

We also see even from that earliest account of mankind’s creation that God created man as a free will being. He demanded only one thing from the man, obedience to a command He gave in Genesis 2:16 and 17,

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Notice how the decision to obey or disobey was always the man’s.

This death would not be a physical dissolving of the material body and a ceasing to exist, a sort of wiping of the slate. This was a spiritual, never ending, eternal separation from the God Who created, while still being alive and breathing and existing.

In Genesis chapter 3 disaster strikes.

In Genesis 3:1 to 7 we read,

Now the serpent (God’s enemy, Satan) was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

They had it all, but it wasn’t enough!

We’re not going to delve into the details here of Satan and where he came from. We do this in our introduction and study of Genesis in the bible study. Here we’re telling the greatest story ever told and, in this section, we see mankind created innocent but not supernaturally righteous. Righteousness is a choice.

The story continues with the man and the woman banished from the garden, banished from the place of plenty to a new world of thorns and thistles and backbreaking work for survival.

In this we see that mankind must have complete, unadulterated righteousness in order to be in God’s presence.

In that defining moment, man had fallen into sin. But the ongoing consequences of that fall were worse, much worse.

Every human being ever born from the seed of the first man, of which there are no exceptions, would be born inheriting sin.

Effectively every man born of Adam, the first man, was born in spiritual death, destined to die both physically and spiritually in eternal separation from God.

Every human born now has a future of struggle, pain, and disappointment while alive in the body and a dark, foreboding hopelessness for eternity after the body dies.

No amount of good works or deeds or rituals, no idol, no longing for God’s touch can ever change that situation.

Man is eternally lost.

This is how the greatest story begins, in hopelessness.

But God, in His great love and mercy towards mankind, His precious creation, right from the time of that fall into sin begins a program, a program of redemption and salvation, a program that would take thousands of years to complete, but the first promise of that redemption is made in Genesis 3:14 to 15,

So, the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

This verse is the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, the Saviour, into the world and reveals the fact that now there is to be a long struggle between good and evil.

This is exactly what we find throughout the rest of the Scripture.

This was not a surprise to God. God knew that if He created a human with complete free will that this would happen, and He knew before the foundation of the world what would need to be done to provide redemption and salvation to His precious man.

The story continues with Adam and Eve’s first children, Cain, and Abel, who begin the inbred line of sin. We see Abel who, because of sin, makes offerings that are pleasing to God. He obeys Gods outline for suitable sacrifices. Cain does not. He makes sacrifices His own way, apart from God. Here is sin in its early outworking. “I know better than God.” “I’ll do what I want not what God wants.”

As a result, God’s displeased with Cain’s offering.

Instead of Cain simply saying, “Sorry, Lord, I’ll make it according to Your will next time.” He falls into a jealous rage and murders his brother Abel.

So begins the population of the planet always under the heavy, dark cloud of sin.

By Genesis 6:5 to 8 mankind’s evil and wickedness was universal and we read,

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

So, the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Although the fact of a worldwide flood is treated with ridicule and rejected today, in spite of a tremendous weight of natural evidence, it happened!

Eight humans only survived out of probably many millions that populated the earth.

God selects a man named Noah who was not a righteous man or a man without sin, but a man who simply believed God. Throughout the whole story these men of faith will pop up and God will work His will for mankind through these men.

On an ark, of which the dimensions and construction instructions were specifically given by God Himself, Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives survived the judgment of the flood with the seed of every creature that would repopulate the earth.

Again, the story of the ark is ridiculed and rejected in this so-called sophisticated age but when a person takes the time to explore the details it’s not at all the impossible event that most think it is.

From this core of eight people, Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives, God instructs them to multiply and fill the earth.

They don’t fill the earth.

They multiply alright but they band together into a huge single group. The entire population spoke one language and they decided to build for themselves a tower. We read in Genesis 11:4,

And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

In other words, “Let’s do the opposite of what the Lord told us to do.” Sin is always prominent.

The Tower of Babel represented the rebellion of mankind against Almighty God. It was Nimrod, the first world dictator, who led this movement. He was the builder of the city and the Tower of Babel. It was to be a place for him to put together a world empire that was in opposition to God.

But God’s wisdom and will always prevails.

He simply confuses their language. He splits the descendants into their own language groups so no longer are they universally understood.

They have no choice but to scatter over the face of the earth, just what God intended in the first place.

This is how this tower got its name, Babel.

Next the story takes us to another man who believed God, another man of Faith. God calls out this man named Abram, later to be called Abraham,

We read the account in Genesis 12:1 to 4,

Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

The fact that Sarai, Abraham’s wife was baron, unable to produce offspring did not deter Abraham’s belief in what God promised.

We read in Genesis 17:1 to 14 how God promised set Abraham and his future descendants aside as a special privileged nation,

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:

“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.

Also, I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.

He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.

He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

God then changes Abraham’s wife’s name to Sarah and promises this to her in Genesis 17:16,

“And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”

Only by God’s almighty power could a man of one hundred years old father a child by his 90-year-old wife, who, by the way, has never been able to bear children.

The child did come and was named Issac.

So many fascinating details occur and the promised son is born.

And then the story takes dramatic turn in Genesis 22:1 and 2,

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Then He (God) said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

In the details of the story, we find Abrahams belief in God and His promises so complete that he realises God must intervene in some way or resurrect Issac because He has promised to make Abraham’s descendants as many as the dust of the earth and Issac’s the only one through whom that promised can be realised. He’s the only son.

Abraham is obedient to God, fully persuaded and fully believing in God’s promises.

God intervenes in the sacrifice and Issac lives and God accounts Abraham’s faith as righteousness setting a stage for a righteousness that would eventually come to be offered to all men through the same avenue, faith, believing that what God said He can and will perform.

This is a powerful prophetic picture of when another Father, God Himself, would provide an innocent Son who would be sacrificed on a cruel cross in Judea to pay the penalty for the curse of sin that infects every man.

Issac marries and goes on to produce Jacob, and, as in every other point of this story outline, Jacobs life is fascinating, twisting through many curves, through unbelief of God to final belief in his last days. All this can be seen in detail in our Genesis study.

Jacobs’s name is changed to Israel, and he has 12 sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. These are the 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

Joesph’s story is one of the great stories of the world within the greatest story.

Jealous of God’s obvious favour to Joseph and Joseph’s special place in Israel, Jacob’s heart, the other eleven let their jealousy turn to hatred and they plot to kill him. At the last minute they sell him to a band of slave traders instead and tell old Jacob that he’s been killed by a wild animal.

Jacob never gets over it but God’s hand’s on the situation.

In Egypt where Joseph was sold into slavery, his life proceeds through the darkest situations that always come out with him finding favour with the rulers of Egypt.

Then God gives Joseph the interpretations of a series of very troubling dreams the Pharoah, Egypt’s supreme ruler, is having. No one can interpret those dreams except Joseph.

The dreams relate to a coming severe seven-year famine that would arrive over the entire land and it would follow a seven-year period of great plenty.

Through the wisdom of God working in him, Joeseph advises Pharoah to build silos and barns and to take and store a portion of everything produced during these seven years of plenty and in the seven years of famine Egypt would be the nation that held all the available food.

Pharoah then makes Joseph the most powerful man in Egypt, second only to himself and gives him all power to bring these things about.

The great kicker in this part of the story is that Joeph’s father, Israel and his eleven brothers are convinced Joseph is dead, but Joseph will, in fact, save his family.

When the famine hits the family of Israel is near starving and ten of the eleven brothers travel to Egypt to try and buy food. Joseph recognises them although they don’t recognise him. A fascinating drama is outplayed which is one of the greatest intrigues in the history of the world with the end result being that the family of Israel, seventy people, come down to Egypt to live in plenty.

God had intervened through Joseph to save and prosper this, as yet, tiny nation that He’d called out for Himself.

Time passed and a new line of Pharoah took over the throne of Egypt and all that Joseph had done to make Egypt so rich and powerful was forgotten. However the family of Israel grew and multiplied quickly and were soon so many that the Egyptians feared that they may try and take over, so they put the now substantial numbers of Hebrews, as they were known, into hash slavery. Pharoah even tried to cull their numbers by forcing the death of every male child.

The story takes another twist here with the birth of Moses.

To escape the genocide of the Pharoah Moses is placed in a basket in a stream and eventually becomes adopted by none other than Pharoah’s daughter.

Moses grows up in and under Egyptian influence but always remembers his Hebrew roots. One day he saw a Hebrew slave being beaten. He killed the Egyptian and then escaped to the wilderness in Midian.

In Midian Moses found contentment and a family and a wife. But God had other plans for this man.

In Exodus 2:23 to 25 we read,

Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

So, God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

God calls out Moses to go to the Israelites back in Egypt and tell them that God has heard them, and He’s going to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt and into a land of milk and honey that He had promised their fathers, Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

In the great book of Exodus, we see the amazing story of God cursing Egypt and the Pharoah as Pharoah refuses to let the people go.

Through a series of astounding miracles, including the parting of the Red Sea, the nation of Israel walk to freedom.

In the process God gives them a range of religious instructions as to how they should live and, on a mount, mount Sinai, God give His law to Moses on two tablets of stone. They’re told that when they obey God’s commandments they’ll be blessed and when they don’t, they’ll be cursed.

Also, a system of sacrifices is instituted to atone for the ever present, all-encompassing sin.

Even before the law was presented to them, while Moses was up on Mount Sinai with God, the people started on a pattern of disbelief and disobedience to God that’d be the hallmark of the nation right down through the ages, even to today.

They made idols of gold and fell into debauchery.

In spite of mighty miracles of God being a daily part of their lives, displaying God’s obvious commitment to them and to the promises He had made to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, they grumbled and failed to believe what was clear to them. That God was with them! They even said to each other that they’d been better off in Egypt!

Because of this incredible unbelief, what should have been a short journey to the land God had promised ended up taking 40 long, hard, plagued years. But God never left them!

In that time the ark of the covenant containing the tablets of stone that God had written the law on was built. A portable tabernacle was set up for worship to God and a priesthood was initiated from the tribe of Levi.

Every intricate detail would have ramifications for the nation throughout its history and into eternity.

One of the great prophetic events of history took place in these wanderings in the wilderness. The people were attacked by a plague of fiery serpents, deadly snakes, and God tells Moses this in Numbers 21:8 and 9,

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”

So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

It was a picture of what God knew would eventually take place where sin, in the form of the serpent, would be judged. Brass signifies judgment. The judgement would be carried out with the object of judgment, sin, placed on a pole.

For many centuries no one but God would know the significance of this sign until in the Gospel of John chapter 3 verse 14 we hear the words of Jesus Christ,

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

He, Jesus Christ would bear the judgement of sin, willingly, on a cross in Calvary.

But we’re getting ahead of the story.

Eventually, the nation moves into the promised land under the leadership of a God believing warrior named Joshua, and after yet more amazing stories within the story, the land is conquered by the Israelites where they settle and grow.

Each of the 12 sons of Israel were now tribes of many thousands of people, and every tribe had an allocation to the land given by God. Every battle, every hardship they faced in taking the land followed a pattern whereby when they turned to and trusted God they came out on top and blessed, but when they didn’t disaster befell them.

We then move through the story to where Judges are appointed to the nation by God, but the people would not listen to the Judges.

Around this period of the Judges, we have a small but incredible book called Ruth. The greatest story can never be fully understood until a person sees what this book contains. It is a beautiful and moving story portraying the role of the Kinsman Redeemer which is a picture of Jesus Christ.

The people began to cry out for a king, like the surrounding nations, which was not God’s intention since God Himself was their Lord and King. But eventually God gives them what they want in the form of King Saul, a jealous man whose pride is all important.

During this time a young shepherd is growing up who would eventually, through many more stories within the story, would become Israel’s greatest king, King David. God Himself calls David a man after His own heart.

King David is not sinless, and he is not righteous, but he has incredible faith in God. God is his primary focus and its always faith that accounts a person righteous in God’s eyes.

With this commitment to God, and relying on God’s constant forgiveness the nation of Israel flourishes under Davids rule.

It becomes a nation feared by all around who would be potential enemies. It becomes prosperous and strong and David rules the kingdom of Israel in strength and under a righteous, just rule from the city of Jerusalem.

David’s favour with the Lord is highlighted when in the Book of 2nd Samuel, God makes a profound promise to King David regarding a descendant who will rule forever. Let’s read it in 2nd Samuel 7:12 to 16,

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.

But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”

This is the promise of a kingdom, a great kingdom, where a descendant of David would sit on David’s throne ruling forever. This descendant would be none other than the Lord, Jesus Christ, who would come centuries later.

The best was yet to come for Israel as David dies and the kingdom rule is passed on to Solomon, Davids son.

Based on the rich foundations laid by David and under Solomons mighty wisdom, which came from God, the kingdom of Israel becomes more than just great. It is spectacular! Especially because one of God’s promises to Abraham is being fulfilled and that is that through his descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

The nation of Israel, under the rule of King Solomon is the light of God to all nations and nations flock to Jerusalem to learn of God and His law.

For this short period in time Israel is, at least partly, fulfilling God’s purpose for them.

During this period of David and Solomon’s rules, David writes the majority of the Book of Psalms, displaying his great love, trust and praise to God and Solomon writes the great Book of Proverbs the book of wisdom.

Under Solomon a spectacular temple is built where not only Israel, but all nations come to learn of and worship God and to make sacrifice for the ever present sin.

After the death of King Solomon, the throne of Israel went to Solomon’s son and on down through descendant after descendant and the picture turns completely from the heady days of David and Solomon to an abysmal picture of incredibly evil kings and, apart from a very few good kings, the nation under this evil, unbelieving and God rejecting leadership, falls deeper and deeper into evil and unbelief.

Solomon’s son Jeroboam led a rebellion against Rehoboam, the son who became king of the nation after his father, Solomon’s, death.

This rebellion resulted in the division of the kingdom into two separate entities: the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

The consequences were that the northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian Empire.

Judah became a state of the Assyrian Empire and later the Babylonian Empire.

At all times a remnant of the Jewish nation survived in the promised land.

Prophets are sent by God constantly warning the nation of the consequences of their repeated departure from God.

Through prophets like Jeremaiah God warns Israel of their impending captivity if they didn’t turn back to God. They didn’t turn back to Him!

It gets so bad that the nation loses its status among the other nations and the people are taken into captivity and slavery and the city of Jerusalem and Solomon’s magnificent temple are destroyed, just as God said.

After the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity two men, Ezra, and Nehemiah, realising that the seventy years was completed and under the permission and blessing of Cyrus, king of Persia, rebuilt the city of Jerusalem and the temple with but a handful of faithful Israelites and under extreme conditions.

This decree of king Cyrus, to rebuild the city was given in 536 BC. It’s an incredibly important because it’ll be the starting point of a time period prophesied later by God, through the prophet Daniel, accurately depicting the coming of the Messiah who would restore the nation and a judgement of the entire world after which a glorious Jewish kingdom would be set up. The Messiah would rule over that kingdom.

The Messiah would be a descendant of king David, as promised by God, through His earthly mother Mary but without the sin infected seed of a male human.

Shortly we’ll see how, through God’s almighty power, the seed of the Messiah was God Himself, completely bypassing the sin nature of man.

The Messiah will come being fully man and a descendant of king David through His mother, Mary, and fully God through the inception of the seed of God Himself via the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Godhead, into Mary who was a virgin.

Mary’s husband Joseph will be the Messiah’s adoptive father but not His natural father.

It is the epitome of the awesome power, might and wisdom of God. Soon we’ll see what the point was of the coming of the Messiah and how you and I can be absolutely sure of Who that Messiah was and is.

As we move through the story we come to the times of the prophets when God sends prophet after prophet to Israel with promises, warnings, and instructions.

In the forefront of these prophesies is a sequence of events starting with the coming of the Messiah, then, God’s judgement on all unrighteousness on earth, ending with the judgement of the dead, and then to the setting up of a glorious Jewish kingdom over which the Messiah would rule, first for 1000 years and then on into eternity.

In this earthly kingdom Israel would again be what it was in King David and King Solomon’s time, a light to all the other nations of the earth, teaching them God’s ways, bringing them close to God and being the go between those nations and God.

Israel becomes highly religious and through various sects and religious groups adds many human laws to God’s law.

In their self-styled religion and their self-righteousness, they seem to fail to grasp the importance of prophesy after prophesy relating to the coming Messiah.

Oh, they believe the Messiah will come alright. They have faith in God’s promise of this along with coming judgement and the glorious coming kingdom, no problem there, but they miss vital, crucial details.

Just one of the many great prophesies of the coming Messiah is Isaiah 53 and just a small portion of the chapter, Isaiah 53:4 and 5 says about the Messiah,

Surely, He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed (healed of the disease of sin).

Israel should have but did not understand this, and prophesies like it, that depicted the death of the Messiah after He had come. A death that would be the one and only payment for the penalty of sin, which is death.

He would pay that price willingly so that all mankind who trusted in that act of incredible grace and love would be saved from the penalty of sin.

Now as a sideline to the story, when death is mentioned, this doesn’t mean the death and the turning to dust of our physical body.

Man is not just a physical body. Man is a spirit the same as God is spirit and we’re made after His likeness.

The real us, the spirit, the heart, that part of us that loves, hates, learns, feels, makes decisions, believes, and doubts is eternal. It will never ever cease to exist.

We’ll take all those things the spirit contains on into eternity when that spirit is separated from our physical body at death.

The question is where! Where will that spirit spend eternity?

For the person who hears this, the greatest story, and the message it contains, and does nothing more than believes it, the spirit will spend eternity in perfect unity with God, experiencing wonders and glory far beyond the human ability to define.

For the person who rejects the story and it’s message, the spirit will live in eternal damnation, never again experiencing another moment of good or joy or happiness. Instead, they will be forever locked in an inescapable environment of evil, pain, and torture.

Another of the great prophecies relating to the coming Messiah, His rule over this grand kingdom from the throne of David is found in Isaiah again, this time in Isaiah 9:6,

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Israel continues to fail to keep God’s commandments over and over again down on through history. The reason for this is that the law, given by God to the nation through Moses was never meant to kept.

Mankind, with his sin nature simply could never keep that law.

It was given to show mankind the great gulf between man’s righteousness and God’s. Whenever man made the pathetic claims that he was keeping the law he was openly admitting his further unrighteousness by his self-righteousness!

But during this time where God spoke to Israel through the many prophets God makes another promise through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:31. Here’s what He said,

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

After the Messiah would come and after the judgment of the world in the short, sharp, and terrible seven-year period of tribulation prophesied by Daniel, which we’ll get to soon, and after the kingdom has been set up on earth this promise to Israel will take effect.

The remnant of Israel who are left during that terrible time of wrath and judgment will have the laws not in the form of scripture but actually written on their hearts and minds. They won’t need to learn them; they’ll do them as part of their nature, but they’ll still do them.

Their sin will be paid for by the death of the Messiah, but they must also continue in the works of the law. They will, and they’ll succeed this time because those laws are in their nature, in their hearts and minds.

So, we continue through the story with many hundreds of prophecies being given relating to this coming Messiah, this awful time of judgment and wrath, and the setting up of a glorious earthly kingdom.

Eventually we get to the Book of Malachi after which there is a 400-year long period that God does not speak to mankind even though historically, many things happened in the nation of Israel.

Then the story opens again with the Gospel of Matthew, and you can go through our verse-by-verse study of this Gospel in our Bible study section.

Matthew opens with a genealogy, a long list of this person begat that person, but this genealogy is vitally important.

Matthew 1:1 reads,

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:

You see its proof positive right from the first verse that this Jesus is the prophesied Christ, the Messiah and He came through the line of David as God promised.

Right from the first verse and throughout the entire four books that we know popularly as the Gospels, we see prophesy being fulfilled in a way that makes it impossible not to recognise that Jesus, whose title, not His second name, is Christ, is that One promised for so long and in so much detail by God through the prophets.

The story now includes the greatest birth in history.

The only way to grasp it is to read it as God told it.

Matthew 1:18 to 25,

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (See “Jesus” means Saviour)

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:

“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us.” (time and again reference is made to the prophecy which spoke of His coming. This time it’s the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14.).

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

Herod, who was the puppet king of the Roman empire which ruled Judea at that time, heard the word that One had been born in Bethlehem King of the Jews. Seeing this as threat to his power he commanded a terrible thing by putting to death every male child in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions. This also fulfilled the prophecy of Jermiah 31:15.

But God intervenes and warns Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt, escaping the genocide. There they stay until the death of Herod.

The next person to appear in the story is a strange man named John the Baptist. His birth was also a miraculous one in that his mother, Elizabeth had been unable to give and then when she conceived John, she was beyond childbearing age.

John was the prophesied forebearer of the news that the long-expected Messiah had finally come.

He preached in the wilderness of Judea and performed the Jewish ritual of baptism for the repentance of sin, all the time announcing “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” The King, the Messiah was finally here, and the long promised glorious earthly Kingdom was imminent.

We also have another very important group entering the story here.

The super religious Jewish rulers, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. These were two powerful groups that opposed each other in certain things but who wielded almost complete religious power over the nation Israel.

When they appear before John the Baptist, John calls them “a brood of vipers”. They were hopelessly self-righteous and were convinced of their higher position with God because of their knowledge of and their keeping of the law. When John the Baptist fulfilled prophecy by heralding the coming of the Messiah, this religious hierarchy could not possibly accept that the Messiah’s coming could be heralded by a man like John instead of through them and their self-supposed high position with God.

As John was preaching one day Jesus walks on the scene for the first time.

John immediately recognises Him as “The One”. He comes to John to be baptized but John is horrified. “I can’t baptise you,” he says, “you need to baptise me.”

Here’s Jesus reply to John in Matthew 3:15,

But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

Jesus did not go through John’s baptism for the repentance of sin. Jesus, as the Son of God, God in the flesh, had no sin.

But from here throughout His entire three-and-a-half-year ministry He would time and again fulfil the law and prophecy.

Baptism was a Jewish ritual of law for cleansing and as part of the law Jesus must fulfil it.

We see this in Jesus Words in Mat 5:17 and 18,

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

He Himself was the fulfillment, the only One who could fully complete every letter of the law and that law must be completely fulfilled in order to both satisfy the righteous justice of God and demonstrate the He was far and away beyond and above any human ever born.

Even the most religious, the most diligent Pharisee couldn’t keep that law. Although they lived life portraying to others that they kept the law perfectly, within themselves they knew this was both a pretence, and a self-deceiving lie.

At this point in the story, it’s vital to understand the law and its purpose.

God knew full well that man, infected with the disease of sin, could not possibly keep the law. It was never given to Israel with the intention of it never being broken by them. It was given to show the complete and perfect righteousness of God.

A sacrificial system and a priesthood was given by God to regularly atone for sin and the breaking of the law because it could never be kept, except by a man that was born without the sin nature passed on from Adam.

That man now becomes the central part of our story. That man is Jesus, the Christ, the sinless Son of God. Fully man and fully God.

Jesus demonstrates the extent of the righteousness displayed in the law on what we know of today as the sermon on the mount.

In Matthew 5:21 and 22 He says,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old (in Exodus 20:13 in fact), ‘YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

See what’s happening? Jesus is placing anger with a brother on the same level as murder. Evey self-righteous thought, every attempt to do the works of the law are made futile and hopeless by that one saying of Jesus.

But, He goes on!

In Matthew 5:27 and 28 Jesus says,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old (in Exodus 20:14), ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.’

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

In addition, we have James 2:10 which says,

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

It should so painfully obvious just how far short of God’s righteousness sinful man really is.

Jesus astounds His listeners and His followers as He continues to openly fulfill hundreds, and maybe actually thousands, of prophecies that spoke intricate details of His coming, which, incidentally, were well known to the Jewish nation.

In addition, He heals!

Everywhere He goes, He heals and unlike the so-called healing ministries of today, all who came to Him were healed.

He heals the hopelessly sick and dying back to full health and he does it to many thousands. He even raised the dead. He miraculously feeds multitudes of people using nothing more than a few loaves and fishes.

He casts out demonic forces and speaks the Words of God.

Also, He repeatedly refers to the Kingdom of Heaven, that earthly kingdom promised to Abraham.

He speaks in many parables and each parable is a word picture of this coming kingdom.

There can be absolutely no doubt that Jesus Christ is the prophesied Messiah. In order to not believe this a person must knowingly and willing reject the evidence, which is exactly what the religious rulers and the majority of the nation did.

Israel, along with many of the peoples of the earth still reject that evidence today, but they must do it through a consciously made decision of the heart to reject what is so obviously true, that Jesus was (and is) the Christ, The Messiah, Immanuel, God in the flesh.

Jesus easily answers, from scripture, the repeated attempts by the religious rulers to discredit Him and Who He claimed to be.

Every turn of trickery and cunning they used to discredit Him and every plot they devised to trap and trip Him, Jesus overcomes with the magnificent simplicity of God’s Word and wisdom.

This infuriated the self-righteous religious rulers and inflamed their scorched egos to the point of hatred, and they began to plot Jesus’ murder.

Jesus spoke and ministered to crowds, many thousands of them. He also had hundreds of disciples or dedicated followers.

On top of this He had an inner circle of 12 disciples that were close to Him and who he gives the title of “Apostle”.

Apostle means one who is sent out; it is the word for an envoy or an ambassador.

Jesus was well aware that the majority of the crowds had no clue of Who He really was, even though they should have, and that they followed Him to either be a part of or to just watch the miraculous deeds He performed.

But privately to the 12 apostles of the inner circle Jesus asked this in Matthew 16:13 to 17,

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter (usually the spokesman for the group) answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

These apostles, even though they were common, uneducated people had seen enough and knew enough from the scriptures they grew up with as Jews, to be certain that Jesus was, in fact, The Christ.

In Matthew 10:2 to 4 we see who those apostles were,

Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

These 12 apostles are sent on a mission by Jesus, and we read about it in Matthew 10:5 to 7,

These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.

But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Contrary to what’s taught in many churches today and what’s believed by many Christians, this commission has little to do with our ministry in the age we live in now. It’s vital for us to know so we can understand the different ways in which God deals with man over different ages, and so we can truly know Who Jesus was, but it is not the church’s commission today.

It’s crystal clear that the twelve were sent only to the house of Israel and were specifically ordered not to go to the gentiles.

It’s also crystal clear that the message they were to preach to Israel is that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. The time of the fulfillment of the promises God made relating to this glorious kingdom is now. This is not what we, the Body of Christ, the church today are to preach.

So, here’s a question.

Why, did the kingdom not come?

John the Baptist, Jesus Himself, and the disciples all heralded that the Kingdom was at hand yet, after 2000 years it still has not come! Why?

Many in church circles try to spiritualise the kingdom by saying it’s God in our hearts, and it is here now inside us. It’s the Holy Spirit in us.

Scripture simply does not back this up. People either don’t know all the scripture relating to the kingdom or they purposely distort it to try and make it fit the way they want, and that’s very dangerous.

Leaders, preachers, and teachers who do this are causing awful confusion and distortion of God’s Word.

These sent out apostles were also empowered to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons.

In another warning, it is twisting the Bible when we say that these passages describe the church today. It’s so obviously not true. All but the deceived believe this is a picture of the church today.

Jesus told these disciple that all this was to be communicated only to the house of Israel. “Do not go to the gentiles”, Jesus said in Matthew 10 verse 5.

Another commission with a different purpose would later be given to these apostles.

Jesus told these 12 apostles this in Matthew 19:28,

So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration (that’s the refurbished earth, after it has reached the point of destruction at the end of this terrible judgement and outpouring of wrath on an unbelieving world), when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory (the throne of David in Jerusalem in the kingdom), you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Everything in this part of the story is relating to all the prophecy and promises God made to Israel and we see this right throughout what we know as the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.

It’s all about Jesus fulfilling prophecy and the law just as must be done and just as He said in Matthew 5 verse 17 and repeats time and again during His ministry on earth. Jesus, in that age and period ministered to Israel.

Now we take a leap over many of the details of the story relating to Jesus ministry on earth and land at the event that Jesus’ entire life was destined for. In fact, before the world was ever formed God knew that this event must happen if He was to save His precious creation from the power, the penalty, and the presence of sin.

He was to die.

We read in Matthew 26:1 to 4,

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples,

“You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him.

The hatred of the priests, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the scribes had reached a crescendo and for them there was but one thing that had to be done. Murder.

A key figure in this drama of the ages would be one of Jesus’s own apostles, Judas.

In Matthew 26:14 to 16 we read,

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.

So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

One of the many Jewish feasts that were celebrated regularly was the feast of Passover, which every Jew would diligently follow. They do even today.

The Passover remembered the night before the people of Israel left Egypt. One of the many plagues that came upon Egypt as the Pharoah refused to let the people of Israel leave was a curse that every firstborn of the nation would die. Pharoah had threatened the death of every first born of Israel and God, through Moses, had said that whatever curse Pharoah put on Israel would be turned back against him.

Passover remembered the night the death angel came to Egypt to enact out that curse.

The Jews were instructed to select and kill a perfect and spotless lamb for each household and spread the blood of that lamb over the door posts and lentil of every Jewish home. The death angel would pass over each door with the blood but visit each home with no blood.

Pharoah’s own firstborn was killed, and it was the final plague that convinced Pharoah to let the Jews go.

It was a deeply significant shadow of what would come centuries later with the death of another perfect and spotless lamb whose blood would be shed for the penalty of sin, death.

That perfect and spotless lamb this time was Jesus Christ Himself and He’s there at the Passover supper.

Jesus announced His coming crucifixion and death to the 12 apostles who were with Him at the feast. He announced that He was now about to die and that one of the 12 would betray Him.

Then as they were eating, Jesus announces this in Matthew 26:26 to 29,

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.

For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

What He did here was to announce the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31 that would be sealed in His own blood.

This is the covenant promise that God would write His laws on Israels hearts and minds. Jesus himself would not partake of this wine again until He came into His Father’s kingdom.

Sometime during or after this dinner, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet in a show of humility and servitude. Following this, Judas left to betray Him.

After the supper Jesus spent an agonizing time in prayer knowing full well what was to come. Part of His prayer is recorded in Matthew 26:39,

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

The fact that God the Father did not let that cup pass from Him shows how there was no other way that mankind could have redemption from sin but by the shed blood of the innocent, spotless Lamb of God.

Meanwhile the disciples had no clue and did not believe He would be put to death.

During this time of prayer Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, leading to His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The story from His arrest to His first trial can be told in no better way than from the scripture.

In Mattew 26:57 to 67 we have the account,

And those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. (This nighttime trial was illegal.)

But Peter followed Him at a distance to the high priest’s courtyard. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.

Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ” (Jesus had said this in relation the temple of His own body which would be put to death and resurrected after the third day.)

And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?”

But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”

Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! (What incensed them was that Jesus had placed Himself equal with God.)

What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”

Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands.

 

At daybreak, the Sanhedrin (the Jewish council) accused Jesus of blasphemy and condemned Him to death.

They bound Him and took Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, who questioned Jesus about His kingship and innocence.

Pilate found no fault in Jesus but faced pressure from the crowd.

During this time Judas Iscariot went and hung himself.

Jesus is then sent before Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who questioned Jesus. Herod mocked Jesus but didn’t pass a verdict.

Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate, the governor, who still could find no guilt in Jesus.

We see what happened next in Matthew 27:15 to 23,

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished.

And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”

For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy.

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.”

But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!”

Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!”

Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!”

What happens next is recorded in Matthew 27:27 to 31,

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him.

And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.

When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” (The account in John’s Gospel chapter 19 verse 1 adds that Pilate had Jesus scourged, an insanely cruel and painful whipping that removed the skin from the body.)

Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.

 And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

Then in Matthew 27:35 we see,

Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “THEY DIVIDED MY GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.”

Even in this horror, prophecy was being fulfilled, specifically here, Psalm 22:18.

In Mattew 27:46 as Jesus hangs in mortal agony on the cross we hear Him say this,

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Again, Jesus is using prophecy, Psalm 22 verse 1.

Why have You forsaken Me? The agony of this cry is massive.

The average man pays no thought to being separated from God or to the fact that he fully deserves God’s wrath but here we see One of the members of the Godhead, God the Son, in perfect unity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit being separated for the first time in eternity. That was the true agony of Jesus on the cross. When my sin is put upon Jesus, God has to withdraw. He cannot be in the presence of sin and Jesus is now made sin as God the father places all sin upon Him.

Our Savior had to be executed, sacrificed, and His Holy, sinless blood shed if He was going to take my sin and yours.

Finally, Jesus died, crucified between two criminals suffering the same fate. One mocked Him unceasingly, the other recognised that He was indeed the Son of God. Even here we see prophecy fulfilled. This time Isaiah 53:12 which says,

And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

He died, with His last words, “It is finished,” on His lips and an awesome spiritual transaction took place.

God the Father laid upon God the Son all the guilt and wrath our sin deserved, and He bore it in Himself perfectly and totally satisfying the wrath of God for us.

Many things happened at that moment, perhaps the most important was the tearing in two of the veil in the temple.

This was a huge piece of intricately woven fabric 15 feet high and 15 feet long and about as thick as a man’s hand breadth. It hung, separating the Holy of Holies in the temple. It was a barrier to God’s presence to stop entry into the Holy of Holies as no man with sin could walk into God’s presence and live.

As this veil was torn in two, it showed that up to this point in man’s sinful history access was restricted to God because of sin, but now, with the sacrifice of the Son of God finished, access could now be freely available to God by way of the blood of Christ.

As Jesus’s body was buried in a tomb, still more prophecy was fulfilled. A great stone was rolled over the tomb’s entrance.

Then we get this event in Matthew 27:62 to 66,

On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’

Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first.”

Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how.”

So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.

Three days later before sunrise, Jesus rose from the dead.

Again, the story can be told best from scripture, so we read in Matthew 28:1,

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.

When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’

And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.”

So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (that’s the day of the writing of Matthew’s Gospel).

The greatest story has its highest point here. Ever since the fall of the first man the entire world, whether man believed it or not, was heading for this event.

Jesus appeared to hundreds of people over next 40 days, convincing many that the Christ, the Messiah was alive. He had risen as prophecy had said all along and as Jesus Himself had said.

After those 40 days, Jesus ascending back to heaven.

Now we move to a period of transition in the greatest story, a period where God’s plan is to be put on hold.

The timeline of God’s great plan for mankind was that the Christ would come, the perfect man, all man and yet all God, and He would willingly suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin once and for all and to all who believed.

The nation, Israel would understand all this through all the past prophets and scripture and embrace their long-promised Christ.

Then Jesus would ascend back to heaven. And after that the Holy Spirit would be sent to empower the people to carry out Jesus’s commission to preach the gospel of the coming kingdom and to heal the sick and cast out demons just as Jesus Himself had done.

This has now happened but only in part!

What should not have happened was the nation, Israels, rejection of the Messiah.

The next event should have been a deep repentance by the nation, a turning back to God’s law and an acceptance of their Messiah and then the earthly kingdom would be set up.

This did not happen!

If it had happened, there would be a vicious and terrible time of tribulation on the earth where God, through Christ would revenge evil by sending judgment and wrath on an unbelieving, God rejecting world.

It was to be a period of time so terrible that much of the earth and its population would be destroyed.

Jesus tells us of this frightening time in Matthew chapter 24, The Book of Revelation and in many prophecies from the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit would be there to help believing Israel to weather the storm.

After this period of tribulation Jesus would return to the earth victorious after putting down the evil of this world.

Satan, God’s enemy and the deceiver, destroyer and murderer of mankind would be bound for a thousand years. The earth would undergo a massive restoration and Jesus would set up His rule from David’s throne on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

All this is according to hundreds of prophecies.

So, very obviously those events never happened and, as yet, still haven’t happened.

Why?

Well, God’s great timeline got to the point where the Holy Spirit came to the earth.

We see that in the Book of Acts in chapter 2 how the Holy Spirit came with awesome power on the day of Pentecost.

The nation Israel had rejected their Messiah but with the coming of the Holy Spirit more chances are given for them to repent of that rejection.

The apostle Peter stood up and speaking to all present, who were all Jews, he explained that the period that was now upon them was the period known as The Last Days.

He quoted from the prophet Joel, from Joel chapter 2, and the prophecy He quoted was the one concerning these events known as The Last Days.

We also see in this address, who Peter is actually talking to. Acts 2:14,

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.

He’s speaking to Israel. All these events are about and to Israel.

It’s important to see that because a large part the modern church today believes these verses are to and for the church today, but this is clearly spoken to Israel.

Like every word of scripture, it’s for us but it’s not a prescription for us to follow. We need to know all about it for our knowledge and understanding. We always should remember 2nd Timothy 3:16,

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This message from Peter on the day of Pentecost is a forerunner to the setting up of this promised glorious kingdom on earth.

Did God forget or ignore the Gentile nations amidst these dealings with His chosen people?

Certainly not.

Gentiles have always been able know of God, but it was always through Israel, the nation who were, or were supposed to be a royal priesthood, mediators between the nations and God.

The gentile came by way of Israel, and they would need the sacrificial system, and the law, just as Israel did.

After Peter’s speech, many of these Israelites were obviously deeply affected by his words and they asked what must they do?

Peter tells them in Acts 2:38,

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many of the believed on that day.

In the early part of the books of Acts we see the apostles preaching in power, but we also see a great deal of opposition to their message.

By Acts chapter 6 we learn of a faithful man named Stephen who preached in power and did great signs and wonders amongst the people.

Stephen is approached by a group who dispute all that he preaches but they’re not able to stand against the wisdom he preached.

Then, as is so often the case with those who disagree with truth and wisdom, instead of changing their views to embrace what he says, they plot against him and stirred up the people against him, especially the religious leaders who seized him and arrested him. You see, nothing has changed with this religious hierarchy in spite of the clear evidence of Christ’s resurrection.

They also set up false witnesses who said that he constantly spoke blasphemous words against the temple and the law. They said that Stephen had preached that Jesus will destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses.

Stephen makes an impassioned speech to these religious rulers which is actually a summary of the nation Israel and full of biting criticism of these self-important rulers who failed to recognise the Messiah when He came.

When he had finished the religious rulers were so incensed that they rushed him and grabbed him and took him out and stoned him to death.

This is an important part of the greatest story for at least two reasons.

It shows the constant, ongoing rejection of Christ by the nation and because of that continued rejection there comes a turning point in Gods program.

The other point of importance is the identity of one of these religious hierarchy that was there at Stephen’s stoning. His name was Saul.

Saul bought havoc to the Jewish church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. He was a ruthless protector of the old ways of the law. He was highly educated, very skilled in his knowledge of scripture and hated this new movement centred around Jesus Christ within the nation.

We now come to this transition where God’s timeline takes a detour.

What was intended to happen, was the setting up of the earthly kingdom and the nation of Israel restored to its former glory to be a light to all nations. But Israel had time and time again rejected not only the message but the Messiah Himself.

The setting up of this glorious kingdom would now be put on hold and an interlude would take place.

Although God full and well knew before the foundation of the world all of this would happen, this period was never prophesied. It’s as if God needed to offer the full promise He made way back to Abraham even though He knew it would be rejected.

Unlike the great magnitude of prophecy relating to the kingdom, Israel’s rise and an earthly judgement, this interlude was kept secret by God, it was a mystery, until right then at the time we’re talking about in this book of Acts period.

Now God would use the most unlikely of all characters to reveal this mystery to, Saul, the viciously diligent persecutor of the people who were “in the way” or the followers and converts to Christ.

One day as he was on the way to Damascus to continue his persecution, Jesus revealed Himself to Saul.

After a series of great events surrounding Saul, He is converted to the very way he tried so hard to destroy.

During this transition period of the Book of Acts we see Saul’s named changed to Paul and almost immediately he begins preaching Jesus Christ and His resurrection in the Jewish synagogues.

Many great things happened at the hands of Paul but were mingled with intense persecution and rejection of his message, no different than the rejection of the message from Peter, James and John and the other apostles and Jesus Himself.

More and more Israel rejected the message that Messiah had come, that He was Jesus and that He was resurrected and alive. James was executed, as all the apostles would be except for John who was banished to the prison island of Patmos.

Eventually the rejection by the nation Israel of the message of Jesus and His death for the sin remedy became almost universal among the nation. Many individuals believed but the nation as a whole did not.

As we see this rejection grow, we see the message, the gospel, of the coming kingdom, that was so strongly preached by the apostles, weaken.

At the same time Paul, who has now been made an apostle by Jesus Himself is given a specific ministry. Although he is a Jew and one of the most highly educated and devout Jews of all time, he’s given the ministry of the Apostle to the Gentiles.

Everything changes.

Jesus reveals a great mystery to Paul that had never been prophesied. It had been God’s secret from the foundation of the world, but it is now revealed to Paul.

This is the beginning of this interlude to God’s timeline, and it is known as the Dispensation of Grace.

Paul explains this mystery, now revealed, many times throughout the thirteen epistles he wrote to the church. We’ll look at one of them in Ephesians 3:1 to 13,

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He (Christ) made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;  to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

Therefore, I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

This new dispensation of Grace changes everything.

No longer is mankind saved through Israel and the priesthood.

No more is man to keep the law and the commandments in order to receive salvation.

From now on a man’s good works are not a requirement for salvation.

While this dispensation, this period of the mystery that Jesus Christ revealed to Paul, is in place, salvation to mankind comes one way and one way only. By God’s grace.

You and I live today in this wonderful interlude, where God is offering free and unconditional grace to all sinners who do nothing else but believe that Jesus Christ died for our sin.

To believe is called faith, which simply hearing the Word of God, and believing it.

Furthermore, this grace is offered freely to all people both Jew and Gentile.

This is a monumental change to the history of the world.

Paul’s entire message is to both Jew and Gentile, man or woman, no matter what race they are from.

Salvation is offered freely by God’s grace. Only believe.

The process for a man to be saved is now incredibly simple.

We hear the Word relating to God’s grace, we understand through that Word who Jesus Christ really was, God in the flesh, and then we believe what Paul calls “the Gospel” in 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4 and we read,

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures…

We understand that because Jesus Christ was sinless, not having inherited the sin nature from Adam like every other human, death could not hold Him and He was resurrected.

With His resurrection we who believe partake in a further part of this mystery now revealed. We become part of the Body of Christ. We are in Him and He in us. We are spiritually one with Christ, part of His body with Christ as the head.

This is what’s known as the church. It’s a collective of every believer in this age of grace being made a member of Christ’s body. Church, the real church is not a building. Church is not a ritual or a social gathering. Church is a living body made up of countless believers from the last 2000 years, with Christ as the head.

We cannot possibly fully understand the process that made this happen, but we accept it by faith.

The entire Bible is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. However, the part of the bible in which we find the doctrine and the instructions that relate to our time period today, this period of mystery, now revealed, this dispensation of Grace is Pauls epistles which are Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.

In Israel’s rejection of the gospel of the kingdom they have been bypassed, set aside and partially blinded to the truth.

This is not a permanent state for Israel.

Today, this great dispensation of Grace is the move of God that we, you, and I live under. God’s not judging the world today. He’s not bringing down His wrath on this God rejecting, unbelieving, increasingly evil world. Instead, He’s offering His grace to all who will simply believe.

God is upholding all things that make this world work and all things required to sustain life, but His dealings with man are only through this wonderful offer of free grace.

No wonder so many hymns have been written about this glorious grace of God by people who have seen it and experienced it from the heart. Amazing grace it certainly is.

With that grace comes riches beyond our ability to understand, not earthly wealth and riches but true riches that will last for eternity.

When we believe we have life, eternal life, and, the more we understand the grace we’ve been given the more we glory in God and the incredible lengths He’s gone through to bring salvation to His precious creation, you, and me.

This dispensation of grace is not permanent. One day, on a day completely unknown to us, this dispensation will end.

One day God will take the believers who are still alive at the time, off the earth into heaven in a great snatching away many people call the rapture of the church. There they’ll be united with every other believer who has died physically.

On that day, God’s great timeline will revert back to Israel and the law. Prophecy and the books of the bible known as the Jewish epistles, from Hebrews to Revelation will once again be the foundation of salvation.

Works of the law will be required again along with the belief and acceptance of both Who the Messiah was, Jesus, and His sinless death for the remittance of sin.

The new covenant prophesied in Jeremaiah 31:31, and which the Lord Jesus ratified in His blood on the Passover supper with the disciple 2000 years ago, will come into effect putting God’s laws on the hearts and minds of the nation. Gentile nations will once again come to the knowledge of God through Israel.

Accompanying the end of the Dispensation of Grace God’s entire attitude to man changes.

No longer is free grace offered and instead a great tribulation will begin on the earth where God will measuredly release His great wrath and judgment on this unbelieving, God rejecting world.

During this time the earth will suffer more than at any time before and billions will die.

Israel will be persecuted more than any of its past persecutions including the holocaust of World War 2. Only 1 in three will survive according to prophecy.

There will be a remnant of Israel that will believe, accept Christ, and repent, or turn around, from their rejection of the Messiah when He came. Many of those believers will pay for their belief with their lives.

There will a completely evil world government at that time and the leader, known by many names in the bible, but popularly called the anti-Christ, will demand allegiance from the people by requiring they be marked, and they cannot buy, sell, work or trade without that mark.

The Bible is adamant that to take that mark means eternal damnation. There’s no redemption or second chances once that mark is taken.

But God will also mark the ones who turn to Him in belief and through the great power of the Holy Spirit they will keep their faith even to death.

The Book of Revelation outlines the horrors that will engulf the earth during this period.

The Bible also makes it very clear that the church, the Body of Christ, that huge number of believers who trusted in God’s grace through the dispensation of Grace, will not undergo this wrath of God.

Any who are alive at the time will be taken off the earth to meet with the entire body of people who have died physically and there we will be with the Lord forever.

At the end of this tribulation period Jesus Christ returns to the earth in what we know today as the second coming. He will destroy very enemy, every unbelieving and evil person.

He’ll bind His enemy, Satan, in a way that completely prevents sin and evil from affecting this restored earth and it’s believing humanity, and He’ll restore the earth before He finally sets up His long-awaited Kingdom.

Israel will be restored with the remnant of believers under God’s new covenant where the law will be written on their hearts and minds. Performing the works of the law will be second nature and they will, like the dispensation of Grace believers, be free of the penalty and power of sin through Christ’s completed work on the cross.

There will be no unbelievers in this earthly kingdom of Christ.

The earth will be replenished and repopulated of people again and a great peace in perfect justice will be on the earth.

Christ will rule over the nations and Israel through the 12 apostles as He promised in the Gospel of Matthew. Israel will finally fulfil its original purpose, to be a light to the world and salt to the earth. They will be a holy nation of priests bringing God’s glory to all other nations.

This is the picture of the earth and Christ’s rule over it from David’s throne in Jerusalem and that picture will last one thousand years. It is popularly known as the thousand-year reign of Christ.

One more event will happen after those one thousand years of peace and prosperity and perfect, just government by Christ.

Satan will be released, and God will use his evil to expose the last people who will ever be disobedient to God’s will again.

After this time Satan will be cast into what the Bible describes as a lake of fire that burns forever and there will be a great judgement of every person who ever lived. Each will answer to God.

If a person is at this judgement, called the Great White Throne judgement, there is no hope. They will be judged with perfect justice and found guilty, and they will be cast into everlasting torment.

It will not be their evil deeds that will have put them there. It will be their failure to accept the blood that was shed by Christ for the penalty of sin. This has left them to bear that penalty themselves, and that penalty is death.

Not physical death. You see all but a few of these people have already gone through the doorway of physical death. This is what the Bible calls the second death, the state of eternal separation from God and everything that’s good or joyful and clean. The mere thought of such a destiny should be the cause for all humans to seek out God’s salvation by grace now while it’s still available.

After this Great White Throne judgement there’ll be a new earth and new heavens. The old earth and heavens will pass away.

Then there will be a new Jerusalem. The description of this New Jerusalem in the Bible can only bring a sense of awe at its beauty but we, in our sin affected state, have no capacity to imagine the true magnificence of this city.

This is now from where Christ will continue His rule for eternity, over this fully rebuilt earth that we can only imagine the beauty of, probably mirroring the Garden of Eden before man’s fall.

Time will cease exist. Eternity has no time and probably all the other dimensions we live in today will cease to be barriers to us.

We will be with the Lord forever.

This is but an outline of this, the greatest story ever told, and it would take many lifetimes to pass on all the things we’ve left out of the story. However, it is an overview.

Today, in this dispensation of Grace that we live in, we’re blessed beyond measure to be able to come and receive God’s grace freely, without adding anything at all, only belief, only faith.

We finish the greatest story ever told with the words of Paul from Ephesians 2:4 to 9,

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.