Podcasts about perhaps jesus

John 8:9-11 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on, sin no more." Let's first get some clarity. The woman did commit adultery. That was implied in Jesus' remarks to her. Jesus didn't say she wasn't guilty. He said that He didn't condemn her. In John 3:17, it's difficult to know whether it is Jesus speaking or John commenting, but either way, the truth remains. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not judge them. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Jesus' judgment of the world occurs after His second coming. So the way Jesus responded to this woman is consistent with His purpose in coming. The apostle Paul understood this reality. He wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5. But to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. Do you get it? It is not our jurisdiction to condemn people. We are to leave it to the Lord when He returns. That's what Jesus was doing with the woman. He was waiting to condemn her until the time appointed by the Father. Psalms 34:21-22 comes to mind. It says, “Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” Perhaps Jesus could tell this woman was seeking refuge in Him, and He therefore fulfilled the Scripture when He said, “I do not condemn you, either.” In Luke's account of the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned” (Luke 6:37). That would be enough for me to turn and walk away. How about you? Let's check our hearts, friends. Is there anyone you are judging and condemning? These verses encourage us to have the same trust in God to make all things right and to judge all sins, as Jesus had in His Father. Jesus did what was in this woman's highest good. He didn't condemn her, yet He didn't overlook her sin. He told her to go and sin no more. What is your takeaway from Jesus' example and treatment of the woman caught in adultery? Will you refrain from judging others? Will you love them and encourage them not to sin anymore? We have good news to share. Everyone who takes refuge in Jesus will not be condemned, even if they are guilty. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:31-32 But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?” The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him. John described what the Pharisees heard from the people as grumbling or muttering. It's the same word used in verse 12, “There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, ‘He is a good man'; others were saying, ‘No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.'” The fact that there were many thinking favorably about Jesus was threat enough for them to take action. So they sent some temple officers to bring Him in. Again, the crowd was said to believe in Him because of signs. Although this event is at the Feast of Tabernacles, John 2:23-25 wrote of similar crowd response at the Feast of Passover, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.” The signs Jesus performed, which caused many to believe in Him, were acts of mercy. From this reality, I draw today's live to love encouragement. As Jesus lives His life through us, we may expect that He would continue to express His mercy to reveal His presence and love. Let's be on the alert for people who need to see and experience mercy. Perhaps Jesus' comfort or kindness or healing may encourage them to believe in Him. We may rely on the Holy Spirit to open their hearts and give them faith in Jesus. It is not our responsibility to discern whether the kind of belief of which John spoke regarding the many in the crowd was flesh-born or Spirit-born. True conversion will become evident as faith expresses itself in love for God and others. Our responsibility is to love in His name and give Him the glory. “Father, glorify Your name by loving through us today, and draw many to Your Son through us. Amen.” I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

Year C – 10th Sunday after Pentecost; Lectionary 20 – August 17, 2025 Pastor Megan Floyd Jeremiah 23:23-29 Luke 12:49-56 Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, who guides our feet in the way of true and costly peace. Amen. *** So… this is a comforting gospel passage. The word of the Lord, everyone… Thanks be to God. These words from Jesus we have read today seem so contrary to Zechariah's proclamation in the beginning of Luke, that Jesus will be the one “…to guide our feet in the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79)… They seem contrary to the words of comfort he offers his disciples… “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…” (John 14:27) Why then… why… does he say here that he does not come to bring peace… but rather, he comes to bring division and fire to the earth? Why? …what happened to Jesus as our good and loving shepherd?  …our strong vine… our bread of life? I love that Jesus… but I suppose… Jesus also said he is the way… and the truth… and the life. But following The Way… does not guarantee prosperity or health… following The Way of Christ does not ever guarantee that the path will be safe from outside harm. But if you value truth… and life… then the Way of Jesus is worth the earthly cost… it is worth the pain that can come when those you love… choose not to join you in your discipleship… …when they choose, rather, to cling to the systems of sin and oppression... to cling to hatred and bigotry… prejudice and violence… When they choose to cling to the very systems that Jesus came to destroy. Then yes… Jesus' words will cause division. Just as the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed… “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29) Do you trust the Lord, your God, to break what needs to be broken? Do you trust the Lord, your God… to guide your feet in the way of costly peace? Do you trust the Lord, your God… to break open your heart… and set your heart ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit? Do you trust your Creator? “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!” (Luke 12:49) These… are challenging words… but the Good News of Jesus Christ should challenge us… The Good News of Jesus Christ should provoke us to break down the walls of sin and shame that we cling to… The Good News of Jesus Christ must break us open so that the dawn from on high will shine upon us… and love… true love… God's true life-giving love… can grow. Jesus knew… that this Good News… was worth dying for… surely for us, it is worth the discomfort of being re-cast… re-molded… re-formed by God's love. Have you ever watched an artist blow glass? …whenever I have had the opportunity to witness this art, I am captivated. It requires training, skill, and strength… an artist's eye for color, shape, and detail… and a willingness to work with materials that could destroy them… molten glass… and raging fire. And yet, the artist knows that by pulling together all the broken pieces and subjecting them to the fire… and then by using the very breath from their own lungs… something new and beautiful will be made. Still… nearly every time I have watched glass blowing, I have seen them also break the glass. Sometimes on purpose because it wasn't working out like the artist intended… and sometimes it just happens. Sometimes, after hours of sweat and toil and love and care… the creation falls away and breaks. And the artist, too, is shattered… but broken glass… is part of the art that is glass blowing. Broken pieces… are part of the process of creating. Broken pieces are not the goal in glass blowing… they are a byproduct… Just as division… is not Jesus's goal or purpose… but division will happen because of his mission. Jesus' mission is to let the fires of God's justice burn… a refining fire that turns over our systems of sin and oppression… turns over our world, and upsets hierarchies we'd rather keep intact… And for those who cling to and benefit from sinful systems… who cling to and benefit from inequality and exploitation… Jesus brings a hammer to break them into pieces. But for those who are oppressed… hungry… exploited… victims of violence, discrimination, and abuse… Jesus brings a word of liberation and …peace. The peace that Jesus brings… is a life-changing peace… a truth-telling peace… It is a peace that breaks us open, so that we might be made new… refined by the fire of God's justice… and redeemed by God's love. And… we are ALL called into this saving peace through our savior, Jesus. But make no mistake… this is not a passive or gentle peace. It is not, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “…a negative peace, which is the absence of tension…” What Jesus calls us into is “…a positive peace, which is the presence of justice.” It's the kind of peace that comes when every mouth is fed… the kind of peace that comes when children are safe at school… the kind of peace that comes when tyrants are torn from their throne… the kind of peace that comes when all of God's children, no matter their color or gender or identity, can live and grow and thrive, free from persecution. Lord, “…let the fires of your justice burn… wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near…” And he said… “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!” (Luke 12:49) I said at the outset that these words seem contrary to Zechariah's proclamation in the beginning of Luke, that Jesus will be the one “…to guide our feet in the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79)… But …we often forget to include the line before it… verse 78… “By the tender mercy of our God… the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death …to guide our feet in the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79) The dawn will break upon us to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Perhaps Jesus' words for us today… are not so contrary after all. For God's word and God's promises come to us all… and it is joyfully good news to those who are oppressed… And for those who prefer a negative peace… who prefer the mere appearance of peace while others suffer… then God's word is a refining fire… But a refining fire can purify and make new… so indeed… Jesus' words are good news… if… if we are willing to be challenged. Jesus' words are good news… if we are willing to be provoked… if we are willing to sit in the discomfort of knowing that we have contributed to systems built on sin. But God's word can make us new… God's word can make ALL of us… new. So trust the Lord, your God, to break what needs to be broken… Trust the Lord, your God… to guide your feet in the way of costly peace… Trust the Lord, your God… to break you open and set your heart ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit… Trust your Creator… and know that real peace… the real peace that Jesus died for… is, for you… and it's worth living for. So let our prayers, both spoken and in song, be honest and true… Receive our prayers, O God, as we call out to you to break open our hearts… and bring us face to face with the fire of your justice. And we give you thanks, O Creator God, for your promise to pick up the pieces of our broken selves… and re-mold us into something beautiful… something crafted to shine your love upon others. We trust you, O God, we trust you with our lives. Amen. _______________________________________________________________________ Written with gratitude for the theology and commentary of Debie Thomas. (2019) MLK quote taken from “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” (1963)

Read OnlineThen Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Mark 9:5–7Just prior to the Transfiguration, Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He would suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, be killed and then rise on the third day. This caused much fear for the disciples as they grappled with this unsettling revelation from our Lord. And even though Jesus remained firm with them and even rebuked Peter for his fear, Jesus also gave three of His disciples a very precious gift.After much traveling, preaching, miracle working and private conversations about His passion with the Twelve, Jesus invited Peter, James and John to go with Him up a high mountain to pray. These disciples most likely had no idea what they would soon encounter. As they made the difficult and arduous journey, their minds must have been pondering not only the mighty deeds done by Jesus in the previous months but also His words about the suffering to come. As they struggled with this, much to their amazement, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared before them, representing the Law and the prophets. These two Old Testament figures appeared as a way of saying to these disciples that everything that Jesus was telling them was to take place to fulfill all that had been foretold about Him from of old. Perhaps Jesus thought that if His disciples would not fully listen to Him, then seeing Moses and Elijah would help. But Jesus went even further. The Voice of the Father Himself thundered and said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Thus, if these disciples would not ultimately listen to Jesus alone, or if even Moses and Elijah failed to convince them, then the last hope was the Father Himself. And Jesus delivered such a grace.The Transfiguration was a true mercy. These disciples had never seen anything like it before. But it was most likely this act of mercy that ultimately helped them to accept the hard truth that Jesus was trying to teach them about His coming suffering and death. If the Father in Heaven Personally gave witness to Jesus, then everything that Jesus had said was trustworthy. As we read through the Gospels and the many teachings God has given us through the Church, think about whether there are some teachings with which you struggle? Or in your own life, on a personal level, are there some things you know God wants of you but you find it difficult to accept? When confusion sets in, that means we are not listening, are not fully hearing what God is saying to us or are not understanding. And though we will not see the Transfigured Lord with our eyes and hear the Voice of the Father with our ears as these three disciples did, we must choose to believe all that God has said as if it were the Transfigured Lord, with Moses and Elijah, and the Father Himself speaking clearly and directly to us. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Those words were not only spoken for the good of the disciples, they are also spoken to us. Reflect, today, upon this powerful experience given to these disciples by our Lord. Try to place yourself in the scene so as to witness Jesus transfigured in the most glorious way, with Moses and Elijah and with the thundering Voice of the Father. Allow the Father to speak also to you, telling you that all He has spoken through the Scriptures, the Church and within your own conscience is true. Allow this revelation to convince you on the deepest level to acknowledge not only the divinity of Jesus but also to “Listen to Him” in every way. My transfigured Lord, You are glorious beyond imagination, and You revealed a small glimpse of this glory to Your disciples to help them trust You more fully. May I also trust in You more completely, knowing that all You have spoken to me is true. Please remove any doubt and fear in my life so that nothing keeps me from embracing Your holy will. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsSource of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2025 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

Jesus seems to have really listened a lot to Psalm 49. Turn this one up loud and see why Jesus seems to have recorded so many covers of this song. What does it mean when the psalmist sings: "Do not be afraid when a man gets rich, when the wealth of his house increase." * SPOTIFY MUSIC PLAYLIST -- https://tinyurl.com/fkzpkjwh * SERMON PODCAST -- https://tinyurl.com/2sn3msmn * CONNECT WITH US -- https://siderischurch.com/connectcard * MORE GOSPEL RESOURCES -- https://siderischurch.com/resources

Study 24 - Luke 19:28–48 The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem Jesus cannot complete his mission without entering Jerusalem and confronting the authorities there. This he does, first with actions and then with words Please read Luke 19: 28-38. It seems likely that Jesus had made some arrangements the twelve knew nothing about. Perhaps he had 2 sets of supporters: the apostles in spiritual matters and a group of organisers or deacons.) Question 1: What makes that a reasonable thing to say? Are there any alternative explanations? There is something a bit mysterious about the account of Jesus sending two disciples to get the colt. It is hard to be sure but there does seem to have been a prior arrangement made by Jesus that the two disciples did not know the details of. To think that Jesus knew through his divine powers that the colt would be there is probably to over-emphasize the divine in Jesus and forget that he was also human. The account of the way Jesus entered Jerusalem is full of hints of OT passages. Three of the most important are: 1 Kings 1:33-35 which reads: "Take your lord's servants with you and have Solomon my son mount my own mule and take him down to Gihon. There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, 'Long live King Solomon!' Then you are to go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place. I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah." Psalm 118:26-27 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. The LORD is God, With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession. Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Each of these is important in that Jesus did things that ensured that he fulfilled these prophecies. Jesus often fulfilled prophecies without having any apparent control on what happened but this is totally deliberate. Question 2: Why did Jesus make sure these prophecies were fulfilled? Why did he make his entry into Jerusalem into such a public spectacle? He did not always do this. In John 7: 10 we read that after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. Jesus knew he would die in Jerusalem. He did not want to die quietly. This was the most important event in the history of mankind. It had to be witnessed by many people. Those people needed to have all the necessary and sufficient evidence that he was indeed the Messiah, the Anointed One, even if they did not believe the evidence. Question 3: What will each of the following have been expecting: an ordinary member of the crowd? one of the disciples? one of the priests, lawyers or leaders of the people? a watching centurion of the Roman guard in charge of keeping the peace? This is something interesting to use our imaginations on. I reckon a member of the crowd would have been caught up in the excitement, possibly not knowing much about Jesus but sensing that something important was happening. One of the disciples would have realised the significance of what was happening, have been exceedingly excited and wanting to be ready for anything including fighting. One of the leaders of the people would have been annoyed and worried, concerned that there might be a full blown riot before long. A centurion would have been making sure his sword slid easily out of its scabbard, that his men were all lined up and waiting, and relishing the prospect of a fight against a largely unarmed crowd. Luke's account continues with Jesus prophesying the total destruction of the city and the destruction of the temple. All of which actually happened in AD 70, just about the time Luke was writing, and involved the slaughter of most of the inhabitants of the city and the surrounding countryside. We read Luke 19:19-48. What Jesus said in Luke 19:46 is a combination of Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7: 11. I will read rather more verses than these because in both cases the context adds important ideas to those in the exact words Jesus used. Listen out carefully for those extra ideas, which form the next question. Question 4a: Read Isaiah 56:3-8. What extra ideas are there in those verses that would have been of interest to the more knowledgeable people in the crowd. Isaiah includes both foreigners and eunuchs, those who were excluded from the temple worship that governed all of life at Jerusalem feast days. Question 4b: Read Jeremiah 7: 3-11. What extra ideas are there in those verses that would have been of interest to the more knowledgeable people in the crowd. Jeremiah places conditions of good behaviour on temple worshippers. He is saying it is not enough just to be a Jew or an Israelite. Jesus was saying it was not who you were but what you were that mattered. If your worship at the temple was to be of any significance at all before God it was your life of faith that mattered, not whether you were a Jew, or not, or any particular sort of Jew. Perhaps Jesus and his disciples were just entering the court of the Gentiles, the great outer court of the temple from which the disabled (eunuchs) and foreigners were excluded, as he spoke. No race, or language, is any more important than any other to the Christian. The Bible Jesus used was a translation from the Hebrew to the Greek. We rejoice in the translation of the Bible into more and more languages. The way Jesus clears the temple in Luke 19:45 is a symbolic picture of the destruction of the temple. So that destruction was not accidental or due to the will of the Roman general. Question 5: What then is the significance of the temple ruins in Jerusalem now, for Jews, for Muslims, for Christians? The temple ruins are of absolutely no real significance for anybody any longer except as interesting relics of something which is now meaningless. Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this as a MP3 audio file

Today, we will be focusing on verses 29-38. Jesus finishes thisprophetic discourse with a parable about the “fig tree, and all the trees”.  First,let's summarize what we've learned. This message primarily applies to theJewish nation, and deals with the events that will take place in the Seven-YearTribulation, but it has many practical applications for each believer today aswe near the end of the age. The church age has been ongoing for 2,000 yearssince Jesus ascension into heaven and the Day of Pentecost.  Myunderstanding of prophecy and this passage, though Bible scholars may offerdifferent viewpoints, is that the next event on God's agenda is the rapture ofthe church. Jesus comes in the air for His bride, as described in 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, and 1 Corinthians 15. Also, in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesushas John write the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia, which appear topicture the characteristics of the different periods of the church age.  Thenin Revelation 4, John hears a voice like the sound of a trumpet say, "Comeup here," which we believe pictures the catching away, the rapture, ofthe church. Then, the seven-year tribulation begins when the Antichrist signs apeace treaty with Israel, as mentioned in Daniel 9, marking the start of Daniel's70th week, which is also called the time of Jacob's trouble in the OldTestament. Onlybelievers are raptured to heaven, leaving no believers on earth immediatelyafter. Both believing Gentiles and Jews will be raptured. The Seven-Year Tribulationbegins with no believers anywhere on planet earth. However, Jesus sends His twowitnesses to preach the gospel (Revelation 11), and 144,000 Jews—12,000 fromeach tribe—are sealed (Revelation 7), respond to their message and get savedand they begin proclaiming the gospel throughout the rest of the Tribulation.Millions upon millions of people will be saved during the Tribulation. But ifthey don't take the “mark of the beast” they won't be able to buy or sell andwill be hunted down like animals and be killed. (Revelation 13:16-18).  Ipersonally believe that this passage in Luke 21:29-38 applies primarily to the believersin that period. In Scripture, the fig tree usually represents Israel (Hosea9:10), and here Jesus indicates that it comes back to life. Some studentsinterpret this parable to mean that the emergence of the State of Israel on May15, 1948 was the "sign" that the Lord would soon return. Surely it isa significant thing that Israel is now a free nation after so many centuries ofpolitical bondage. But Luke added "and all the trees" (Luke 21:29),suggesting that more than one nation is involved. Perhaps Jesus was saying thatthe rise of nationalism around the world is the thing to watch. In recent yearswe have certainly seen the growth of nationalism and the emerging of newnations, and this may be a "sign" that the coming of the Lord isnear. However,the basic idea here is that of knowing what is going on. As the budding of thetrees indicates that summer is near, so the occurring of these signs indicatesthat the Lord's return is near (see Luke 12:54-57 for a similar passage). Theimportant thing is that the believer knows that God is keeping His promises andthat His Word will not fail (Josh. 23:14).The term "this generation"may refer to the nation or race of Israel, which Satan has always sought todestroy. The Jews are the greatest witness that the Bible is God's Word, thatJesus is the Messiah, and that God keeps His promises. Duringthe tribulation, especially the last three and a half years, Jesus is encouragingall believers both Jews and Gentiles that they should keep looking up and avoidthe temptations of the world (vv. 33-36). Jesus is coming with great power toset up His kingdom.  Heavenand earth will pass away, but His Word will not (v 33). Trust this, and don'tget confused trying to figure it all out. Just keep looking up, as Jesus iscoming soon.

Luke 6: 27-49 The New Way of Jesus Part 2. Kingdom Ethics Luke’s Sermon on the Plain continues. We read together Luke 6: 27-49 This is a shorter version of Matthew’s sermon but it still contains no less than 22 separate points! We will look at them in groups. 1. Love your enemies v27, 28 It is easy to miss some of the practical implications of these statements. They mean, for instance, that a Christian will never refuse to speak to someone, whatever they may have said or done. And it will affect our behaviour towards someone who wants the same job as we do. Question 1: What effect will it have on us if we force ourselves to speak kindly in those sorts of situation? Where else can you think of where obeying Jesus might have some positive results in our everyday and family life? Pause. Even if we have to force ourselves to speak well in that sort of situation doing so will have a good effect on our underlying attitudes towards that person. If we fall out with someone at work we must be careful to greet them in exactly our usual cheerful way the next morning. They will find it very hard to respond in anything other than the same way. It is hard to obey Jesus when the inevitable problems of family life occur. Are you the person who is always the first to try and mend a damaged relationship? 2. Not standing up for our rights v29-31 Is it really possible to act like this in the real world? What happens if someone takes my bicycle? Do I give them my motorbike? Perhaps Jesus is making one of his outrageously impossible statements (camels through needles; plucking out eyes etc.) so that we remember better the principle behind what he said. Total obedience to what Jesus taught here would rapidly lead to us having no money at all! Question 2: What should we do in the practical things of every day to put the principle behind these statements into practice? Pause. I think the only possible answer to this is to say we have to be careful not to put ourselves first in what we do but put others in front of ourselves. It is, of course, a great deal easier to say that than to actually do it in the real world we live in. It is also, of course, a great deal easier to hear it said and mentally agree than to go out and do it! 3. Doing better than expected v32–35a Probably ‘lending’ in that culture, as in many, was a nice way of talking about giving somebody something. Question 3: Should we ever lend like that without expectation of a return? Shouldn’t we call it what it is from the beginning if that is what we intend, rather than using such double talk? Pause. Not all the things our culture wants us to do are necessarily what we should do as followers of Jesus. In some cultures it is more important to say something that pleases the person we are talking to than to tell the truth. Jesus said he was “the way, the truth, and the life”. That means we must be in all things as truthful as we can possibly be even if that is against our culture and traditions. 4. The results of this behaviour v35b, 36 We will probably see that we will have all sorts of problems in living up to what Jesus said. It is so difficult to obey what he said and still live life in the real world. Perhaps it is impossible. But Jesus was probably doing this deliberately to make us see that we can never in ourselves be good enough to appear before the Lord God. We can only rely on his mercy and goodness consequent on the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for our acceptance. Question 4: Why does Jesus call us sons, or children, in this context (v36b)? Pause. This is to emphasize that we are in a personal relationship with the Father God. And that again can only be through the acceptance that Jesus obtained for us by his death on the Cross. When we call God our Father that means we accept all our fellow Christians as our brothers and sisters. 5. What we give will be what we get v37, 38 The first sentence in v37 is sometimes used to suggest we should never judge anything or anybody at all. But, of course, we do! If we didn’t, how could we ever correct anyone and life in and out of the church would be impossibly difficult. Question 5: How should we understand v37 in such a way as to be realistic and yet follow Jesus properly? Pause. Matthew adds ‘in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Matt 7: 2). If we are prepared to face the truth and be judged by it we may make other people face the truth. If not, not! Verses 37b and 38 could be taken to mean simply the better you are the better your life will be. Life is never as easy as that (Ps 73: 1-5, 13, 14). Question 6: How, then, do we understand what Jesus meant? Pause. Some people teach a false gospel which promises obvious material blessing to the believer. This is clearly not the way the Kingdom in the world works as Ps 73: 2, 13, 14 points out. The book of Job and Luke 13: 1 –5 say much the same. What we are promised is reward for faithfulness in the day of the Lord when the world comes to an end. We are to look to our own reward and not make judgments on what should happen to other people. 6. How to live for the Kingdom v39–45 The parables of the blind, the student and the plank all, in different ways, emphasize that we need to be walking in the Way of Jesus if we want to be good and do things that matter in the kingdom of the Spirit. We need to be able to see, to be properly trained and not be blinded by things that should not be there. Then the parable of the good tree emphasizes that we need to be the right sort of tree. Being a better thorn bush will not lead to fruit, just bigger thorns! Question 7: How can we tell whether someone, or ourselves, is the right sort of tree? Pause. When we set out to follow Jesus we are told that we shall be saved at the final day. But we are also told that account will be taken of the whole of our lives as followers (Rom 14: 10, 12; 2 Cor 5: 10). It is hard to see how these two teachings fit together. It is best to take them both as the Lord’s word to us and strive to live in the light of both of them. 7. The Summary v46-49 Luke’s version of this story is slightly different from Matthew’s perhaps more familiar one. It is often called ‘the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders’. That is a good title for the parable in Matthew, not so good for this one of Luke’s! Question 8: What title would more accurately summarize this parable? Pause. The word ‘foundation’ is the most important one in this parable. It ties this parable to many other Biblical verses. Perhaps the most significant is Isaiah 28: 16 which refers to the temple but is used by Peter (1 Pet 2: 6) of Jesus. In Peter’s little picture Jesus is the all important foundation. Peter, like Jesus, emphasises that we are to do the building. Click or tap here to save/download this as a MP3 audio file

Those people. The people who bring out the worst in us. It's easy to feel judged by them and to, in turn, judge them. But this is not a healthy way to live our lives--feeling judged and judging others. How can we get to the place of helping one another flourish? Perhaps Jesus has something to say about this.THE BIG IDEA: Pick up the mirror before you pick up the magnifier.

Introduction: How Do You React... (Matthew 5:38–42) ...When you are INSULTED? “Eye for an Eye” or REFUSE RETALIATION? (Matt 5:39b) 1 Peter 2:23 – When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ...when people are HEARTLESS? “Eye for an Eye” or GRATUITOUS GRACE? (Matt 5:40) Romans 12:21 – Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. ...when forced to OBEY? “Eye for an Eye” or DOUBLE Your DUTY? (Matt 5:41) 1 Peter 2:16 – Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ...when someone wants your STUFF? “Eye for an Eye” or RELEASE Your RESOURCES? (Matt 5:42) 1 John 3:17 – But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Philippians 2:5–7a – Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant... Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Small Group DiscussionRead Matthew 5:38-42What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Tell of a time you were offended and retaliated. Why did you do what you did? What would you do differently if you had another chance?Why do you think “eye for an eye” (revenge) is our natural default response?Why do you think how you react is a good gauge of where your heart is?BreakoutPray for one another. AUDIO TRANSCRIPT And before we dig into God's Word together, let's just pause.I'm going to ask you just take a moment and please pray for me to be faithful,to clearly communicate God's Word.And I will pray for you to have your heart open to receive what it isthat the Lord wants to teach us today. Let's pray.Father in heaven, your Word challenges us and convicts us and we thank you for that.We didn't come in here today looking for a stamp of affirmation on how we already are.We've come in here to encounter you and allow your spirit and your Word to conform us into the image of your Son.That's why we're here.So Father, I pray to that end you would open our hearts.Your spirit would speak to every heart, the wisdom that you have recorded in your Word.That we walk out of here different people than how we were when we walked in.Thank you Father for the promise of your Word.We pray in Jesus' name.And all of God's people said, "Amen."I have a nonverbal Son, as many of you know.But years ago, I was with a group of pastors and one pastor was commenting on the fact that I had a nonverbal Son.And he said, very compassionately, he said,"It must be very difficult for you to not have a conversation with your Son."And I said, "It is."But the way I look at it, we'll have all of eternity to catch up.And a different pastor said, if he's elect,and I said, "I feel like you're predestined to take a weapon."And I was a prophet that day.Okay, I made that last part up.But I still think about that.I still think about retaliation.Getting even.Why are we like that?Why are we like that people, that there's something in all of us that makes us demand respect?Hey, you can't talk to me that way.You know I am?You can't treat me like that.There's something in us that we demand our rights.We say things like, "I don't get mad. I get even."And you're not going to get away with this.You're going to pay for what you did.Our hearts are naturally, sinfully retaliatory.I was listening to a sermon about a month or so ago from one of my favorite preachers, Ron Don.It was a sermon on meekness.And he reminded me of something that I loved when I was a kid.He was a little comic book.Do you remember the Charles Atlas ads in the old comic books?Do you remember those?It was a little one page, it was a little comic strip in the book.Well, in this little comic strip, there was this little weakling, like a little skinny guy,on the beach and this bully was like kicking sand in his face.And all the girls were like, "Tee hee hee hee."And the kid takes Charles Atlas course.The skinny kid.And in 90 days, he was kicking sand in the other guy's face.And there's something innocent.We're like, "Yes! Yeah!"We love that stuff, don't we?Don't we love that revenge stuff?Oh, come on.Don't you leave me up here.Don't we love that revenge stuff?The getting even stuff?Yes, you do.Yes, you do.There are many of the plot lines of movies.Like, and your soap operas and your westerns and your superhero movies.I was thinking about this this week. It's everywhere.That's what Popeye is.Popeye is nothing but a cartoon about a guy that gets even.We love that stuff.We love the guy that is not going to take it.Payback.Because the guy that gets the sand kicked in his faceand belittled and humiliated and he just takes it.Well, that guy is a coward, right?Weak.It's like, dude, punch that bully in the trot.Don't take it.Right?There's biblical precedence for this, isn't there?An eye for an eye.Right?An eye for an eye.Oh, I like that.Because that's in the Bible.You know what that is?Eye for an eye.That is biblical permission to get even.No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry.That's a biblical command to get even, isn't it?Well, the scribes and the Pharisees thought so.And many people sitting here even and watching thisand listening to this podcast later, still believethat an eye for an eye is our biblical mandates to get revenge.Well, let's see, shall we?Look at verse 30.Why don't we say verse 38? Yes.Jesus continuing the Sermon on the Mount.He said, "You have heard that it was said,an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."Yeah, that's a real Old Testament quote.Yes.100%.And it's also one of the most misinterpretedand misused verses in the entire Bible.Because the scribes and the Phariseesand we take this verse way out of context.Is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?Is that our charge to get even?No, it's not.All right, then what does it mean?I'm so glad you asked.Let's get biblical, shall we?Mark and I shows up three times in the Old Testament.Three times.It's in Exodus 21, it's in Leviticus 24,and it's in Deuteronomy 19.Don't look now, but you look later,and you're going to see in every one of those passages,every single one of them,the context of that verse areit's God's instructions for Israel's courts and judges.Eye for an eye, that was for Israel's courts,not for personal vendetta.And eye for an eye was a guideline for Israel's judges,not for Batman, okay?So what's the purpose?Eye for an eye.What does eye for an eye mean?Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.What does that mean?It just simply means this.The punishment should fit the crime.In court, justice demands being fair.So judges in court, God's instruction for Israel,when you punish someone,the measure of punishment should fit the measure of the crime.That's what eye for an eye means.And God is saying an eye for an eyemust be determined by the courts.The courts determine that. Why?Why did God leave that up to the courts?Why? I'll tell you why.Because when we're wronged,we, by nature, want to retaliateway beyond the level of the offense.Here's what I mean.Our mindset is this.You dinged my 93 Toyota.You owe me a new car.Fair is fair.We take it way too far.We say things like,"Hey, we were messing around.We were playing basketballand you accidentally elbowed me in the mouthand broke my tooth.You owe me a set of grills."Justin, do the kids still wear grills?Do they still wear a thing?The cool ones.You are right.You could not be righter.But that's the point.We take it too far.You owe me way more thanyou should have to pay.So God's like, "No, no, no, no.Leave that to the courts."So here it is. Here it is.If a crime has been committed against me,if I've been wronged in any way,I'm not going to take the law into my own hands.I'm going to take the courts to be fairin the way God commanded the courts to be fair,which is an eye for an eye.A tooth for a tooth.Be fair.So in Jesus' day, the ascribes and the Pharisees,and again us, we take this way out of contextand we take it out of the courtsand we take it as our command,our personal responsibility to get even.But look at verse 39.You probably saw this coming.Jesus says, "But I say to you,do not resist the one who is evil."Do not resist. What does that mean?It literally means this.When someone wrongs you,when someone offends you,when someone is against you,Jesus says, "Do not set yourself against him."Now let's be clear.Jesus is not saying,He is not saying,"Do not protect yourself.Do not protect your own."He's not saying that.If you break into my home,my dog will shoot youand my wife will bite you.Wait.No, no, that's right.He's not saying, "Don't protect yourself."He's not saying, "Don't protect your church."Jesus isn't preaching passivity here.Like, "Okay, go ahead.Go ahead. You can sin,and you can abuse me all you want.I don't care because Jesus said not to resist."That's not what He's saying.He's also not saying,"Don't confront sin."He's not saying that.Because the Bible is clear that sin must be confronted.It must be addressed and dealt with in the church.Here's what Jesus is sayingby this statement.And it's going to be crystal clearbecause Jesus actually illustrateswhat He's teaching here.But here's what Jesus is saying.He's saying,"Don't start a feud.Don't try to get even.Don't try to get even.If you think that your rights were violated,you don't need to fight about it."That's what Jesus is saying.We are not to be a peoplewhose knee-jerk reactionis to be retaliatory.That's what Jesus is saying.In the Sermon on the Mount,we've seen it over and over.Jesus is saying, "My people are different."My people are different in how they act.They're merciful. They're hungry for righteousness.They're salt and light. They're influencers.They reconcile with broken relationships.They cut off lust and they take marriage seriously.And they keep their word.My people act differently.Because when Jesus Christ enters us,when you receive Christ,when you turn from your sin and believethat He died for your sinand He rose from the dead to give you eternal life,when you believe that the Bible saysGod's Holy Spirit lives within you.And when God's Spirit lives within you,you are called to something greater.And you demonstrate that you belong to Christby how you act.God wants your heart.And your heart is revealed by how you act.But perhaps more so,your heart is revealed by how you react.You can show me what a man is made ofby how he acts.And I can show you what a man is made ofby how he reacts.So let me ask you,how do you react?How do you react when you have been personally offended?How do you react when you've been insulted?How do you react when you've been disrespected?Do you react in kind?As your mind said immediately,"No, no, no, no, no, no, no.You're not getting away with this.I'm getting even."As your mind said,"An eye for an eye."Wrongly interpreting it like the Pharisees.Or do you not resist?As our Lord said,do you refuse to emotionally reactand retaliate in the flesh?And I'm sure there's somebody here,self-deluded, that's like,"Oh, my pastor's got to hang it along with everybody."I never respond negatively when I'm offended.I just bake them muffins.Okay.But I think there's something here for the rest of us.Because Jesus elaborateson how His followers should reactto difficult peopleand difficult situationsby giving four scenarios.So that's what we're going to ask ourselves today,a little self-examination.We're going to ask ourselves, "How do you react?"How do you react?Number one, how do you reactwhen you are insulted?When you are insulted, how do you react?Eye for an eye?Or do you refuse retaliation?Look at verse 39.Jesus says, "But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek,turn to him the other also."Stop there.To the Jews,this was the absolute most insulting thingto be slapped.In fact, I read this past week that a slave in those days,a slave would rather be whipped than slappedbecause a slap was utterly humiliating.And you know the worst was the backhand slap.That's why Jesus said, "Right cheek?"Sorry about that.That's why Jesus said, "Right cheek?"Because when you get a backhand with a right hand,it's going to hit you in the right cheek.That was the worst insult in their mind.We get it.Nothing's really changed there. We get it.If somebody walks up to you and just...That's just total disdain.It's like you're nothing to me.You're not even worth arguing withbecause you're nothing.It's just a complete, complete insult.And all the moment I'm insulted,I want to retaliate.Eye for an eye, right?Oh, okay, now I get to slap you.And I bet I can slap harder.Wait, wait, wait, wait. What does Jesus say?He says, "Turn to Him the other also."You're like, "Aha, okay. That's very gracious."He gets two slaps in on me and then it's go time.No.If you're believing that,then you completely missed the point that Jesus was making.Because here's the thing.It's not even about the slap.It's about being insulted.That's the point.How do you respond when you're insulted?Because look,unless you're Chris Rocket and Smacked by Will Smith,you're probably not going to get a slap.You probably are not.But you're going to be insulted in other ways, aren't you?Verbally.How about social media?All these keyboard warriors out there?Because they know they won't get slapped in the teeth.They're real strong and brave throwing out their insults at youfrom behind their keyboard.Maybe that nasty text or email that you get,you're going to be insulted.It's all the same application here from our Lord.At the same point, Jesus says, "Turn to Him the other."He's saying, "You're insulted?Have you been grossly insulted?"Jesus says, "Let Him do it again."You.You refuse to retaliate.Like, "I shouldn't be insulted.Don't you know who I am?I should be respected."Yeah.I agree.You should be respected.But you won't be.Someone is going to insult you.So you can react the world's way."I" for an "I"?Like, "Oh, you're going to insult me?I'm going to go full-dawn wrinkles on you."You have brought a knife to a gunfight, my friend.That's "I" for an "I."Or you could respond the kingdom way,which is refusing to retaliate.And right now, somebody's sitting there going,"Oh, okay.So you're saying, when people insult me,I should just take it?"Now you're thinking like Jesus.Because 1 Peter 2, 23, he says,when He was reviled,He did not revile in return.When He suffered, He did not threaten,but continued in trusting Himself to Him,who judges justly.How do you react when you're insulted?Number two, how do you react when people are heartless?How do you react when people are heartlessand "I" for an "I"?Or gratuitous grace?Look at verse 40.Jesus said, "And if anyone would sue youand take your tunic,let them have your cloak as well."Okay, Jesus isn't saying,"Everybody consume me for everything."Now, He's obviously,He's talking about being suedwhere there is some justification in the lawsuit.That you went to court and legally,you were sued and lost your tunic.Like, what's a tunic?Well, in those days,the tunic was the long undergarment.It was like a long, basically, the shirt.It was your shirt.And look, they didn't have a closet full of themwith a bag of them for the good will sitting in the garage.Most of them would have had one or three at the most.And this was more than just your shirt.It was also your blanket.That's the thing that kept you warm at night.So I think this is quite a shocking thingfor our Lord to say that someonewould sue you for the shirt off your back.And look, in court,if someone sues you for the shirtthat's on your back that you're wearing,that's a little more than I for an I, isn't it?That's pretty heartless.The reality is, people do sue heartlessly.It's like suing a Christian school.Like, why would you do that?Unless there was a real egregious crime going on.But a lot of times, it's just spite.And I believe that's what Jesus is saying here.Perhaps Jesus was being hyperbolic,like saying even if somebody sues youfor the shirt that you're wearing.Well, you could react the world's way, couldn't you?Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.I'm not giving you the shirt that I'm wearing.That's unreasonable and it's unfair.And I will fight you all the way up to the Supreme Courtover my shirt.Or you could react the kingdom way,which is, did you lose your shirt in a lawsuit?Well, show them you're really sorry for whatever the offense was.And give them your coat too.You know, it's an interesting way that Jesus worded thisbecause in Jewish Old Testament law,you were not allowed to sue a man for his coat.That was illegal.Do you think Jesus is making a point?Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.Okay, so you're saying it was illegal to sue a man for his coat.So if somebody sues you for your shirtand you give them your coat,that would be awfully gratuitous.Now you're thinking like Jesus.Romans 12-21 says, "Do not be overcome by evil."But overcome evil with good.Don't retaliate.Show them that you're willing to give even more than they asked for.So how do you react?How do you react?Number three, when forced to obey.Eye for an eye or double your duty?Look at verse 41.Jesus, next illustration.He says, "And if anyone forces you to go one mile,go with them two miles."Now the Romans had a law.And that was actually a variation of an old Persian postal law.But here is the Roman law.An official could on the spot recruit a citizenfor official duty to perform a task.You know the most famous example of this?This commissioning Simon of Cyrene to carry our Lord's cross.That was law.Specifically here, what Jesus is referring to was legally,legally a Roman soldier could recruit a citizento carry his pack, his gear, one mile, and no further.You think about it from a Jewish standpoint,that's, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.You mean my enemy, a Roman soldier,is going to make me carry his stuff for a mile?So Jew, that would have been very degrading and disgusting.I think here our Lord is speaking to man's natural resentmenttowards the demands of the government.Does anybody remember COVID?Well, you can react the world's way.Right?You can react the world's way.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.You can act the way you want.The entire way.Give me your stuff.Baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo.Baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.Never mind, I'll carry it myself.That's the world's way.Or you can react the kingdom's way.What's according to our Lord is what?Go two miles.Did you carry his stuff for a mile and you're like,"You know what? I'm just getting limber.I'm just getting warmed up.I'll go another mile."It's like giving the cloak, right?Same principle.Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.So you're saying,"I should give more than the law demands.I should give double of what's required of me."Now you're thinking like Jesus.Because 1 Peter 2.16 says,"Citizens, live as people who are free.Not using your freedom as a cover up for evil.But living as servants of God."Don't just do what's demanded.Go beyond.Force them to ask,"Why in the world is she acting like that?"And then you have the opportunity to talk about grace.Number four.How do you react when someone wants your stuff?How do you react when someone wants your stuff?Eye for an eye?Or do you release your resources?Look at verse 42.Jesus says, "Give to the one who begs from youand do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.It just got real, didn't it?My money?My possessions?Bless you.We get so...We get so possessiveover things.Jesus is saying if somebody begs,if somebody wants to borrow,He's not talking about beggars along the side of the road.This implies a real need,a need that's known and a need that's verified.That's what Jesus is talking about.And again, we have the two options before us.We can react the world's way.Someone comes to you with a real need.Eye for an eye means...All right, look, look, look.I'm going to give this to you, but you owe me, okay?And you're... Listen, you're going to pay me backevery cent that I'm giving you.Do you understand me?I want it in writing.That's the world's way.And when we have that attitude,it just demonstrates that we care more about things than people, right?Well, why are you entitled to my stuff?Go get your own stuff.Where you can react the kingdom way.Jesus, what's the kingdom way?He says give the one who begs and do not refuse.The one who would borrow.What's the kingdom way?Self-sacrificing generosity.He's like, "Oh, you need something that I have?You know what? Here, take it.You know what? I'll buy another one,or I'll learn to live without it.No begs, whatever. Go ahead.Looks like you need this more than I do.If God thinks I need it,He'll make sure I get another one, all right?That's the kingdom way.Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.So I should just give away everything that I have?Now you're thinking like Jesus.First John 3 verse 17 says,"But if anyone has the world's goods,Jesus' brother, Anid, yet closes his heart against him.How does the love of God abide in him?"It's just stuff.It's just stuff.It's eventual garbage, right?Release your resources. Bless people with it.Look, in Jesus' four scenarios here,in every case, your heart is revealed.Not in how you act,but in how you react.And you're like, "Man, man, how can I live like that?"Right now, I guarantee you,every single person here is looking at us going,"I agree that this is right!"But I don't know if I can actually do it.I mean, to do this,I would have to not insist on my rights.I would have to deny myselfand I would have to act like a slave.Now you're thinking like Jesus.Because, oh, by the way,not insisting on your rights and denying yourselfand acting like a slave.Philippians 2.Have this mind among yourselves,which is yours in Christ Jesus,who though he was in the form of God,did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.He didn't insist on his rights.But emptied himself.Denied himself by taking the form of a servant.He became a slave.When you leave here today,someone's going to offend you.Someone's going to insult you.And somebody's going to stomp all over your rights.What you need to do right nowis decide how you're going to react.Let's pray.Our Father in Heaven,we thank You for Your Word,because this is contrary to how we think.There's something in our heartsthat demands retaliation.That would say getting even is the way to go.We teach our kids that.When Your Son very clearly taught usthat we're to be a peoplethat act opposite the way the world acts.Father, I pray right now thatdecisions are being madeas we sit in the fellowship of the congregation,as we sit under Your Word,as we're sitting in a setting of worship.I pray right now, Father,that we are making decisionswhen we walk out this door.We are not going to be people who retaliate.But instead,we're going to follow the examplethat Your Son gave us,and we're going to trust in the power of Your Spirit,whom You put within us.To Your glory and honor, Father,grab our hearts and minds.We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

  A Place Called Gethsemane The Passion Week account of Jesus happens during the annual feast of Passover for the Jews.  This is one of three times that every Jew was required to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast.  Jesus being a devout Jew went to the city as well not only for the feast but to complete His awesome mission. Not every Jew in the world could possibly come but it is estimated that 1 to 1.5 million people would be in the city during Passover.  The picture below from the Temple Institute in Israel shows the 1000's entering the city at Passover.  Since Jerusalem was a city of perhaps an estimated population 35,000 to 80,000 depending on the archaeologist, it is clear that the city could not handle such a dramatic increase in population.  Every extra room was rented and those not finding rooms camped out on the hills nearby or they sought lodging in nearby towns like Bethlehem or Bethany.  Many of those who camped out in the hills around Jerusalem would more than likely camp on the beautiful slopes of the surrounding hills like Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem. (Vander Laan 177)       After Jesus and His apostles had completed the Passover Seder meal they went to the Mount of Olives to a place called Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives in an olive grove.  The account can be found in Matt 26:36, Mark 14:32, Luke 22:39 and John 18:1.  The word Gethsemane is the English transliteration of a Greek word which was based on two Hebrew words.  (Picture below from Permaculture Research Institute, is a good idea of what the side of the Mt. of Olives would have looked like in Jesus' day). The first was GAT.  The Hebrew word stands for a press.  The second word is SHEMIN which means oil – like olive oil.  The plural in Hebrew is Sheminim.  Thus, Gat Sheminim means a press for oils and referred to in most cases an olive press.  (Vander Laan 178) Today in Israel one can visit Tel Maresha in the Negev.  At this tel archaeologists found the remains of a perfectly intact olive press.  Olive presses were built in caves close to an olive grove.  The cave itself would have “windows” cut into the walls and an air shaft in the roof.  These “windows” and the airshaft were used to control the airflow and temperature since processing olives required a certain temperature range.  The olives themselves were processed by first smashing them with a millstone to break open the skins.   The smashed olives were then put into special porous bags and crushed under the weight of huge weighted down cypress logs in the main press room.  The olive oil would run down into a basin which had a drain directly into a collection jar below the pile of bags of crushed olive pulp.  The jar of oil would be sealed when filled and made ready to be taken to market.  (Vander Laan 178)  The picture below is of the Gat Sheminim at Tel Maresha Israel courtesy of Israel Travel Inc. Where is this exact location of where Jesus prayed and is there a connection to the Gat Sheminim and the word Gethsemane?  As far as location is concerned, “Christian tradition has always placed Gethsemane on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives – though today the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches hallow different sites.”  (Reader's Digest 186)  Recently, however, archaeologists working at the base of the Mount of Olives made a very interesting discovery.  “A cave nearby was recently identified as containing an ancient olive press.  Early 6th century tradition supports this cave as being Jesus' Gethsemane.” (Vander Laan 179)   Moreover, no archaeological evidence nor evidence from ancient descriptions of the city of Jerusalem and its surroundings as ever found a place called the Garden of Gethsemane.  This name is a modern label attached to an area that tourists would come to experience what the place called Gethsemane in the Bible was like.  “The designation ‘Gethsemane' does not occur outside the gospels.  Even Luke 22:39 omits the name, using the more general description, ‘the Mount of Olives.'”(Flusser 251) What we know for a fact is that the Mount of Olives had an olive grove and near olive groves one will find a Gat Sheminim or an olive press.   One might conjecture the following based upon the fact that in the Jewish culture God taught His people difficult theological truths with the use of pictures – as in the case of the word tekton and 1 Peter 2:4-6.  Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and entered the gat sheminim, or the olive press, to find a secluded place to pray.  He would prefer the seclusion of the press since there were many possible pilgrims camping out on the slopes of the hill for Passover and the press would be located in a quiet cave.  Perhaps Jesus knew the owner and was able to gain private access to the olive press.  Again, all of this is conjecture but it is based on the archaeological evidence that is factual.   In the gat sheminim, or in a location very close, we know that Jesus prayed and was in deep stress and anguish.  In the account found in Luke 22:44 Jesus' sweat was like drops of  blood.  What is intriguing about this picture is a verse found in Isaiah 53:5.  This verse for us Christians says He was crushed for our inequities.  When one makes the connection between the discovery of the olive press and how it was used and these verses it would seem that God is showing us how Jesus was crushed – like an olive crushed by the weight of a huge cypress log with heavy weights attached.  It would seem that God Himself is making use of the archaeological discoveries to open up the world of the Bible to us so that its meaning is enhanced.  Do we know for a fact that Jesus was in the olive press or the Gat Sheminim?  No we do not.  But, these discoveries perhaps are given to us to intensify our understanding of His word and the picture of the gat sheminim can simply be used to help us understand the scope of Jesus' stress and anxiety that horrible night. Works Cited * That the World May Know Set 3 Ray Vander Laan c 1996 Focus on the Family Publishing  Colorado Springs CO * Egypt and Bible History: C. Aling Baker House book Grand Rapids MI c 1981 * “Reader's Digest Atlas of the Bible”, C 1981 Reader's digest, Plesantville, NY * “Jesus”, David Flusser, Magnes Press, Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, 1998 * Josephus WAR 5:141 * “First Easter: The True and Unfamiliar Story”, Paul L. Maier, Harper and Row, NY 1973. * Archaeology and the Bible: The Best of Biblical Archaeology Review, “The Garden Tomb: Was Jesus Buried Here?”, Gabriel Barkay, Vol. II, Archaeology in the World of Herod, Jesus and Paul.    Rev. Ferret - who is this guy? (John & Robin somewhere in the Middle East) What's his background?  Why should I listen to him?  Check his background at this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ortnret3oxcicu4/BackgrndTeacher%20mar%2025%202020.pdf?dl=0      

Send us a textGood morning! Thank you for taking a few minutes to listen. If you are interested in the Daily Bible Devotional, you can find it at the links below:Amazon - (paperback, hardcover, and Kindle)Spiritbuilding.com - (premium quality paperback)Youtube Video Introducing the ContentFeel free to reach out with any questions: emersonk78@me.comLuke 23 Pilate is a central figure in Luke's crucifixion account. He and Herod both question Jesus and find no guilt in Him. Pilate seeks to release Jesus, but the jealousy of the Jewish people is unrelenting. Pilate lacks the courage to save Jesus, but he demonstrates how an unbiased mind will see Him as holy. As Jesus is crucified, Luke's account notes three things He says on the cross. He asks God to forgive His killers, for they do not know what they are doing. Jesus extends salvation to the repentant criminal. And He commits His spirit into the Father's hands. These statements demonstrate His endless love and mercy and His complete trust in the Father. Following His death, a righteous man named Joseph is permitted by Pilate to bury Jesus.  Pilate is confronted with a choice: to side with an innocent man and risk his standing or to turn from Jesus and give in to the demands of sinners. We know he chose poorly. But if we see Jesus for who He is, then discipleship will be even more than just claiming His innocence. We must defend His honor. Perhaps Jesus' honor is best shown by who He was while dying on the cross. His words reveal the depth of His righteousness. We can see how deeply he loves mankind. In His image, we must prove our character by how we speak and behave under harsh and unkind treatment. Even in death, Jesus trusted that God would take care of Him. Giving Father, You have shown Your grace in giving Your only Son to die on the cross to redeem us from our sins. We pray to have the cross always on our minds and to live each day in the shadow of that sacrifice. Help us to see His unrelenting love so that we will be drawn to Him, even after we have sinned against Him. We are the criminal on the cross, saved by Christ as we repent and turn to Him. Father, we also commit to a character that mirrors our Savior. Help us to shine in the darkness.  -       Pilate is such a tragic character. He knew the truth and lacked courage. What inspires you to stand for Jesus Christ against all opposition? -       Both criminals mocked Jesus. One repented, and Jesus saved Him. What does that say about Jesus' willingness to save those who believe in Him? -       A Centurion saw Jesus die and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.” How important is grace under fire in showing righteousness to others?

Jesus’ joy was found in being an obedient servant to Almighty God. He expressed joy in sharing, serving, and suffering. Perhaps Jesus’ most significant example of living with joy is how he focused on God’s promises during his darkest hours and used God’s truth and faithfulness as a way to endure through unimaginable suffering. Luke 10:21-22 Perhaps the most exultant description of Jesus in all of Scripture. Joy in Sharing This is the best saying of Jesus not recorded in the Gospels. There is something about giving that results in more joy than receiving does. Acts 20:35 Joy in Serving Jesus taught that there was joy in service. His life and ministry are a testimony to this. He served others rather than being served himself. John 15:11 John 17:13 Mark 10:45 John 4:34 Joy in Suffering No one was more acquainted with suffering than Jesus. But he faced all the pain with an outlook that was focused on joy. Mattew 5:10-12 Hebrews 12:1-2The post Fruit if the Spirit in Christ 2: The Joy of Christ first appeared on Living Hope.

January 19, 2025 Today's Reading: John 2:1-11Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 44:1-16, 23-29; Romans 9:1-18The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people had drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” (John 2:9b-10)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.This whole darn account is a weird one. What's the number one rule at a wedding? Don't upstage the wedding couple…  Well, here is this magnificent wedding without a single mention of the happy couple. The only thing that we know about them is that their wedding is about to be the talk of the town because they have run out of wine and none of the guests have run out of party. So here comes Jesus… And I know, I know, Jesus wants to keep things on the down low. He asks His mother why she is trying to get Him involved in their problems, but she doesn't listen.“Do whatever He says,” she tells the attendants, “because whatever He says is going to be good.”And so jugs and jugs of wine are made, miraculously, water transformed. And it's the good stuff, too. The top shelf stuff: a 1945 Romanee-Conti, but not just one bottle, a whole vat of the stuff! Jesus is a “save the best for last” sort of guy, coming in at the end to save the day and keep the wedding party happy.But is this all there is to it? If so, it seems a little bit shallow. One would think that His first miracle would be one with a little more substance. Maybe He is just warming up, making sure that He has all the kinks out before He goes on the road… Or maybe there is something more…Perhaps Jesus' first miracle says less about the actual wedding, and even the miracle, and more about Him and who He is. Maybe this water into wine thing is a sign of something greater, pointing to a wedding feast that has no end, that the Church gets a foretaste of every week in fleshy bread and bloody wine from here until the Last Day. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus is making it known to the entire world that He is the Bridegroom, that He has taken a Bride for Himself, you and me, the Church. And He is going to provide for Her everything that she could ever need.Yeah… that's probably it…In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.-Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.

John 20:24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." 26And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.   The disciples keep on telling Thomas that they have seen the Lord, but Thomas refuses to believe unless he sees for himself.  Remember he is only asking for what the others have already experienced.  So, we will see Jesus make a personal appearance eight days later so that Thomas can see Him and believe. Jesus offers for Thomas to put his finger in His side and in hands where they have been pierced by the nails that held him to the cross.  Then Thomas makes that greatest of all confessions of faith when He says My Lord and my God.  Jesus tells Thomas he is blessed because He saw and believed, but there is a greater blessing for those who just take it by faith that He rose from the grave. He finishes up the chapter by giving us the purpose statement of the whole book of John. He wrote about the seven signs that we might trust in Christ and have eternal life forever because of Jesus. John's previous pictures of this disciple present him as a loyal and courageous, though a somewhat pessimistic, follower of Jesus. His more common identification as a doubter comes only from the present event. Thomas had no doubts that Jesus had died. This is another evidence that Jesus really did die. The Greek text clarifies that the other disciples kept saying (Gr. elegon, imperfect tense) that Jesus was alive. In spite of this repeated verbal testimony by those who knew Him best, Thomas refused to believe (cf. 4:48). He had become so thoroughly convinced that Jesus was dead, as evidenced by his references to Jesus' wounds, that he could not see how Jesus' crucifixion could be overcome. 24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. Joh 11:16 How much Thomas missed because he did not meet with the other disciples on the Lord's Day Heb.10:22-25  He had to endure a whole week of fear and unbelief unnecessarily.  25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." The disciples seem to have been convinced of our Lord's resurrection, except for Thomas who was not there. He did not see the resurrected Lord, nor did he behold the Savior's wounded hands and side. And so it was that when Thomas was told that Jesus had appeared to them, he refused to believe. He insisted that in order for him to believe, he would have to see Jesus with his own eyes. He would have to personally inspect the Lord's nail-pierced hands and His pierced side. Only then would he believe. Before we become too harsh with Thomas, let me remind you that the other disciples did not believe until they saw, either. Thomas is really demanding to see the same things that convinced the others. He is not asking for anything more than what the others saw. Eight days passed. Apparently Jesus did not appear to any of His disciples during this period of time.  26 ¶ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Jesus again materialized in the presence of these disciples as He had a week earlier (v. 19). He also repeated His benediction (v. 21). Perhaps Jesus did these things because the disciples had told Thomas that He had appeared this way and had said these things. This would have bolstered Thomas' faith.  27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 1Jo 1:1 Jesus knew what Thomas had said even though He had not been physically present when he had said it. This is further proof of Jesus' deity. The purpose of this test was not just to satisfy Thomas' curiosity, however. It was to bring him to faith that Jesus was the resurrected Messiah. When Jesus appears to Thomas we have this road of unbelief that goes into a road of belief.  And, again, John's whole effort is to show how people come to faith and believe in Christ.  Thomas had heard the report.  In fact, the text, the word “see” is a very important verb all the way through this whole story.  They had seen Him.  They had seen the Lord.  “I'm not going to believe until I can see.”  It's like I'm putting the finger in the nail print.  Until I can see, I won't believe.  That's the whole context that John's setting up for us.  Thomas is a thoroughly a skeptic. Now, we often call him “Doubting Thomas” and we want to be careful with that.  We want to be careful of overstating the case of any of the disciples.  I've encouraged all of us not to sort of wail on Peter and we'll see Peter one day.  And I don't want to wail on Thomas because we're going to see Thomas one day; and I think Thomas is given to us for all of us who have that little skeptic, unconvinced - Thomas is the spiritual Missouri.  “Unless you show me, I'm not going to believe you.  I've got to see it with my own eyes before I believe it.  I don't believe this thing.”  And the Sunday after resurrection Sunday, the disciples are together, Thomas is now with them, they've tried to convince him, “He still won't believe.”  I think the more profound part of this is not when Jesus says, “Reach here.”  Not that He shows Himself to Thomas.  I think the profound part is He knew what Thomas had said.  In one sense, that's more profound than the miracle, if you will.  Now, play this one out if you want to get a little nervous.  If Jesus Christ knew Thomas' doubt, does He know yours?  Does He know the sin that you and I toy with?  Does He know the fears and the skepticism and the lust of our heart and the lust of our eyes and the pride of our life?  Seems to me it's a pretty good case for omniscience.  I don't necessarily like it, but I believe it and I believe that's one of the main lessons He wants us to see.  Well, Thomas' confession is really unrestrained.  He just sort of blurts out, “My Lord and My God!”  And there's nothing in the text that tells us what he did.  In other words, we don't know if Jesus took his hand and poked his finger in His own hand.  Or if Thomas said, “Okay, let me check this out.” In fact, I think the text is intentionally blank with Thomas' physical process because whatever you'd have done, that's what he did.  In other words, Christ is sort of meeting and condescending to Thomas and I think He does to you and me, too, in our doubts.  So, we don't know precisely what he does, but his response is powerful. Immediately, Jesus turns His attention to Thomas. He summons Thomas to come and to put his finger where the nails had pierced His hands, and to feel His side where the spear had pierced it. He challenged Thomas to forsake his unbelief and to believe. Since John does not tell us that Thomas actually felt the wounds of our Lord, it may well be that after seeing Jesus alive he no longer required this proof. It may have taken this sight to convince Thomas, but once convinced, Thomas got it right. He does not merely profess a belief that Jesus has risen from the dead. Thomas professes to believe in what the resurrection proved—that Jesus was God, and that He was Lord (verse 28). Thomas now has it right.  28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" For a Jew to call another human being "my Lord and my God" was blasphemy under normal circumstances (cf. 10:33). Yet that is precisely who Thomas believed Jesus was. It is also who John presented Jesus as being throughout this Gospel. Both titles were titles of deity in the Old Testament. Thomas had come to believe that Jesus was his lord in a fuller sense than before, and he now believed that Jesus was fully God. In fact, it is perhaps the climax of the entire Gospel of John, that one sentence.  “My Lord and my God!”  The first person pronoun is unusual when you talk about my Lord and my God.  In fact, you won't find it in the Bible, except under Thomas' declaration.  It's one of the greatest “Aha's” in all the Scripture.  And it serves a wonderful purpose the way John orchestrates His Gospel and puts it all together. The  repeated  pronoun  my  does  not  diminish  the universality of Jesus' lordship and deity, but it ensures that Thomas' words are a personal confession of faith. Thomas thereby not only displays his faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but points to its deepest meaning; it is nothing less than the revelation of who Jesus Christ is. The most unyielding sceptic has given to us the most profound confession." Now Thomas believed as his fellow disciples had come to believe (cf. v.25). His confession is a model that John presented for all future disciples. It is the high point of this Gospel (cf. 1:1, 14, 18). John's witnesses to Jesus' deity John the Baptist “This is the Chosen One [literally, “Son”] of God” (1:34) Nathaniel              “You are the Son of God” (1:49) Peter                             “You are the Holy One of God!” (6:69) Martha “You are the Christ, the Son of God” (11:27) Thomas                             “My Lord and my God!” (20:28) John the Apostle    “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (20:31) Jesus                            “I am the Son of God” (10:36; see also 4:26; 8:58) Nobody has previously addressed Jesus like this. It marks a leap of faith. In the moment that he came to see that Jesus was  indeed  risen  from  the  dead  Thomas  came  to  see something of what that implied. Mere men do not rise from the dead in this fashion.  The One who was now so obviously alive, although he had died, could be addressed in the language of adoring worship." I want you to notice Jesus' response to Him.  29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 2Co 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.; It confirmed the reality of Thomas' belief, and it prepared for the beatitude that followed (cf. 13:17). "Blessed" (Gr. makarios) does more than just describe the person in view as happy. It also declares him or her acceptable to God (cf. Matt. 5:3-12). Jesus pronounces a blessing upon those who don't get to see and yet have faith in Him.  Jesus is saying, “It's a good thing that you believe, Thomas, as a result of the sign.  But it's a blessed thing if you believe and you don't get to see the proof of the thing that you want proven.” And so we see God in His grace condescending to Thomas but also God in His grace telling us that not all of us are going to get to see the things that would cast our doubts aside. Most believers have believed on Jesus because of sufficient evidence without the physical confirmation that Thomas required (cf. v. 8; 1 Pet.1:8-9). Those were the people whom Jesus had in view when He made this statement. This beatitude does not make believers who live after Jesus' ascension superior to those who saw Him in the flesh. Rather it guarantees their blessing by God. When Jesus makes that blessing statement, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,” He Absolutely had us in mind. He's thinking of those who throughout the centuries would believe without seeing the resurrection. "Thomas's declaration is the last assertion of personal faith recorded in this Gospel. It marks the climax of the book because it presents Christ as the risen Lord, victorious over sin, sorrow, doubt, and death. It also presents the faith that accepts not only the truth of what Jesus said but also the actuality of what he was—the Son of God. In the experience of Thomas, the writer has shown how belief comes to maturity and how it changes the entire direction of an individual life." "The growth of belief depicted in the Gospel of John thus moves from an initial acceptance on the testimony of another to a personal knowledge marked by loyalty, service, and worship; from assumption of the historicity and integrity of Jesus to a personal trust in Him; from an outward profession to an inward reality; from practicing His teachings to acknowledging His lordship over life. Full belief may not be attained instantly; yet the initial and tentative belief is not to be despised." Based on a story of faith.  Based again on the intrinsic power of the Gospel story.  That He lived, He died, He was buried and He came back from the grave.  And those who trust in that are extraordinarily blessed. There is compelling evidence for the death, burial and resurrection of Christ; but ultimately, even with all of that evidence - It comes down to faith. Reviewing what it would take to cover something like this up.  It's impossible, to cover something like that up.  And to think about these eleven inept men who've run away at the fear of being somehow associated with Jesus a couple of days before are now so emboldened to steal the body and cover it up.  Talk about the extraordinary leap of faith.  It takes more imagination and fiction to think they could pull that off than that Christ really came back from the dead. And the Gospel writers don‘t say it, but we have to be sure that there were many who had a compelling desire to produce the body and demonstrate that this rumor going around that Jesus had been resurrected was just that, a rumor.  But no one was able to demonstrate.  Well, from Caiaphas on down, the most powerful, political religious group of men could not produce a body.  And you know what?  No one ever will. Think about Lee Strobel, the Chicago journalist who has written a number of books to provide evidence for the reality of Christ, the truth of the Scriptures.  And he wrote a book on the case for the cross where he examines the evidence.  And as wild as it may be to consider it, there's no conclusion you can come to that makes any more sense than that Jesus is who He says He was and He was raised from the dead.  It's just one piece of evidence after another. 1Pe 1:8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls. Although you've not seen Him, you love Him.  You don't see Him now, but you believe in Him.  And this is Peter.  This is the Peter who ran away and three times denied His Lord.  And I've got to believe Peter is in the room when He appears again with Thomas.  And I wonder if in the inspired movement of the Spirit of God when these words are penned, if all is not meant for us to piece together. “You've not seen Him, but you love Him.  You've not seen Him but you believe in Him.”  And you're blessed in that process.  If you add up the Synoptics you have thirty-five miracles, little debate on the exact number, but thirty-five miracles, signs, that Jesus performed, John records only seven key ones. Now get the flow of the book.  It's very important.  They've not seen the risen Christ.  They're looking for the body.  The Christ appears resurrected.  The fear is turned to joy.  Doubting individuals are convinced.  Their doubt is now taken away.  He really believes and Jesus says, “When you go out, you proclaim forgiveness as part of this gospel message.  You teach the people that the covenant, the new covenant, provides for forgiveness.  That's what this is all about.”  30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;  Joh 21:25  31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Lu 1:4; Joh 3:15-16; 5:24; 1Pe 1:8-9(NKJV) It's okay if you saw and believed, but you're blessed if you believe and you didn't get to see.  And then John says, “These signs that Jesus has done, a lot more of them happened, but these were written so you'll believe.” What does he want for us to believe?  The signs.  John the Gospel writer has said now for twenty chapters, he said, “I wrote all this so that you'll believe.  And I punctuated it with these miracles so that you'll believe.” Jesus even said, “If someone comes back from the dead they won't believe.” But John says, “I want to record these signs so that you'll believe.” When Jesus Christ performs a miracle it's always for a purpose.  The word sign is a stem of signifying.  The sign signifies something.  Take for example the blind man, John nine.  He's blind from birth.  What's the point?  Jesus has power over creation.  Sure.  That's not the real point.  The real point is all of us are blind and we need new sight and Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.  I am the one who gives you new sight.  I create new hearts.  I create new eyes.  I create new people.”  That's what Jesus' message is.  So the sign of the blind man being cured, being given new eyes, is not just a, “Wow!  He cured somebody.”  It's, we're all spiritually blind and we need curing.  Are you with me?  So John says, “All these signs signify something about Christ and our condition and they're written so you and I will believe.” A SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN SIGNS IN JOHN Sign Significance Belief Unbelief Reference Changing water to wine Jesus' power over life,(source) The disciples   2:1-11 Healing the official's son Jesus' power over distance The official and his household   4:46-54 Healing the paralytic Jesus' power over time The paralytic? The Jews 5:1-9 Feeding the 5,000 Jesus' power over quantity Some people in the crowd   6:1-15 Walking on the water Jesus' power over nature The disciples   6:16-21 Healing a man born blind Jesus' power over creation and misfortune The blind man The Pharisees 9:1-12 Raising Lazarus Jesus' power over death Martha, Mary, and many Jews The Jewish Authorities 11:1-16 His presentation of Jesus as the divine Son of God certainly has universal application. "There cannot be any doubt but that John conceived of Jesus as the very incarnation of God." John's purpose was not academic. It was not simply that people might believe intellectually that Jesus is the divine Messiah. It was rather that they might believe those foundational truths so they could possess and experience the life of God fully (cf. 10:10). This divine life affects the whole person, not just the intellect. Moreover it affects him or her forever, not just during that person's present lifetime. Let's look at a couple of lessons John's clear purpose statement concludes the body of this Gospel. The graveside can bring incredible grief in life, but the faith of the believer moves on beyond the grave. We're separated and we miss people bitterly because we love them.” That's what death is, a separation, right?  And we long to see them.  And it's very common for people to dream about a reunion and I think Mary is sort of that person.  She's hanging on and she's hurt and Jesus says, “Mary.” And she turns.  The point of that:  turn away from the graveside and see the resurrection.  Turn away from your grief and see life is beyond the grave, right?  And we must do the same as we process through our grief.  Grief is tough, it's not meant to be simple.  It's tough.  But the believer in Christ has hope that the world doesn't have. Suffering is universal, misery is optional.” Some of you know the name Charles Wedemeyer.  He was a very successful coach who is now a quadriplegic and can't even speak.  One hundred percent dependent upon other people.  And he says, through her interpretation, “Suffering is universal, misery is optional.” And, you know, all of us are going to suffer and hurt and grieve in life, but to remain miserable is an option and the believer in Christ must look beyond the circumstances and say, “You know, this earth is a rotten place sometimes.  My faith is in the next life.”   God's peace only comes through Christ.  John fourteen to John sixteen Christ had gone at length to say, “My peace I leave with you.  Not as the world do I give, but my peace I give to you.  Peace be with you.” Earlier it said his spirit was troubled and He says, “I'm going to give you peace.”  Three times in this text, “Peace be with you.  Peace be with you.  Peace.” They're afraid of the Jews, they are fearfully grieving their loss.  “Peace be with you.  Peace.”  He's dispelling their anxiety.  Isa 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Ps 4:8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Phil 4:6-9 Paul says a peace that surpasses all comprehension that will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.  How many of us have never even come close to understanding that?  And that's the resurrection peace that Christ gives.  Jesus Knows Everything - If Jesus Christ knew Thomas' doubt, does He know yours? Does He know the sin that you and I toy with? He knows the fears and the skepticism and the lust of our heart and the lust of our eyes and the pride of our life? "Thomas's declaration of personal faith marks the climax of the book because it presents Christ as the risen Lord, victorious over sin, sorrow, doubt, and death. It is our example. Romans 10.9-11 What proof do you seek?  See, the reasons we don't believe, the reasons we doubt are not because we're so smart or clever.  The reason we doubt is because if we believe, we therefore must submit and obey.  And that's not fun.  It's not fun to do the right thing when sin wants to do the wrong thing.  But the believer in Jesus Christ submits and he says, “You know, God, I don't understand it all, but by Your grace and kindness I'm going to follow You even when I can't see to believe, I believe You.” Mark chapter nine.  The man who has brought his seizure ridden epileptic demonized son to the disciples who can't do anything for him.  Jesus comes back with Peter, James and John from the mount of transfiguration.  An extraordinary passage, where the man wants to believe but what great honesty.  “Help me in my unbelief.  I want to believe you.” And Jesus doesn't condemn him Or shame him or anything, Or say, “What kind of faith is this?”  In fact, the message is really a double-edged message because He says, “Oh unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you?”  That precedes His comment to the father.  I think His primary target is the disciples. It's like when you discipline one child in front of your whole family.  You're telling them all the same issue, but the one's on the hot seat.  And Christ is saying to you, “Don't you get it?  This is not your power.  This is not you.  You have to move beyond that.” And with a few words the Lord does a miracle of healing. Would we say to Jesus, “Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.” I hope so.  I often do.  I want to believe Him, I hope to believe. And belief and faith are not the little engine that could.  It's not, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” and if I exercise enough of that faith, then God will come through.  Faith is confident assurance of things hoped for.  Meaning, I want this outcome.  With a conviction of things not yet seen.  I don't know the outcome, I don't know the verdict.  So I'm trusting Christ, I'm believing in Him, I'm hoping for this outcome.  I'm convicted in the sense I'm planted, but I don't know what's going to happen. And ultimately your faith is not in the outcome, it is in the one who controls the outcome

Read OnlineThen Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Mark 9:5–7Just prior to the Transfiguration, Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He would suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, be killed and then rise on the third day. This caused much fear for the disciples as they grappled with this unsettling revelation from our Lord. And even though Jesus remained firm with them and even rebuked Peter for his fear, Jesus also gave three of His disciples a very precious gift.After much traveling, preaching, miracle working and private conversations about His passion with the Twelve, Jesus invited Peter, James and John to go with Him up a high mountain to pray. These disciples most likely had no idea what they would soon encounter.As they made the difficult and arduous journey, their minds must have been pondering not only the mighty deeds done by Jesus in the previous months but also His words about the suffering to come. As they struggled with this, much to their amazement, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared before them, representing the Law and the prophets. These two Old Testament figures appeared as a way of saying to these disciples that everything that Jesus was telling them was to take place to fulfill all that had been foretold about Him from of old. Perhaps Jesus thought that if His disciples would not fully listen to Him, then seeing Moses and Elijah would help. But Jesus went even further. The Voice of the Father Himself thundered and said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Thus, if these disciples would not ultimately listen to Jesus alone, or if even Moses and Elijah failed to convince them, then the last hope was the Father Himself. And Jesus delivered such a grace.The Transfiguration was a true mercy. These disciples had never seen anything like it before. But it was most likely this act of mercy that ultimately helped them to accept the hard truth that Jesus was trying to teach them about His coming suffering and death. If the Father in Heaven Personally gave witness to Jesus, then everything that Jesus had said was trustworthy.As we read through the Gospels and the many teachings God has given us through the Church, think about whether there are some teachings with which you struggle? Or in your own life, on a personal level, are there some things you know God wants of you but you find it difficult to accept? When confusion sets in, that means we are not listening, are not fully hearing what God is saying to us or are not understanding. And though we will not see the Transfigured Lord with our eyes and hear the Voice of the Father with our ears as these three disciples did, we must choose to believe all that God has said as if it were the Transfigured Lord, with Moses and Elijah, and the Father Himself speaking clearly and directly to us. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Those words were not only spoken for the good of the disciples, they are also spoken to us.Reflect, today, upon this powerful experience given to these disciples by our Lord. Try to place yourself in the scene so as to witness Jesus transfigured in the most glorious way, with Moses and Elijah and with the thundering Voice of the Father. Allow the Father to speak also to you, telling you that all He has spoken through the Scriptures, the Church and within your own conscience is true. Allow this revelation to convince you on the deepest level to acknowledge not only the divinity of Jesus but also to “Listen to Him” in every way. My transfigured Lord, You are glorious beyond imagination, and You revealed a small glimpse of this glory to Your disciples to help them trust You more fully. May I also trust in You more completely, knowing that all You have spoken to me is true. Please remove any doubt and fear in my life so that nothing keeps me from embracing Your holy will. Jesus, I trust in You.  Source of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2024 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.Featured image above: Transfiguration By Duccio di Buoninsegna, via Wikimedia Commons

Throughout the years of my pastoral ministry, I have often had people come up to me following the worship service and say something like this:"Preacher, you really spoke to me today. Was that sermon meant just for me?" My response is always that I do not preach just to one person.In Matthew's gospel, there is an account of what the chief priests and Pharisees asked Jesus, after he had given them some parables (earthly stories with heavenly meanings). Matthew 21:45 says that "they perceived that he spoke of them."Our subject today is "Personal Preaching." Perhaps Jesus has something to say to you today. Let's listen and find out.We pray that the message today will be a blessing to you. Thank you for worshipping with us today from Ocean Lakes Family Campground.

You've done everything right. You heard God's command and followed it, but things haven't turned out the way you expected them to.  What's going on? Join host Julie Harwick for an incredible biblical teaching on Dealing With Disappointment. *** Welcome to Women World Leaders podcast. I'm your host, Julie Harwick. Thank you for joining me today as we celebrate God's grace in our lives, in this ministry and around the world.  Karen was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.  We'd gotten close in our high school youth group and she was a somewhat new, but very passionate believer.  We'd talked a lot within our group about seeking God and honoring Him in our romantic relationships.  But now that we were in college, Karen was in love and none of the principles we had committed ourselves to seemed to matter anymore. We were all home on Christmas break and Karen had invited us to her wedding which was to take place the following weekend.  She had met a Palestinian guy who was at the university on a student visa.  He didn't want to go to school anymore, but he wanted to stay in the U.S. so his best solution was to get married. At the ripe old age of 20, she was certain that God had brought this man into her life to be the husband that she had always dreamed of and that their only hope to be together was for her to marry him immediately.  One friend, who was especially close to her, had tried to convince her that marrying him now was a bad idea, but Karen simply refuted every argument. A larger group of us got together to discuss the situation and seek God's direction. Karen's fiance' was not a believer, and she was currently living with him, so those were two issues that we could confront with scripture. Matthew 18:15 also told us 5 “Now if your brother sins[k], go and [l]show him his fault [m]in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that on the [n]testimony of two or three witnesses every [o]matter may be confirmed, “ We all felt strongly that if we truly cared about Karen, God would have us talk to her about the poor decisions she had already made and the even larger one she was about to make. We looked up and discussed all the relevant scriptures so we'd have a biblical basis for our arguments, and we spent time praying that God would prepare her to really hear us and recognize that what we were saying was coming from love for her and not judgement.  We prayed that our own hearts would be right as we did it and that something  good might even come of it.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  Her fiancé was there, which made it particularly awkward, and both of their defenses were up.  We suggested that they at least wait to get married since they had known each other for such a short time, hadn't met each other's families and had so many cultural differences.  We asked how they would support themselves since neither had a decent paying job and weren't even close to earning a degree.  They had answers, though not very good ones, for everything. We reminded her of what the bible said about living with someone you're not married to and marrying an unbeliever.  The whole conversation was civil, but tense.  When we had covered every issue and it was clear that she was not receptive to anything we had to say, she thanked us for our concern, and we wished them the best and made our exit. We all shared a very deep sense of discouragement as we left. The last thing I heard about Karen was that she had moved to Gaza with him.  I often wonder what her life has been like and what it might have been. So why did it have to turn out that way?  Were we not faithful to do everything God would have us do?  Going into it, we were confident that if we handled the situation according to scripture, God would work a miracle. Couldn't we look at it sort of like a formula?  God's power + our obedience= a good outcome. But in God's economy, there are no formulas.  Only faith. The prophet Elijah is a perfect example.  First Kings 17 and 18 contain an epic story of how God proved His superiority over any other god in an unmistakable way.  If you're familiar with any of the kings of Israel, one probably stands out because he's part of the worst power couple the nation ever knew.  Ahab and Jezebel were narcissistic, egotistical and just plain evil.  Not only did they lead the people to worship other gods, but they saw the prophet Elijah as the bane of their existence.  Ahab referred to him as, “the troubler of Israel” and Jezebel set out to kill all the true prophets in the country and nearly succeeded. First Kings 16:33 tells us that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings of Israel who came before him.  Elijah had the unenviable task of warning Ahab that the entire country would be punished with 3 ½ years of drought because of his sin. As the end of the drought approached God told Elijah to inform the king that he needed to assemble all of Israel on the top of Mt. Carmel, along with all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashera.  Ahab complied and Elijah set the stage for the greatest showdown in Israel's history.   Verse 21 says, “Elijah challenged the people: How long are you going to sit on the fence?  If God is the real God, follow Him.  If it's Baal, follow him.  Make up your minds!”  He then instructed the prophets of Baal to set up an altar and prepare an ox for a sacrifice.  He would do the same, but neither he nor they could light a fire.  They would each pray to their god and the one who ignited and consumed the sacrifice would prove to be the true god.  The prophets of Baal prayed all morning long, but nothing happened.  By noon, Elijah began to mock them, suggesting that Baal didn't answer because he was sleeping or too busy, possibly on vacation or maybe even occupied using the toilet.  As more time passed, they became more desperate, finally resorting to cutting themselves as a sacrifice until they were covered with blood.  But still, there was absolutely no response from Baal. At this point, Elijah declared that their time was up, and he would prepare his sacrifice. The crowd was mystified when he dug a large trench all around the altar and commanded that four buckets of water be poured over the sacrifice and the wood until both were drenched and the trench was filled with water.  Rather than performing mystical rituals or cutting himself, Elijah simply prayed, “Oh God, God of Abraham, Issac and Israel, make it known right now that You are God in Israel, that I am Your servant and I'm doing what I'm doing under Your orders.  Answer me God and reveal to this people that You are God, the true God and that You are giving these people another chance at repentance.”  Verse 38 tells us that immediately the fire of God fell and completely consumed the offering – even licking up every drop of water in the trench!  The people fell on their faces in worship and declared, “God is the true God!”  He instructed the people to capture the prophets of Baal and execute them.  He suggested that King Ahab eat and drink in celebration because the Lord was about to send rain.  Everyone did exactly as they were instructed.  Elijah climbed to the peak of the mountain and began to pray for rain.  Seven times he sent his servant to look toward the sea for signs of rain. On the seventh try, the servant reported a very small cloud, no bigger than a human hand.  Elijah sent him to warn Ahab that he'd better head home quickly before the coming rain stopped him.  Immediately the sky grew dark, the winds picked up and 3 ½ years' worth of rain began to fall.  God supernaturally empowered Elijah to run like no one has ever run before or since.  The chapter closes with Elijah overtaking and running ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to the palace. What a day for Elijah, right?  His prophecies all came true.  He was completely vindicated.  God showed up in a way no one could deny.  The people all acknowledged that He was the one true God and destroyed every false prophet with zeal. Desperately needed rain fell in abundance and Elijah outran a team of horses for miles and miles!  God's power + Elijah's obedience had completely turned things around!  Or had it? Ahab lost no time in bringing Jezebel up to speed on all that had transpired.  But her focus was not at all on the  miraculous events that had just occurred, but on her beloved 450 prophets of Baal who had just been eliminated. She immediately sent a messenger to Elijah informing him that by the next day, he'd be as dead as any of those prophets. Elijah had been on a spiritual high that we can only begin to imagine.  After years of misery, he had finally come out on top and more importantly, God had used him to bring Israel to repentance!  It was as if the day's events had steadily inflated a giant balloon of hope for Elijah, but this message from Jezebel was a pin that unexpectedly popped and completely deflated that balloon.  He and his servant immediately fled to neighboring Judah.  He left his servant and went a day's journey into the desert.  Taking shelter under a bush, he collapsed and begged God to let him die.  Physically and emotionally spent, he fell asleep.  As Elijah slept, God sent an angel to provide food and water for him at regular intervals. The only instructions given to him were to eat, drink and sleep because he had a long journey ahead of him.  When he had regained his strength, he traveled 40 days and nights to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God, where he took up residence in a cave.  Hmmm. Mt. Horeb? Does that name ring a bell?  Or maybe its alternate name of Mt. Sinai?  If it doesn't, I'll give you a clue.  It's called the mountain of God because it's where God met with Moses and gave him the ten commandments. And when I think of Moses, I begin to see some parallels with Elijah's experience.  Moses was also used by God to do extraordinary things for the nation of Israel.  He also prophesied to a king, pharaoh actually, who hated him.  He called the people to follow God and worship Him only. After miracle upon miracle and seeing the burning mountain of God and experiencing His awe-inspiring presence from the foot of the mountain those people declared, “ All that the Lord has commanded, we will do.”  But when Moses spent too much time on the mountain with God, they feared he wasn't coming back and decided to forget the covenant they had made and create a golden calf to worship.  Both Moses and Elijah thought that the miracles they had taken part in had truly changed the people, but their behavior quickly revealed that it had not.  Neither man had asked God for the positions in which they found themselves.  They were reluctant, yet obedient servants.  I wonder if it seemed to them that God was simply toying with them for His own amusement. But that wasn't it at all. He was preparing them for an encounter with Himself that was unlike anything any other human ever experienced.  When God asked Elijah what he was doing on the mountain, he replied, “I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with You and torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets and only I am left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”  God responded by telling Elijah to stand before Him on the mountain.  “And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain; it was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face.”  After this incredible encounter with the Almighty, God gave him further prophecies and the reassurance that there were actually more than 7000 people in Israel who served the true God.  Elijah left the mountain renewed, encouraged and with a completely new understanding of Who God was.  Moses had a similar experience after he had dealt with the people's sin of making a golden calf to worship.  Angry and discouraged by their behavior and overwhelmed at the prospect of leading such people, Moses asked God for a sign that He would actually be present with them for every step of the journey ahead. God warned him not to look at His face.  Moses was to step inside a cleft in the rock on the mountain facing away from God.  God would pass by and Moses could gaze on His glory from behind.  Not only did this experience give Moses the courage and determination to keep leading the people, but it transformed him physically.  When he came down from the mountain, his face was radiant with God's glory, so much so, that the people were afraid to look at him.  It wore off eventually, but there could be no doubt that he had been in the presence of God. I had been familiar with both of these stories for years, but somehow, I had missed the connection.  And it goes even further.  Do you remember who Peter, James and John saw talking with Jesus when He was transfigured?  It was Moses and Elijah. Perhaps Jesus wanted his disciples to think about the special place those two men held in God's heart.  The disciples had equally hard times awaiting them.  Was Jesus preparing them by reminding them of how His Father cared for and rewarded the faithful?  The Apostle Paul undoubtedly heard the story from Peter and it wasn't lost on him.  It may have inspired him to write Romans 5: 1-5 and those words are the perfect way to close. “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in the hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character; hope, and hope does not disappoint.” Thanks for listening to Women World Leaders podcast!  Join us each week as we explore together God's extravagant love and your courageous purpose.  Visit our website at www.womenworldleaders.com to submit a prayer request, register for an upcoming event, and support the ministry.  From His heart to yours, we are Women World Leaders .  All content is copyrighted by Women World Leaders and cannot be used without written consent.

God's Word for Today 30 May, 2024 31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” -Mark 3:31-35 ESV WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND MY BROTHERS? Perhaps Jesus' family were a bit worried about the reports concerning Him that they came. For some unknown reason, Joseph is out of the picture, but Mary still has four other sons and at least two daughters (Mark 6:3). His family was skeptical about Him. The people in Nazareth do not accept His authority. They've seen Him always as an ordinary boy growing up and there is nothing special about His family. In that culture, they call Him a bastard—a slight on Jesus by referring Him as the "son of Mary." It was an insult against His parentage (Mark 6:3). Some consider Him insane (Mark 3:21). Obviously, they were not seeking Jesus to find out whether He was true but to keep Him out of trouble and controversy. The reason was for their own. Conversely, we are enjoined to seek God by faith. [Heb 11:6] We must seek Him as He is, not as someone to do our bidding so that our earthly lives are easier, do we? God must be the end not a means. Who is His family? Jesus broadened the concept of His family by saying. “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus is clear that following Him will cause serious tensions within families. He says, "And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake.[ Mark 13:12–13] In Matthew 10:35–36 He says, "'For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.'" Eventually, Mary and at least two of Jesus' brothers join His spiritual family. James becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem and writes the book James. Judas writes the book Jude. Listen and FOLLOW us on our podcast Spotify: http://bit.ly/glccfil_spotify Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-applepcast Google Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-googlepcast Audible Podcast: http://bit.ly/glccfil-audible Follow us on various media platforms: https://gospellightfilipino.contactin.bio #gospellightfilipino #godswordfortoday #bookofMark

Pilate's soul hangs in the balance as he puts Jesus Christ on trial and declares the innocent one guilty. The question lingers... are you doing the same? - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - This morning I had the privilege to sit again in the “Discovering Christ” class, which is a class we have every week to study the person and work of Christ based on the Gospel of Mark. I was struck again as we began the cycle. We're looking at infinite majesty of the person of Christ. That's the purpose of the Gospel of Mark. It depicts Jesus in His remarkable person, His authority, declared to be the son of God at His baptism by a voice that came from heaven when heaven was torn apart and a dove came down and a voice said, "This is My Son whom I love; with Him, I'm well pleased." Then Jesus begins his ministry, teaching in a way that no one had ever heard before with authority, the ability to speak the truth of God in a powerful way, authoritative way- “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” Then as a demon possessed young man is there, to be able to instantly drive out the demon with a word. The demons were terrified of Jesus. He had no fear of them; He absolute authority over demons. Then there was every disease and sickness known to man. There was no disease or sickness He could not cure effortlessly, instantaneously, personally, effectively, every disease and sickness. We see His ability to control the wind and the waves when He was in the boat. A raging storm came down and the boat was filling with water. Jesus was asleep, then got up and stretched His hand over the wind and the waves and said, "Peace, be still." Instantly they obeyed His voice. “What kind of man is this? Even the wind in the waves obey him.” He revealed power over death as He raised Jairus's daughter from the dead. He said, "Talitha Cumi, little girl, I say to you, get up,” and her spirit returned to her and she got up. For Him, death and sleep were no different. It's just the same as waking a girl up from sleep. That's how powerful Jesus is over death, but even more, His authority over sin, His ability to declare to a sinner, your sins are forgiven and they are. This man that we've been learning about now in fourteen chapters now going into the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is on trial before Pontius Pilate, on trial for His life, the only perfectly good man that's ever been. On trial for what? What did He do except love God with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength and love His neighbor perfectly as Himself and didn't break any of God's laws or man's laws ever. He's on trial before Pontius Pilate. Things are not, however, as they appear. If we had been transported back in time and we were there, we'd see this prisoner arrested on trial before the Roman procurator, on trial for his life. But the reality is much different. It was determined in the mind of God that Jesus should die for the sins of the world and that that would be the process whereby it would happen. It was a foregone conclusion. What's really going on in this account of Jesus before Pilot is that Pilot's on trial, actually. Pilot's on trial. In order to make that case and to make it then relevant to us, I'm going to... often I just stick with the words of Mark. But this morning I'm going to be reaching out to all four Gospels. I would say especially John 18:28-19:16 which probably puts the trial of Pilot himself more clearly than any of the other gospels. I'll be leaning on that, but also some things from Matthew. Whereas Pilot thought that he was evaluating and judging Jesus, the reality was that he was on trial and through him, all of us are, we all have a decision to make about Jesus because the Bible reveals that someday we're going to stand before his Judgment Seat. The only way we're going to survive that is if in this world, in this time now we have, come to personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. Only that way will we survive judgment day, only that way. So here's Pilot judging, the only perfectly innocent man that has ever lived and by condemning Jesus to death, a man Pilot again and again asserts publicly that He is innocent. A man he may well have believed was supernatural and incarnation of sorts. We'll talk about that. He was actually destroying his conscience and condemning his own soul, he did it, we're told in the text, to please the crowd. Behind that we can say, he was trying to save his life and his job. But Jesus put it so plainly in Mark 8:36, "What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul?" I don't know if Pilate ever did repent of his sins and trust in Jesus as his Lord and Savior, I have no idea. But if he didn't, he'll spend all eternity wishing for this moment back. The real question in front of all of us, what about us? What about you? Not just that personal moment of repentance and faith in Jesus, but understanding really what this passage teaches us. There's so many lessons here. We're going to see how God orchestrated in providence the condemnation of Jesus before the Roman procurator, before any of these things came to be, that God moved providential wheels to give the Jews, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin power over Pilate, so he would do what they wanted him to do, though he didn't want to do it. We're going to walk through that and learn providence. Now overall, the purpose of this account, like any account in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is summed up in John's purpose statement in John 20:31, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believing may have life in His name." So that's the purpose today. 1. The Charge Against the Silent Jesus: “King of the Jews” Let's walk through the trial. Let's see what happens in Mark's account, but then looking at the others as well. In the charge against Jesus... Jesus is arraigned before Pilate, the religious phase of the trial is over. The Jewish leaders had come to their decision. Look at verse 1, “Very early in the morning the chief priests with the elders, the teacher of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led Him away and delivered Him over to Pilate.” They have condemned Jesus to death, but they can't kill him, as much as they would like to. The Romans took away the power of that local body to execute people. The Romans retain that right, so they needed Pilate's involvement. They deeply wanted to put Jesus to death. They wanted him killed. Now we notice in John's account the hypocrisy of these Jewish religious leaders. In John 18:28, "Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, the Jews did not enter the palace because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.” This is disgusting, religious hypocrisy. They maintained an outward appearance of spirituality and legality, but their whole purpose that morning was to murder an innocent man and not just any innocent man but to kill the glorious Son of God. But they're maintaining a certain pattern of religiosity so they can go through their rituals. Pilate asks Him this question, verse 2, "Are you the King of the Jews?" That's how it begins. This was the charge the Jews had figured would work with the Roman governor. They had tried to get him, as we know earlier in Mark's Gospel, on tax evasion, saying you don't need to pay taxes to Caesar, but Jesus openly asserted that they did. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's." So that didn't work out, but this “King of the Jews” charge was weighty because it implied a threat to Roman interest in the area. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus’ enemies took another approach. In Luke 23:5, they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here." That basically is a charge that He's a rabble rouser, He's an insurrectionist. Ironically, Barabbas, the very one they chose instead of Jesus, was openly an insurrectionist. So are you for or against insurrectionists? In Luke 23:19, "Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder." Pilate zeroes in on this question, this charge, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus gives a very interesting answer. In verse 2, "You have said it," or, "Yes, it is as you say," there are different translations. In Matthew 27:11, "You have said it." What does that mean? It’s somewhat mysterious. Perhaps Jesus meant the words like this, “Yes, it is as you say, but it's not what you mean or not how you mean. Or, you have said it but you really don't understand it.” In John 18, he goes into it in more detail. In John 18:36-38, "'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews, but now my kingdom is from another place.' 'You are a king then,' said Pilate. Jesus answered, 'You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.' 'What is truth?' Pilate asked." That's a more in-depth conversation on Jesus's kingship. Jesus's kingdom is infinitely more powerful and more complex, more spiritual than Pilate could possibly imagine, but it's an entirely different thing than he was thinking when he asked, "Are you the King of the Jews?" So was He? Was Jesus King of the Jews? Answer: Absolutely, yes. As a matter of fact, that's the purpose of the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The first thing taught in the New Testament about Jesus is that He is the son of David, meaning King of the Jews. That's true, yes, He was King of the Jews, but not the way anyone thought, not the way His disciples thought, not the way anybody on earth thought. Yes, He's King of the Jews, but certainly not the way Pilate thought. Actually, Jesus is more than just King of the Jews. In Zechariah 9:10 it says, "He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth." So not just King of the Jews, but yes, King of the Jews. Was Jesus a threat? Was Jesus a threat to Pilate? Was Jesus a threat to Caesar? Was Jesus a threat to Rome? Answer: yes and no. Let's say no and yes. Jesus is no threat to lead an immediate political insurrection against Pontius Pilate and Judea or Caesar and the Roman Empire. But Jesus threatened Pilate and Caesar with eternal damnation. Jesus' kingdom is vastly more powerful than any earthly ruler could ever imagine. When Christ returns, He will set up a kingdom that will destroy all other kingdoms and will itself never be destroyed. This is the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2, it says, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.” This is the meaning of the vision of a rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands. The rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces. Those represent empires. All empires come to an end at the Second Coming of Christ, and Jesus's kingdom established will reign forever and ever. The account is given in Revelation 19 of the Second Coming, "Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule him with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords." "Jesus is no threat to lead an immediate political insurrection against Pontius Pilate and Judea or Caesar and the Roman Empire. But Jesus threatened Pilate and Caesar with eternal damnation." Is Jesus a threat? Absolutely. Just not the way the Pilate was thinking. Jesus responds in silence, in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Look at verses 3-5, the chief priests accused Him of many things. Again, Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they're accusing you of." But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. This is in direct fulfillment of course, of Isaiah 53:7, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." Why not? Why was Jesus silent? There's a horizontal and a vertical aspect of Jesus' silence. Horizontally, He's silent because the trial is completely corrupt and unjust, and there's nothing He can say that will change it, and He's very aware of that. There's no point in Him saying anything. As He says in Luke 22:67-68, "'If you are the Christ,' they said, 'tell us.' Jesus answered, 'If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you a question, you would not answer.'" So He's openly saying, "What's the point?” Horizontally, there's no point in Him answering. Vertically, He must be silent because He's our sin bearer and there's nothing we can say in response to defend ourselves. We are guilty. We have broken God's laws and He has taken our sins on Himself and cannot reply to Almighty God, and so He must be silent, vertically. Pilate was amazed at the silence. He had never seen any prisoner behave like this man. As procurator with the power of life, death, he was used to seeing prisoners in many different states. Some might beg and plead for their lives, groveling on the ground. Some might be terrified, unable to speak because of terror, paralyzed. Some might be sullen or defiant or louder defiant. But Jesus had a supernatural calm to Him and a peace to Him. In the Gospel account, especially in John, there's a sense that He's in charge of the whole process. He has no fear at all. “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” Pilot's never seen a man like this before. Never. Proverbs 16:32, "Better a patient man than a warrior. A man who controls his temper than one who takes a city." Jesus was in absolute control of Himself, of His emotions, of His reactions at every moment. He was infinitely strong. 2. Pontius Pilate on Trial It really is Pontius Pilate on trial. Look at verses 6-15, “That was the custom at the feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilot to do for them what he usually did. ‘Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews,’ asked Pilot, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilot release Barabbas instead. ‘What shall I do then with the one you call King of the Jews,’ Pilot asked them. ‘Crucify him,’ they answered. ‘Why? What crime has he committed,’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilot released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.” Pilot's on trial here, though he doesn't know it. As we look at John's account, we can see that Pilot again and again and again tries to release Jesus. It's his top priority it seems, below self-interest. He wants to release Jesus, he wants to set him free. Pilot knows that Jesus is innocent. In our text he says he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. Pilot has undoubtedly heard about Jesus's miracles and the power that surrounded His ministry. Thirdly, Greeks and Romans frequently believed that the gods and goddesses took on human bodies and mucked around in human life and did human things and got into human affairs, and they believed this. There's biblical support of this conception. In the book of Acts, in Acts 14:11-12 when Paul and Barnabas were ministering in Lystra and did a healing miracle, it says, "When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in Lyconian language, 'The Gods have come down to us in human form.'" That's it right there. Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul, they called Hermes. They tried to offer sacrifices to them. This idea of gods taking on human bodies was well established in Greek and Roman culture. Fourthly, we have Pilate's wife who had a dream about Jesus and sends him a message during the trial about the dream, and we'll get back to that in a moment. John's Gospel, therefore, makes it plain that Pontius Pilate was afraid of Jesus. Most of the depictions of the trial do not show this aspect of Pilate, but he was afraid of Jesus. In John 19:7-9, “The Jews insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law, he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.’ When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid and he went back inside the palace. ‘Where do you come from,’ he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.” What do you think was in his mind when he asked him that question? Are you a God? That's what he's asking. But however afraid he was of Jesus, he was even more afraid of what the Jews would do to him if he didn't do what they wanted. Now to get this background, we have to turn to a Jewish historian named Josephus, who tells us what the early stages of Pontius Pilate's rule was like in Judea. It was bad. Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived shortly after Jesus, and he gives us insights. Pilate ruled the Roman province of Judea from 26-36 AD. Once he was established in his position, he quickly offended the Jews multiple times by his high-handed and arrogant treatment of the Jewish people. Right away he marches into Jerusalem and sets up the Roman Eagles in the temple itself. The Roman Eagles were looked on by the Romans and therefore by the Jews as idols, representatives of Caesar's power. For him to put them physically in the temple was incredibly offensive to the Jews. They assembled and demanded that he remove the Eagles. Pilate refused and threatened the Jewish mob with slaughter if they didn't disperse. Undaunted, the Jews bared their necks and said, "Go ahead and kill us. We're not leaving." So Pilate backed down, losing face and authority with them. Soon after that, he offended the Jews again with his handling of a public aqueduct conflict. Again, the Jews assembled a protest. Pilot had the crowd infiltrated with plain clothes Romans, bearing swords. When the Jews refused to disperse again, Pilot gave the signal and the soldiers slaughtered many of the Jews. Jesus talks about this, how Pilot had mingled their blood with their sacrifices. He killed a lot of Jews that day. But the Emperor Tiberius was so angry at Pilot for his mismanagement because if he's stirring up trouble, Caesar will have to send more troops to the region. This is key. He was under orders to keep things quiet and orderly and get along with the Jews. These two things happened before Jesus's trial. Do you not see the hand of God in all this? He's giving to the Jewish Sanhedrin, the high priests, the chief priests, power over Pilot and they traded it in, in John's Gospel. No doubt about it. It says in John 19:12, "From then on Pilot tried to set Jesus free." You see that statement? He wants to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar's. Anyone who claims to be a king, opposes Caesar." They're clearly threatening to go to Tiberius, to go over his head. There's no doubt about it. Now, as I said, Pilot's conviction is that Jesus was completely innocent. He knew it was out of envy that the chief priest had handed Jesus over to him. Three times in John's Gospel, he declares publicly that Jesus was innocent of any charge at all. John 18:38, "I find no fault in him." John 19:4, "Look, I'm bringing you out to let you know I find no fault in him." And then verse 6, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against." That's three times a public assertion of Jesus's innocence. Set him free, you’re in charge. Set him free if he's innocent. This whole conviction is even more greatly strengthened by his wife's dream. Matthew 27:19, "While Pilot was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message. 'Don't have anything to do with that innocent man.'" Innocent man. "For I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him." What effect do you think that message would've had on Pilot in the middle of this? In John's account, he goes out to the Jews and back to Jesus. He goes out. He's going back and forth. He doesn't know what to do. He's like a trapped animal. All of this was orchestrated by God. Why? Because He wanted to give His only-begotten son, in your place, as an atonement for your sins to bring you to heaven. That's why, and Jesus was equally determined to die for you and me. That's why all this was happening. Now he tries the clever attempt. One of the things he tries is, "Oh wait, yeah, it's the feast. I can release a prisoner. I got an idea. Let's do that.” It was the custom at the feast to release a prisoner whom the people had requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists, who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. Pilate brings it up in John's Gospel. They both remember this custom. "Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews," asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. However, this clever attempt to get out of this whole thing was thwarted by the Jewish leaders. In verse 11, the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. I don't know how they did that, but they were running the show here. They had infiltrated the crowd. They had whispered, they'd called in IOUs, maybe bribed some people, got some people to shout things out for Barabbas and then shout, "Crucify!" for Jesus. They manipulate the crowd into a maniacal frenzy. "What shall I do then with the one you call King of the Jews," Pilate asked them. "Crucify him!" they shouted. "Why? What crime has he committed? He's innocent." But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!” In Matthew's account, "Pilate saw he was getting nowhere, but instead an uproar was starting." It's a frenzy. Satan must've been stirring this whole thing on as well. It was Satan that was in Judas Iscariot to orchestrate this whole thing. Satan's fanning this whole thing into a flame because he was a murderer and he hates the Son of God and wants him killed. The sinlessness of Jesus is clearly established. The roots of the chief priests and elders, their wicked hatred for Jesus was envy, greed, and power. The crowd vacillating just a week before shouting, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" Now they're yelling, "Crucify, crucify!" This is the culmination of Jesus's rejection by His own people. He's been officially rejected by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin. He's officially condemned to death, but now the people are shouting for His death. "He came to his own and his own did not receive him." [John 1:11]. In Matthew 27, this stunning statement is made, "When Pilot saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. 'I'm innocent of this man's blood,' he said. 'It's your responsibility.' And all the people answered, 'Let his blood be on us and on our children.’" 3. Jesus’ Blood on the Jewish Nation (Matthew’s Gospel) Wow, what a statement. What does that mean? “Let his blood be on us,” mean we'll take responsibility. It's a common Jewish expression. Like in Leviticus 20:9, "If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother and his blood will be on his own head." In other words, he's responsible for what's coming to him. That's their way of saying, "We will take responsibility, let his blood be on us and on our children." This is the very thing that Jesus said would happen in Matthew 23, after the seven-fold woes. "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees." After all that He says, "'Therefore, I'm sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you'll kill and crucify. Others, you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town and so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come down on this generation.’" They are going to be responsible for it all. They're willing to take responsibility for the death of Jesus. Later they try to shirk this responsibility. In Acts 5, they said to the apostles, "You filled Jerusalem with your teaching and to determine to make us guilty of this man's blood." Well, you are, you are. So that's the first sense, that's the darkest sense. But there's another sense of “Let his blood be on us and on our children,” a much better sense. Because it is only by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross that our sins are forgiven, that our sins are forgiven. At present through unbelief, the blood of Jesus is upon them and their children for condemnation and for guilt, but if any individual Jewish person repents of his or her sins and trusts in Christ, His blood will be on them to cleanse them from all their sins, just as it's on us for salvation and cleansing. For God delivered Jesus over as a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. It is by the blood of Jesus, by the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. I believe that at the end of history, there'll be a massive turning of ethnic Jews physically descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to faith in Jesus, and His blood will be on Abraham's children for salvation. As it says in Romans 11, "And so all Israel be saved, as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion; he'll turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” "For God delivered Jesus over as a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. It is by the blood of Jesus, by the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." IV. The Final Verdict The final verdict is given by Pilot. In verse 15, "Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilot released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed them over to be crucified." Pilot could not evade responsibility. He washes his hands, but he's responsible for what he did. He rendered a verdict, guilty, death on a cross, but it violated his conscience. He knew he wasn't guilty. Was it really Pilot who handed Jesus over to be crucified? It was at the human level, but as I've already said, Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own son but delivered Him up for us all. How will He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Interesting, at the moment that He was delivered over to be crucified, Barabbas was set free. That's marvelous, isn't it? It's an interesting picture. The guilty set free, the innocent dies. This is a picture of substitutionary atonement. As 1 Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ died for sins once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God." Barabbas represents a disgusting, vile murderous sinner who's set free from condemnation death by Jesus. I'm not saying Barabbas is in heaven. I hope so. Wouldn't it be great to meet him and say, "Generations have been talking about you, now here you are." But we don't know. We have no knowledge, but I'm just saying he's a picture of a guilty person set free and not having to pay the penalty that we deserve. Concerning the flogging, it was a hideous punishment. Picture a rod of wood and long leather straps with bits of bone and metal at the end, like a whip, only enhanced. The straps would wrap around the victim's body and then rip flesh off that victim's back. It was a hideous torture. If done enough, it would be lethal. It was done to weaken the victim before the crucifixion, so he ordered that it be done. Why? He was innocent. In John's Gospel, it was used as one of the steps that he tried to appease the people, but it didn't work. Here it is written at the end. It's beautiful because in Isaiah 53:5 it says, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, sometimes translated stripes, we are healed.” As 1 Peter 2:24 says, "He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.” V. Applications First of all, the judgment theme. You've heard the evidence, you have the information. You're sitting, in some sense, in judgment on Jesus. You're deciding about Jesus. God gives you that time to do that. Make a right judgment. Evaluate Him properly. Look at the evidence. I began the sermon with the marvels of the person of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Mark. Make a right judgment about Jesus and trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your soul. Don't do what Pilate did. Make a right judgment about Jesus. Secondly, understand what's going on here. I've said it two or three times, I'll say it one final time. This account is evidence of God's sovereign control over human history, His orchestration of events, His maneuvering of people and positioning of people because He's sovereign over everything that happens on earth. What He was doing was giving the Jews power over Pontius Pilate so that he would condemn an innocent man to death. What God's intention was to give Jesus as a Savior for your sin. Again here, Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things?" What is the “all things”? I've been thinking about different pastoral circumstances that I'm walking through right now with different people in the church. It could be medical, it could be relational, it could be a sin problem, it could be financial. There's all kinds of things going on all the time in the life of the church. I don't know what's happening in all your lives.The things that you're yearning for are significant, they’re important. Romans 8:32 doesn't minimize. It's just saying, "With God already having given his only-begotten Son, everything else in the universe is lesser than that to Him. He would not withhold from you anything that would further His purpose in your life, which is to save your soul, use you in this world, and then take you to heaven.” Understand that's what's going on in this trial here. Thirdly, rejoice in God's sovereignty over wicked, unjust human governments. As we go through a political process in this nation, and we wonder who's going to get elected president or lesser roles, and not just our country, but around the world, we can see evidence of this kind of selfishness and weakness and caving into the crowd and injustice. Isn't it wonderful to know that God is sovereign over that whole thing and rules actively over it for His own purposes, for His own glory, and for the good of His people? Fourth, look at the fickleness of the crowd here. "Hosanna," one week, a week later, “Crucify," and distrust your own loyalty to Jesus. Say, "Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Help me not to be fickle and weak and vacillating in my love for Jesus." Finally, it's time now to get our hearts ready for the Lord's Supper. I'm going to close the sermon time and prayer ,and we're going to transition to the Lord's Supper. Father, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for its power. We thank you for this account of the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate. Now as we give our attention to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would be with us in this time. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Only what resides deep inside a person can come to mind under extreme stress. Jesus learned, discussed, prayed, sang and internalized Scripture all his life. We cannot know specifically how the rest of the words of Psalm 22 come to Jesus during crucifixion. But the gospel writers certainly bring this psalm to bear in their description of the vent. Perhaps Jesus medicated upon Psalm 22 in quiet hours before the passion.

Only what resides deep inside a person can come to mind under extreme stress. Jesus learned, discussed, prayed, sang and internalized Scripture all his life. We cannot know specifically how the rest of the words of Psalm 22 come to Jesus during crucifixion. But the gospel writers certainly bring this psalm to bear in their description of the vent. Perhaps Jesus medicated upon Psalm 22 in quiet hours before the passion.

The Journey that Leads to Life, Death and Resurrection Part 2: ObedienceLuke 6:46–49There is an iconic episode of the TV show The Office in which Michael Scott drives a rental car into a lake because the GPS tells him to turn right. Earlier in the show, Michael had spoken glowingly of the capabilities of GPS navigation. However, when attempting to get to a client meeting, Michael misunderstands the GPS directions and drives into a lake—because the voice tells him so.We are all tempted to say, “I know a shortcut,” to God's directions in our lives.  Rather than obeying God's laws about relationships, we may think we know a shortcut to happiness that doesn't involve sacrifice or forgiving. Instead of adhering to God's standards of integrity, we think we may know a shortcut to financial prosperity. There is a name for those shortcuts: sin. And Jesus told us it doesn't end well. Jesus preached the greatest sermon ever—the Sermon on the Mount. His revolutionary teachings changed the world. For two thousand years, philosophers have studied and discussed his principles on money, loving enemies, and judging others. Leaders from Saint Francis to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King were inspired by Jesus to adopt the strategy of nonviolence. Perhaps Jesus knew many of us would be tempted to admire his words rather than act on them.So, in Luke 6:46–49, he concluded his sermon with a parable about two homeowners. In the parable, one homeowner takes out a construction loan to build his dream home. He budgeted enough to hire excavators to dig deep and lay a foundation on bedrock, even though no one would see it. But it was worth it the day torrential rains came and unleashed flash floods that pummeled his house. No doubt he sighed with relief when he discovered that he had sustained only minor damage to his home.In contrast, another man built his house around the same time. He had scraped together all the money he could to construct a beautiful house. Instead of laying a foundation on bedrock, he saved money by skipping the excavator and building on level ground. But his dream house became a nightmare when those rains hit. The flash floods lifted his house and destroyed it. Jesus said that the homeowner who built on the bedrock was like someone who hears his words and puts them into practice. When life gets hard, he will be able to endure. However, the man who built without a foundation is like someone who hears Jesus' words and does nothing about them. When the storms of life come, he won't be able to hold up. But by ending the Sermon on the Mount with this parable, Jesus was saying: “Don't just listen to this sermon; act on it.”Grace and Peace,Stephen

We live in a multitasking, juggle it all world. But balance is essential to our wellbeing. Perhaps Jesus' example can show us some steps can we take to make sure our priorities don't get lost in all the demands we face.

In this episode Jesus took on another religious group called The Sadducees. They existed between 187 BC up until around the time of the destruction of The Temple in 70 AD. There were various factions and points of view amongst the religious leaders of the first century, and there were ongoing disputes between The Pharisees and The Sadducees. They had different points of views on a number of things. See particularly Acts 23:8 that tells us some of the differences between these two groups. However, they had a common enemy, and it seems that their attacks were relentless, coming every day whilst Jesus was teaching in The Temple during Christ's final week. There are ongoing debates amongst Christians too, some of which have been going on for hundreds of years. Some of these disputes and debates are over minor issues or secondary issues, but yet people are willing to fight one another over them, name call, mock, and cause divisions in the body of Christ. It is ongoing in our day. Perhaps Jesus' words are as applicable to us today as they were to these Sadducees: “You are MISTAKEN, NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES NOR THE POWER OF GOD” (Matt.22:29). This could mean that there were TWO AREAS of IGNORANCE that needed addressing, or that BY KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES and going deeper into them, they would discover THE POWER OF GOD! If you would like to watch the video from church today, just click on this link! The post Matthew 22 Pt.1- What about Resurrection, Miracles, and Angels? appeared first on Living Rock Church.

During Jesus' earthly ministry, he called individuals to “follow” Him. Jesus did not call the leaders of the temple, nor the teachers, and scholars. He called simple fishermen and even people of questionable reputations and some who were despised by their neighbors. Jesus did not call the qualified, He qualified the call. Perhaps Jesus is calling you. Never think you aren't good enough. The message begins at 27 minutes into the service. Now, do you believe in this ministry? If you do, you can keep us on the air as a radio program and as a podcast by visiting our website, https://truth2ponder.com/support. You can also mail a check payable to Ancient Word Radio, P.O. Box 510, Chilhowie, VA 24319. Thank you in advance for your faithfulness to this ministry. Information about Trinity Chapel, where Bob is pastor, can be found at http://trinitychapelvirginia.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/truth-to-ponder/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/truth-to-ponder/support

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Mark 9:5–7Just prior to the Transfiguration, Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He would suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, be killed and then rise on the third day. This caused much fear for the disciples as they grappled with this unsettling revelation from our Lord. And even though Jesus remained firm with them and even rebuked Peter for his fear, Jesus also gave three of His disciples a very precious gift.After much traveling, preaching, miracle working and private conversations about His passion with the Twelve, Jesus invited Peter, James and John to go with Him up a high mountain to pray. These disciples most likely had no idea what they would soon encounter. As they made the difficult and arduous journey, their minds must have been pondering not only the mighty deeds done by Jesus in the previous months but also His words about the suffering to come. As they struggled with this, much to their amazement, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared before them, representing the Law and the prophets. These two Old Testament figures appeared as a way of saying to these disciples that everything that Jesus was telling them was to take place to fulfill all that had been foretold about Him from of old. Perhaps Jesus thought that if His disciples would not fully listen to Him, then seeing Moses and Elijah would help. But Jesus went even further. The Voice of the Father Himself thundered and said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Thus, if these disciples would not ultimately listen to Jesus alone, or if even Moses and Elijah failed to convince them, then the last hope was the Father Himself. And Jesus delivered such a grace.The Transfiguration was a true mercy. These disciples had never seen anything like it before. But it was most likely this act of mercy that ultimately helped them to accept the hard truth that Jesus was trying to teach them about His coming suffering and death. If the Father in Heaven Personally gave witness to Jesus, then everything that Jesus had said was trustworthy.As we read through the Gospels and the many teachings God has given us through the Church, think about whether there are some teachings with which you struggle? Or in your own life, on a personal level, are there some things you know God wants of you but you find it difficult to accept? When confusion sets in, that means we are not listening, are not fully hearing what God is saying to us or are not understanding. And though we will not see the Transfigured Lord with our eyes and hear the Voice of the Father with our ears as these three disciples did, we must choose to believe all that God has said as if it were the Transfigured Lord, with Moses and Elijah, and the Father Himself speaking clearly and directly to us. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Those words were not only spoken for the good of the disciples, they are also spoken to us.Reflect, today, upon this powerful experience given to these disciples by our Lord. Try to place yourself in the scene so as to witness Jesus transfigured in the most glorious way, with Moses and Elijah and with the thundering Voice of the Father. Allow the Father to speak also to you, telling you that all He has spoken through the Scriptures, the Church and within your own conscience is true. Allow this revelation to convince you on the deepest level to acknowledge not only the divinity of Jesus but also to “Listen to Him” in every way. My transfigured Lord, You are glorious beyond imagination, and You revealed a small glimpse of this glory to Your disciples to help them trust You more fully. May I also trust in You more completely, knowing that all You have spoken to me is true. Please remove any doubt and fear in my life so that nothing keeps me from embracing Your holy will. Jesus, I trust in You.Source of content: catholic-daily-reflections.comCopyright © 2023 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission via RSS feed.

John 13:34-35 It's not entirely clear what was new about this commandment from Jesus because the command to love one's neighbour is firmly embedded in the Jewish Law (Leviticus 19:18). Perhaps Jesus was pointing to the new example of love which he had set for his disciples. Certainly, when he died on the cross not long afterwards their understanding of love would be totally transformed. Jesus knew that the most effective way for the good news to be communicated to the world would be through love. Looking back through Church history, there have been attempts to influence the world through power, prestige, grand buildings, art, poetry, books and music. But the only language which is truly effective is love. The tragedy, of course, is that the Church has so often gained a reputation for the exact opposite. Only the other day, I was talking to a friend who doesn't go to church. She was saying that all she heard about one of the churches in her village was that they were “always bickering”. I felt so embarrassed on their behalf. But in all humility, we know churches have often given this impression to the world. At the end of the 2nd century, Tertullian noted that pagans looked at the Church and, to their bewilderment, observed: “See how these Christians love one another.” Let's do everything we can to ensure that's exactly what people see when they look at our churches today. QUESTION What impression do people gain when they look at your church? PRAYER Loving God, thank you for the perfect love that you have always shown to me. Help me to share your love generously with others today. Amen

This sermon on Mark 11:15-18 will close out our sermon series on ‘Cherry Picked Verses.' Some christians have read this story as a justification for combativeness and argumentativeness. Perhaps Jesus is inviting us into a different reading - one that focuses on allowing Jesus to clear stuff out of us before we correct the world.

Did Darwin really say survival is of the "fittest"? and what does it mean to be at home in who we are? Perhaps Jesus had some thoughts on this (as we can see from his interaction with the demon possessed man). Subscribe to Kat's newsletter: katarmas.com/newsletter Follow Kat on social media: @kat_armas 

https://youtu.be/Pe4X8_kOUng Building up the temple Remember that song? It was a Sunday school favourite of mine. Building up the Temple of the Lord… The girls had to shout “Boys come and help us!” after which the boys shouted, “Girls come and help us!” and we all sang together, “Building up the temple of the Lord.” It was a bit of fun, and the leader would make it a competition to see which group shouted the loudest. But what did it really mean to us? We had no idea. We just liked the excuse to shout in church as loud as we could. Messing up the temple On Palm Sunday, after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, after all the people had cried ‘Hosanna,' Jesus went into the temple and had a look around at everything that was going on. But because it was late, he went to Bethany where he was staying. When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and stopped everyone from using the temple as a marketplace. He said that the temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations, but instead it had been turned into a den of thieves. Strong words! (Mark 11) So this temple was important to Jesus. It was a place where people's focus was meant to be entirely on God. They came to God for forgiveness, via the altar, and sought his presence. To turn it into a den of thieves was an outrage to Jesus. Perhaps Jesus saw that the temple symbolism was important for more than just Jewish culture and traditional worship. He clearly wanted to do more than just mess up the temple. He wanted to mess with the Jewish attitude towards the temple. On another occasion his disciples were marvelling at its beauty. Jesus told them, ‘Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days.' But he was referring to his body, which the disciples later understood (Mark 13, John 2). So Jesus was the first in the New Testament to think of the body as a temple, starting with himself. This is taken further by other New Testament writers. The New Testament Temple In the book of Acts, Steven refers to the first Old Testament temple, built by Solomon 46 “David found favour with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who actually built it. 48 However, the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says, 49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that?' asks the LORD. ‘Could you build me such a resting place? 50 Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth?' (Acts 7:46-50) It's clear to us that God doesn't dwell in temples made by human hands because he still existed and ruled and reigned as God of the universe after the temple was ransacked! It was God who brought the Jews back from captivity to a destroyed Jerusalem. So the first thing we read about the temple in the New Testament is that God does not need it! This is repeated 10 chapters later in Acts 17 when Paul tells his listeners… He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples. (Acts 17:24) God doesn't live in temples. So where does he live? (is that a trick question? Isn't he omnipresent?!) Answer: He still lives in temples!! Just not man-made ones. We are that temple and we are those temples. The whole body of Christ is God's temple Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? (1 Corinthians 3:16) This is a reference collectively to the church body as God's temple. You yourselves (plural) are God's temple (singular). We are individual temples And later in the same book Paul uses the same analogy to show that each of us is individually a temple of God: 18 Flee from sexual immorality.

Have you put off something that you should be doing because you've faced roadblocks, opposition, or doubts? In this episode of Reboot, we'll see that opposition is inevitable but not invincible. We'll see how God chose the least likely convert and put him right to work despite suspicion, opposition, and danger. Perhaps Jesus has something similar in mind for you...

Have you put off something that you should be doing because you've faced roadblocks, opposition, or doubts? In this episode of Reboot, we'll see that opposition is inevitable but not invincible. We'll see how God chose the least likely convert and put him right to work despite suspicion, opposition, and danger. Perhaps Jesus has something similar in mind for you...

This message is a reflection on the Sermon on the Mount as a whole.  During this section of Matthew, Jesus offers some teachings that seem to set the bar impossibly high.  Rather than trying to explain this difficulty away, perhaps it is best to remember that in these teachings Jesus is revealing God's character not just a human ethical ideal.  Perhaps the role of these teachings is to prepare us for grace.  Paul suggests that the law is meant to reveal sin as sin.  Perhaps Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount accomplish the same.  While Jesus does call us to strive toward obedience, his teachings here also remind us of our need for grace.  It is this need which God graciously meets through the cross of Christ.

Scripture Reading: John 17:1-26 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— 2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created.6 “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they understand that everything you have given me comes from you, 8 because I have given them the words you have given me. They accepted them and really understand that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying on behalf of them. I am not praying on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you have given me because they belong to you. 10 Everything I have belongs to you, and everything you have belongs to me, and I have been glorified by them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. 12 When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me. Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, so that the scripture could be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19 And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.20 “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, 21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 22 The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, even if the world does not know you, I know you, and these men know that you sent me. 26 I made known your name to them, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I may be in them.”Main ThemesJesus' Last Will and TestamentChapters 13 to 17 resemble a testament, what we now call a will (the full name being a Last Will and Testament). Chapter 17 is particularly reminiscent of the genre, given the frequency of blessings and wish-prayers in testaments. Although recognizing the “testament flavor” of this chapter does not teach us much theology, it certainly does tell us something about the mood. To Jesus' audience, he sounds like someone who is saying good bye in light of his upcoming death. We should keep in mind this somber tone when reading the text.Praying With Eyes OpenIf we saw Jesus pray, we would probably think his mannerisms were quite strange. As in many modern cultures, we pray with our eyes cast down, probably closed, and our hands together. First century Jews and Greeks prayed quite differently. Their eyes would be open with their gaze directed up to the heavens. Their hands often would be lifted up. This is by no means the main point of this passage, but awareness of our cultural practices is always valuable. If someone does not bow his head to pray, he is not necessarily a heathen.A Fulfilling PrayerChapter 17 is a long prayer. It can roughly be divided into three sections. Jesus prays for himself, then for his disciples, and finally for all future believers. Before we proceed to analyze each section, we should consider how Jesus is fulfilling different Old Testament types.The prayer is thoroughly Jewish while being thoroughly Christocentric. The common Jewish motifs of the unity of God's people; the people's love for God; God's glory; the paramount importance of obedience to God; the setting apart of God's people; and, the crucial role of God's agent are all present. However, each of these themes is reinterpreted through the lens of Christ. Perhaps a better word than reinterpreted is fulfilled. Let's review the Old Testament types that express these themes.Jesus Fulfilling MosesIn chapter 17, Jesus is the greater Moses. Recall Moses' interaction with God immediately after the Golden Calf incident. Exodus 33:3-18 (edited for brevity):[The Lord said to Moses,] “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”When the people heard this troubling word they mourned . . . .Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent. And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have been saying to me, ‘Bring this people up,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, ‘I know you by name, and also you have found favor in my sight.' Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your way, that I may know you, that I may continue to find favor in your sight. And see that this nation is your people.”And the Lord said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”And Moses said to him, “If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here. . . .The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have requested, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”And Moses said, “Show me your glory.”Notice the similar themes between Moses' intercession for Israel and Jesus intercession for his disciples. Particularly, both Moses and Jesus pray for a display of glory. We have discussed glory many times before. It is a pregnant term with a large range of meaning. We normally associate it with exaltation. However, its main (although not exclusive) meaning is revelation. “Show me your glory” could be paraphrased as “show me who you really are; show me all of you.” Besides glory, the other theme strongly shared between Moses' intercessory prayer and Jesus' intercessory prayer is the request that God's presence go with his people.Jesus Fulfilling the High PriestThe comparison between Jesus and the office of the high priest is not an inference—it is made explicit in the New Testament.Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death. For surely his concern is not for angels, but he is concerned for Abraham's descendants. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:14-18)What was the role of the high priest? Let's consider what a Christian website tells us (edited for brevity):The high priest was the supreme religious leader of the Israelites. The office of the high priest was hereditary and was traced from Aaron, the brother of Moses, of the Levite tribe (Exodus 28:1; Numbers 18:7). . . .Because the high priest held the leadership position, one of his roles was overseeing the responsibilities of all the subordinate priests (2 Chronicles 19:11). . . . [T]he Hebrew people would go to the high priest in order to know the will of God (Numbers 27:21). . . . In the New Testament, we find a reference to the high priest having the gift of prophecy (John 11:49-52).The high priest had to offer a sin offering not only for the sins of the whole congregation, but also for himself (Leviticus 4:3-21). . . .The most important duty of the high priest was to conduct the service on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month of every year. Only he was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place behind the veil to stand before God. Having made a sacrifice for himself and for the people, he then brought the blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, God's “throne” (Leviticus 16:14-15). He did this to make atonement for himself and the people for all their sins committed during the year just ended (Exodus 30:10). It is this particular service that is compared to the ministry of Jesus as our High Priest (Hebrews 9:1-28).In light of chapter 17, consider the following prayer by the high priest:The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the way you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:“‘“The Lord bless you and protect you;The Lord make his face to shine upon you,and be gracious to you;The Lord lift up his countenance upon youand give you peace.”'”“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22-26)There are is an unmistakably common theme between the high priestly prayer in Numbers and Jesus' prayer in John: “Lord make [your] face to shine upon [your people].”Jesus Fulfilling the ProphetsThe main role of the prophets was to receive the word of the Lord and communicate it to the people. However, there were instances in which the prophets acted as intercessors. Consider the prophet Amos:The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout. (The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.) When they had completely consumed the earth's vegetation, I said,“Sovereign Lord, forgive Israel!How can Jacob survive?He is too weak!”The Lord decided not to do this. “It will not happen,” the Lord said.The Sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw the Sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields. I said,“Sovereign Lord, stop!How can Jacob survive?He is too weak!”The Lord decided not to do this. The Sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.” (Amos 7:1-6)The intercessory role of the prophets is natural—indeed, nearly inevitable. If the Lord communicates terrible news to you, you could hardly avoid responding, “Oh Lord, relent!”Just like there is a similarity of themes between the messages of Moses and Jesus and the high priest and Jesus, there is a similarity of themes between the words of the prophets and Jesus. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has shared not only the words of God but God's very image with the people. In chapter 17, Jesus considers the tribulation to come and prays that God may show favor to his people.Jesus Prays for HimselfAs I pointed out above, Chapter 17 is a long prayer. The first section (vv. 1-5) can be considered a prayer for Jesus himself.Mutual GlorificationJesus begins by highlighting the mutual glorification between the father and the son. Remember, for example, John 12:23-28:Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life. If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.“ Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour'? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”God receiving glory by glorifying his servants is also commonly found in the Old Testament in relation to Israel. For example:Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes;shout out, you subterranean regions of the earth.O mountains, give a joyful shout;you too, O forest and all your trees!For the Lord protects Jacob;he reveals his splendor through Israel. (Isaiah 44:23, emphasis added)Glorification Through HumiliationAbove I said that “glory” has a large range of meaning and that revelation is its primary aspect. Sure, it's primary but certainly not exclusive connotation. Glory also implies honor. Notice how Jesus will be “glorified”: through crucifixion—the most shameful punishment imaginable. To quote Tom Holland (the historian, not Spider-Man):Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion—an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus—was to be worshipped as a god.To further quote Tom Holland:“We preach Christ crucified,” St Paul declared, “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” He was right. Nothing could have run more counter to the most profoundly held assumptions of Paul's contemporaries – Jews, or Greeks, or Romans. The notion that a god might have suffered torture and death on a cross was so shocking as to appear repulsive. Familiarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense of just how completely novel a deity Christ was. In the ancient world, it was the role of gods who laid claim to ruling the universe to uphold its order by inflicting punishment – not to suffer it themselves.Holland's statement that “[f]amiliarity with the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion has dulled our sense[s]” hits me quite hard. We have a difficult time understanding the offense of Christ praying, “Glorify your Son,” as he means “May your Son be crucified.”Authority Over All HumanityIn verse 17:2, we read to that Jesus has been given authority over all humanity. Depending on the translation you are reading, your text may read “all flesh” (the literal Greek) instead of “all humanity.” The meaning is exactly what it seems: Jesus has been given authority over all people. This is an attribute exclusive to God, hence emphasizing Jesus' divinity. It is also a powerful restatement of prior teachings, such as:The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority. (John 3:35)Now This is Eternal LifeIn a striking statement, Jesus says eternal life is to know God and know Jesus. Because we understand the Jewish conception of eternal life and that Jesus has consistently referred to eternal life as something quite literal, we need not consider a gnostic interpretation of the statement. Instead, we need to understand how eternal life is tethered to having an intimate connection with God.And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us insight to know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:20-21)Jesus Prays for the DisciplesIn verse 6, Jesus begins to pray for the disciples—and I mean his disciples present at the time. In verse 20 there is a shift towards future believers.They Belonged to GodJesus begins his prayer for the disciples by specifying that they “belonged to [God].” We should consider, in what sense? Obviously all creation belongs to God, so the statement must mean something beyond that. There are different interpretations available. One alternative is that these men were part of Israel's remnant—the few Jews still faithful to God. Because they were already true believers, they belonged to God and recognized his voice.Jesus replied, “I told you and you do not believe. The deeds I do in my Father's name testify about me. But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. (John 10:25-28)Another alternative is that there was nothing particular about the disciples, not even earnest faith. God simply placed them in the right place and at the right time such that they would be the ones to hear and follow Jesus.Regardless of which interpretation one takes, in chapter 17 Jesus makes clear that the disciples have come to believe that Jesus and his words are from God and that they are true (“they accepted them”). Notice, however, that this belief alone will not keep them from deserting Jesus in the darkest hour.Jesus Returns Custody to the FatherThe disciples belonged to God, and God gave them over to Jesus. Jesus watched over them and kept them safe while he was in the world. As Jesus leaves, he returns custody of God's people to God. “Holy Father, keep them safe in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one.” (emphasis added) “When I was with them I kept them safe and watched over them in your name that you have given me. Not one of them was lost except the one destined for destruction . . . .” (emphasis added) “They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth.” (emphasis added)Given the context of persecution in the prior chapters and alluded to in verse 14 of the current chapter, the safety for which Jesus prays is partly physical. But notice that the prayer for Jesus' disciples alludes to even greater dangers: deserting or antagonizing the community of believers; being lost and destroyed; and becoming separated from “the truth.” At the expense of opening a theological pandora's box, I think I should point out the prayer at least partially about apostasy.The apostasy that Jesus prays about is hardly theoretical. In John's letters we learn that it happened often.Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us. (1 John 2:18-19)Three verses down from the quotation above, John defines an antichrist as follows: “Who is the liar but the person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the person who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22) This verse is most likely referring to the apostates who no longer confess the unity of Jesus and the Father (as opposed to someone who does not make that confession but never made it to begin with).In the World but Not of the WorldThe phrase “in the world but not of the world” is a popular Christian mantra (and I say that without a hint of criticism). It is in fact a true and accurate statement, found nearly word for word in the Gospel of John. Notice that Jesus does not pray for a less awkward situation. Jesus could say, “Father, give them their nation.” Or, “Father, rapture them into the heavens.” But he does not. He says, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world.” (emphasis added) But, “keep them safe from the evil one.”What safety is Jesus praying for? This relates to my prior discussion of apostasy. Of course some level of physical safety is in view here, but the passage returns again and again to the idea of keeping Jesus' disciples “in the truth” (e.g., v. 17). The prayer is that disciples will not fall away or be misguided as the world hates them and the enemy opposes them. Remember the Lord's Prayer:And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)Forgive me as I go a bit off script here, but I think we should consider a practical application of this “in the world but not of the world” idea. Consider Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 5:I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Are you not to judge those inside? But God will judge those outside. Remove the evil person from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)Notice that Paul, in a very practical setting, repeats the theme found in Jesus' prayer. He advises the early church not to take itself out of the world. Not at all. Who are the real problems? To use the words in John, those who are not “one just as [Jesus and the Father] are one;” those who claim to be but are not “in the truth;” those who claim to be found but “are lost.” Indeed, those that John might call “antichrists.”I acknowledge that the words of Paul take a great deal of wisdom to apply. What I have written here is by no means a comprehensive discussion of the topic. The purpose of this detour is to show how the spiritual truths discussed in John have very real, practical applications. Jesus Prays for Later DisciplesBeginning with verse 20, Jesus changes his focus from his current disciples to his future disciples.Those Who Believe Through TestimonyFor centuries now, critics and scholars have attempted to recover the “historical Jesus.” Many claims have been made. Maybe Jesus really was attempting to lead a coup but failed when he died. Perhaps Jesus really thought he was divine but was proven sorely mistaken upon his defeat on the cross. The theories are countless. However, notice that in the Gospel of John we have a clear and accurate prediction of events.(1) Jesus will submit to his persecutors and be killed.(2) Jesus' sacrifice will glorify God, which in turn will glorify Jesus.(3) Jesus will be gone from the disciples for a little while.(4) Then Jesus will appear to them for a little while.(5) Jesus will send another Advocate to play the role of Jesus to his disciples.(6) Then future disciples will be made through the testimony of the current disciples.The plan is crystal clear. And although critics can deny the spiritual implications of these events, no one can deny these events played out exactly as set forth. (Of course, the text could have been written later to conform to the facts, but at least there is consistency between the text and reality.)Moreover, we should pause for a moment when we read that future believers will come through the testimony of current believers. God could have chosen to spread his word differently, but this is the method he chose. We should also remember that the Advocate bears witness with believers. There is a spiritual dimension to what is happening.The Unity of Later DisciplesJesus prays that later disciples will be like his chosen, twelve disciples. All believers ought to be one with one another just like Jesus and the Father are one! In a prior session I remarked how shocking this comparison of unity really is, and now we see clearly that it applies not only to the twelve but to us. And to make matters more spectacular, every believer is to be united not only to one another but to God himself (“I pray that they will be in us.”)! And what is the purpose (or at least one of the purposes) of this unity with each other and Christ? That the world might believe that God sent Jesus.Wait, what? Literally in the prior verse Jesus tells us that future believers will come to faith through the testimony of current believers. A few words later Jesus is telling us that future believers will come to believe by the unity of believers with one another and God. Which one is it? Of course you know where I am headed with this, but it must be made explicit lest we miss it. That testimony in verse 20 is clearly not only words—unity itself is integral to that testimony. This theme of unity as testimony is found all over the epistles of John, so much so I had a hard time selecting just one passage. Nonetheless, here is one example:Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God because God is love. By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:7-14)As a closing thought, consider this shocking comparison:I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. (John 17:20-21, emphasis added)So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.” (John 11:41-44)Our unity should reveal Jesus like raising a man from the dead revealed Jesus.Love, Love, LoveJesus imminent departure will not mean abandonment. Jesus has and will continue to make God known to his disciples. The result will be unity and that we might know “[God] ha[s] loved [us] just as [God] ha[s] loved [Jesus].” (v. 23, 26) God loves us like he loves Christ. May we rejoice in that forever.

In Luke 12:16-21 we hear from Jesus: "And He told them a parable, saying, 'The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”' But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (ESV) In the verses that follow, Jesus describes what it means being rich toward God with the full weight of our souls resting upon Him for all things necessary in this life. What are the pivotal words in this discourse? TRUST and TREASURE. This world and its god offer many shiny things to entice our fleshly bent towards greed and pleasure. As temporal and fleeting as they are, they still ensnare many. Perhaps Jesus' rhetorical question in Mark 8:36 is one we should all consider: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (NKJV) The answer? Nothing!

Scripture Reading: John 9:1-41 1 Now as Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who committed the sin that caused him to be born blind, this man or his parents?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him. 4 We must perform the deeds of the one who sent me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said this, he spat on the ground and made some mud with the saliva. He smeared the mud on the blind man's eyes 7 and said to him, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated “sent”). So the blind man went away and washed, and came back seeing.8 Then the neighbors and the people who had seen him previously as a beggar began saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some people said, “This is the man!” while others said, “No, but he looks like him.” The man himself kept insisting, “I am the one!” 10 So they asked him, “How then were you made to see?” 11 He replied, “The man called Jesus made mud, smeared it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and was able to see.” 12 They said to him, “Where is that man?” He replied, “I don't know.”13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14 (Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.) 15 So the Pharisees asked him again how he had gained his sight. He replied, “He put mud on my eyes and I washed, and now I am able to see.”16 Then some of the Pharisees began to say, “This man is not from God because he does not observe the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such miraculous signs?” Thus there was a division among them. 17 So again they asked the man who used to be blind, “What do you say about him, since he caused you to see?” “He is a prophet,” the man replied.18 Now the Jewish religious leaders refused to believe that he had really been blind and had gained his sight until at last they summoned the parents of the man who had become able to see. 19 They asked the parents, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 So his parents replied, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. Ask him, he is a mature adult. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. For the Jewish leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is a mature adult, ask him.”)24 Then they summoned the man who used to be blind a second time and said to him, “Promise before God to tell the truth. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He replied, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. I do know one thing—that although I was blind, now I can see.” 26 Then they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he cause you to see?” 27 He answered, “I told you already and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You people don't want to become his disciples too, do you?”28 They heaped insults on him, saying, “You are his disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses! We do not know where this man comes from!” 30 The man replied, “This is a remarkable thing that you don't know where he comes from and yet he caused me to see! 31 We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is devout and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never before has anyone heard of someone causing a man born blind to see. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They replied, “You were born completely in sinfulness, and yet you presume to teach us?” So they threw him out.35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, so he found the man and said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 The man replied, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus told him, “You have seen him; he is the one speaking with you.” [ 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said,] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, and the ones who see may become blind.”40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus replied, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.Main ThemesThe SettingSince the beginning of chapter 7, we have had a continuous sequence of events. Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 are one “scene.” Because the chapters tell one narrative, but we tend to study them separately (out of convenience, not for any theological reason), we need to be intentional in carrying over the information provided in the earlier chapters that apply to the later chapters in this story.For purposes of chapter 9, we must remember the chronology of the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast lasted eight days. It began on a Sabbath (a Saturday) and it ended on the next Sabbath. Beginning with verse 7:37, all the action has been occurring “[o]n the last day of the feast.“ That means chapter 9 is happening during a Sabbath.In chapter 9, Jesus heals a blind man on the Sabbath. Sounds familiar. It didn't go well the first time, how will it go over this time? (Spoiler: not well.)Who Committed the SinAfter Jesus heals a blind man on the Sabbath for the first time (see John 5), Jesus tells the man, “Look, you have become well. Don't sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.” (v. 5:14) As I discussed during Session 10, Jesus words should not be assumed to mean that sickness will occur as a supernatural result of the man's sin. That very well may be the case, but one could also take Jesus' words in a more ordinary way. Sometimes sin naturally leads to injury and disease. Sexual immorality can lead to sexually transmitted diseases. In some parts of the world, stealing could lead to one's hands being lost. Drug use can lead to addiction and mental illness. The list could go on.However, the first-century world did believe there was a strong connection between ailments and sin—particularly in the case of blindness. Jewish literature provides examples of the connection. For example, according to one contemporary source, one who saw a blind, lame, or otherwise seriously afflicted person should praise God as judge. Presumably, the assumption was that the person must have done something to properly merit such a condition. However, the case should not be overstated. Certainly the contemporary Jewish people understood that sin could cause affliction as a natural consequence (like the examples in the previous paragraph). They also believed that demons could cause disease, so God was not the only available cause.What is curious (to put it mildly) about the blind man in chapter 9 is that he was blind from birth. This limits the range of options. The man could not have caused his own blindness in a natural sense, and no one seems to posit demon possession. Therefore God must have caused his blindness. Moreover, in a further logical leap, it must have been for someone's sin. Who's sin? That is how the conversation begins.Many people at the time would have accepted the possibility that the man's blindness was the result of the parents' sin—most likely of the mother's while she was pregnant. Some people at the time may have also believed in prenatal activity significant enough to constitute sin. This is not a Jewish example but Isis and Osiris were said to have copulated in the womb. (Weird, I know.)As much as our modern sensibilities may be offended by the idea that someone may suffer illness for someone else's sins, Jesus reply may be even more offensive to modern readers. He explains, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him.”God in his sovereignty orchestrated the man's illness such that a great good would come of it. Notice that this is a very powerful response to the problem of evil and suffering in general. Why would a good God allow evil and suffering in the world? Perhaps God has a plan. Maybe he is working all this out for good. In fact, the logical “Problem of Evil” is no longer very popular in the philosophical community. It is impossible to show that God can have no justifying reasons to allow evil and pain. The philosophical battle is now the probabilistic “Problem of Evil.” In other words, given the current state of the world is it more or less probable that a good God exists.Spittle and DirtJesus spat on the ground and made some mud. In the ancient world, spittle was sometimes associated with curative powers. For example, emperor Vaspasian (who postdates Jesus by a few decades) reportedly also healed blindness with spittle. This tradition regarding spittle already existed in the Jewish world, although it was probably borrowed from the Gentile world. Perhaps Jesus uses spittle because his audience would have understood the reference: Jesus was curing someone. The other alternative is that this is an allusion to the creative act of Genesis 2:7. (Genesis 2:7 says, “The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”)There is a potential double entendre in the word “smeared,” which other translations may translate as “applied.” This is the same word as “anoint.” To anoint means to apply oil. Anointing has a powerful religious meaning. Both in the Old and New Testaments, it means one blessed by God. In the New Testament, God anoints with the Holy Spirit (e.g., Acts 10:38). Perhaps Jesus anointing the blind man with mud giving him physical sight is a prefigurement of Jesus anointing believers with the Holy Spirit giving them spiritual sight.Jesus sends the blind man to wash himself in the pool of Siloam. This was the exact same pool used in the water-drawing ritual during the Feast of Tabernacles (remember, the feast going on “right now” in the story world). Jesus uses the “holy water” of the festival for his own purposes. Talk about cultural appropriation.What Will the Neighbors Think?The blind man is healed and the “neighbors” are amazed and confused.In Jerusalem, a man could survive as a beggar though he would remain poor. Jewish contemporaries emphasized charity. Charity towards the destitute was also commanded in the Old Testament. (However, I do not want to give the misimpression that a life of begging was viewed favorably in any way. Jewish contemporaries recognized begging as a shameful condition to be avoided—perhaps even to the point of death, i.e., it would be better to die than to live as a beggar.)The main point is that the “neighbors” were probably Jerusalemites. These were people who had seen the blind man beg on a daily basis since, probably, a very early age. They had probably donated to him regularly. They had indisputable knowledge of the blind man and his condition. When the healing occurred, the neighbors are shocked to the point of denial. Making Mud on the SabbathJesus is doubly guilty of breaking the Sabbath, the Pharisees will claim. Not only did Jesus heal on the Sabbath like he did back in chapter 5, but he made mud on the Sabbath! Sadly, I am not kidding. Notice how the text keeps going back to the mud. “Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and caused him to see was a Sabbath.”The Pharisees do not praise God for the healing. Even if they intend to investigate a potential violation, they do not seek Jesus first to obtain first-hand testimony. They simply accuse Jesus of being a sinner (i.e., he cannot be from God because he does not observe the Sabbath).The TrialThe text immediately shifts into a sort of legal proceeding. The Pharisees treat the blind man and his parents as witnesses.An Epistemological ConflictNotice that there is an epistemological conflict between the Pharisees and the blind man. The Pharisees “know” from their interpretation of the law. They know that the law forbids working on the Sabbath. So they know that Jesus cannot be from God. The blind man “knows” from experience. He knows he was blind. He knows that he can see. So, he knows that Jesus must be from God. For the sake of clarity, I am not trying to make a larger point about epistemology here, like whether we should trust our own experience more than scripture. I think that would be a dangerous conclusion to draw. Jesus never undermines the Torah. Jesus does, however, also appeal to experience. See the miracles and believe. Even through clear and convincing miracles the Pharisees were unwilling to consider that perhaps they did not “know” the Torah as well as they thought. Or, more accurately, the Pharisees were unwilling to recognize their hypocrisy and ill intentions. It's not so much that they “knew” the scriptures condemned Jesus as much as they were committed to that statement because it served their purposes. As we have seen throughout the Gospel of John, this inability to see is not an intellectual shortcoming but a moral one.As an interesting side note, an example of biblical hermeneutics that accounts for both scripture and experience is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which considers scripture as the first authority and then also takes into account tradition, reason, and experience. For example, Wesley praises the church fathers because not only did they remain faithful to Christian doctrine “[b]ut still they never relinquish this: 'What the Scripture promises, I enjoy. Come and see what Christianity has done here, and acknowledge it is of God.'“Only a Man of God Could Do ThisThe Pharisees recognize a problem with their argument. They believed that no one would be able to restore blindness like Jesus did unless that man were from God. Remember John 3:1-2: “Now a certain man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, came to Jesus at night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.'” So the Pharisees must deny the healing.Rigging the TrialThe Pharisees call on the blind man's parents to testify. Before the testimony, they rig the trial. Anyone who confesses Jesus as the Christ will be excommunicated. The text does not explicitly say this, but the Pharisees probably hoped that with enough pressure the parents would even deny that their child had really been blind. The parents would have earned great favor with the religious leaders if they had testified that their son had faked his illness to receive charity. The blind man's parents are in fact intimidated. They are only willing to confirm that their son was blind and can now see. How that happened? They won't say. Ask our son, they say instead, he is “mature” or “of age.” That means that the blind man is at least 13 but could be much older.The Blind Man's FaithThe Pharisees call the blind man to the stand once more. Notice the leading the question. They demand (if I paraphrase), “Condemn Jesus as a sinner.” But the blind man is an example of faith. He may not fully know who Jesus is but he will not deny the miracle. “Say what you will about Jesus, but I was blind and now I see.” The Pharisees give him one more chance to recant his statement. “Tell us again what he did to you.” The blind man responds with mockery. “Do you want me to tell you again so you also might believe?” Of course that's not the reason for the Pharisees' question.The Pharisees go on the offensive. They insult the blind man, “You are his disciple!” This works on two levels. First, it is an accusation of bias. The blind man is lying for the benefit of his master. Second, as the Pharisees claim to be disciples of Moses, it is accusing the blind man of betraying their religion and their God. Notice that both the “you are” and “we are” are emphatic in Greek. It is like saying, “I myself had to fix it” to emphasize who performed the action. This is a heated debate filled with accusatory overtones.The Pharisees make one more claim. “We do not know where this man comes from!” We have discussed this idea extensively in prior sessions. Jesus is from above; he is from God; he is from heaven. The religious leaders refuse to see this. In this case, the Pharisees may not only be accusing Jesus of being a stranger to Jerusalem and their religious community but also perhaps accusing him of being an illegitimate child.The blind man goes on the offensive himself. Remember that everyone, the Pharisees included, granted the premise that only a man of God could do the miraculous signs that Jesus was doing. The blind man points this out and leaves the Pharisees with no excuse. Additionally, the blind man's claim that no one had ever heard of a blind man from birth being healed appears to be historical when considered in context. Such claims existed in the Gentile world but they did not seem to exist in the Jewish world.The Pharisees stoop low. Remember the assumption was that the man's blindness was caused by sin. The Pharisees have no issues using that assumption. “You are a filthy sinner and you dare attempt to correct us, disciples of Moses?”Notice that the blind man grows in his belief and understanding of Jesus as more information is presented to him. First Jesu is a “man” (v. 9:11), then a “prophet” (v. 9:17), and finally “Son of Man” (v. 9:35-37).Jesus Comes to JudgeRemember John 3:17-18:For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.The word for “condemn” in John 3 is the same as the word for judge in John 9 when Jesus says:For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, and the ones who see may become blind.This sure seems like a contradiction at first blush. Let's consider what contradiction means. The law of non-contradiction says that two contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time. Both verses quoted above refer to the same time: Jesus coming into the world. But, do both verses refer to judgment in the same sense? I do not think so. Consider John 12:47-50:I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not obey them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has a judge; the word I have spoken will judge him at the last day. For I have not spoken from my own authority, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.What do all three passages in John tell us when read in conjunction? Jesus did not come to judge in the sense of inflicting immediate punishment—i.e., condemn. Those who hear Jesus and disobey he does not condemn. They may continue to do as they please. Jesus is on earth to save not to destroy. However, the revelation that comes through Jesus will eventually judge in the sense of deciding or determining. Jesus' words divide people between those who believe and those do not. And in the last day, at the final judgment, that is the only consideration that will matter.The Great ReversalJesus words at the end of this chapter are enigmatic. “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may gain their sight, and the ones who see may become blind.” Jesus also says, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.”To gain sight is only valuable to one who is blind. To anyone who who thinks that they can already see, that offer is worthless. A doctor is only valuable to a sick man, not to a healthy man. Salvation is only valuable to a condemned sinner, not to a righteous man.Consider these statements found in Matthew 9:12-13:“Those who are healthy don't need a physician, but those who are sick do.”“I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”The word “gospel” comes from “god-spell” meaning a “good story.” Gospel is in turn a translation of the Latin word euangelion that means “good news.” What is “good” about the news of Jesus? Christ has come to save the world. He offers this salvation freely to all who would believe in him. But notice that this message is not just pointless but offensive to someone who thinks that they need no saving. That offense, I think, is why those who see become blind. Whatever truth is held by those who see is intentionally discarded by the offense of the good news. They turn deliberately and vehemently from the truth of the gospel. In this way, those who recognize their need are given all things while those who recognize their good things lose all things.

“He answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” — Mark 6:37 Near the beginning of this chap­ter, Jesus describes what life will be like for his disciples if they follow him. He says, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts” (Mark 6:8). His followers were to be dependent on the hospitality of others to feed, clothe, and shelter them. Then, sometime later, they are surprised when Jesus asks them to provide a huge, hungry crowd with food. They wonder, “How on earth can we do that?” Even if they work to provide the money for all the food for these people, they will have to work for a whole year! Perhaps Jesus instructed them to take no bread or money on their journey so that they could experience not only hospitality from others but also the extra­ordinary hospitality of God. Maybe he instructed them not to bring anything so that they could acutely experience their own need and realize that they couldn't rely on themselves for a solution. Do you ever feel like you are being brought to the end of your ability to do what God is asking of you? Could God be inviting you to see what he can do for you that you simply cannot do by yourself? Lord Jesus, sometimes we are like the disciples, unsure and confused and without many options. Sur­prise us with your generosity, and help us to realize that we depend total­ly on you. Amen.

Raising of Lazarus: what a story. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" What the heck does that mean? Lazarus is still dead. What's going on here? Perhaps Jesus said those things and then John recorded them for us so that we would open up the way we think - to conceive of the world differently - to understand that things aren't always as they seem, not as long as Jesus is around. We don't do this often enough. We like to keep our thinking closed. If we open up our thinking it can also open us up to being wrong - it means we're open to risk and failure. New ways of thinking aren't always bet with enthusiasm and acceptance. But this isn't just an opportunity to open up our thinking. It's also an invitation to change the way we live. We can live a new and different life now. Once Lazarus walked out of the tomb, he had a choice as to how he was going to live. So. If you were to die and then be given a Lazarus opportunity, how would you live? What kinds of things would you do? What would your priorities be? Speaker: Aaron Vis Scripture: John 11:1-44 http://bible.com/events/48941403

John 14:2 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.      Our Father has planned ahead! There are many places to abide, dwell, or live in our Father's household. In this verse, we learn where Jesus was going to which His disciples were not ready to go. Back in John 13:1 and 3, John's readers were told where Jesus was going, but it wasn't something that was told them at that point. Perhaps it was from this statement that John, with the Spirit's help, understood what was in Jesus' mind—it was time for Him to depart out of this world to the Father. He was going back to God to prepare a place for us. It is interesting that Jesus said there are many dwelling places, but He is preparing one place for all of us. Perhaps Jesus was thinking of preparing a place of right standing before God as Paul wrote of in Romans 5:2  “through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Or maybe it's the place where God “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 2, verse 6.  The point is that Jesus has gone to His Father and made a place with God for us to dwell or live forever. Out of that place, the love of God flows. Although it is true that God has prepared a place for us in heaven when we die, what we want to notice from the rest of the chapter is that the abiding place Jesus went to prepare in heaven becomes the fountain out of which our lives are sustained and supplied while we are on the earth. It makes it possible for Jesus to come again to us. His coming to us is the primary line of reason in this chapter, not our going to Him in heaven when we die.  Today, be encouraged that Jesus has made a place for us in the presence of God that makes it possible for Jesus' presence to be with us while we live today on this earth. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com

Our focus today is the man who runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees in front of him. However, it must be noted that this incident comes hard on the heels of the previous scene. Children were brought to Jesus - only for the disciples to rebuke them. Jesus in turn rebukes his disciples and declares that “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (v14). Mark is showing us the ideal kingdom-candidates before we encounter the flawed kingdom aspirant. ‘Paradoxically, the least powerful, least wealthy, least influential have a greater prospect of entering the kingdom than do those who are most powerful, wealthy, and influential.' Word Biblical Commentary receive the kingdom Why are the children able to ‘receive the kingdom' (v15)? We are not told precisely here, but perhaps we get a clue by looking at the contrasting example of the man on his knees. He looked good. He sounded good. He ran to Jesus, he fell upon his knees, he addressed Jesus respectfully (‘good teacher'), he kept the law. Yet something was amiss. He knew it. Why approach Jesus otherwise?  The answer was not what he expected nor wanted. He may have started on his knees, but he ended by turning his back on Jesus. He may have begun by running to Jesus, but he ultimately walks away. He may have arrived with eagerness, but he departed with sadness. no one is good Why does Jesus correct the man? Surely Jesus is ‘good'? Perhaps Jesus is detecting flattery and deflecting it.  ‘The word order places the emphasis on the με, “me”: “Why me do you call ‘good'?”' WBC. Only God is worthy of primary focus, not even Jesus. He has come to reveal God to humankind, not himself. Will this man honour not so much Jesus, but God who is source of all goodness including his good commands? One thing you lack This man has no material needs and no law-needs.  He knows he has other needs, but what are those needs?  Jesus is about to tell him - and it is clearly not what the man expected.  ‘looked' - looking at him. Did Jesus pause to study the man? Was the silent pause an opportunity for him to think, or perhaps a moment for the man to think about what he had just said? Was Jesus giving him space to add something more? the poor Jesus told him to give his money to the poor because once it is given you can't get it back! This command is clearly not for everyone. The extravagance of the woman in Mark 14:5 is a counter-example. Jesus gives each person the challenge they need. come follow me Jesus seems to be saying, “Help me with my mission.”  See Mark 2:14; 8:34; John 1:43; 12:26; 21:19, 21:22. Perhaps the question Jesus is posing to the man is, “Is my mission more important than yours?” “In Jesus' second response to the man, the commandments are assumed and taken for granted. The second response, however, moves beyond command to an abandonment and trust that involve the losing of self in yielding, trustful communion....The move is from willing duty to utter delight.” Walter Brueggemann, Psalms, 196 great wealth “He is told to part with the goods of this age since he is so interested in the next one, but he will not do so. His interest in the next world is not sincere enough to enable him to give up his preocupation with this world.” NIBC, Hurtado, Mark, 164 He wants wealth in both realms, but that is not possible as a demand or precondition of following Jesus. This gives the lie to the prosperity gospel advocates. Jesus' instruction indicates the urgency of the call. This is not simply a call to follow a Rabbi, but a call uttered due to the arrival of the kingdom and its king. first..last The rich man looked like he belonged to those who are “first”, but he will be last. The disciples looked more like they belonged to the “last”, but they would be the first. The rich man calculates and finds the price not worth paying. Fundamentally he does not trust Jesus in the way children trust him. He hedges, attempting to find a way into the kingdom acceptable to God and to himself. That hedging keeps him on the wrong side of the hedge. This scenario makes the disciples wonder if they have the right approach, attitude and understanding. Jesus is challenging and reassuring. They cannot ‘achieve' eternal life, but God can and will make the difference. The costs are high - everything! But the rewards are far beyond anything we could hope for otherwise. For Reflection 1. The main question from this section of Scripture is, “what does this tell us about discipleship?”. What is the discipleship lesson for you personally? 2. Is there ‘one thing you lack' for wholehearted discipleship to Jesus? What is that? Is there someone you could talk to about it? 3. In what ways do the reassurances of Jesus to his disciples about the last being first inspire your spiritual walk? Please add your comments on this week's topic. We learn best when we learn in community.  Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.  God bless, Malcolm

Bible Reading: Proverbs 17:17; Colossians 3:12-17"Look there behind you, Mom," said Evie as she and her mother picked raspberries. "Down low. There are some berries you missed.""Oh, I see them," said Mom. "They're nice ones." She bent to pick the berries. "There are more in the bush behind those," Evie told her.Mom looked toward the berries Evie was pointing out, but she shook her head. "No, those aren't ripe enough yet--but I see some hiding in the center of the bush you just finished."Evie laughed as she turned to pick the berries Mom saw. "I guess we should pick each other's bushes." After a moment, she said, "Remember when Nayori and her mom used to come and pick raspberries with us?""Yes." Mom sighed. "How is Nayori doing since her parents got divorced?"Evie frowned. "Not too good. She's always whining and saying she'd rather live with her mom than with her dad. I can't see why. After all, this way she's still in the same house and the same school--and her friends are all here.""I guess it all depends on your viewpoint," Mom replied. "It's like these berries--we miss some ripe ones and think others are ready when they're not. It depends on what direction we see them from. We need to remember that people see things in life in different ways too."Evie nodded slowly. "I guess so.""You see Nayori's problems from a distance," Mom said. "From your viewpoint, there are good reasons for her to live with her dad. But don't forget that she can see things you can't see. From her viewpoint, being with her mom may outweigh other things. I'm sure Nayori misses her a lot." "Yeah, I think she does," Evie replied. "Nayori used to say she could tell her mom anything.""I think she needs understanding more than she needs criticism," Mom said. "Perhaps Jesus can use you to help her through this. He understands exactly what she's going through, and He'll help you be a good friend and show her His love and compassion."Evie nodded thoughtfully. "I'll try to see the situation more from her viewpoint. Maybe…oops!" She pointed to a bush Mom had finished. "You missed some more, Mom," she said with a grin. -Agnes LivezeyHow About You?Do you get annoyed when your friends talk about their troubles? Do you feel like things aren't as bad as they make them out to be? Remember that you're seeing their situation from a different viewpoint. Even if you don't understand everything they're going through, Jesus does, and He'll help you be kind and understanding like He is. Trust Him to help you show compassion and offer encouragement to friends who are struggling. Today's Key Verse:Give to Your servant an understanding heart. (NKJV) (1 Kings 3:9)Today's Key Thought:Be kind and understanding

    Welcome to Redemption Church of Plano Tx! Hello to everyone joining us on our facebook livestream. Praise the Lord to everyone joining us in person. My name is Chris Fluitt, and I am about to open up the powerful, unchanging, life altering, word of God. Who is ready?! Nobody Left Out We are in the 7th week of our sermon series “Nobody Left Out.” That means this upcoming week you who have kept up with the reading plan will be finishing your 40 day devotional.  Let's give everyone who has been reading an applause. My favorite thing about this sermon series is that it has gotten us into our Bibles!   For anyone who is joining us tonight and you are like… “What are they talking about?” We have been doing a sermon series in tandem with a 40 day devotional book called “Nobody Left Out” by author Michael Murray.   If you are just joining us, I want to encourage you to go find this book on amazon and go do this devotional sermon series with us. You can find all our sermons at redemptionplano.com, facebook, or youtube. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Left-Out-Messes-Devotional-ebook/dp/B08MY583G8 Tonight, I want you to turn to Mark 12 where you will be reading about the poor Widow. The Poor Widow We will be reading a short story in Mark 12, beginning at verse 41. This story is only 4 verses long, and that is very different from last week's story that took the entire 9th chapter of John. Mark 12:41-44(NIV) 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” This story only takes up 4 verses in your Bible, but can I suggest that this story is much larger than 4 verses. Let's look back at verse 41… Mark 12:41 (NIV) 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. What is Jesus doing? Is Jesus people watching? Jesus the people watcher Have you ever gone somewhere to just watch people?  When I first moved to the North Dallas area I would go to a certain Starbucks in Highland Park. I would set up my laptop and get some work done, but I have to admit I was always amazed by the people who would wander in… -the rich…-the maid who worked for the rich…-the child that came from the rich and looked like they were having trouble with college… -the high powered CEO…-the even higher powered soccer mom…-the very eclectic people…-the poor minister in a church plant… oh wait, that was me… I'd set myself up to see all the people that were coming in, and I would try to guess what their story might be.   Now here in Mark 12 we see Jesus sitting down opposite the place where the offerings were put and intently watching the crowd… Jesus is a people watcher.  He watched the people as they gave their offering… Perhaps Jesus was paying close attention to the motivation in which they offered their gift? Now notice the last sentence of verse 41. *Mark 12:41 (NIV) 41 …Many rich people threw in large amounts.  What do you envision when you read “rich people threw in large amounts?” They threw in a large check…They threw in a bit-coin…They made it rain or threw in a tightly wound stack of cash… The word for large is polys (pol-oos'). https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4183/kjv/tr/0-1/ [“a word indicating quantity and number, not size” Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), 210.]   Polys (Pol-oos') - Quantity rather than size The word means quantity rather than size. It is likely that the rich would come up to the off...

Pastor Taylor Shippy - John 21:1-14 This week we are looking at another resurrection appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. While Jesus has previously appeared at the Upper Room to His disciples, He now choses to appear to them while they are busy at work fishing. Perhaps Jesus is also willing to be present with us as we too are at work?

• God's love activates the power in our God-given spiritual gifts (chapter 12). Without love, our gifts are nothing. The Corinthians were seeking status & power, using their gifts to be "puffed up," rather than to build up one another in LOVE. Love is power in God's economy. • We cannot manifest love in our own power. We experience God's radical love in order to be a conduit of his love to others. When his love is at the center of our spiritual gifts, we are NOT noisy gongs or clanging cymbals. • Love endures all things: This doesn't mean just grin and bear it, but rather endure here means "abide, tarry with." • Vs. 10 tells us, "when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." What is Paul referring to? Perhaps Jesus' second coming? When Jesus' comes again, all of our spiritual gifts (prophecy, knowledge) will fade away. But love never ends. • We are fully known and fully loved now. We only "see this in a mirror dimly" now, but eventually will we come to experience this truth face to face (vs. 12). In our pursuit of love, our pursuit of God, we realize that God is continually pursuing us! • Reflection Question: How have you felt God's love in your life? What characteristics of his love that are listed in the text have you experienced? • Reflection Question: We are each on uniquely personal journeys with God. On YOUR journey with the Lord, what might he be calling you further into as you pursue LOVE? As your heart dwells in the Scripture this week, ask Jesus: Lord, how are you inviting me to lean into Love?

• God's love activates the power in our God-given spiritual gifts (chapter 12). Without love, our gifts are nothing. The Corinthians were seeking status & power, using their gifts to be "puffed up," rather than to build up one another in LOVE. Love is power in God's economy.• We cannot manifest love in our own power. We experience God's radical love in order to be a conduit of his love to others. When his love is at the center of our spiritual gifts, we are NOT noisy gongs or clanging cymbals. • Love endures all things: This doesn't mean just grin and bear it, but rather endure here means "abide, tarry with."• Vs. 10 tells us, "when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." What is Paul referring to? Perhaps Jesus' second coming? When Jesus' comes again, all of our spiritual gifts (prophecy, knowledge) will fade away. But love never ends. • We are fully known and fully loved now. We only "see this in a mirror dimly" now, but eventually will we come to experience this truth face to face (vs. 12). In our pursuit of love, our pursuit of God, we realize that God is continually pursuing us! • Reflection Question: How have you felt God's love in your life? What characteristics of his love that are listed in the text have you experienced?• Reflection Question: We are each on uniquely personal journeys with God. On YOUR journey with the Lord, what might he be calling you further into as you pursue LOVE? As your heart dwells in the Scripture this week, ask Jesus: Lord, how are you inviting me to lean into Love?

Pastor Taylor Shippy - Mark 5:21-24, 35-43 This is week two of our sermon series, "DWJD: Do What Jesus Did." Jesus chose to journey with people who were suffering. He was fully present with people who were in a painful situation. Perhaps Jesus beckons us to do the same with those who are still hurting in our world today?

In this episode I explore whether or not we are actually following orthodoxy or Jesus. I take a look at the Sermon on the Mount to unpack a series of ideas Jesus deconstructs and reinterprets in himself. Perhaps Jesus gives us a model for moving forward in reinterpreting his way and the bible in our context. 

Perhaps Jesus is not giving an invitation for men to prove their devotion, but rather to admit that they are sick and in need of a physician.

Perhaps Jesus isn't calling us to confess our sins but more so to have an open mind.