Matthew 26: 59-64
At Jesus' trials.
Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death.
They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, and said, This man stated, I am able to destroy the Temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.
The High Priest stood up and said to Him, Do you not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?
But Jesus kept silent.
And the High Priest said to Him, I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God!
Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of Heaven.
27: 1-2, 11-14
Now when morning came, ... they delivered Him to Pilate the governor.
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, Are You the King of the Jews?
And Jesus said to Him, It is as you say.
And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not answer.
Then Pilate said to Him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against You?
And He did not answer him with regard to a single charge, so the governor was quite amazed.
Jesus never said one word in His own defense. He remained silent through all the accusations. They were not worth comment. As Isaiah 53:7 says, As a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
But when asked directly of His identity, He did testify to the Truth. When the High Priest asked Him if He really was God's Son, the Messiah, He answered with Psalm 101:1.
And when Pilate asked Him if He was a King, He admits it, and John gives us more of Jesus' answer to him. In John 18:36-37 He says,
My Kingdom is not of this World. If My Kingdom were of this World, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jewish leaders. But now is My Kingdom not from here.
Therefore Pilate said to him, So You are a King? Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a King. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the World, to testify to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth hears my voice.
Here's where Pilate asks rhetorically, "What is Truth?" because he didn't expect any answer.
Jesus had no need to argue with His accusers, so He just kept quiet. This infuriated them, so when He admitted to them who He is, they lost it and dragged Him over to the Roman authority who could authorize His death.
Then even Pilate was amazed that He wouldn't even try to defend Himself.
I need to remember this when I get defensive; to just keep my mouth shut, like He did. It never improves the situation to argue.
But when Pilate asked of His identity, He also admitted to him the reality of His Kingdom not being a part of this World system at all.
The god of this World is our enemy, who has blinded the minds of the lost so that they cannot perceive the Light of the Gospel of Christ (II Corinthians 4:3-4). So the Kingdom of God can have nothing to do with the kingdom of Satan. That's why Jesus answered Pilate the way He did.
When He returns to this Earth, He will completely destroy everything pertaining to this demonic kingdom of the World, and establish His Kingdom in righteousness and judgment.
Before He does that, He had to do the work of making us fit to take part in it. He first had to suffer and die. There's no other way to make us perfect and able to live with Him where He lives.
Next week we will remember His Passion, the passionate Love He showed us. And then we will celebrate Easter, the Resurrection Day! After the sorrow, we will rejoice.
After all the sorrow of this World, we will rejoice in the marvelous Kingdom of our Savior and Redeemer and King and Lord, and our Bridegroom.
He really does Love us passionately, as a newlywed groom is enamoured with his new bride, as He has called us His Bride. And the newness of the Honeymoon Period will last forever!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Luke 22: 1-6
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called The Passover, was approaching.
The Chief Priests and the Scribes were looking for ways they might put Him to death, because they were aftraid of the people.
And Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the Twelve.
And he went away and discussed with the Chief Priests and officers how he might betray Him to them.
They were glad and agreed to give him money.
So he consented, and began to seek a good opportunity to betray Him away from the crowd.
The Jewish leaders were really fuming at how Jesus was becoming more popular with His miracles and teaching the people, and doing all the things the Messiah, the King of Israel would be doing. They envied Him and hated Him so much that they wanted to murder Him, but were afraid that the people would riot if they tried anything.
Then when Judas approached them, this was their opportunity. He was an insider, who could turn Him over to them secretly, away from the crowds. So they negotiated and agreed to pay him the price of a slave, thirty pieces of silver (Exodus 21:32).
That's when Judas started to look for the right time and place to give Him up to the Jewish leaders.
(For a summary of the events of His last week, look at my blog entry, "From Supper To The Garden" on October 9, 2016.)
Jesus knew that Judas was planning to betray Him, and He even told Him the right time to do it, during the Supper when He told him, What you are doing, do it now, quickly (John 13:27), as soon as He gave him the morsel of food.
The other disciples didn't know what He was telling him to do, but he left them then, and wasn't with them when He made the appointment to meet with them in Galilee after He was risen (Matthew 26:32 and Mark 14:28), and for all the teaching He would give them on their way to the Garden (John 13:31-16:33), and His High Priestly Prayer (chapter 17).
Then He went into the Garden, and was arrested there. In that private, protected space where He liked to go to pray. That only an insider would know about.
O my Father, Jesus must have suffered so greatly with His betrayal by His friend, and the prospect of having to carry sin that was so repulsive to Him, and be separated from You, Father, for the first and only time in all Time, from Eternity Past though to Eternity Future. That must have wrenched His tender heart!
O Father, break our hearts for what breaks Yours! Draw us close into Your embrace; and strengthen us for the extreme hatred of the enemy against us because we are Yours.
And help us to remember that Sunday is coming!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Luke 20: 9- 21: 38
Jesus is spending this last week teaching the people in the Temple.
Chapter 20 has Him sparring with the Chief Priests and Scribes and Saducees, and Chapter 21 is on Last Things we are to expect before the Kingdom comes.
21: 10-15
Then He said to them, Nation shall rise up against Nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall be in the Heavens.
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for My Name's sake.
And it will give you opportunity for your testimony. Settle it, therefore, in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.
So before the wars and skirmishes, before the great earthquakes and plagues and famines, before the terrors and great signs in the Heavens; we should expect persecution.
We need to prepare ourselves now for what He says is coming, and is here already, so we'll not need to be concerned about the speeches we'll be compelled to give when we're called before kings and presidents to testify. The Truth is all we'll need.
So we need to be solidly grounded in the Truth before we're dragged away. And we don't know when that will be, it will be before all the signs given: any time!
If you have been following along with me on this blog, and taking to heart what I've been sharing, then you will have a firm grasp of God's character, His authority, and His Plan. And you will be able to trust His Holy Spirit in you to give you the words you'll need when you are the one they're hauling into court for what you believe.
O my Father, Thank You for Your written Word, and for Your Spirit in us to give us understanding of what You are telling us, and to apply Your lessons to our lives every day. Father, draw us ever closer to Yourself, building into each of us Your sterling character, as demonstrated by Your Son Jesus.
Thank You so much, Father, for showing me how to connect so many dots, to understand how this whole library of 66 books all tell one story: of all You have done to show us Yourself and who we are, and what You have done for us; how much You have loved us; and You made us to live with You, as Your favorites!
O Father, You will receive all the glory, all the honor, all the credit and blessing and riches; because You alone deserve it all!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Luke 19: 45-48
And He entered the Temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, It is written, My House shall be a House of Prayer (Isaiah 56:7), but you have made it a robbers' den.
And He was teaching every day in the Temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the Jewish leaders were trying to destroy Him,
But they could not find anything that they could do against Him, for all the people were hanging on to every word He said.
This is the second time Jesus threw out all the dishonest businessmen from the Temple. And with having raised Lazarus from the dead and then His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders were doing their best to try to take Him down any way they could, but they had to be careful, because all the common people were believing in Him; and they wanted to maintain their control.
So one day (Luke 20:1-8) when He was teaching in the Temple, the Jewish leaders, confronted Him, and they asked Him where did He get the authority to teach and do all these things--who gave Him all this ability?
And Jesus answered them with a question: Was the baptism of John from Heaven or from men?
He knew they couldn't answer that, because they didn't believe him, but the people did.
So they said, they didn't know!
Because they refused to answer, He did, too; He knew they wouldn't believe Him, anyway.
This was His last week to teach and share God's ways with the people He loved, and He wasn't going to take any guff from them. But He maintained courtesy and wouldn't put them down; He let them do it to themselves.
O my Father, please help me remember Jesus' perfect gentlemanliness in sparring with His adversaries. Keep me aware of Your presence and power to control my own tone of voice and words when adversaries confront me. Help me to always be Your lady with respect for myself and others, and let the base abase themselves.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
John 12: 12-44
Palm Sunday
On the next day (the day after Mary annoints His feet with the costly ointment of spikenard, for His burial) the large crowd that had come to the Feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
Took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! (Psalm 118:26).
Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. (Zechariah 9:9).
This was a very dramatic, almost theatrical, entrance to the city of Jerusalem, by the King of Israel, as the people understood, which is why they proclaimed Him so!
When some Pharisees who were there heard them, they complained, as Luke tells us, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But Jesus answered, I tell you, if these become silent, the very stones will cry out! (19:39-40).
And as He approached the city gate, He saw the city and wept over it (Luke 19:41), because He saw how the Romans will come in in A.D. 70 and raze the whole city to the ground, not leaving one stone upon another (19:42-44).
And all the people who had witnessed His raising Lazarus from the dead were telling everyone else all about what Jesus had done (John 12:17-18).
This was the last straw for the Jewish leaders. They didn't want Him to upset their little apple cart, they wanted to maintain their status quo; because their conquerers, the Romans, let them have their little fiefdom, and they liked lording their authority over the people.
If Jesus pressed His authority to be King over Israel, then the Romans would come down on them hard, take away all their authority, and destroy the city. Which is what happened, anyway, a few years later.
So all their scheming only bought them a little time. And the Gospel of the Kingdom got its start to spread over the whole World. God's Plan will not be thwarted by any mere men.
Palm Sunday starts Holy Week. We remember this week, all the sorrow and pain and suffering our Savior came to endure on our behalf. This week shows us how much God really Loves us.
John considered himself the "one Jesus loved." He is the one who was most conscious of how much God loves all of us, and he wrote that, This is what Love is: not that we loved God, but that He Loved us first, and sent His own Son to be the propitiation [the complete satisfaction] for our sins (I John 4:10), and that Jesus said, Greater Love has no one than this, that one lay down His life for His friends. You are My friends ... (John 15:13-14).
O my Father, as we consider the things that happened in history this week, that changed the course of the whole World; help us to be aware of Your great Love werewith You have Loved us!
Show us Your ways, that we will want to cooperate with You in how You designed the Universe to operate: to love You back, and to love others as You have Loved us. And to do all the things in obedience to Your rules of living, so that all our thoughts and attitudes and words and deeds would bring glory and honor to You, and show the World that You have sent Your Son to rescue them.
And we look for His return to rule in total Righteousness and Justice and blessings.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
John 17: 24
As our High Priest, this chapter records Jesus' High Priestly prayer.
Father, I desire that they also, whom You have give Me, be with Me where I am ...
Jesus came to this Earth as a Man to with us where we are, here. Now He wants us to be with Him where He is. This is why He came.
Heaven where God lives is Perfect. If He could let anything live there that has the least shadow of a stain of sin, then eventually it would get as bad as it is here. That's why He sent His Son.
So we need to be perfect to live with God in Heaven. The only way we can be perfect is to let the Blood of Christ splashed on His altar, the Cross, to wash us clean, pristine, as though we'd never sinned. To do that, He must be our personal Sacrifice, individually; to let Him take our place in death. Then He will give us Life.
He will wash us clean, and place His own Holy Spirit in our spirit to make it alive, as the deposit on the eventual Redemption that is now paid for. That Redemption will change our corporeal bodies into spiritual bodies, and we will be perfect, inside and out. (See I Corinthians 15:35-58.)
Then we will be fit to live with Him everywhere He is; in Heaven, on this Earth while He reigns, and in the New Heaven and New Earth where we'll reign with Him forever. This is just incredible to me!
O my Father, Your Love for me and for all of Your Creation has had You send Your own Son to be our Savior and Redeemer. So that Your own Blood, the Blood of God, was shed to purchase us and all You have made, to make us new; the old is passed away and all things have become new!
You are God, and everything You do is with a purpose. Nothing You do is vanity, it is all good and is part of Your great Plan of the Ages, that You planned out before You even started to create. You had us all in mind from the beginning, and You are sovereign in Your authority over us all. There is nothing I can do to have You love me less, or more. You are Love, our standard for recognizing what is love. You are Beauty, and You have put Your beauty everywhere, in everything and in everyone You made.
Father, teach me to worship You every day with everything I do. I don't want to wait until I am in Your presence to continually worship; You are here with me all the time already. Keep me focused on Your goodness and beauty all around me, giving You all the credit and honor and glory for it all.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Matthew 24
... As He was sitting on the mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, (#1) when will these things happen, (#2) and what will be the sign of Your coming, (#3) and of the end of the Age?
These are three distinct questions they asked Him, and He launches into His "Olivet discourse" of the future.
All of the signs Jesus said to observe are present in the World today:
- Various and sundry "Messiahs" who gather devoted followers;
- News of wars and rumors of wars;
- Nation against Nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
- Famines and Earthquakes;
But all these are only the beginning, the early contractions before heavy labor sets in. Then:
- Christians being betrayed, tortured, and killed;
- And hated, being called hateful by all Nations;
- False prophets rising up to gather followers;
- Lawlessness increased to where people grow cold to violence;
But the one who remains faithful and hangs on, he will be rewarded.
All these signs have been part of our societies and cultures, but there's only one more sign to be fulfilled:
This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole World as a testimony to all the Nations,
And then the End shall come.
The Good News of God's Love for us all will be shared with every creature, in all the Nations, to those of every people group and each spoken language.
Meanwhile, we are to expect to see the Abomination of Desolation that Daniel wrote about, the "man of sin," setting humself up as a god to be worshipped; and we are not to resist, but to run away, not turning back for anything. That's when the really harsh hard times will come, and it's a good thing that God the Father has cut that time short, to only three and a half years, or there wouldn't be any survivors at all.
So anyone who tries to tell you that Jesus has returned secretly is misinformed. There will be "holy men" who do miracles and wonders, and they will draw away many followers. But Jesus has told us ahead of time, so we will be on the lookout for these deceptions. So don't go with them even to just check them out, because they will be very seductive to trap even God's own people, if possible. So be fore-warned.
Know that when Jesus really does come, everybody will see Him, all over the World; there will be no mistaking His power and majesty and authority.
That's when the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars in the sky will be doing strange things, things they've never done before. It will be a Day like no other day that ever was, a Day unto itself (Zechariah 14:7).
That's when He shall burst through the clouds, His feet shall come down on that Mount of Olives, and it will split apart, making a great valley for the people of Jerusalem to escape through, away from all the Nations of the World trying to push them into the Mediterranean Sea. Their battle against the Israelis will shift to be fighting against Christ, Himself; and the Battle of Armegeddon will take place.
Then Jesus tells His disciples to, learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near; so too, when you see all these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, that this generation (those who are living through all these signs) will not pass away until all these things take place.
Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Words will not pass away.
So He's saying that the generation of people who are alive when all these things are happening will live to see the End! Will see His Glorious Appearing!
Although no one can predict the day and hour when this will happen, we who know what He said to look for and are aware of what is going on in the World around us should be able to expect Him in the year and even the season that all the signs point to.
Daniel wrote a pretty precise time-line in the prophesies God gave him.
We have today a society of people who are eating and drinking, partying; and marrying and having weddings, planning for the future; just like they were doing when Noah entered the Ark and the flood took them away.
So will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken (in judgment) and the other left (to enter the Kingdom).
Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
Those of the World who aren't in the armies will be living their lives as though life will go on forever, just like it always has.
So we must keep our eyes open to what is happening, fulfilling everything He said, today.
And recognizing that, as soon as the last sheep is found, the last person to understand what God offers and reject it; then that last trumpet will sound, and resound across the Earth, heralding the coming of our King.
And every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is our Lord and Christ, to the glory of God the Father!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
