What  is  the  Messiah’s  Secret? 

A word was given to me in 1996 "The disciples were setting up the Kingdom of God at the beginning of Acts.'  What made this word stand out, moments before I was gently rocked in my chair from side to side, the chair did not move, the word then came into my mind. Two weeks later I received another word, I awoke with the word, " Jesus could only be received as the Messiah after his death, resurrection and ascension." 

The two words came together, the disciples were setting up the Kingdom of God in anticipation of Jesus' return soon after Pentecost.  

This word opened my understanding. 
What this word revealed I could not find in any of the books or concordances. The Holy Spirit opened up the Gospels, I wrote everything down under headings which formed the book. I had been taught like many others that the time for the Jews to receive Jesus as their Messiah was before his death on the cross and that Jesus was rejected by the nations leaders and handed over to the Romans and as a result he was crucified. Were you taught the same?

The Messiah's Secret Revealed

The time for the Jewish nation to receive Jesus as their Messiah was at and after Pentecost This understanding has been hidden, lost for centuries and as a result the Jewish people have suffered.
In November 2009 I went to listen to Singer Helen Shapiro she sang and also told us her life story. Helen is of Jewish decent born in London in 1946. At the age of six she went to a state school. She told us of how she remembered a child coming up to her in the playground and saying, ‘You killed Jesus.’ She was devastated and never forgot those hurtful words. In the late 1980’s she discovered Jesus as her Saviour and the promised Messiah to the Jewish people.   

Arnold G Fruchtenbaum also confirms that this teaching was widely taught and as a result the Jewish people have suffered.

Arnold G Fruchtenbaum’s Book “Jesus was a Jew” page 92 First Published 1981

“Israel’s objection to the Messiahship of Jesus is not so much an objection against Jesus himself as it is against the way his name has been used throughout Jewish history. For have not Christians persecuted and killed Jews for centuries? Has not the cross been a symbol of death to the Jews? Has not the church issued discriminatory laws against the Jews? Has not the name of Jesus been used to scorch Jewish homes and bodies? Has not in baptism been used in forced conversions to Christianity and as an excuse to separate Jewish children from their families? All of this is true and so is a lot more. It may be questioned whether those who perpetrated these atrocities were really Christians, but they certainly called themselves that.”                        

The Message of Salvation to all Nations 

On the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to understand the prophesies concerning his death and resurrection.

“Then Jesus said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ (Messiah) should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Luke 24: 44-47.

The disciples proclaimed for the first time at Pentecost that Jesus was the Messiah. The prophesies prove that it was in the plan of God that the Messiah had to suffer and die in order to be the final sacrifice for sins against God. God resurrected Jesus from the dead and in doing so fulfilled his plan of salvation for human beings and all creation.
(Linked with earlier blog "A Kept Secret.)

The Disciples were setting up the kingdom in anticipation of Jesus Return.
At the beginning of the Acts of the apostles Luke recorded that there were 120 people present in the upper room, this was the number required to form a town according to the rules of the Mishna, one tenth being the officers. Matthias took Judas’ place to make up the number to twelve, one tenth. (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible.) Before the Mishna came into being the oral law was in force that was passed on down the generations.
It’s no coincidence that the number gathered in the house were the exact number required to set up a community. The problem of being one short to make up the required number of officers was prophesied in the Psalm quoted by Peter. Acts 1: 20. Psalm 109: 8
Thousands of people became part of the community of believers after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

Watching for Jesus' Return.
Jesus hoped to return within the lifetime of the Apostles, but he also knew that it would be God the Father who would send him at his appointed time. Acts 1:7. Mark 13: 32.
"But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning- lest he comes suddenly and finds you asleep. And what I say to you I say to you all: Watch." Mark 13 : 32-37.

These verses speak for themselves in telling us that Jesus definitely was going to return, but at the Father's appointed time. Jesus left his disciples in charge of his business of putting in place the things that he taught them for forty days before his ascension concerning the kingdom of God.

Below are some important texts that confirm Jesus would have returned soon after Pentecost.

“For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here that will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” Mark 8: 38. 9: 1.                                                
                                                                                                                                               

 “The saying went abroad among the brethren that this disciple (John the Apostle) was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you.” John 21: 22, 23.

“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by his holy prophets from of old.” Acts 3: 17 21.

The times of refreshing, the eternal throne and kingdom of King David being established by the Messiah. 2 Samuel 7: 13, 16.

God had given a prophecy to the leading figure on the Jewish Council

High priest Caiaphas and the Pharisees brought the council together. They discussed the influence that Jesus had, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on thus, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” Caiaphas said to them, “You know nothing at all; you do not understand that it is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”

John the Apostle said, “He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they took council how they might destroy him.” John 11: 47-53                               

Confusion in the Teaching coming from the Chief Priests, Scribes, Lawyers, Rabbis, and Pharisees

God had spoken directly to high priest Caiaphas the main leader of the ruling council of the Jews and Caiaphas believed that the prophecy was pointing to Jesus; he was the one man who should die for the people. But he did not believe that the Messiah would come and die. The people had been taught from the law that when the Messiah comes he will remain for ever. John 12: 34 

Whilst Jesus was dying on the cross the chief priests and scribes mocked him saying, “He saved others but he can not save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Mark 15: 31, 32.

When Caiaphas and the Pharisees heard that Jesus had been raised from the dead surely they should have realised that God had given them a word of prophecy concerning the Messiah, in order to bring the nation to acknowledge Jesus as their Christ. Also when they heard the well known prophesies of King David that the Apostles declared in association with Jesus’ death and resurrection and the prophecy of Joel being fulfilled in the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2: 17, 21.Sadly Sadducee Caiaphas did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. The Pharisees their hearts were hardened.   Read Acts 2: 22-27

The Good News Message was first to the Jews. The Jewish people as a nation of priests in the plan of God they were to take out the good news of the Messiah to the rest of the World. Exodus 19: 6 Acts 15: 16.
John the Apostle wrote that as a nation they failed to take out the good news about the Messiah.
"He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become the children of God; who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God." John 1: 10-13          

Paul Proved that Jesus was the promised Messiah Acts 13: 13-52

The early church came together at Antioch and whilst they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke and called Saul and Barnabas to go on a mission. After they fasted and prayed they laid their hands on them they set off.

They sailed to Cyprus where John Mark joined them and assisted them. From Cyprus they sailed to Perga in Pamphlia, here John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. At Antioch in Pisida they went into the synagogue. Visiting Jews were often asked to speak at the service, to give news and words that would encourage the members of the synagogue. Saul or now called Paul (verse 9) responded to the rulers of the synagogue’s invitation. He stood up and beckoned them to listen. 
 “Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about 40 years he bore with them in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.                                                                                                  

Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour. Before his coming John the Baptist had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ “  Acts 13: 16-25

Paul stated that Jews fulfilled the prophesies as a nation when they handed Jesus over to Pilate.

“Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you that fear God, to us has been given the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognise him or understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him. Though they could not charge him with nothing deserving death, yet they asked Pilate to have him killed. And when they fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb. 

But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God had promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm ’Thou art my Son today I have begotten thee.’ And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he spoke in this way, ‘I will give you the blessings of David’ Therefore he also says in another Psalm, ‘Thou wilt not let thy Holy One see corruption.’” Acts 13: 26-35. 

Here Paul points to Jesus as being the promised Messiah, he makes it known that the rulers of the nation in their failure to understand the prophesies concerning the death and resurrection of the Messiah fulfilled the prophesies in Jesus. King David had prophesied that the body of the Messiah would not decay. Jesus was seen by first the disciples who touched his wounds, proving that he was not a spirit. Luke records that they saw he had flesh and bones, indicating no blood in his risen body. Luke 24: 39.

 Paul continued, “Let it be known to you therefore, brethren, that through this man’s forgiveness of sins proclaimed to you, and by him everyone is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the laws of Moses.” Verses 38. 39.

Jesus the final sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, Jesus has redeemed us from all that separates us from God. No sinner too guilty to be saved from all that we have done that has grieved the Spirit of God.

 Many of the Jews wanted to hear more especially the ‘God fearing men’ the converts to Judaism.  Following this on the next Sabbath almost the whole of the city came to hear the word of God. The Jews were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what Paul had said. This caused Paul and Barnabas to speak out boldly saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you the Jews first, Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” 44-46.

Prayer
Lord, thank you, that you have shown great mercy by bringing the Gentiles to know Jesus as our Saviour. Please forgive the occasions when the Jews, your people, have suffered as a result of our (the Gentiles) ignorance in not understanding the Hebrew prophesies.  The scriptures that reveal that the Messiah had to suffer and die, be resurrected and ascended into heaven before they and us could receive him as the Messiah. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Gossip the Gospel

 It is by telling the story again the events that took place surrounding Jesus’ ministry, his trial, his suffering and his death that awakens the soul of a person who is searching for the truth. The resurrection of Jesus is well documented by many witnesses. The coming of the Holy Spirit reveals to all who believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

The promise of eternal life in Jesus’ kingdom is a living hope, having tasted the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, the reality of Jesus’ kingdom is within the soul.                                                                               

There will be a change of attitude towards the Jews in the Millennium of Christ's reign.
"Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" Zechariah 8: 22, 23. (See blog ' The Third Temple.')