• Lesson 4 : Christology

      Jesus did many other signs other than those mentioned in the book of John according to John 20 verse 30 to 31 which says :

      30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

      31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah], the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

      This shows us that it is necessary for us to recognize Jesus as the Messiah for us to be saved, the Bible itself was written that we may believe that Jesus is the Messiah. The Greek word for Messiah is Christ and it is the one which is pre-dominantly used in The English Bible with the original “Messiah appearing only once”

      Most Jewish Writings are based on the Messiah, an example, the Talmud has a portion which says “All the prophets prophesied only for the days of the Messiah. And the world was not created but only for the Messiah.” In my all words I’ll compare this with

      Rev 4:11

      11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

      John 1:3

      3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

      One interesting passage about the Messiah is Genesis 49 verse 10 “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” The Torah itself bears witness clearly that every Jew must believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

      The word Shiloh there means “he whose it is”. So God was declaring that the tribe of Judah will reign until Jesus takes the Kingdom back to Himself.interestingly the word Shiloh in Hebrew is the number 358 and interestingly the Hebrew Masheach has the same value , this is so interesting that I had to note it down.

      Another Messianic claim about Jesus is found in Genesis 3 verse 15, it mentions the seed of the woman (Jesus) , crushing the seed of the serpent, this referred to Jesus Christ , he was born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1 verse 18).

      Looking at Genesis 9 verse 26, Noah blesses his son saying “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem”, where Shem Means the name. You know there is a lot we learn from this passage, we can interpret it in this manner: Blessed be the Lord God of the Name, that name , is the name of Jesus , the name above all other names.

      In Genesis 12 God made a promise to Abraham which is part of the sound of the Old Testament messianic claims, he said: UNTO YOUR SEED WILL I GIVE THIS LAND” Which seed is he talking about , he IS JESUS!

      Now it is impossible for the Messiah to come through any other Geneology since the lines of Ham and Japheth are out , zooming in to the line of Shem , we find that the condition is specific , it had to be through Isaac and not Ishmael , so all the Arabs are disqualified. Going on we discover that it is through Jacob and not through Esau , How specific the election is!

      Now concerning the tribe of Judah, Moses spoke nothing to do with priesthood, this agrees well with the Messianic claim that says Jesus is a priest after the Order of Melkizedek.

      It is important to note that Jesus was born in Bethlehem Ephratha, because there are two Bethlehems. Bethlehem Ephratha is the place, according to prophecy, from which the Messiah was to come.This was the place from which sheep for sacrifice were kept. Jesus had to be born where the lambs were born and had to die where they were slaughtered (Mount Moriah).

      Sifiso Mdluli and Francis Alick Kafula Lungu
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