Jesus came to the Jews first, but the religious leaders of the day wouldn’t hear the awesome truth from Him so he went to share the Good News about himself  with non-Jews, the Gentiles.   He healed their sicknesses and diseases as He walked about the countryside.  People came from all walks of life and cities to hear Jesus preach teaching them new truths.  He healed their diseases,  mended the broken hearted and taught the spiritually blinded to see.   Physical healing was part of His ministry as well  casting out the demons that plagued mankind.   Jesus shunned popular applause, and desired as sincerely to reach the spiritually lost with the Salvation that He alone could bring.  

     This fact strongly proved that He was the Messiah foretold by Isaiah the prophet.  Matthew 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.   God sent His obedient Son to be a servant to the world, first to the Jew and then to the Gentiles.   He paid the highest price of all for our sins,  dying a terrible death upon the cross so that we might be saved.  His death, resurrection and ultimate ascension was witnessed by the disciples proving that we serve a live master not a dead one.  We know by the Word of God that one day Jesus will return for His bride the church of born-again believers.

     God was more than pleased with His Son Jesus.   Christ was a special  part of God the Father Himself yet Jesus Christ was his Son.  Jesus was a part of God yet separate from Him in human form.  Apart and the same in one Sovereign God.   Just as the Holy Spirit was part of Jesus Christ and the Holy Father as being God yet separate.  All three being the one same God yet God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.  

     The very Spirit of God would be upon Jesus as He strived to win  souls to the Kingdom of Heaven.   Jesus was more than abundantly qualified for the job at hand and would serve this  righteous purpose by  coming to earth as mediator and Savior to the spiritually lost.  When it says He shall show judgment to the Gentiles, the verse means that out of His heart and mouth the Lord shall bring eternal Salvation to all those who are lost, not just the Jews.   His great love through His Salvation was given to all  sinners everywhere who would repent and accept Jesus Christ, the Messiah as their personal Savior.

      Matthew 12:19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.   Jesus wouldn’t try to get men’s popular applause,  but  He choose instead to withdraw and seek sinners wherever he found them.  You see He didn’t come down from Heaven to become a flesh and  blood man for any earthly applause and reward.   He knew His reward would be in Heaven.  So shall it be for those of us who diligently accept His Salvation and seek His face in humility. 

     Jesus was sincerely and seriously striving to win souls out of His great love for all of us.  Recognition and power were of little importance to Him.  He behaved in a peaceful, quiet, and loving way striving to be in total commitment to the cause of God as Jesus went about His work diligently searching for those who would say, “Yes Lord we want you to come into our hearts to become our savior!”

       God’s Word talks about a bruised reed, “Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.”   People would bruise and eventually kill Jesus but no matter what they tried to do they couldn’t win in destroying Him or the truth that He brought, that He was the Son of the Most High God.   Jesus would rise again from the dead to sit on the right hand side of the Father to be the judge and mediator.  The light of  the world Jesus our Messiah, would smolder up into a tremendous flame igniting the world like no one else could every have done.  Spiritual awakening and revival around the world would bring many into His Salvation grace.  By faith we must believe and in that faith might we be saved through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

     In the Bible verse, “Matthew 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.”  The Gentiles (meaning nations of the world,)  would come to hear and know about Jesus.   Though all would not accept Him many would in time come to know and Love Jesus.   The more the Word of God spread out across the world the more people everywhere would come to trust their lives to  the Lord.  

     Why is all of this so important to me personally,  first and foremost I am a sinner like everyone else and not worthy of even the smallest crumbs that fall from the Master’s table.  There is no good thing found in me (or anyone) that has any lasting value or worth, yet because of that great love and sacrifice I was saved by His grace and many others as well.  How could I ever possibly save myself let alone hope to gain entrance into a sinless place such as Heaven except for the saving mercy of the Lord?  Nothing I could do or say could ever  approach the throne of  grace but for that wonderful saving, shed blood of Jesus.

     Secondly it’s important to me because of my background and where I come from.  Not all people who call themselves Christian really are and many are blinded about the truth.  Salvation through Jesus had great impact upon my spiritual life and the reality of His dying on the cross for my sins  meant the world to me.  

      I didn’t always know who Jesus really was and life was a struggle for me.   My family went to church and many a Sunday I found myself  sitting in a boring morning Sunday service having to be very still.  It felt like I was sitting at a library or ‘funeral’ where even the smallest  sound was considered annoying by everyone around you and was highly frowned upon.  Even fixing a collar or adjusting one’s hair was noticed.

     If a baby cried people would turn around and stare at the mother until she (out of embarrassment,) would take her baby and leave the church.  Sadly, the preaching even though filled with Bible verses and teachings, was just as difficult to sit through as well as the dead music and lifeless singing was.  People just read words from a hymnal without thinking about the words or striving to enter into the Holy of Holies.  Afterwards we would shake hands with the pastor and within a few minutes the church would be emptied of people.   There was no life and joy or praise,  just the feeling of death.   Cold, cruel death!   Jesus is alive so why were we sitting there as if He were dead with an empty feeling.  How many people’s minds were elsewhere but on the sermon?  I often drifted into day dreams and fantasies wishing I could be anywhere but there at those funerals.   God never intended us to worship Him in such a manner.   Didn’t King David dance before the Lord in joy and happiness?  Jesus is alive and we should worship with that great reality!

        No one ever talked about spiritual things in our home and the name of the Lord was only brought up when it was again time to go to church or we prayed before we ate our dinner.  My parents said we were Christians but Jesus Christ was not part of our daily lives.   My family had no clue as to who Jesus really was and didn’t show signs of having any spiritual relationship with Him.   They didn’t understand what being born-again was.   The Bible was just something to talk about in passing if ever it was talked about at all. 

      I don’t believe my family knew Jesus except for their weekly custom of going to church on Sunday mornings.  It was expected!  Jesus wasn’t Lord of our lives and for appearance sake, to the world we were Christian but we were not!  We had a form of Godliness but lacked there of!  How different things would have been if we had been.  

       I began to read my little black King James Bible at the age of thirteen.  I cried and prayed to the Lord to show me what I needed to know.  There was a time of great loneliness as my life began to change.  I was saved as much as I could be under the circumstances but without knowing that I needed so much more in order to fully surrender my whole life to the Lord.  It wasn’t until I was about 24 that I got down on my knees and said the Salvation prayer asking Jesus to forgive me for my sins and save me.  

     You see He was as real as possible to my understanding from the church training that I had but the fullness wasn’t yet there.   No one ever told me that I needed to ask Jesus to come into my heart to be my Savior.  They just assumed that because I was baptized as a baby that was all I needed to do.   It’s a personal decision for each of us to make and no one can do it for us,  we have to ask for ourselves, no one can do it for us and when we die we will stand alone to face God with what we have or haven‘t done or said!  

     I remember the blinders coming off of my eyes and I could see Jesus next to me as I prayed.   He became real and alive to me,  not just off sitting on a cloud somewhere looking down… but next to me.  Jesus became as real to me as any person could be.  I have felt many times that I could reach out and touch Him.  I can feel His presence and love right beside me when I pray.   Jesus was real and is alive!  From that day forward I have strived to serve him, believing in His Word and learning to spiritual walk in faith and His grace.

     In conclusion; Jesus was not coming as a mighty ruler to win power and man’s applause but men’s hearts with His love.  He sacrificed His precious life dying on the cross for our sins and three days arose from the grave.  He proved that He had power over the grave and that we can have eternal life with Him in Heaven.  How dear our Lord is and how wonderful that He looks past our sins and loved us in spite of everything when we ask Him to come into our lives to save us.  Jesus’ sacrifice was for all mankind and He came so that we might live!  I can‘t thank the Lord enough for all that He has done for all of us!