It is hard to imagine the despair.

Posted on 02/18/2014 by remso

Having gone to the tomb and finding it empty the ladies are confronted by an angel who tells them to go and tell the disciples, but John did not tell us that. We need to look at Mark’s gospel which would have been conveyed to him by Peter. Peter had not been there, so how did Peter know all this? Mary (We cannot exclude that the others were there with her.)

What is the report? The tomb is empty; Jesus is gone, and someone who just appeared out of nowhere told us to go tell the disciples.

Do John and Peter analyze all this information, comparing it with the comments that Jesus had made and make some decisive conclusions that motive them to investigate for themselves because they need foundational information for their next sermons?

Get real! What you hear barely registers – you are still in shock. The man that loved you like no one else ever had, and while you stayed by his side he took care of every need you had has died and was buried in that tomb, and now he is gone. You don’t even have a plan; you merely respond and run to the scene.

John 20:3 Moffatt NT So Peter and the other disciple set out for the tomb;

 Even though Mark conveys that the ladies ran trembling from the tomb, that does not mean that they, at least Mary Magdalene, did not do what the angel told her. We do not see the angels demanding a hasty conveyance of the message, but the implications are there. Merely to be a character enveloped in the moment would imply that you would run with all haste. 

 Where did Mary find Peter and John? That is not given to us, but can be assumed. You probably do not just rent out a room for your Passover meal, so this had to be a relative of one of the men and we can assume, to some degree, a disciple. 

 In time Jesus will tell the followers, all 120 of them, to wait in the upper room. This may have been the same room that they had the passover in, and may well be where they found Peter and John. Distraught, you either run to seclusion or to a familiar place. Having been told Mary ran to the familiar place and found Peter and John there. 

 As we have worked through John’s gospel it is hard to imagine the despair they felt as Jesus told them that he, the best thing that ever happened to them, was to be brutally murdered (a voluntary act on his part) and taken from them. 

 I do not think we can accurately imagine how they felt, or what they thought as they heard these words – the tomb is empty, and an angel said, he is not here. Looking at a picture recently coming out of Syria, I see a small boy, approximately 2-3 years old, standing in front of an older man sitting on the ground. They both seem to be in the street. What the boy is looking at we do not know, but he is crying in anguish because horrible people have wantonly slaughtered his mother because she is of a differing religion. Anguish, despair, loss of direction, no sense of purpose, and no idea of what is to happen next. Maybe that is what they felt.

 John 20:4 NASB ” The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first;…”

 I have heard deeply spiritual sermons that seemed to focus on Peter coming second. We know that Peter was very disappointed by his own actions and you might think that it showed in his lack of enthusiasm in running. Get over it; he ran; John just ran faster.

 What were they hoping to see? Perhaps nothing; perhaps they just needed to verify that the tomb, which bordered upon impossible to get into, was empty. Why do we crane our necks, some even stopping to look at the horrid car crash, as they traverse the freeway? What are you hoping to see? Why should these men be so different, except that Jesus was like family with one exception; he gave them hope.

 Empty! What does that imply? Back to it’s original state. If grave robbers had come they would not have taken the time to leave grave cloths. 

 We have a clear indication of what they might have expected.

Matthew 16:21-22 NASB From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. (22) Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”

Peter even challenged Jesus about it, but this only added to Peter’s disillusionment, and John tells us none of them believed. 

 If you read the 20th chapter of John you will see that John indicates that after having seen the clothes lying as they were he believed. Belief has such varied depths of understanding to it. I personally know people who have a belief in Jesus, but we are cautioned to look at the fruit that comes off the tree as an indicator. (Don’t judge one bad apple coming off a tree that may be filled with good apples, as an indicator of the health of the tree. Occasionally the tree can become infested. Should you be a horticulturist then you would know to be observant, take action, and stop the infestation that could destroy not only the fruit but the entire tree. Your fast actions can help to maintain that tree for its lifetime. You should also understand that a well maintained tree has its own natural defense system and often includes the nutrient flow. In a pine tree you would call this sap, and in a well watered tree the sap flow is strong enough to inundate the boring beetle or push it back out. Locally, we lost a large quantity of forest due to drought and beetle populations that went out of control. Ordinarily the trees themselves would have been their own defense but rain had been sparse.)

 Have you ever heard the sentence, “hindsight is twenty twenty”.  It means, looking back I can see clearly what was going on; at the time I could not. John wrote this almost 90 years after Jesus death, and possibly 40 years after Mark wrote his gospel. 

 You can easily look back and see that when John chose to finally step inside the tomb, and saw the grave clothes, not strewn about hastily but placed in different locations, was the point in time where something changed in him. Suddenly this was becoming real to him. Kind of like my tree story a moment ago there was a point at which God stepped in, did some maintenance work and changed the direction of John’s life.

 Many of you have already looked back. Could you see twenty twenty? Did you see your need for Jesus Christ? All it takes is for you admit that you have messed up and that you need him. Ask him into your life. He will take the burden of your sins off you – He did this on that cross so many years ago. He merely has been waiting for you to accept that he did it for you. The moment you do this a new life begins in him, along with the assurance of a life with the Father in eternity.

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Were there any witnesses?

Posted on 02/13/2014 by remso

That’s the kind of question you might ask at a crime scene. Oh man, that just made me think of the safety films we had to watch at the phone company. A company vehicle waits for the train to go by and then pushes the accelerator hard unaware that a train is coming on the second set of tracks. Blam! The next question was, did you as a driver get out of your  vehicle and ask for witnesses.

Alright it wasn’t exactly like that but there was a demand placed upon us as drivers to get witnesses because everybody out there was going to look at the large corporation as having deep pockets and  the story will quickly change and it will be your fault.

Wait a minute. The disciples did not put Jesus on that cross; how could anyone possibly say that it was their fault? It is an odd world we live in. One where wrong has now become right, if it is not solidly that way the fine citizens our nations are trying to make it so. Consider the demand that the same chief priests that put Jesus on the cross made of Pilate now that Jesus was dead. They demanded that Pilate put a guard at the tomb because those scoundrels talked about him rising from the dead after three days and we do not want them stealing the body and making false claims that it happened that way.

There would  be only one good way to combat false claims, witnesses.

I presented the earlier post with a focus on Mary Magdalene. I believe she is secondary to the theme, but John has given her a status almost on a level with Peter. Peter was a father of the early church; did Mary Magdalene carry that kind of importance or weight? Not that I know of. Why then is Mary focused on here?

I can conjecture, based on knowledge, that Jesus, at a time when women were as useful as cattle, raised them up, showed them respect, and given a golden opportunity to condemn one, (This occurred one Sabbath as he was teaching a crowd that gathered around him in the outer court of the temple.) he diverted those that accused her, forgave her, and sent her on her way.

John 20:2 NASB So she *ran and *came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

This is another place where John tells only what he needs the reader to understand, and here he focuses on Peter by not mentioning her name again.

I suspect that John cared deeply for Peter. After three years you are either like family or you cannot stand the sight of each other, and John was keenly aware of how the events of the last week have affected Peter.

John’s gospel, written to the Jewish community of believers, by most accounts almost 90 years after Jesus death, did not focus on the negative impact Jesus death had on Peter, but on Peter’s importance. Anyone studying John’s gospel has seen Peter’s struggles. In fact all the disciples struggled. As much as we want to believe that the thoughts in their heads were filled with sunshine and flowers they were not. One of the prominent examples of this is when Thomas challenges Jesus with what he sees as utter foolishness.

John 11:14-16 NASB  So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,  (15)  and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”  (16)  Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

To give Peter the prominence here is notable and may have had a deeper meaning to the early Jewish church.

Mark’s gospel does not show Mary Magdalene running with determination to find Peter, but being instructed to do so they fled in bewildered and seemed to say nothing to anyone for a time. You can read one version and walk away satisfied that you have all the answers in the world; at least for the moment. If I only read John’s version then many of the characters get to leave their super hero capes on. But the reality is, they were human.

Mark 16:1-7 NIV When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. (2) Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb (3) and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (4) But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. (5) As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. (6) “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. (7) But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” Mark 16:8 NASB They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

The fact that the gospels vary in retelling the story merely demonstrates how others interpreted it, or how it affected them. It is said that Mark’s gospel was conveyed to him by Peter. Considering that Mark’s gospel had been written before John’s, and John may have read it, does that diminish what transpired?

The point is that there were verifiable witnesses, a central focus of John’s gospel.

Ask yourself a question. Given the comparisons of the gospels and that no one indicated Mark was there; how would he have known any of this?

Introduction to Mark’s gospel. Written between 50 and 65 AD

“…. the writer of it was not one of the twelve apostles, but an evangelist; the same with John Mark, or John, whose surname was Mark: John was his Hebrew name, and Mark his Gentile name, Act_12:12, and was Barnabas’s sister’s son, Col_4:10, his mother’s name was Mary, Act_12:12. The Apostle Peter calls him his son, 1Pe_5:13, if he is the same; and he is thought to have wrote his Gospel from him (a), and by his order, and which was afterwards examined and approved by him (b) it is said to have been wrote originally in Latin, or in the Roman tongue: so say the Arabic and Persic versions at the beginning of it, and the Syriac version says the same at the end: but of this there is no evidence, any more, nor so much, as of Matthew’s writing his Gospel in Hebrew. The old Latin copy of this, is a version from the Greek; it is most likely that it was originally written in Greek, as the rest of the New Testament.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible, Dr. John Gill (1690-1771)

“Mark wrote to a community that needed to be reminded that God heard prayers and would work through their witness and faith; they also needed to be reminded that this might cost them their lives in persecution. Finally, they could be reminded through the failure of the disciples in Mark that if they had not yet achieved the radical lifestyle their Lord’s words demanded, he would still work with them patiently to help them get to that level of commitment.” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Copyright © 1993 by Craig S. Keener)

I add this because I keep hearing  it in my head. Those that record history tend to show a favorable spin to the one that pays them. You can see some of this as you dip into Josephus or Tacitus’ recollections of Jewish interactions with Rome. Mark’s gospel may have carried a favorable spin toward Peter. Strangely John’s gospel refers to himself often as, “that other disciple whom Jesus loved.” But here in John 20 there is a heavy focus on Peter, which makes a tremendous amount of sense, and Mary Magdalene, a person whose name we all recognize but hardly pay attention to until she comes to the tomb. Suddenly John brings her to the forefront. (It might be safer to say the Holy Spirit for some reason has brought her to the forefront. Why is that?)

If you stumbled onto this page and do not know this Jesus of Nazareth who rose from the dead, you can. Ask him to make himself real to you. Accept him as the ruler over your heart and he will come. He promises us a restored life in eternity with Him. It is not difficult. The difficulty comes when others see a change in you and ask you what happened. Many of you will be under the penalty of death for doing something so bold. God will give you courage to open your mouth. I say this because should you ask him to make himself real to you the dream will be vivid and you will recognize him immediately. Your life will not be the same after the man in white comes to you. (Many of you have already seen him. There are those around you that know this man. He will lead you to those who can explain even more.

This life that I have in Jesus Christ is real.

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And on the third day

Posted on 02/10/2014 by remso

(I will confess that my notes, covering ten verses, are ten pages long. I am not one of those post a day people, my brain does not work that efficiently. And prepping for bible study takes me several days. Because I do not want to inundate you I am cutting this into segments.

One other thing. I fairly consistently end each of my posts with a tie into how you can have this life in Christ that the disciples found. I suppose it is as simple as what the thief on the cross did; he acknowledged that Jesus was a man who had done no wrong. He said this because he had an understanding, and we are not given any clarity on that prior to these men being hung on their crosses. That understanding was translated into him acknowledging Jesus and as simple as it seems, having a faith in him. Jesus Christ put himself on that cross for you, to gain your  freedom from the bondage of sin. He rose from the grave so that you could have a place secured for you with the Father. Place your faith in him, and let him grow inside of you.)

As I prepared for bible study (we are diving into John’s gospel chapter 20), as usual I am confronted by things that grab my attention. Not wanting to spoil the story I will tell you that John explained that while no one else seemed to believe, (We assume that these disciples of Jesus were superheros and all of them were incessant and notable believers from day one) he did.

 I think one of the dominant questions is: What did John believe?

You can only find the answer to this question by asking some others. That is why I opened with the verse from Matthew, because to some degree it answers the question – what did John believe this day?

Matthew 16:21 NIV From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

 John 20:1 NIV Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

Why the prominence of the first day of the week?

Keep in mind that John was writing to a Jewish audience with the intent of establishing that Jesus was God, that Jesus did what he said he would, and that there was conclusive evidence to back up what he said. John himself being an eyewitness. He later, in 1 John, makes this point once again. We were there!

1 John 1:1 NIV That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

This idea of Jesus coming out of the tomb, no matter what that means, was such a fearful thing to the chief priests that they requested guards to be placed at the tomb.

Matthew 27:62-64 NIV The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. (63) “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ (64) So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” Matthew 27:65-66 NIV “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” (66) So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Someone stealing the body; was that really the reason that the chief priests (Annas and Caiphas) made this plea to Pilate, or was it because they could not have reasons to doubt their own rebellion against God? (Can you say blasphemy?)

Hung on the cross and then placed in the tomb before sunset Friday evening marked the beginning of the three days. Sunday morning, being the first day of the week (highly significant) marked the end of the three days.

I did not give this idea of “the first day” adequate time, but thoughts have developed as I am making  this post. Jesus emergence from the grave on the first day of the week could easily mark the beginning of the new covenant.

Jesus, hanging on the cross said, “it is finished”. Ask yourself, what did that mean? His life being over? No because only days later they saw him and ate with him. You don’t eat fish with a dead man. One could play the conjecture game for hours, but the biggest clue that answers the question about what was finished took place as he partook of his last passover meal with the boys before his death.

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  (Matt 26:27-29, NIV)

I have heard that Superstition had the Jewish community convinced that the soul roamed around in the tomb for three days. To wait that long and find Jesus alive would have established that for Jesus to be alive would only be through the power of God. When they found him alive after the three days where was he? Outside the tomb. Come on! He let them handle him.

Strangely John only gives us an account of one coming to the tomb so early in the morning, but there were others.

Why did John focus on Mary Magdalene? There was something about her that got John’s attention, and I do not think it was instantaneous. I believe that John saw the depth of Mary’s love for a long time.

Mark 16:1-2 NIV When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. (2) Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.

Luke’s gospel tells us that Joanna had been there also.

Luke 24:9-10 NIV When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. (10) It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

Who was Joanna? Seeing that this was outside of the scope of John’s conversation I am not so sure we need to focus to deeply on this. You can see a big portion of her importance by reading Luke 8:3. Just note that John’s version differs from the others, indicating that he had a alternative motive for writing than Mark did. Mark’s gospel is believed to have been written while he was in Rome with Peter, and many are solidly convinced that Peter dictated it to Mark. Mark also wrote this to a gentile audience (Romans) some 30 to 40 years before John wrote his gospel.

I cannot read John’s gospel without seeing the Jewishness of it. An example of this for me is the opening sentence of chapter twenty. My gentile mind immediately thinks Monday when I see a statement like, “it  was the first day of the week”, but the Jewish mind immediately recognizes that is was Sunday morning and Sabbath has ended giving all these characters the right to “work.” It is this emphasis that I think he wanted us to understand.

I offer this commentary.

Came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary – From Mary Magdalene Christ had cast out seven devils. Grateful for his great mercy, she was one of his firmest and most faithful followers, and was first at the sepulchre, and was first permitted to see her risen Lord. The “other Mary” was not the mother of Jesus, but the mother of James and Joses (Mark). Mark tells us that “Salome” attended them. Salome was the wife of Zebedee, and the mother of James and John. From Luke Luk_24:10 it appears that Joanna, wife of Chusa, Herod’s steward (see Luk_8:3), was with them. These four women, Mark says Mar_16:1, having bought sweet spices, came to anoint him. They had prepared a part of them on the evening before the Sabbath, Luk_23:56. They now, according to Mark, completed the preparation and bought more; or the meaning in Mark may be merely that, “having bought” sweet spices, without specifying the time when, they came now to embalm him. 1

1Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible (1798-1870)
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“We have no king but Caesar;” a chilling declaration.

Posted on 01/29/2014 by remso

I have not posted for several weeks. It feels like I have been busy, and I don’t even have a job right now. Since I became co-leader of a bible study I find myself prepping for it even if it is not my week to lead. I think that I operate on the principle of always be prepared. You find the basis of this in:  2 Timothy 4:2 NASB  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

Here is the problem; every time I have to lead I struggle with confidence issues. Don’t get me wrong, I am comfortable being in front of groups. Admittedly there is always a trace of shyness, but the biggest issue has to do with how I am received. With a very small group, pretty much the same four to six guys, every week, you effectively have them in your face (by that I mean we are separated by about five feet because of the way we set up the tables.) Another aspect of this group is that it was handed off to us with the admonishment that it is also a life group, and therefore we, as leaders, have to give the men an opportunity to talk, as needed. Often what is said triggers off some personal conversation, and I am okay with that

What becomes a problem is things like the last two weeks, where no one shows up until fifteen to twenty minutes after the start time. The other thing that has become a problem to me is the guy whose favorite saying is, “I take issue with that.” He has some form of theological training and a retentive mind.

I have never claimed to be right, that is why I include the scripture to back up my statements. Truth be known, I look at multiple translations. I get a sense, based upon what I think is reality, put flesh and blood on it, and then try to find a translation that seems to convey what I believe the Holy Spirit is trying to say. (Truth be known, I lean heavily upon the Holy Spirit.) Gather two or more people together and you will get a conflict over religious things. The key word here is religious. I will give you an example: At a recent book study the subject of the creation in Genesis came up. If God created man in his image then you have to answer the question, what is God’s image? Jesus told us that no one had seen God, and yet he also said, “if you have seen me you have seen the Father.” I think it is safe to say that God has an appreciation for the way we look. If you are paying attention and understand God’s love then you know that the way we look has nothing to do with the Hollywood version of beauty.

That said,  here is the introduction to this weeks bible.

We are currently looking at John 19:16 – 24. I never made it that far. I was only able to get through three verses. I had to introduce the study by pointing back to a brief aspect we had covered the previous week. You will see that as I developed my thoughts.

It is a little long, but you should have seen my previous study notes that finished off chapter 18 of John’s gospel.

John 19: 16 –

Below are the questions for our next study:—

  1. Why was Christ “delivered to them,” verse 16?

  2. Why “in the Hebrew,” verse 17?

  3. Why were two others crucified with Him, verse 18?

  4. Why the inscription, verse 19?

  5. Why in three languages, verse 20?

  6. What is the meaning of verse 23?

The religious leadership of the nation, speaking on behalf of the nation, said, “We have no king but Caesar.” A chilling declaration, and yet a repetition of all this nation had ever done, turn their back on God. How does one do something like that and expect anything other than God’s wrath? A question like this implies that the person committing the act is aware of their sin. Perhaps they were, but what we see is a self absorption that ignored the foundation of the twisted religious ideals they held.

The death of Christ may be viewed from five main viewpoints.

  • From the standpoint of God the Cross was a propitiation [an antoning sacrifice] (Rom_3:25-26), where full satisfaction was made to His holiness and justice.

Romans 3:25 GNB God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him. God did this in order to demonstrate that he is righteous. In the past he was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time he deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate his righteousness. In this way God shows that he himself is righteous and that he puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.

Numbers 21:7-9 NET Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD that he would take away16 the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. (8) The LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks17 at it, he will live.” (9) So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived.

The image of the snake was to be a symbol of the curse that the Israelites were experiencing; by lifting the snake up on a pole Moses was indicating that the curse would be drawn away from the people — if they looked to it, which was a sign of faith. (Net bible notes)

  • From the standpoint of the Savior, it was a sacrifice (Eph_5:2), an offering (Heb_9:14), an act of obedience (Php_2:8).

Ephesians 5:2 NET. and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Hebrews 9:14 NET. how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Philippians 2:8 ESV And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

  • From the standpoint of believers, it was a substitution, the Just suffering for the unjust (1Pe_3:18).

1 Peter 3:18 AMP For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit,

  • From the standpoint of Satan it was a triumph and a defeat: a triumph, in that he bruised the heel of the woman’s Seed (Gen. 3:15); a defeat, in that through His death Christ destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil (Heb. 2: 14).

Genesis 3:15 GNB I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring’s heel.”

Hebrews 2:14 NASB Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

  • From the standpoint of the world it was a brutal murder (Acts 3:15). It is with this last-mentioned aspect of the death of Christ that our present passage principally treats.

Acts 3:15 ISV and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that.

The previous portion was abstracted from Arthur Pink’s commentary on John’s Gospel.

John 19:16 Moffatt NT Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,

Who now has possession of Jesus? The Jewish priesthood.

(Acts 2:23) This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Let us not forget, however, that behind the governor of Judea, who delivered the Lord Jesus unto the Jews, was the Governor of the Universe, who “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). And why? Because He was “delivered for our offenses” (Rom. 4:25). Christ was delivered to death, that we might be delivered from death.

John 19:17 NASB They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.

Why would John make the declaration, “the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha”?

John’s Gospel is the only one of the four that contains a precise statement regarding the author’s purpose (John 20:30-31). He declares, “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.” (From the MacArthur commentary)

MacArthur continues by saying, “The primary purposes, therefore, are twofold: evangelistic and apologetic.”

While John made no effort to exclude anyone, you can see from some of his other writings that he wrote primarily to the Jewish community. The Revelation for example, is a predominantly Jewish book, and almost requires a Jewish mindset to assist in understanding.

Apologetics is the defense of your faith, and God certainly needs no defense, but if MacArthur is correct then John is mounting defenses against Jewish argument. In the immediate case the argument tends to form around the age old question of who killed Jesus. To gain the truth, which becomes important in light of the priesthood screaming out, “We have no king but Caesar”, Jesus answered that question personally by responding to Pilate’s questioning with,

John 19:11 NASB … “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

So God himself put Jesus on that cross just as Moses put the serpent upon the pole, so that all that look upon it can be saved.

John 19:18 AMP There they crucified Him, and with Him two others–one on either side and Jesus between them.

I think we can be comfortable with the idea that Roman soldiers performed the act of nailing Jesus to the cross. We know that Roman soldiers gambled to gain his robe, and pierced his side, but the Jewish religious leadership forced him to the top of that hill.

Why were there two others crucified with him that day?

Isaiah 53:12 AMP Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers], and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because He poured out His life unto death, and [He let Himself] be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore [and took away] the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors (the rebellious). [Luke 22:37.]

As I mentioned earlier, 1 Peter 3:18 tells us that, “Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous”. So the screams to crucifiy him and release Barabas to us, suddenly make more sense. God is busily injecting analogies all throughout these scenarios.

Now regarded as a criminal (because according to the high priest he broke the law of blasphemy, calling himself God) he, the righteous, is again contrasted between those who were guilty of sins.

Luke 22:37 AMP For I tell you that this Scripture must yet be fulfilled in Me: And He was counted and classed among the wicked (the outlaws, the criminals); for what is written about Me has its fulfillment [has reached its end and is finally settled].

Note: One of those hanging next to him was painfully aware of his sin, and of the righteousness of this Jesus hanging there, while the other was arrogant.

Luke 23:39 AMP One of the criminals who was suspended kept up a railing at Him, saying, Are You not the Christ (the Messiah)? Rescue Yourself and us [from death]!

Even this criminal hanging there had an awareness of who Christ had claimed to be. One might say, his awareness could have easily come from the placard that had been placed above the head of Jesus, but doesn’t that indicate that this criminal had the leisure and ease to turn his body so to read the sign, and how does that explain the depth of understanding that it took to make such a statement. To say, “are you not the Christ” is to acknowledge that he understood that Israel longed for and awaited a conquering king, and I, like priests that put you here, refuse to believe that. And yet the criminal hanging on the other side did.

John 19:19 AMP And Pilate also wrote a title (an inscription on a placard) and put it on the cross. And the writing was: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. John 19:20 KJV This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

Keep in mind that nothing in scripture is insignificant. So what is the significance of this action?

This reading from the Amplified does not adequately convey the implications and effect of such a sign.

Whether it was common to indicate the crimes or not does not matter, for this day the utter foolishness of the charge was placed above his head so that all passing could understand why this “criminal” was being hanged; should not the public have the right to know.

If you had little understanding of the Torah then it may not have made that much sense, but every Jew would have, through oral history, known that they awaited a Messiah.

This is harshly contrasted when you think about the fact that wise men from the east came to seek out this awaited king, and found him. What did these wise men say? “We have seen his star.” So there were definite signs to indicate when, and prophecy to tell them where. (These were quite possibly educated men that were produced through Daniel’s training while a captive of Babylon – Daniel himself, had determined from scripture, that the time of captivity was coming to an end. It did not take a genius to figure these things out, it merely took an understanding and an mind willing to look beyond circumstances and tradition.)

Need more convincing? While the priests, that Pilate had to deal with, refused to accept any king other than Caesar, Simeon (Luke 2:25-29) and Anna (Luke 2:39) both recognized that the messiah was before them. Why? For they had been waiting for Him.

The sign, hung above Jesus, seemed to convey Pilate’s disdain for the heretical priesthood, and, though it may have been inadvertent, declared in multiple languages that this was the king they had been longing for hanging upon that cross. Even Pilate, without understanding, declared and emphasized that their king had come.

There is also that horrid comparison between Jesus the king, and the serpent he represented; the serpent which kills the world, hanging there, placed there by the high priest just as Moses had done. (Numbers 21)

John 19:20 KJV This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

Arthur Pink stated, “Hebrew was the language of religion; Greek of science, culture and philosophy; Latin of law. In each of these realms Christ is “king.” In the religious, He is the final revelation of the true God (Heb. 1:2; John 14:9). In science, He is the Force behind all things. “By him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). “Upholding all things by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3); so, too, in Him are hid “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). In jurisprudence, He is supreme; the Law-giver and Law-administrator (1 Cor. 9:21).”

John 19:21 ASV The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.

Arthur Pink noted that the phrase, “chief priests of the Jews” only shows up once, here. Pink seems to feel that, “the Holy Spirit thereby intimating that God no longer owned them as His priests: having rejected their Messiah, Judaism was set aside, and therefore its official leaders are regarded as serving the Jews, but not Jehovah.”

What are the implications of this?

Something we tend to forget because we base our understanding of scripture on the last movie we saw on the death of Christ, and though sufficiently graphic and bloody for most, it may not convey what was really going on. What this tells me is that Annas and Caiphas were both standing there, in a sense performing in detail the slaughter of this perfect lamb, and having laid hands so brutally upon Him, they are sending him off into the wilderness of death (or so they think.)

What it says to me is that they saw what Pilate did as an insult, in total opposition to all their screaming and demands. These claims, that Jesus made, were the ultimate insult as far as they were concerned, and their full intent was to make him go away as quickly as possible. How ironic that those words, nailed above his head, ring out through history, still declaring that this was the Messiah, willing to accept all those that recognize fully who he is, just as he did that criminal that asked him.

John 19:22 CEV But Pilate told them, “What is written will not be changed!”

While Pilate was able to see that there was no reason to kill Jesus, he did not seem to have the backbone to reject the demands of the chief priests. This statement demonstrates that he could stand firm when he wanted to.

Play a scenario out in your mind for a moment. What if he had taken the sign down? Would it make any difference?

I don’t think so, but it stayed, so God must have had a more significant reason. Again, the sign has rang out the kingship of Jesus throughout history.

John 19:23,24 ESV When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,

It seems such a selfish and insignificant scene. Soldiers tend to do things that play into the dominance theme, and while we may not want it done to us, we think little of it. The images I pull up are all ones from movies and many make sense.

Why wouldn’t you strip the man down to a minimal amount of clothing if you wanted to do the most damage to his body?

The damage was done and he is still alive. With every nerve ending sending impulses to the brain, putting clothing back on him would only enhance the pain. And there is the act of cruelly leading him back out to the priesthood to show them their king.

What did he have on his body?

Not a beautiful white 400 thread count Egyptian linen sheet. He had the classic attire of any decent Jew.

Now how would I know this? Because when he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink she responded with,

John 4:9 ESV The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

How did she know that he was Jew?

He looked just like anybody else with one huge exception.

Numbers 15:38-40 ESV “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. (39) And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. (40) So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

He wore the garments of a Jew, garments still worn today, and even in this it fulfills prophecy.

Psalms 22:18 ESV they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
[If you do not know this Jesus Christ I speak of, it is really quite simple, and takes a simple faith. Israel at one point merely had to look, in faith, at the serpent upon the pole. Jesus represented the same thing that serpent did when He was hanging there. All you have to do is look to him in faith that he will deliver you from the deathly sting of Satan. Do you have to believe that? No, and many of Israel chose not to believe it either and died in that lonely desert. This Jesus is real; he put himself willingly on that cross knowing full well what it would cost, but also knowing the reward the Father would gain, the restoration of a family, that is you. Ask him to come into your life and rescue you from the wrath that is about to be poured out upon the world. He already forgave you; your sins have been wiped away, and He did that knowing full well that you will mess up again, we all do. It is that faith that we place in Him that makes us whole. You are loved, wanted, and welcome, so just come to him.]
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Some thoughts as I read through Job 31

Posted on 01/13/2014 by remso

Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

This jumped out at me, always has. Pastor Chuck went off on sexual purity, and I believe that this speaks toward that, but when I consider the age and maturity of Job I find it hard to believe that he is still struggling with such strong passions.

Perhaps that is not the point. Everyman, until the day he dies, is able to see what is beautiful around him. That in itself is not the problem, but looking ravenously for the beauty is, and taking your thoughts to the next step, what you could do with such a magnificent creature, moves you into the depravity of adultery, and all sorts of sexual sins.

Christ obliterated the penalty before God that comes with sin; sin we were imputed with. I have been inundated with talk of sin since I can remember, and I feel as though focusing on sin only makes me more skilful at it, but I cannot ignore it, the Apostle John made sure of that when he said, “ If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NASB )

So it (sin) is always there; almost as though it is part of our DNA, a virus called sin, waiting for an appropriate moment to awaken. But God, through Christ’s obedience on the cross, made it possible for our spirits to be alive in Him once more. Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”

So that we would no longer be slaves to sin! We have what it takes to stand against the enemy, even if it means you call others and ask them to support you, or drag you out of that situation.

We only become the idiot when we refuse to ask for help. Refusal to do that will eventually see you become so mired that it takes a crane to pull you out of the pit you put yourself in, and in some cases, years to scrape the muck off you, even the possibility of your own death.

In my situation, I thought I could handle it. After all, I am a man, and we rock headed men think we can muscle our way out of anything; I was wrong and fought my weaknesses and fears for years with no success. I was also so ashamed and afraid of what others might think of me that I would not ask for help. I was the guy that needed a crane to dig me out of the wreckage I created, and it took years for me to find anything close to an emotional state that I would consider normal. Oh sure, I knew God loved me, I just did not think anyone else did.

Here is part of the problem with not asking for help. In many cases the fear is real because you may not have access to a Christ based recovery group. While worldly groups like AA, NA, or SA have been the salvation of many, the focus is not on God’s love and ability to change. Beside that you are surrounded most of the time by people who are not interested in relating to the God you serve. Should you attempt to tell your problems to the general public – a church body, many will stab you in the back, and some will even accost you with a full frontal attack. That is not the goal, so you need to find people that have been honest and walked the road to recovery themselves. You need to find safe people, and even in recovery groups not all people are safe. Leaders are there because they have proven track records of recovery, and in many cases have walked the humiliating road back to sanity.

Does any of that mean that God changed his mind about you? Not hardly. He started on this path of love toward you before you were ever born. I am sorry that you could not see that; it had the power to change your life, and still does today, no matter where you are at.

Consider the story we call the Prodigal son (You can find the story in Luke chapter 15). A young man, a Jew, that would have no compulsion to even go near a hog, finds himself not only having to feed them, but to eat the same slop that they ate to survive. He finally comes to his senses and decides that returning back to the father he offended, and working as a slave for him would be better than this. The father had no experience like this son had; how could he relate? But he was a man of compassion and an incomprehensible compassion. This father had been watching and waiting for the return of this son and when he saw the son from a long way off he ran to him, throwing his arms around him, putting his cloak upon him, making a feast for him, and reintroduced him back into the family.

So, let’s say that focusing on maintaining and building your relationship with God is more important to me now than thinking about the sins that so easily beset us. I am an expert at diving into sin. But what I am not so expert at is developing the kind of relationship that Enoch had, and he learned how to have this relationship from the man that brought such destruction on us all, Adam.

 

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Something I said triggered him off.

Posted on 12/31/2013 by remso

Something I said during bible study triggered it off, and although I cannot remember the verse reference he used in rebuttal, the theme went like this:

Matthew 7:21-23 NASB “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (23) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

The rebuttal is directed at two things.

  1. Not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven.

    And

  2. A an underlying, massive rejection by Jesus/God saying, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME,’

I think I have shared previously how broken I was. I had to relearn who this God was that loved me; in doing so I found a God of mercy beyond my comprehension. Maybe my eyes finally opened and I could see the God of mercy I had never seen before, but as I said I was a broken man with a broken understanding, and the only God I knew was a God of judgment and punishment.

We, as children would have to say this cutesy little prayer at night.

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

I pray the Lord my soul to take

Sounds benign enough, but if you are raised with the concept of God sending you to hell over one little thing, such as, taking His name in vain – taking his name in vain was defined by my mothers personal morality standards, which were unwritten, seemingly impromptu rules that she dished out as she manipulated us children.

If I am honest, this persons interruption, which assured that everyone was focused on him and his immense scriptural understanding, while I was leading bible study made me furious. I had to choose to be diplomatic and polite when everything in me wanted to lash out.

What got my attention as he was taking issue was the emphasis that he put on, “not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven;”as though this applied to believers. This rhetoric was associated with some other comments he made, the passage that he referred to, and Jesus speaking about Judas in John 16 and 17.

As I said, the basis of his rant effectively followed the same theme as Matthew 7. Matthew 7 was a continuation of Christ’s sermon on the mount.

It would seem that the emphasis is on the true believer and what it is that identifies us as such.

True disciples of Christ will be men and women cautious in their judgment of others; conscious of their own faults; confident and earnest in prayer; wary of false teachers and hypocritical profession; building all eternal hopes upon the firm Rock, faith in the Word of God and Christ Jesus.

Summarized Bible, Complete Summary of the Bible, By KEITH L. BROOKS

If I started at Matthew 7:1-2, the opening statement says, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured back to you.”

But the person choosing to disagree was not concerned with judgment, or why God did not know these people he is turning away. He seemed to focus on the idea that these were believers, not meeting some standard, getting turned away from the kingdom.

I like to think about assertions and passages like this in terms of context. Even though it was a mixed crowd that sat and listened to Jesus this day, it safe to assume that it is primarily a Jewish crowd, a religious crowd, and nothing Jesus said got past them, and it appropriately stung. Some even listened with a purposefully critical ear; pharisees who stood by listening were looking for excuses to kill him.

Sadly a belief that focuses on meeting some standard is based in works and our salvation is not by works, but by faith.

Acts 13:38-39 MSG I want you to know, my very dear friends, that it is on account of this resurrected Jesus that the forgiveness of your sins can be promised. (39) He accomplishes, in those who believe, everything that the Law of Moses could never make good on. But everyone who believes in this raised-up Jesus is declared good and right and whole before God.

Romans 5:1 YLT Having been declared righteous, then, by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 9:30 GW So what can we say? We can say that non-Jewish people who were not trying to gain God’s approval won his approval, an approval based on faith.

Jesus appeared to Saul (the Pharisee) as he was on his way to Damascus to persecute those of the way. He told Saul what his job was going to be, and this is what he said,

Acts 26:18 NASB to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

Perhaps I have established that who we are and how we got here is based solely upon our belief in, Jesus Christ, the one that had to do the hard work (suffering severe blows and death) on our behalf. The closest that anyone came to being a believer prior to the Holy Spirit coming might be the disciples. Jesus referred to them as, “those whom you have given me.” I am not clear on this so I can only speak from assumption.

We cannot make anything close to that assumption with this crowd. They came because they wanted what he could give them, food and healing. They wanted little else.

I think it is safe to say that Jesus statement, “ I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME..”, had nothing to do with followers of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 7:21-23 begins much earlier in the chapter, but lets just focus on some close proximity statements.

Matthew 7:15-16 GW “Beware of false prophets. They come to you disguised as sheep, but in their hearts they are vicious wolves. (16) You will know them by what they produce. “People don’t pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they?

I want you to focus on several things here.

  1. False prophets. They probably look normal.

God attempted to define for Moses and Aaron things that would indicate that someone was a prophet. You can find this in Numbers 12:6. The problem is that should you challenge someone about their qualifications they could tell you anything to appease you.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 NIV If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, (2) and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” (3) you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. (4) It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. (5) That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

If you read the passage above then you picked up on two things. This person attempts to lead you away from the true God, and you are to get them out of your midst. (I am not giving you the carte blanche to harm anyone.)

  1. They come disguised as sheep. I mentioned that they probably look normal. Have you got some perception of what a Christian looks like? Throw it out because it is wrong. We are all shapes and sizes, and some of us are tattered, while others wear fine clothes. None of that makes a stitch of difference in God’s eyes. If he needs you appropriately dressed, to stand before kings, then he will make sure that happens. What you need to understand is that as you sit there in your comfortable church pew, you could be sitting next to a wolf in sheeps clothing and not know it.

  2. You will know them by what they produce. Jesus, it would seem, threw a little sarcasm at us when he said, “People don’t pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, do they? So the wolf will be trying to get you work in opposition to God’s standard, a baseline laid out by His word. Sadly that requires that you READ God’s word for yourself and not be dependent upon what some “teacher” tells you; that includes me.

What kinds of things can you expect to see being produced when the wolf gets involved?

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-

Romans 1:29-32 NIV They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; (31) they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. (32) Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

You can find more should you choose to look, things that speak to the works of the flesh. Now those things are covered in the passages from Romans but just to show you I will give a little more.

Galatians 5:19-21 NIV The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; (20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions (21) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I can imagine what many are saying right now, but these are works of the flesh, common to every man, and you would be right, but they are in total opposition to God, and the reason we were born into sin, for Adam did exactly this, when he chose to do his own selfish thing, allowing for sin to enter into the world through man. Life and liberty re-entered through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Perhaps the question you should be asking is: What is a false prophet?

In Acts 13 we see Saul (he had not changed his name yet) and Barnabas traveling, and teaching God’s word to the Jews (That may be important).

Acts 13:6-12 NIV They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, (7) who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. (8) But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. (9) Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, (10) “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? (11) Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. (12) When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Did you notice that the man Bar-Jesus was a Jew. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

So the original premise was that, according to the guy that disrupted the flow of bible study that day, some Christians will not be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. Let’s go back to what might have been his backing for such a statement.

Matthew 7:21-23 NASB “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (23) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

If I look back at the experience of Barnabas and Saul (Paul), then what I see in this man Elymas, is a man, learned in the Talmud, the law and prophets; able to argue against Saul’s teachings (you really should be very skillful in the same literature that you wish to argue against if you want to defeat or discourage someone), and he performs amazing “miracles” that aid in his presentation and the contestation of others, at this moment the proconsul, Sergius Paulus.

Elymas was not a believer in Jesus Christ at this point and perhaps not a fair argument. The writer of Hebrews, in chapter 13:5, to followers of Christ (believers), states, ‘because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”‘

Our men’s bible study has been slogging our way through the book of John. But that gospel is John’s demonstration that Jesus, on this earth, was God, and therefore a huge and significant demonstration of God’s character as seen in Jesus’ actions and words.

John 10:27-30 NIV My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (28) I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. (29) My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (30) I and the Father are one.”

If I based my understanding about the security of my relationship on this alone I could be confident, but I have showed you more.

The idea and reference for God casting aside some who claim to be his comes out the Great White Throne judgment. This happens at the end of the millennial reign. Look this up in Revelation 20:11–15. Jesus was talking about this very moment when he described a separation of the sheep from the goats. (Matthew 25:31 – 46)

Matthew 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.

It is possible to develop side essays on virtually everything that shows up on these pages; that was not the point. The point was to address the question of whether God will choose to throw us aside someday. Should you think that your pettiest of sins will change his heart about you, you are wrong. Christ’s death was an all inclusive payment for the sins of the whole world, then and forever, so you are okay in that regard, as long as you have accepted Jesus Christ as the one who paid that price for you.

Another strong argument as to how much he loves and cares for you comes from that famous verse, Romans 3:16. God, so loved a broken and unloving world, that he, regardless of how that world might trash his love, sent his only Son as a sacrifice to save it.

He cares for you, and should you choose to follow him, he will never let go of you. In this you can trust.

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2013 in review

Posted on 12/30/2013 by remso

Thank you being a part of the saga.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

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What does it mean to say Merry Christmas?

Posted on 12/24/2013 by remso

Yes, I reread my own post. In truth, I write because I feel I have something to say to myself. It stuff like Mr. Silver Thread, and if you work down to it, the meaning of Christmas.

remso's avatarA Voice in the Wilderness

My days off are split but I am learning to live with it. I suppose that means no overnight trips into the desert to view the night sky, something I have not seen in over thirty years. But it would be good to have some recovery time for the feet. Oh well. I try to get as many things done in my one as possible, like laundry and early morning bible study. It is about the only day that I have time to sit at the keyboard and input based upon my previous thoughts I have written in my notepad.

12/14/2012

The day starts with another deadly tragedy, but after praying for the survivors and their families, life goes on.

Sitting at lunch we watched a man walk by the window. He was a little bent over but I attributed that to his age. The oddity to me was that…

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Initially I made the assumption.

Posted on 12/23/2013 by remso

An internet friend of mine told me, upon slogging through one of my posts, that I could have broken it down into at least three posts. Since then I try to be careful to not overburden the reader, but come on, I have all these thoughts in my head and have to get them out.

The co-leader opened the meeting and had someone read John 18:1-11. He made it clear that his focus was on the power of God as he  stood there in the form of a man. Sounded good to me, but quickly I found myself so distracted as he made the same mistake that I did. Reading from the NASB he zeroed in on “the Roman soldiers that were there“, and that is a problem.

Call it what you want, a side note, a distraction, or one of my rabbit trails, but when someone brings up the word humility or humble it is always, in my opinion, misapplied. For me, this word humble really came into being with Moses, for God deemed him an example of humility.

Numbers 12:2-3 NASB  and they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the LORD heard it.  (3)  (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

I put both verse two and three up to show that there is a context to the statement about Moses. I believe that what you find when you study out Moses and humility, is that in the face of problems he turned to God. How is this relevant to Jesus, confronted by a band of hostile men, in the garden? Moses became an example of Jesus, the man that was to come. Theology calls Moses a type of Christ.

When you consider Moses upbringing, raised in Pharaoh’s home, educated in knowledge and the Egyptian ways, as well as being crossed trained until he was weaned, and I am guessing his momma carried that out as long as she could, teaching him everything he could absorb about who he really was, a Hebrew. Since the majority of his time is spent learning to be an Egyptian leader, Moses would have been the antithesis of humility, demanding respect and telling people what to do.

Jesus Christ, was God in that garden, and he told them so. ego hoti eimi – ego (I) hoti (because) eimi (was, exist, and will be). When he responded with this statement all that were gathered to take him fell backward. There was very little about that moment that we could consider humble, unless you look at it from the standpoint that Jesus, still choosing  to be a man who had set aside his deity, pulled that power from the Father himself.

Not knowing if they even made to their feet we see Jesus saying, Now! whom were you seeking? (my translation)

With that said we jump into the verse and problem with the word Roman as used by the NASB.

John 18:3 CEV Judas had promised to betray Jesus. So he (Judas) went to the garden with some Roman soldiers and temple police, who had been sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees. They carried torches, lanterns, and weapons. Jesus already knew everything that was going to happen, but he asked, “Who are you looking for?” They answered, “We are looking for Jesus from Nazareth!” Jesus told them, “I am Jesus!” (The contemporary English version combined verses 3-5.)

A couple of days since I started writing this and I cannot remember precisely why I included this passage from Luke. As I look at it I believe my thoughts may have leaned toward evidence that demonstrates that Judas only made his transactions with “the chief priests and officers“. Verse 2 of Luke 22 tells us that is was the chief priests and the scribes. This all happened before the passover, so the chief priests and the scribes would have had the time to gather those they deemed necessary.

Luke 22:1-6 NASB Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. (2) The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death; for they were afraid of the people. (3) And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve. (4) And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Him to them. (5) They were glad and agreed to give him money. (6) So he consented, and began seeking a good opportunity to betray Him to them apart from the crowd.

The premise for Judas betrayal is also found in Mark’s gospel chapter 14.

Mark 14:14-26 LITV  And wherever he goes in, say to the housemaster, The Teacher says, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?  (15)  And he will show you a large upper room, having been spread and made ready. Prepare for us there.  (16)  And His disciples went out and came into the city and found it as He told them. And they prepared the Passover.  (17)  And evening having come, He came with the Twelve.  (18)  And as they were reclining and eating, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, One of you will betray Me, the one eating with Me.  (19)  And they began to be grieved, and to say to Him one by one, Not at all I, is it? And another, Not at all I, is it?  (20)  But answering, He said to them, It is one from the Twelve, the one dipping in the dish with Me.  (21)  Truly the Son of Man goes as it has been written concerning Him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It were good for him if that man had never been born.  (22)  And as they were eating, Jesus taking a loaf, blessing, He broke and gave to them. And He said, Take, eat, this is My body.  (23)  And taking the cup, giving thanks, He gave to them. And they all drank out of it.  (24)  And He said to them, This is My blood, that of the New Covenant, which is poured out concerning many.  (25)  Truly I say to you, No more, I may not drink from the produce of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God, never!  (26)  And singing a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives.

Matthew gives us an account of Judas getting paid thirty pieces of silver to betray him.

Matthew 26:14-16 NASB Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests (15) and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. (16) From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

Now as I continued to read I noticed something odd.

John 18:3 NASB Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, *came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

The NASB places the word Roman in a faded type. This has similarities to the Amplified which puts words in italics when there is a presumed reason for the word placement but no real basis for its placement. Such is the case with the word Roman. Many translations use the word Roman to define the Latin word speira, which was translated troops, or cohort. The word means something  as simple as a band of men.

The dictionary definition of cohort is:

COHORT, n. 1. Among the Romans, a body of about five or six hundred men; each cohort consisted of three maniples, and each maniple, of two centuries; and ten cohorts constituted a legion. 2. In poetry, a band, mass or body of men.

Are you kidding me? 500-600 men Roman soldiers, along with the Jewish leaders, and Sanhedrin cops. All of which are crowding into the garden to grab one single “insurrectionist.”

Initially I assumed that this was correct. The problem comes when you don’t pursue the truth, and I made some statements based upon incorrect information. I have included those statements to show their inappropriateness.

Judas went and gathered them together. He took them to the place where he would find Jesus.

Using the premise that these were Roman soldiers I asked? What had Jesus done to deserve weapons drawn against him? Maybe this was standard procedure, maybe the Pharisees dramatized the situation enough to alert the Romans. For the Romans to react with the Pharisees implies that this is the case. What did they say to Herod? He calls himself king, demonstrating a potential for rebellion.

Luke’s gospel, while true, could be used to defend an incorrect position, and I did that.

Luke 23:2 ASV And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king.

This was of course a lie, created by the Pharisees, and worded to sound like Jesus was an insurrectionist, this should have played the right chords with the Romans.

Although the premise may be true consider that the signal to be given was Judas kiss on the cheek of the master, and he did so. If they all knew this (and I have no reason to believe that he did not tell them that) then there would be no need to ask identifying questions, unless this band of angry men did not personally know Jesus as the Pharisees did.

Did Judas draw that much attention to his cause? For the Romans to send this many men they must have anticipated a riot.

There is no way he carried any clout at all. The Pharisees did not respect him; he was a traitor as they were, and Judas would not have been able to arouse that kind of response out of the Romans.

The IVP Bible Background Commentary states, “Many scholars have noted that this military contingent is described in a manner much like Roman cohorts (so NASB). Nevertheless, the same language was equally used of Jewish units, and this unit is undoubtedly Jewish—the temple guard. (Roman troops would not be used for a routine police action like this one, and Romans would not have taken Jesus to the house of Annas—Joh_18:13—whom they had deposed.)”

It does not make sense that Judas brought 600 Roman troops, plus whatever he brought from the Chief priest. The garden was too small, and he would have told them the number of people who may have been part of any initial threat.

Weapons! Really? If this was primarily a Jewish force, they would have remembered that they tried to stone on several occasions and Jesus slipped away. They were not letting him slip away tonight. In a sense this was a lynch mob, but Jesus would not allow that. He had to be sacrificed and the priesthood had to put him there for the sins of the world. Now was the best time for the true nature of the God-man to step forward.

I mentioned a couple of things at the beginning of this post.

  1. All those that came to take him were pushed backward to the ground.
  2. We do not know if they had made back to their feet when he said a second  time, “whom do you seek?”

Something I read once tried to prove classic Jewish sarcasm, and that Jesus was just as good at it as they were. An example was in Jesus responses to Nathanael after he responded with, “what good thing comes out of Nazareth?” Watch how Jesus responds to his comment.

John 1:46-51 MKJV  And Nathanael said to him, Can there be any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.  (47)  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile!  (48)  Nathanael said to Him, From where do You know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.  (49)  Nathanael answered and said to Him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel!  (50)  Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.  (51)  And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

“Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile!” Are you kidding me. That was cut to the bone sarcasm and Nathanael knew it. Jesus rapidly followed that with, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Now he has Nathanael’s attention and Nathanael replies, “you are the Son of God. ..the King of Israel!. Jesus is not letting him off that quick and says something that comes off like, oh, you think that is something, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Now  put all this into perspective when you look for God’s deity in the garden scenario. Jesus has already demonstrated an aspect of God’s character when dealing with Nathanael. To  the men that have been knocked to their backsides, and may still be lying  there, he says, “Whom do you seek?”

What possibilities would that convey? God is in control, not you! How  many times has God spoken to our hearts but we do not recognize it, and think that it is our own fantastic minds that came up with that plan. Get over it. God is in control, and Jesus is on a mission and he is  not letting some angry mob disrupt his  plans. He is to be brutally beaten, accused, and hung on the cross, a sacrifice offered up by the priesthood, for the sins of the world. And he is not allowing any of his disciples to be lost to this angry crowd.

He asked them a second time, Whom do you seek? Were they back on their feet by now? I do not know. How many were now afraid to open their mouths in response.

There was no bartering, He applied some logic and said, “So if you are looking for me, let these other men go.”

John 18:7-9 NASB Therefore He again asked them, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” (8) Jesus answered, “I told you that I am; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” (9) to fulfill the word which He spoke, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.”

He just showed them a small portion of his power and authority. Once again, Whom do you seek?

Alright, since we have established that it is me alone, let these go their way.

I cannot stop thinking about one the scenes from Star Wars where Obi-Wan and Luke are confronted by imperial guards. Luke Skywalker, like Peter is ready to draw his weapon, but Obi-Wan demonstrates the authority and power.

Stormtrooper: Let me see your identification.

Obi-Wan: [with a small wave of his hand] You don’t need to see his identification.

Stormtrooper: We don’t need to see his identification.

Obi-Wan: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Stormtrooper: These aren’t the droids we’re looking for.

Obi-Wan: He can go about his business.

Stormtrooper: You can go about your business.

Obi-Wan: Move along.

Stormtrooper: Move along… move along.

Religion has beat the notion of authority and power out of us. We, as a church fear it, and yet the world craves it. Those in third world nations tend to understand and revel in spiritual power. We have missed out, mocking the movement of the Holy Spirit and our bodies inability to handle the power of God.

I dealt with mediocre all my life and I can  tell you that I am sick of it. I want a life filled with power. I have wanted this all my life. Every time I came close religious people beat it out of me. I got distracted and slowed down but I  have never lost that desire. Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would  come upon them and:

  • empower them
  • fill them with a river of living water
  • flow out of their innermost being
  • bring all things – that he taught them – back to their remembrance
  • teach them all things.

I could go on. Though not precisely the words that Jesus spoke directly to them, but since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and Jesus is the Word, no  matter where it is found in scripture, then he is talking to you and I. Peter stood on the day of Pentecost, empowered by this Holy Spirit, and opened his mouth, influencing over 3000 to come to knowledge of this Jesus Christ, the Son of the living  God.

Here is the bad news. I believe that time is so short. The beast and the harlot of Revelation  are running  rampant  across the globe, and  if you had not noticed they do not care about you. Jesus, just as he promised, is coming soon to catch his own away. There are many that will be left. Decent people, kind people, people who never acknowledged that Jesus is God, and they will be left behind. The events that follow the rapture will be so decimating that 1/4 of the world’s population will be killed as martyrs for Christ. Do you realize that our Mormon and Jehovah Witness friends etc. will have to make some potentially rapid but deadly decisions.

Turn to Jesus Christ while there is time, for no man knows how much time there is left. It could be as you read this. But there is a positive aspect of this. Think about the scene from Stars Wars that I conveyed to you. Part of what Peter preached on Pentecost day was a message based upon Joel chapter 2. If you are brave enough to read the entire second chapter you will find it to be ominous. But even in  the midst of destruction there is a light that shines and this is exactly what Peter told those people who could hear him. I hear him!

Joel 2:28, 29, 32  And it shall be afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams; your young men shall see visions. And also I will pour out My Spirit on the slaves and on the slave women in those days.
Joel 2:32  And it shall be, whoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved;

Should you choose not to believe me that is your business and loss. Many will bow to the beast ( I happen to think that beast will be Islam and the Mahdi) take what ever marking they demand as submission, and worship the beast (Allah). This will seal their fate eternally from God’s presence.

And it shall be, whoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved;

Don’t gamble with this. I am fighting this onslaught from multiple directions. As the situations arise I am alerting people to vote and make your voice known and heard. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians saying that there is something holding back the onslaught of the antichrist. That force is believers and  others that are making a stand against the godless world. That is not necessarily true. They have a god and it is themselves. I have been called to be watchman upon the wall, and my job is to blow the warning trumpet as loudly as I can. This is one of the ways I do that. How you respond is on you.

 

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My co-leader led the bible study this A.M. He put a slightly different spin on the passage than I would have, but he added a couple of things that got my attention.

John 18:1 GNB After Jesus had said this prayer, he left with his disciples and went across Kidron Brook. There was a garden in that place, and Jesus and his disciples went in. John 18:2 CEV Jesus had often met there with his disciples, and Judas knew where the place was.

2Samuel 15:30And David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went, and his head was covered and he walked barefoot. Then all the people who were with him each covered his head and went up weeping as they went.

David, the man after God’s own heart, was accustomed to going to the Mount.

Zechariah 14:4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.

Zechariah prophesied of his physical return to the earth, to make things right in the last days.

Matthew 24:3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

This was their quiet place. Oh yes, he was very familiar with this place.

It seems I did not realize the depth of two simple verses. But then that may be part of our problem; we seem to think that everything is just a simple, meaningless verse. One of the ways you shake that kind of thinking is to realize that this bible you hold is a Jewish book. Yes, the appeal tends to change with Mark’s gospel and then Paul’s writings, but overall it speaks deeply to the Jewish heart. Having at least a minimal understanding of the Jewish heart can help.

My co-leader had done a bit of reading on the brook Kidron, and said some things I have never heard before. I looked at some of my commentaries and found this:

John 18:1

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

“I detain the Reader at the very entrance on this Chapter, in order to beg his attention to what the Sacred Writer hath said of this brook Cedron, or Kidron. It is evidently the same as that mentioned, 2Sa_15:23. And as David, in passing over this brook in his distresses, was clearly a type of Christ, it merits our attention the more. Some have thought that the name of Cedron, or Kidron, which signified black, was given to it because it lay in a dark valley. And others conclude, that its name was taken from the black and foul waters which ran into it from the temple sacrifices. In either sense, the gloominess of it, and the filth of it, rendered it loathsome. And if, as is supposed, the prophetic Psalm concerning Christ had an eye to this brook when it is said, that he should drink of the brook in the way; Psa_110:7. it may serve to lead the mind to some very solemn and interesting reflections. Here it was that the good king Josiah caused the polluted vessels of the temple to be burnt. 2Ki_23:4. And all the uncleanness found in the house of the Lord in Hezekiah’s reign, was carried here. 2Ch_29:16. Jesus passing over it, and drinking of the brook in his way, may not unaptly be supposed to represent the filth and blackness of sin, in which Christ as our representative appeared. And his drinking of it might be supposed to refer to the cup of trembling, which, as the Church’s Surety he drank to the very dregs, that his people might drink the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Isa_51:22; Psa_116:13.”

Poor Man’s Commentary, by Robert Hawker

This all makes so much sense to me now considering what was about to befall Jesus.

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Posted on 12/22/2013 by remso | Leave a comment