Subject:

������� PROOF THAT YAHSHUA IS THE CHRIST ‑By Bertrand L. Comparet

�� Date:

������� Tue, 14 Aug 2001 19:11:11 ‑0700

�� From:

������� "Bob Jones" <[email protected]>

���� To:

������� "Pastor Bob Jones" <[email protected]>

���������� ����������������������������������

������� PROOF THAT YAHSHUA

��������������� IS THE CHRIST

�

��������������� By Bertrand L. Comparet

���������������������������������������������

�

���� As we approach the anniversary of the greatest day in all

history, the day of Yahshua's resurrection, it would be well for us to

give some thought and study to just what it is that we celebrate

with such faith and joy. What is the foundation upon which our faith

is built? What is the meaning of the tremendous events of that last

week in Yahshua's earthly life? What was accomplished thereby?

For the answers, we���� must look to both the Old and New

Testaments, for they are the parts of one book and each proves the

authenticity of the other.

�

���� We know the Old Testament is truly the inspired word of

Yahweh, because its greatest prophecies were fulfilled in the New

Testament. We know the New Testament is also the inspired word

of Yahweh. Its great events were those, which had been

prophesied in the Old Testament.

�

���� Remembering this, let us review the Scriptures dealing with

Yahshua's ministry and see just what He accomplished. I need not

review the fall of Adam, causing the loss of our original position in

Yahweh's plan. This made necessary a Redeemer for Yahweh's

children, eventually to be known as Israel, this is familiar to all

Christians. The Redeemer is one of the principle themes of the

Bible. Most of it in the Old Testament is not generally understood

because so much of it is stated in the form of symbols and ritual.

�

���� The first promise of a Redeemer is found in Genesis 3:15,

Yahweh had called Adam, Eve and Satan before Him to account for

their actions. Yahweh told Satan, "I will put enmity between thee

and the woman and between thy seed and her seed: He shall crush

thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Redeemer, who

destroys the power of Satan, is to be a descendant of Eve. The time

when He would come is not stated yet. It is obvious from certain

other verses of Scripture, that Yahweh further told them, in

considerable detail, that He Himself would be the Redeemer. He

would pay the price for us and the penalty of death.

�

���� Abel knew this, for he understood the necessity and the

significance of the blood sacrifice. In Hebrews 11:4 Paul tells us,

"By faith, Abel offered unto Yahweh a more excellent sacrifice than

Cain". You can't���� possibly have faith in something that you have

never heard of, so this confirms Abel's knowledge of the promised

redemption. There is also another clear evidence of this. Yahweh

had said, in the presence of Eve, that the Redeemer would be of

her seed or descendant, though He didn't specify in which

generation He would come.

�

���� When Eve bore her first child Cain, the King James Bible quotes

her as saying; "I have gotten a man from the Lord". In the original

Hebrew, what she said was, "I have gotten a man, even Yahweh."

Yahweh, as���� most of you know, is the name of our God. Eve

thought that her first‑born child would be the Redeemer, Yahweh

born in a human body. Well, she is not the only one who has hoped

for redemption before the appointed time. Note however, Eve

understood the Redeemer was to be Yahweh.

�

���� In further corroboration of this, the great prophecy of Isaiah 9:6,

which all agree refers to Yahshua says, "For unto us a child is born,

unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His

shoulders: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the

mighty Yahweh, the Prince of peace." In fulfillment of it, Yahshua

told the apostle Philip, recorded in John 14:9, "He that hath seen

Me hath seen the Father." It was not merely death alone that could

make the sacrifice, which brings redemption, for all���� things die

under the curse of sin. Emphasis was always laid upon the

shedding of blood, a violent death of the sacrifice, not the natural

death of ordinary mortality. In Leviticus 17:11 we are told, "For the

life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, upon the

altar to make an atonement for your soul." In��� Hebrews 9:22 Paul

says, "For almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and

without the shedding of blood is no remission."

�

���� The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were never intended

to be considered as sufficient in themselves. They were just

symbolic of the great sacrifice, which was to be made, not by us

but for us, by Yahweh. In the thousands of years this knowledge

was carried down from generation to generation, it

was heard by the surrounding pagan people, who lacked the

spiritual insight which Yahweh gave to His own people Israel. The

pagans wove it into their own pagan religions in a distorted and

parodied form. To the pagans, man had to make the sacrifice to

appease angry gods. Only in our own religion have we the pure

truth that Yahweh made the sacrifice to save us.

�

���� The great Patriarchs understood this. Consequently we find the

incident, recorded in the Genesis chapter 22, where Yahweh tells

Abraham to take his only son Isaac, and offer him as a sacrifice, a

burnt offering. Abraham cheerfully starts out to do this, not with the

grief of a loving father about to lose his only son, but with serene

confidence. When Isaac asked his father, "Behold the fire and the

wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham replied,

My son, Yahweh will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

Abraham understood the reality that Yahweh would provide the

lamb slain from the foundation of the world as the sacrifice for us.

Even in the symbol, the burnt offering, Abraham's faith was

rewarded. Yahweh did provide the ram, caught in the thicket as the

sacrifice, so this saved Isaac.

�

���� Yahshua's authenticity and authority as Redeemer depend upon

His being the one named in the Old Testament as such, the one

who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. He recognized this as He

always cited these prophecies as proof of His authority. Yahshua

opened His ministry this way, Luke 4:16‑20

tells it as follows. "And he came to Nazareth where He had been

brought up; and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on

the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered

unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened

the book, He found the place where it is written, The spirit of

Yahweh is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the

gospel to the

poor; he hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to preach

deliverance to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set

at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of

Yahweh, And He began to say unto them, This day is Scripture

fulfilled in your ears." At the very start, He quoted

Isaiah 61:1‑2 as His authority.

�

���� In John 5:39,46 Yahshua told the Jews, "Search the Scriptures:

for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and it is they which testify

of Me. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for

he wrote of Me." When John the Baptist was in prison, he began to

wonder if he could have been mistaken and

sent some of his disciples to ask Yahshua, "Art thou He that should

come, or do we look for another?" Yahshua again based His

authority on the Scriptures, for in the Matthew chapter 11 He told

John's disciples, "Go and show John again those things which ye

do hear and see: the blind receive their sight

and the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to

them."

�

���� Yahshua was not merely saying report that I do miracles, for this

would not have been proof. The magicians at Pharaoh's court were

able to duplicate a number of the miracles that Moses performed.

The things which Yahshua reminded them of were all mentioned in

Isaiah 3:5‑6 & 29:18‑19.

�

���� What Yahshua really was telling John the Baptist was, "John you

know the Scriptures, remember what Isaiah said, you see I am

fulfilling his prophecies. I need not boast of Myself, the scriptures

identify Me." In Matthew 5:17 Yahshua said, "Think not that I come

to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to

fulfill."

�

���� As Yahshua recognized, the proof of His identity and of what He

accomplished, does not rest upon His ability to perform miracles.

The shallow and unspiritual Jews constantly demanded that He

perform a miracle as a sign to prove who and what He was. He

always refused, for that would prove nothing. The

proof must and did consist in His fulfillment of those Old Testament

prophecies, which foretold what the Messiah, the Redeemer, would

do when He came.

�

���� Much of the Old Testament prophecy is found in its symbols and

rituals. For example, all of the great feasts or holy days were

symbolic of either the first or second coming of Yahshua. The

spring festivals were symbolic of His first coming, crucifixion and

resurrection. He fulfilled the reality, of which these were the

symbols, each on the day of the appropriate festival. The fall

festivals are symbolic of His second coming, for which we are now

waiting expectantly. We know that in whatever year He comes, He

will fulfill the realities symbolized by these fall festivals, each on its

own day.

�

���� The first of the spring festivals was the Passover, for the

salvation and redemption from death, Yahweh's deliverance of His

people Israel. This was so important that in Exodus 12:14, Yahweh

commanded that

celebration of the Passover should be an ordinance forever among

His people Israel. Clearly it symbolized the sacrifice of the Lamb of

Yahweh, slain from the foundation of the world.

�

���� The celebration of the Passover was first commanded when the

people of Israel were still in Egypt. Moses had performed many

miracles as proof that he was sent by Yahweh to command that

Pharaoh release the nation of Israel. Some of these miracles

wrought great devastation in Egypt, but still Pharaoh

would not yield. In Exodus chapter 12, Yahweh warned Moses that

He was going to pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the first

born, from the cattle in the fields to the first‑born son of Pharaoh.

The people of Israel would be spared if they would follow the

instructions, to kill and eat the Passover lamb

and put its blood on the doorposts outside their front door.

�

���� They could not just secretly eat the lamb while hiding at home.

There must be a public proclamation of their faith, by putting the

lamb's blood on the doorposts. By the death of the lamb they would

be delivered from death. It was by showing Yahweh that they relied

upon the blood of the lamb that they

would be saved. By eating the flesh of the lamb, they gained

strength for their journey out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. All

this is symbolic of our salvation and redemption by Yahshua upon

the cross; let's examine it in detail.

�

���� The lamb for the Passover offering was to be selected on the

10th day of the Hebrew month Nisan (Nee‑sawn), but not actually

sacrificed until the 14th day of Nisan. Yahweh instructed Moses in

Exodus 12:3,6, "In the 10th day of this month they shall take to

them every man a lamb, according to the household of their

fathers, a lamb for an household, And ye shall keep it until the 14th

day of the same

month; and the whole assembly (qahal) of the congregation (edah)

of Israel shall kill it in the evening." The Hebrew words translated

here, in the evening, actually mean between noon and sunset, or in

the afternoon.

�

���� Then Yahweh commanded Moses to tell Israel in Exodus 12:22,

"They shall take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and

on the lintel of the door of the houses where they shall eat it". The

flesh of the lamb was to be roasted and eaten with bitter herbs. The

families were to be ready to march out of the

land of Egypt immediately. This command further provides that not

a bone of the lamb may be broken.

�

���� So much for the symbol of the Passover, now let us see how the

reality fulfilled it. On the 10th day of Nisan, Yahshua was selected

for death, Mark 11:15‑18 records it. "And they came to Jerusalem;

and Yahshua went into the temple and began to cast out them that

sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the seats of the

money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And He

taught, saying Unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called

of all nations the house of prayer? But ye have made it a den of

thieves! And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how

they might destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the

people were astonished at His doctrine."

�

��� � On the 14th day of Nisan, Yahshua was crucified, the day the

Passover lambs were killed. In fact, He died at the very hour, which

was in the midst of the slaughter of the lambs. The Hebrew day

began at sunset. The night was divided into four watches of three

hours each. The day was divided into 12 hours,

beginning at sunrise, which at that time of year was about 6 A.M. in

our time. He was crucified somewhere around noon, the sixth hour

of the day in Hebrew time.

�

���� John 19:14, speaking of the end of His trial before Pontius Pilate,

says it was about the sixth hour. Luke 23:44, speaking of the time

just after Yahshua was nailed to the cross, also says it was about

the sixth hour. Since neither man carried a wristwatch, John

estimated the end of the trial to be slightly before noon, while Luke

estimated the crucifixion to be soon after noon.

�

���� All the Biblical accounts agree that there was darkness over the

land from the sixth hour (noon in our time) until the ninth hour, or 3

P.M. in our time, when Yahshua died on the cross. Remember, the

Passover lambs were to be killed between noon and sunset and

this was in the very middle of that period. John 19:33,36 records

that while the legs of the two thieves were broken to hasten their

deaths,

���� not a bone of Yahshua's body was broken, thus fulfilling the

rules regarding the Passover lamb. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul

reminds us that Yahshua, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

�

���� This sacrifice made for us by Yahshua was, in every respect, His

own voluntary act, even to the instant of death itself. In the King

James Bible Matthew 27:50, "Yahshua when He had cried again

with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost". This is not an adequate

rendering of the Greek, which says He dismissed His spirit, an act

of His own will. This fulfills His own words in John 10:17‑18, "I lay

down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me,

but I lay it down of Myself."

�

���� Since Yahshua's sacrifice upon the cross was the fulfillment of

the Passover, Yahweh expressly commanded in Exodus 12:14,

"This day shall be unto you for a memorial: and ye shall keep it a

feast to Yahweh throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a

feast by an ordinance forever." Perhaps you are wondering why we

no longer celebrate the Passover in the old way. There is a good

reason for this. The Passover, as the ordinance in the Old

Testament prescribed it, looked to the future, to something, which

had not yet happened. It was the believer's proclamation, "I believe

that my Redeemer will someday in the future, come and make the

true sacrifice for me, giving His life to redeem mine."

�

���� As long as Yahshua had not yet come, this was the proper form

for it. After He had actually come and given His life for us, we could

no longer say that we were still waiting for something to be done in

the future. To do so would be a rejection of what He had already

done for us. It was still to be an ordinance forever, but its form must

be changed so that it now recognized that our redemption has

already been accomplished. This is why Yahshua taught us the

new form of it, Yahshua's supper or communion. We���� still

symbolically eat the sacrifice for the nourishment of our spirit,

"Take, eat, this is My body." Matthew 26:26 and Mark 14:22. We still

symbolically proclaim our faith that by His blood we are redeemed.

Matthew 26:28 says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which

is shed for many for the remission of

sins." The form is changed, to show our recognition that our

Redeemer has already come and redeemed us. However, the real

meaning of the sacrifice is indeed eternal.

�

���� Yahshua's crucifixion came at the prophesied time. His ministry

covered three years. The Gospel of John records at least three and

possibly four Passovers in this time. The first Passover is recorded

in John

2:13‑25, which also records Yahshua's first cleansing of the temple

by driving out the moneychangers. John 5:1 mentions, " A feast of

the Jews; and Yahshua went up to Jerusalem". It is not further

identified, while it might be the second Passover, we can't be sure

of this. John 6:4 records what is at least the second and possibly

the third Passover. John 11:55 shows that Yahshua's last visit to

Jerusalem, ending in the crucifixion, was also for a Passover, this

was just possibly the fourth Passover. As Yahshua's ministry had

already begun before the first of these Passovers, either three or

four is consistent with the ministry of three years.

�

���� For the significance of this, let us first turn to the prophet Daniel.

In Daniel 9:26‑27 the prophet says, "And after three score and two

weeks shall the Messiah, the Prince be cut off, but not for Himself:

And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in

the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation

to cease". We know that the three score and two weeks, sixty‑two

weeks, or 434 days, had worked out correctly on the prophetic

scale of one year for a day.

�

���� The people of Judea knew the Messiah was due and were

restless in anticipation of their deliverance. This is why the Romans

were so worried about what even a small disturbance might cause.

As to the words, in the midst of the week, a week on the prophetic

scale being 7 years, then in the midst of the week, would be any

time after three years. As we have seen, Yahshua's ministry

fulfilled this. That He did confirm the covenant with many, is

proclaimed by Paul in Romans 15:8 where he says, "For I say that

Yahshua the Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth

of Yahweh. To confirm the promises made unto the fathers".

�

���� Paul shows us that Yahshua did cause the sacrifice and the

oblation to cease, as Daniel prophesied. In Hebrews 10:11‑18 we

read, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering

often times the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins���� forever,

sat down at the right hand of Yahweh; For by one offering He hath

perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now where remission of

these is, there is no more offering for sin." Although the Jews still

curse and revile Him, even they seem to have recognized the

futility of offering any more animal sacrifices. Nowhere in the world

today have they revived the ancient sacrifices.

�

��� � On what day was Yahshua crucified? This will indeed surprise

you. One thing is certain; He was not crucified on a Friday! Yes, I

know that nearly all churches celebrate Friday as the crucifixion

day, but they are certainly wrong. Note that the word Sabbath not

only means the regular weekly Sabbath Saturday, but it also means

several other holy days, which are expressly called Sabbaths in the

Bible. For example, let's take the New Year, the so‑called feast of

trumpets. In the Hebrew Leviticus 23:24‑25 reads thus: "Speak unto

the sons of Israel saying, In the 7th month, on the first of the month,

a memorial of shouting, a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile

work and ye shall bring near a fire offering to Yahweh." You will

note that this was on the first day of the seventh month; regardless

of the day it might be it was always a Sabbath. Let's take a look at

the Day of Atonement. In the Hebrew Leviticus 23:27‑28, 31‑32

says, "On the tenth of this seventh month is the day of

atonements: ye have a holy convocation: and ye humble

yourselves and bring near a fire offering to Yahweh; and ye do no

work in this selfsame day, for it is a day of atonements, to make

atonement for you before Yahweh your

God. Ye do no work, a statute age long to your generation in all

your dwellings. It is a Sabbath of rest to you."

�

���� The words holy convocation and Sabbath are practically

interchangeable as every holy convocation is a Sabbath. Let's take

Leviticus 23:2‑3 to illustrate this. In the Hebrew, it says "appointed

seasons of Yahweh which ye proclaim, holy convocations are

these: they are My appointed seasons: six days is work done and

in the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation".

�

���� The Passover began with the evening of the day of the

preparation. This is the day on which the lambs were killed and on

which day Yahshua was crucified. Nobody can dispute the

Passover is a holy convocation, a Sabbath, Leviticus 23:5‑8 makes

it so. Here is how it reads in the Hebrew. "In the first month, on the

fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to

Yahweh; and on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of the

unleavened things to Yahweh; seven days unleavened things do

ye eat; on the first day ye have an holy convocation, ye shall do no

servile work; and ye bring near a fire offering to Yahweh seven

days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye do no servile

work."

�

���� Yahshua was crucified on Nisan 14th, the Passover, the day the

lambs were killed. The next day Nisan 15th, was the first day of the

7 day feast of unleavened bread, a holy convocation or Sabbath

day. This was regardless of the day of the week on which it fell. All

the gospels agree that the day following the crucifixion was a

Sabbath. John 19:31 also mentions, that Sabbath was an high day,

not just an ordinary Saturday Sabbath of every week, but a special

Sabbath, a high holy day. It was a special day for it was the first day

of unleavened bread.

�

���� The next thing to note is that all four gospels say that Yahshua

was resurrected on the first day after the Sabbaths. Note that

Sabbaths here is in the plural. The King James Bible doesn't show

this, but in the

original Greek, all four gospels Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9, Luke

24:1, and John 20:1 show this. These plural Sabbaths shows Friday

was the high holy day Sabbath, the first day of the feast of

unleavened bread, followed by Saturday, the ordinary weekly

Sabbath. So, the Sabbath necessarily occurred on a Thursday, not

Friday. Note that if the High Holy Day Sabbath had fallen on

Saturday, this would not have made two Sabbaths of it.

�

���� Yahshua said in Matthew 12:40, "For as Jonah was 3 days and 3

nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days

and three nights in the heart of the earth." Nobody can make 3 days

and 3 nights out of the time from 4 or 5 o'clock Friday afternoon,

until sometime early Sunday morning before

dawn. Two nights, one day and a tiny fraction of another is all you

can count. However, if He was in the tomb part of Thursday, all of

Thursday night, all of Friday and Friday night, all of Saturday and

most of Saturday night, you have two whole days and part of a third

day, two whole nights and most of a third

night. He did not say that it would be 72 hours, so it need not be full

days and nights down to the very last minute.

�

���� We see that in His crucifixion Yahshua fulfilled, on the correct

day, all the realities of salvation and redemption of which the

Passover was the symbol. Yahshua is fully identified as the true

Messiah or Christ, promised to us in the Scriptures. We have an Old

Testament high holy day to consider, the feast of the firstfruits. On

the morning after the Sabbath following the Passover, each

Israelite was to bring to the temple some of the firstfruits. This was

in the spring when the grain was harvested. The barley ripened

several weeks before the wheat, so the firstfruits offering was of

barley. The offering was to be a sheaf of barley, containing many

kernels of grain.

�

���� This was a symbol which Yahshua fulfilled in His resurrection, as

Paul recognizes in 1 Corinthians 15:20,23, "But now is Christ risen

from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. But

every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits: afterwards they

that are Christ's at His coming." On the morning of the day after the

Sabbaths, the exact time of the feast of firstfruits, Yahshua became

the firstfruits from the dead. Note another thing, the firstfruits

offering was a sheaf of grain, containing many kernels of grain.

Yahshua also fulfilled this because at the same time, He also

resurrected many people. We read in Matthew 27:52‑53, "And the

graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept

arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went

into the holy city and appeared unto many."

�

���� The firstfruits offering was both a pledge that the tithe would be

brought into the temple when the harvest was complete and also a

symbol of that tithe which represents Yahweh's elect. In the

Hebrew they were called the qahal and in the Greek the ekklesia,

the called out ones, translated into English as the word church.

�

���� Was the resurrection something new and unheard of? No,

Yahweh had prophesied this in the Old Testament. In Hosea 13:14

Yahweh promised us, "I will ransom them from the power of the

grave: I will redeem them from death." How would this be done?

Isaiah 26:19 clearly prophesies exactly what Yahshua did, for it

says, "Thy dead men shall live: together with My dead body shall

they arise! Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is

dew of light, and the earth shall cast out the

dead." Truly, together with His dead body they did arise, when

Yahshua presented His firstfruits from the dead. Clearly He had the

authority and power to make and to fulfill His wonderful promise. In

John 8:51 Yahshua states, "Verily, verily, I say unto you: if a man

keep My saying, he shall never see death."

�

���� This is recognized and confirmed in the New Testament. In

Hebrews 2:9, 15 where Paul says, "But we see Yahshua, who was

made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,

crowned with glory and honor; that He, by the grace of Yahweh,

should taste death for every man. And deliver them who, through

the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

�

���� Some other religions have preached a form of immortality, but

only in a spirit world to which none of the dead could go. Also from

which none could ever return and where their life was really little

more than mere existence. It was not inspiring and they have had

few martyrs willing to die for their faith. Only

Christianity has the tangible evidence, proven by many

eyewitnesses, of the fact of the resurrection. Some 5,000 people

saw this over a period of 40 days. We have more than just faith. We

can say, not just I hope or I believe but, "I know that my Redeemer

liveth, and that He shall stand, at the latter day upon the earth: and

though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall

I see Yahweh: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall

behold and not another." Job 19:25‑27.

�

���� There remained one more spring festival to be fulfilled, that of

Pentecost. It was called in the Hebrew, the feast of weeks. As we

saw, the firstfruits offering was just a pledge, made before the

principal harvest was ripe. The wheat needed another month to

ripen, to be ready for the harvest. Leviticus 23:15‑21 gives the rules

for the feast of weeks. "And ye shall count unto you from the

morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of

the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even unto

the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days:

and ye shall offer a new meal offering

unto Yahweh." By this time the whole grain harvest was complete,

what had been merely promised in the firstfruits offering, could

now be fully given.

�

���� Yahshua fulfilled this symbol also, on its own day. When His

followers had seen Him with their own eyes after His resurrection,

they were filled with triumph and wanted to start their work at once.

However, it was not time yet, so Yahshua told them in Acts 1:4‑5,

"You should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of

the Father, which ye have heard from Me. For John truly baptized

with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many

days hence." The apostles were impatient and asked Him,

"Yahshua, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to

Israel? And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or

the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye

shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you:

and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all

Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."

Acts 1:6‑8.

�

���� It is not enough that they were now ready to be His witnesses. It

must be done in the way and at the time Yahweh had prophesied,

in order that it might bear the proof of its genuineness. Accordingly

we read in Acts chapter 2 that on the exact day of Pentecost, the

feast of weeks, Yahweh gave the fullness of His Spirit upon them,

the power to do what up to that time, they could only wish for. In

the resurrection they had seen the firstfruits, the demonstration of

Yahweh's power and that Yahshua the Christ was the one who had

it, the promise of what was yet to come. It was as Yahshua had

promised, and on the exact day when the Scriptures symbolically

foretold its coming, they received the power upon themselves. The

New Testament records they now had the power to heal the sick,

cleanse the lepers, even raise the dead, acting under the Holy

Spirit, which Yahshua had promised them.

�

���� We started out this lesson with the proposition that just the mere

ability to work miracles was not enough to prove the One who did

them was our Redeemer. There were many men in ancient times

who could do

things we cannot now duplicate or explain. Only the One sent by

Yahweh to redeem us could be the Christ. Proof of His identity and

authority, must be found in the prophecies in which Yahweh had

given us the signs which would identify Him.

�

���� We saw that Yahshua agreed with this. In John 5:31,36 Yahshua

said, "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is

another that beareth witness of Me: and I know that the witness

which he witnesses of Me is true. I have a greater witness than that

of John: for the works which the Father hath

given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me

that the Father hath sent

Me."

�

���� We have examined in detail the great prophesies in which

Yahweh had pointed out what the Messiah, would do and what He

would accomplish by it. We have seen that Yahshua correctly

fulfilled, even to the exact day when He did each of the works,

which Yahweh had set out for Him to do.

�

���� We have the proof in actual demonstration He is our Redeemer.

He has paid the penalty for us; He has brought us the gift of eternal

life and by His resurrection has proven it to be a fact. There can be

no possible doubt that Yahshua is in truth the Christ. Truly, I know

that my Redeemer liveth.