We now come to the point in our study when we must consider all the treasures of the new life, the eternal life that God has made accessible by faith in His Son Jesus-Christ.  As I have mentioned many times, before man was ever created, God drew up a plan, the outworking of this plan would bring an end to sin, death, and the devil, and by faith deliver men from sin! It is important for everyone to realise how God hates sin, sin is completely foreign to His holy nature. Sin has started its putrefying work in Adam. With passing generations, it got worse and worse and forced God to intervene and destroy individuals, whole families, towns, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and eventually the whole of mankind by the flood! 

Thus God proved that there is no place for sin, death and Satan in His New order, which He will bring into being once His plan of redemption, through Jesus-Christ, His Son, is completed! God’s Holy Prophets uttered things to come and they were fulfilled in their appointed time. Isaiah prophesied that God would do new things for the people of the whole earth, and change the total character of mankind. He also prophesied the end of the present order and that He would usher in a new order, as it is stated below: 

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, not will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice ever in what I will create, I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem, and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more.” (Isaiah 65:17-19.) 

Jeremiah was a man that saw the end of many things that he cherished, such as the demise of his own nation and the misery that was going to be their portion. Yet in the midst of it, Jeremiah saw good things, a new beginning in God’s dealing with men and declares: “The time is coming”, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”(Jeremiah 31:31.) We have already mentioned much about that. With this new covenant came a new order in God’s government of His people. There are promises in the Bible, of an end of death, sin, weeping and sufferings. All the present world with its evil and Satan’s dominion over it, all the suffering he imposed on all nations, by conflicts, wars, hatred and pride will not be remembered any more, it shall be wiped away and disappear like a cloud! What these prophets and others prophesied has happened with the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, but some things are yet to come. We read in the book Revelation:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for a husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no

more death or mourning or crying, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4.)

Some people do not believe that God works to a plan; they believe that He intervenes only when things turn out wrong or not as He expected them to!  What a folly, God is a God of order, and of great wisdom, He sees things before they ever happen and everything that happens is willed or allowed by Him, and everything happens in the time God sets for it to happen! He can never be surprised! Those who have believed in Christ, the Bible states: “In Him (Jesus.) We were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity, with the purpose of His will.” (Ephesians 1:11.) There is sometimes a talk among some students of the Scriptures, of a plan B, or C, etcetera, if that were the case one can go through the whole alphabet, which by now would have run short of letters. People that talk like that do not really know the wisdom and sovereignty of God, He works out every detail perfectly and, in his power, as God Almighty, He has the means to accomplish everything just when and how He has decided, before the world was created! 

The True God, is the God of the Bible, He has chosen it to reveal Himself to man, His personality, His attributes, His power and sovereignty which are woven in the things which He has created, and how He will bring out of all the mess that man has imposed on His creation, into a better relationship with men and things created, into a new and perfect order which shall not be marred by sin, for it shall be no more! the Bible is the only source in which we can find Him exactly as He is. Whenever man has disregarded the things declared in God’s book, which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, he has lost his way, and many wrongs have ensued which have completely disturbed the purposes of God for man’s happiness, and destroyed the purpose of his whole life and eternal future! We find in the Bible that God has a will. He willed the world and created it. He willed the existence of man and created him. Everything that exists has been willed, designed, planned and brought into being by the will of God and are sustained by His almighty power. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His power word. After he had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews1:3) ‘He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.’ (Colossians 1.17)

Everything that God has created or willed into being is perfectly balanced and orderly. Everything functions according to its given character time and purpose. This order and perfection are seen in everything, it is only on this planet that the balance of things, the perfection of all things created, and their perfect order have been marred; this happened through the fall of man, (Adam means Man) who obeyed the insinuations of the devil, who made of him a rebel just as he is. It is sin, as it has been described and stated in all the previous chapters, which has spoiled the whole constitution and character of man, it has also broken the order and perfect balance of his understanding and has destroyed the true purpose of his creation; his and that of the world over which he was placed as overlord with wisdom and understanding! Sin has put man on the path of destruction on which he is moving incessantly towards the day of judgement. 

Nevertheless, before God ever created the world, knowing that through sin all mankind would be corrupted, He purposed to redeem men and the earth and bring in a completely new order in His relationship with man and all His creation. For this purpose, Jesus came to earth to fulfil everything that He was appointed to do in the plan of God. This new order has begun with the resurrection of Jesus-Christ from the dead, and His ascension to heaven, from where He is building His Church, which is an assembly of men called out from the world, into a new life through a new birth, by faith in Him; This New Birth happens by a direct act of the Holy-Spirit, it is the creation of a new man. The life that, that new man receives, is God’s life, which is eternal, so different to the one he has now, which ends in death. This new life, because it has its origin in God, will never end nothing and no-one, in heaven or on earth, can destroy the man born of God, which God calls his child. This is stated:

“He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made by Him, the world did not recognise him(as God – its Creator). He came to that which was His own, (people – the Jews) but his own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those that believe in His name, (whether Jews or Gentiles) he gave the right to become children of God ~ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (by His will) (John 1:10:13)

“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him (the Holy Spirit) we cry ‘Abba – Father.’ (Believers in Christ call God – Father - of whom they have been born.) The Holy Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs ~ heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may share in His glory! (Romans 8:12-17.) Christ is the heir of all of God’s creation, as God’s sons, all believers are co-heirs with Christ!

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29.) So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:7.)

“How great is the love of the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God? And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. (1 John 3:11.)

There are many other references that we could quote to certify all that God says about those that have become His children by faith in Christ, but those suffice to make it a certainty. God says what all true Christians really are, but the world has its own ideas about true Christians. It did not recognise Jesus as who He was, His own people rejected Him; Christians cannot expect to be treated any better. Whilst fallen man plans his life without God, blinded and fettered by sin, he lives in the darkness of a spiritual death, walking further and further from God. Whilst all man’s activities seem to disown God, and His right to do what He wants with His creation, he lives unaware that he ignores God at his expense and the price tag will be very heavy. Man’s ignorance of spiritual realities forbids him to see God at work behind the scene, bringing His purposes ever closer to the end. The sudden return of Jesus-Christ to earth, with all the redeemed, His glorified people, will bring judgement on the unbelievers; it will fall upon the whole world just as the travail of a woman with child. Jesus will cast them into the lake of fire, as already mentioned, where Satan and the false prophet preceded them, then He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, pure and untouched by evil, weeping, tears, sorrow and suffering will have ended forever.

By His death on the CROSS Jesus has put Satan out of the way completely, and destroyed sin and its power and delivered his elects from Satan’s control. The earth and the Galaxy in which it has its place, is only a small part of God’s immense Creation. Yet the earth, amongst all the millions of stars and planets, is the only one where evil is at work, by the ever-corrupting work of Satan, man has become his valet, and together they have made the world a violent, corrupt and degraded planet ready for the fire! Unknown to the nations of the world, God has been working out, silently but surely, His wonderful plan and accordingly, Jesus is still bringing into the Church those that God gave Him before the creation of the world. 

This immense congregation of chosen people has, by faith in Jesus-Christ, passed from death to life, from darkness into light and from their servitude to Satan to God, Jesus made them His faithful servants, which by a miraculous operation of the Holy-Spirit, have been born into His family, men that God calls His ‘Sons’: Jesus said: “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him that has sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:38-39.) In these few words we have a perfect resume of an important part of Christ’s mission. Jesus was given by His Father a unique work to do, a mission that no one else could take upon himself. The strongest and the best of all His angels would have been inapt to accomplish the task, it was a work that only God could do perfectly and He did it by sending His Only Son, Jesus-Christ, (Saviour-Messiah.)

Every detail of the life of Christ was planned before He came to into the world, the places that He went to, even the words he preached. After His baptism by John the Baptist, He went in the desert and fasted for forty days and forty nights, at His weakest moment, when He felt hungry, He was tempted by the devil, but He never faltered but rebuked the devil by quoting to him the Word of God. Dear Christians, at our weakest point, we always have the promises of God and the Holy-Spirit sustaining us and strengthening our faith by His Holy Word. Jesus went into the desert because He had to be there, it was not by accident but by design. Then, after coming out victoriously from the desert, having vanquished the devil on every line, full of the Spirit, He returned to Galilee and taught in their synagogues. Eventually He returned to Nazareth, where on the Sabbath day, He went to the synagogue, just as He had been on every Sabbath before His baptism, but this time His contribution was completely different, because something important happened; what was it?

It was the time for Christ to show Himself as who He really was, and to reveal the very reason for His coming on earth. Till the age of thirty Jesus was known as the son of Joseph but now he spoke to them as the glorious Son of God.  He stood up to read from the scroll that was handed to him, by the minister, something that must have happened many times before. On that day was given to Him the prophesy of Isaiah, where He chose to read a portion which concerned Him directly!  Why not another book? The true Christian, as he grows to know God better and better, comes to realise that the smallest detail, which seems unimportant to men, has a great importance with God and the truth about Him, and nothing is accidental! From it, Jesus read the words prophesied concerning Him more than seven centuries before, yet on that day, came the precise moment, to introduce Himself and so He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach the (Gospel) the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovering of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:17-19 - Quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2.) 

Jesus could not have read this prophesy before because it was not the right time, but when He was baptised in the river Jordan, as we learned previously, He was declared at that precise moment to be the Son of God, as Jesus came out from the river, the Holy-Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove; it is written: “As soon as Jesus was baptised by John, at that moment heaven was opened, and he (John)saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him, and a voice from heaven said, ‘ This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased!” (Matthew 3: 13-17) In the Old Testament order, prophets, priest and kings had to be anointed with a special anointing oil, without this anointing they had no right to work in any of these special positions. This filling with the Holy Spirit introduced the way Jesus, and all those who after Him, would preach the Gospel were anointed.  The baptism with the Holy Spirit, filled Jesus the with power and divine authority. Jesus accomplished His mission as a man, and as such He depended totally on the anointing of the Holy Spirit in everything He did and said,  just as he expressed in the verses highlighted above. He was anointed with the Holy-Spirit, to spread and preach the Good News. 

During his speech to the people of   Nazareth, Jesus said certain things that did not go down well, so much so that they tried to lead Him from the synagogue, to bring Him as far as a precipice outside the town, with the wicked purpose of throwing Him over the edge; but Jesus simply walked through them, and no-one could touch Him and do Him any harm; for His time to die had not yet come! Soon after this incident, “Jesus left His home town and went to dwell in Capernaum, which was by the lake in an area of Zebulon and Naphtali ~ To fulfil what was said by the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles ~ the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:12-17. -. Isaiah 9:1-2.) Jesus came to His own people but His own people did not receive him. His own brothers despised him. But after his resurrection we know of two that believed in Him, they were James and Jude. We do not know of any other siblings that did it.

I could mention so many other instances, that speak of prophesies being fulfilled, but what I have quoted here and before in other chapters, is enough to show to us how precise is God’s plan and its timing. This brings me to the place where Jesus speaks of the last event, the most important in his mission on earth. In John 17 we have the record of the most important prayer ever prayed by the Son of God. Jesus prayed often, mainly at night. I am always challenged by the way that Jesus, being the Son of God, spent alone hours and whole nights in prayer; but in God’s will, Jesus prayed audibly in the presence of his disciples, and John was inspired by the Holy-Spirit to write it, and it has been treasured by all God’s children up to our times.

From chapter 13 to the end of chapter 17 of the Gospel of John, Jesus was with His disciples in the upper room where He commemorated the Passover with His disciples. During those hours Jesus told many wonderful things that are still very important statements in the Christian doctrine. Throughout Jesus’s talk, we can sense the great love that Jesus had for this band of men, who faithfully followed Him during the three years of His public ministry. He established with them such a strong relationship that inspires us today to seek how to walk with the Lord. It was not in vain, because this same relationship is reciprocated to all His disciples right up to our days, it will be so, till the end, from here into eternity. The Gospel of John represents only twenty days of the life of Christ, and yet the wealth of truth we find in it is of paramount importance; we can but wonder what would happen, if the whole three years, of Jesus’s preaching and teachings were recorded? We sense that John wondered also when he wrote: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs, in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life (eternal) in his name.” (John20:30-31.)

We are now drawn to the great event that will bring into life the plan of God in Christ, as mentioned in this seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel. The sixteenth chapter ends with these words. “His disciples said: ‘Lo now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech (parables.) Now we can see that you know all things and that you don’t even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.’ ‘You believe at last (or do you now believe?)’ Jesus answered. But the time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33.) This brings the end of the personal ministry of Christ to his beloved disciples, whilst in his human body. It starts with the washing of their feet, as the servant of men. In His humility, expressed by this action, Jesus took the highest place, for He said: “who wants to be great in the kingdom of God must become the servant of all”. Jesus ended his conversation with His disciples in the upper room, and prepared them for the road ahead. His time on earth was coming to an end, and He would be returning to His Father where He came from. These men, which Jesus prepared to take the Gospel to the world, would face the hatred of the world just as He did from His own people. “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. The true character of a Christian is expressed by his love for the truth, and his obedience to every precept of doctrine; to obey God is to love God!” (John 16:33.) 

Nevertheless, before leaving the Upper room to go into the Garden of Gethsemane, which Jesus loved so much and spent there a lot of time with His followers, He purposely addresses audibly a prayer to His heavenly Father, because He wanted the disciples to hear it, so that in the will of God, it would be known right through the ages, until the Church is taken up to glory. “After He said this He looked towards heaven and prayed: ’Father the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:1-5) His public ministry on earth had virtually come to the end. 

Father the time has come. This He said as a culmination of His unique mission. Everything that Jesus taught publicly and in private, as recorded in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, are words that the Father gave Him to preach openly to the people. It means that prior to His coming to earth; Jesus was given every word of the Gospel that He preached under the unction of the Holy- Spirit. He says: “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you; for I gave the words that you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours and all you have is mine.” (John 17:6-10.)

These are tremendous statements, it gives the Gospel its uniqueness, the ‘Good News’, with all its promises, came straight from the heart of God. Jesus was a faithful and devoted servant, and leaves to His Church the importance of a true minister of God. Such a man is, by its very virtue, an envoy from God, an ambassador of Christ, who is the incarnate word of God! One can only become a Christian if he hears the very words Christ preached, to which the Holy-Spirit will witness, with signs following, as stated: “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. Then His disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them, and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.” (Mark 16:19.) It is because Jesus fulfilled faithfully His mission that He was able to pray as He did. This prayer is a confirmation of His complete Holiness and the everlasting uniqueness of the Gospel, which alone can save a lost sinner from hell to which he is destined. As a pure and holy Lamb of God, Jesus was about to sacrifice himself to make salvation possible, yet He prays, not for Himself, but for His disciples, with selfless love He commits them to God’s care.

Apart from being aware of every word that Jesus had to say during His mission, He was especially aware of the timing, there was a time, set by God, for everything that Jesus came to accomplish in the will of God! There is a time for everything under the sun says the Bible. What God does, has a time factor, which is pre-set by Him and He sticks to it. I quote: “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4.) Angels in God’s time were sent to Nazareth and foretold the birth of Christ, and it happened just as God predicted it by His prophets. Jesus often spoke of a time, an hour for the fulfilment of His mission, as he said; was to give eternal life to those the Father gave him. The importance of God’s timing for all the main events, is stated directly or indirectly in the whole Bible. Before Jesus ever came amongst men He knew very well the purpose of his ministry on earth, and what men would do to Him.

The first one was to preach the Gospel and sow the seeds of the Christian faith, which are the foundation of truth. His words have not changed during twenty centuries, and are still the only truth to which the Holy-Spirit puts His stamp upon, by divine inspiration. Any preaching that does not faithfully bring the full Gospel to the heart of the people, will never lead a person to Christ, because the Holy-Spirit will not witness to it. Some may go as far as to make a certain decision spurred by sentiment, but a decision made, even if it is to follow Jesus-Christ, will not last if it is not preceded by a true conviction of sin, this deep conviction is the work of the Holy-Spirit. 

To the veracity of these statements, we have the reference Jesus made in the synagogue in Nazareth, as I have already mentioned it, especially when He said: “This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:21.) It was the right time. Jesus lived in Nazareth for at least six and twenty years. I believe that He lived them full of joy and anticipation. I say this, because He was doing God’s will, and I know by experience, that to do the will of God, or to be in the will of God, brings deep satisfaction, and much joy ensues from such a privileged situation. Every revival, the Church has experienced in history, has always been marked with a sincere return to the power of the Word of God, the Gospel as preached by Christ and His apostles. 

Secondly, the most important part of His mission was the sacrifice of His life on a horrible CROSS. Jesus never hid the fact that He would have to die, for without his death, all his preaching, miracles and conflicts with religion, would have had no purpose. We have already mentioned what Jesus said concerning His mission right at the start, as He was about to leave Nazareth and go to live in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. I repeat what He said to those gathered there on that day: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news (The Gospel) to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19.)

Although Jesus literally opened blind eyes, the ears of deaf people, and loosened their tongue, although He caused lame people to walk and paralysed folk to jump for joy, the true purpose of His mission was the deliverance from slavery to the devil of every person that God gave to Him, before He made the world! Jesus came as a missionary and he preached openly in the plains of Galilee and Judea, in the synagogues and the Temple in Jerusalem. He was first sent to the lost sheep of Israel; hence, he never went out of His own country. Yet after His resurrection, it is He commissioned His disciples to go and preach Him to the whole world.

It is important to note that Jesus spread the Good News in the language of the people, one that they understood, it is written that: “The common people heard Him gladly.” (Mark 12:37.) He was born as one of them. He grew among them, the working class. To reach them, one has to know their feelings, their aspirations and all the unrighteousness that is often the lot of working people. Jesus knew all of that, and so He could speak the language with all its baggage, it is said that God: “has anointed Him to preach the good news to the poor, the rich find it difficult because it requires too much from them, yet the Gospel is simple; a child can understand it and be saved.

It is man that complicates it by his warped knowledge and pride, but mainly by his unbelief. The sin of the clergy, whether it be that of Israel or any religious confession since He came, even that of the present worldly Church, they all have given a helping hand to complicate the simple truth which says: “believe on the Lord Jesus-Christ and you will be saved”. The priesthood of this church, have convinced people that one has to be learned to understand the Bible, or that one has to have a university degree and come from a higher echelon of society, to be a preacher of the Good news. People are told that the Bible is too difficult for them to understand, and that they should leave it to the priests who have been given a special gift to grasp it and the authority to teach it! The priesthood in the days of Christ, has already questioned His right to teach, because He was doing it without their approval, He did not go through their school! 

This did not happen to me, but I have known and met people to whom this was told. All I remember is being struck on my face by a priest in front of the whole class, for refusing to say ‘Hail Mary, mother of God’. If this happened today, he would be prosecuted! The Bible is a Book from God, and the simplest of men will and can believe it. The Bible is a gift to every individual, it does not belong exclusively to a body of learned individual that have not a grain of spiritual wisdom, a wisdom which the Holy Spirit gives to every man that is born of God. The Holy-Spirit inspired it and testifies to it; therefore, read it, you might be surprised that it may be now the appointed time for you to be saved.God speaks directly to individuals not through organised moral and ethical institutes; if there be any?

Anointed learning can be helpful but it is not necessary, Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors and others, and they proved to be the greatest preachers the world has ever known. Above all, man needs acall from God to follow Christ and serve Him, and he needs the help of the Holy-Spirit to lead him to his conversion. Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the earth and the galaxy in which it has been given its place, chose to be a carpenter, and because of it the Jewish clergy chose to despise Him. Being God was enough of an authority, as a God-man he was filled with the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that filled His disciples on the day of the feast of Pentecost, and made them to be men that preached the Gospel with the fire of God in their bellies! The same Gospel Jesus came to preach to individuals not to Nations, for salvation is a very personal experience, like children are born one by one to form a family, thus are born believers into the family of God, by the Holy Spirit they take their place in the household of God. 

Many nations have Christians amongst their citizens, some have more than others, some have very few, but that does not make them Christian nations!  Jesus came to preach the Gospel to the poor, to deliver prisoners of Satan’s yoke, to open the eyes of people to the truth, and heal the broken hearted worn out under Satan’s yoke, men that God gave to Him! Jesus came to build: “His Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What He began He will finish, just as He begins the work of grace in the heart of the elects which He will faithfully do until they reach heaven. Them He changed, converted and through the new birth He still, even today, makes of lost sinners His brothers, Sons of the Living God, His Church! He came to call men to repent and turn to God, even such as Zacchaeus, a crooked tax collector! in his house Jesus dined and on that day this man got saved, having repented, Jesus could say: “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham, called the father of all believers. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:9-10.) 

Jesus called Matthew, also a tax collector. Such men were despised because they were counted as collaborators with the enemy, but Jesus had room for such men and He will seek out, from all walks of life, those God gave to Him. One day, after his conversion, it is written that: “While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and, ‘Sinners’? On hearing this, Jesus said: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what it means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:10-13.) 

From the creation of Adam, the world had to wait four millenniums for it to happen, and by Christ’s incarnation the time had come for God to reveal His plan for the world. Jesus says that He did not come to dwell on earth to call everybody. He did come to preach the Gospel openly to all men but not all listened to it. Some heard Him and followed Him and were saved, others heard the same message and became His open enemies, most were left unmoved; just at men do today!  Jesus has no time for the self-righteous, people that act as if they never needed man or God, proud men, self- sufficient. He came to call sinners to return to God, it is an effectual call, because those He calls, hear Him and come to Him, and those who come to Him He will never cast away! 

 “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable. ‘Two men went out to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed to Himself; ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, evildoers and adulterers ~ or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I have’. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God have mercy on me a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone that exalts himself will be humbled, and he that humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14.) The true Church has suffered greatly through all of its history by religious men, who go to church, do all their good works for all to see, and yet only trust in their self-righteousness and despise those who do not praise them, to them Jesus will say: “Depart from me for I have never known you”! 

For you also Jesus came! He came to save you and change your life for a better one, He calls you to follow Him, take Him as your new Master. If you have made a hush of it, or not, you also are a sinner, the Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23.).) Put your trust in Christ, confess your sins; you will not surprise Him, for He knows them all so, do not hide them from Him, repent from them and follow Christ, by obeying His teaching which lead to eternal life. Do you feel God is working in your heart?  Then do it right away and He will save you! Jesus was conscious of God’s plan for He was part of it, God always works to a plan, and because of it Jesus moved in His time from Nazareth to the CROSS! 

At a wedding in Cana in Galilee, Jesus replied to His mother who gave him an order to assist a present need, He replied: “Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” (John 2:4.) Jesus celebrated many Passover Feats during His life time. He celebrated some with His disciples, but it happened that amongst these celebrations the one mentioned in John 13 was special, firstly because it was the last Jesus would celebrate before celebrating it again in heaven, when His work will be ended. Secondly, during the celebration of this last Passover, its meaning was going to be completely changed, to them as Jewish Christians and to every Christian to this day, for Jesus was about to fulfil the true meaning of the Passover.  

The Bible says: “Then came the day of the unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and make preparation for us to eat the Passover.’ ‘Where do you want to prepare for it?’ They asked. He replied: ‘As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house: ‘The teacher asks where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ (The corresponding event in Matthew’s Gospel, adds: ‘The teacher says my appointed time is near’ Matthew 26:18) It is an important detail, for again the time factor in God’s plan comes into light; proving again that Jesus was working to a minutely timed plan.) He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer. (The King James version says: ‘With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you! It adds something more to the deep longing Jesus felt to eat this Passover) For I tell you, I will not eat it AGAIN UNTIL IT FINDS ITS FULFILMENT IN THE Kingdom of God.”

It is obvious that that day was special in God’s calendar, for it ushered in the real meaning of the Passover. What happened in Egypt, when God instituted the Feast of the Passover, He passed through Egypt and killed the first born of all Egyptians family, but spared those of the Israelites that sprinkled the blood of the offering on the lintel and the posts of their doors. They did it in obedience to the command God gave to Moses as stated, yet its true meaning and import was not known until Jesus said at the last feast He celebrated! The feast of the Passover began when God said to Moses: 

“Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household…The animals you choose must be a year-old male without defect…all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they must eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs and bread without yeast. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn ~ both of men and animals ~ and bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord! The blood will be a sign for youon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” (Exodus 12:1-14.) It was a night of sorrow for the Egyptians and their rulers, but to the People of Israel, it was the night of their deliverance from slavery!

The important elements, in this First Passover, was firstly their obedience to this order that spared the death of their firstborn, secondly the blood had to be put on the sides of the doors posts and the lintel of the door frames of each house where the Passover was celebrated. After God passed over Egypt, that very night, Pharaoh gave Moses the order to leave Egypt, and thus God delivered Israel from their slavery. Each year as they celebrated the feast of the Passover, and remembered the way God saved them, each year it brought them ever closer, to this very special one which Jesus Christ celebrated, before His death on the CROSS. It was in that upper room He was revealing, to his disciples, very important points of doctrine that would usher in their deliverance from bondage to sin. It was His blood and not the blood of an animal that would give a complete and true meaning to the Passover.

When the hour came to start the feast, Jesus said to them: I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you! These words show that Jesus was longing to bring His mission to an end. It was going to happen just as it was prophesied by this feast of The Passover, and fulfil the many prophesies foretelling His death and reveal their true meaning. After all, he has been very patient during all the years He spent in Nazareth, suffering under a religious and human view of God’s plan and will. What patience, what humility Jesus showed, as He humbly waited for God’s time to glorify Him, and give Him back the Glory He had before He left it aside, to became a man for the suffering of death. 

He was about to suffer greatly, spiritually, physically and emotionally, for this hour, His time, as he said, had come, the time to fulfil the true reason for His coming to earth. Every event from His birth in Bethlehem pointed to that day when the purposes of God were going to be fulfilled, after this celebration of this Passover, His enemies would condemn Him to die on the CROSS. All these events brought Christ to this hour, the moment He would sacrificed His holy life for the ransom of all those that the Father gave Him, now in this prayer, as recorded in John 17, Jesus could say: “Father the time has come!”

To everything that Jesus preached to the crowds and everything he taught His disciples, His prayer to His Father, gives a perfect conclusion. There are important points of doctrine in it right to the end of the chapter. This is not the time to have a detailed study of it, for it merit a systematic exposition to bring out of it, truths that can never be ignored by all those who faithfully dedicate themselves to preach the Full Gospel, to the glory of God. Some preachers, have wilfully taken a certain line of doctrine, and have purposely ignored to apply themselves to the doctrinal declarations that Christ makes in this chapter, they do so for no other reason than to satisfy their strong prejudices, preferring to ignore the truth, rather than experience its liberating power. Jesus in this chapter prays firstly for Himself. As I am reading these verses, I am led to dwell on a verse: “For you granted him (to your Son Jesus) the authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.”(2) The truth of that verse has often been ignored, and because of it has robbed many Christians of the peace and liberty that it offers to those who have believed in Christ. Ignorance of truths, causes many to labour through doubts and Christians! cannot find assurance and peace of mind, truth sets men free! 

1 THE PRAYER OF CHRIST FOR HIMSELF.

“Father the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:4-5.)

When Jesus Christ came to earth, He came at the time appointed. (Galatians 4:4.) Now in John 17 He says that He had reached the time to leave the world and return to heaven, because His work was done. He came to earth fully aware of the purpose for which He came, He knew the words that He had to preach and teach, and the time it would take to fulfil it! Everything that Jesus did He did it with divine authority which He received from His Father over all the people of the earth, to give eternal life to those that the Father gave Him. He makes this truth so plain, the way He used the authority He received, had lines that He could not cross. He knew what words to say, what miracles He had to do for the purpose of glorifying God, and how many men God gave Him to give eternal life to.

The Lord Jesus-Christ was living His last few days on earth, and by His prayer He reverts to the moment when in Eternity He accepted to do the Father’s will to come to earth to fulfil all that was necessary, to bring into reality the glory of God to a world, which under the power of sin, has lost all contact and knowledge of Him. The plan of God in detail was only known to God:  Father, Son and Holy-Spirit, which they agreed upon before they ever created the world, and brought salvation to lost mankind. God the Father planned it, God the Son fulfilled it, and God the Holy-Spirit still applies it, even unto this hour. The plan of God did not have only in view the restauration of man, but it also involved the total destruction of the devil, which brought sin and rebellion against God. By His rebellion he brought damnation upon himself and on all the angels that followed Him. We face here what is called the mystery of evil. (Isaiah 14:12-16) describes his grievous sin and its penalty: 

“How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of dawn! (KJV writes ‘Lucifer son of the morning.) You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations. You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’. But you have been brought down to the grave, to the depth of the pit. All your pomp (or boasting) has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you”.

Pride is an awful thing. To boast of things you are going to do, without neither the means nor the power to fulfil them is totally ridiculous. Rebellion against God brought Satan into the abyss, the place of eternal darkness, death and darkness of the grave are all parts of the hell he now lives in and into which he brought man to spend eternity with Him. But Jesus is the promised deliverer (Genesis 3:15.) that came to deliver men from clatches of the devil and who by faith in the Gospel own Him now as their Saviour. 

When the plan of God was decided upon, Jesus came to accomplish a certain part of it in the will of God. Everything that Jesus said and everything that He did, the miracles He wrought, the Gospel which he spread so powerfully, had only one purpose, to bring glory to His Father. His love for Him was so real, his devotion to Him and His will so deep, that the disciples grew to know God and they believed that Jesus came from God, and put their trust in on Him. He emptied Himself from His glory, and took upon himself a frail human body, by His miraculous birth, Jesus the man, was holy from His conception and remained so right to the end. He was subject to the weaknesses of a human body, as a man He faced the devil and every temptation that he could throw at Him and He always came out victorious. After three year of complete devotion to the will of His Father, Jesus was ready to return and receive in the presence of God the glory He had with Him before the world began! “Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:5.) 

The great conflict he had to endure in the Garden of Gethsemane, the horrible suffering of the CROSS, the shameful death He had to suffer as a condemned criminal were unavoidable, to bring salvation into reality He did it with great devotion. He submitted himself to the hate of corrupt Jews and the brutality of the Roman soldiers and finally, finally he was buried in a tomb and even the tomb was not His. That was a hard road for Him to tread, but he trod it and paid the ultimate price, to save those the Father gave Him. The sacrifice of Himself, brought Jesus to the end of His humiliation and opened the way for His return to the Glory, His resurrection from the dead was soon followed by His return to heaven where He sat at the right hand of God.

Now it remains for us all: “To fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endure the CROSS, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2) Jesus could not go any higher, and from heaven He reigns on behalf of His Church, and waits for the time when He shall come back to reign on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. “Pilate said to Jesus; ‘You are King then!’ Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying 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. (John 8:37.) 

The prophet Daniel, in the Spirit, saw His glorious kingdom afar off and writes: “He was given authority, glory and sovereign power, all people, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that shall never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14.) The first Adam created perfect, did not stand the test and fell to Satan’s insinuations taking the whole of humanity with him. The last Adam, as He is called in the Bible, Jesus-Christ the Son of the living God, went through a much harder test, but came out victorious and now He shares HIS glory with all those that the Father gave Him. This is the revelation He gives us in the second part of His prayer in which He prays for His immediate disciples that He was going to leave in the world to face the hardships of the road ahead. He told them already, as quoted previously: “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33.) The true character of a Christian is expressed by his love for the truth, and his obedience to every precept of doctrine; to obey God is to love Him!”

(1)“I have revealed you  (K.J.V. says: I have manifested thy name) to those whom (to the men) you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and (2) they have obeyed your word.Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For (3) I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

2. JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS IMMEDIATE DISCIPLES.

God always revealed himself by His names. The first four we find in the earlier chapters of Genesis. He first is God or ‘Elohim’. The second is Lord or Jehovah in Hebrew Yahweh. The ‘I am that I am’. The third is God Almighty or ‘El-Shaddai’ and lastly, The Most-High God or ‘El-Elyon’. These all reveal some distinct attributes or characteristics of the same one blessed God. There are three other names that speak of God’s relationship to certain things or persons rather than His nature. Nevertheless, when Jesus says I have manifested thy name to the men you gave me, He mentions the name by which He commanded His disciple to call Him. This is how you ought to pray: “Our Fatherwhich art in heaven. Hallowed be thy Name.” Only true Christians may pray and call God: ‘Our Father’

Now these Jews knew God by the names by which He revealed Himself to their fathers in the Old Testament, then to His people as He led them to the Promised Land. But the men he called, when He began His public ministry, were the first of ‘New people’ men that the Father gave to Him! Jesus addresses Him as ‘Father’ because He is His Son, until then He was the only One that could call Him so, but The Father sent Him to earth to call and gather together all those that He elected for Himself, before the creation of the world, to make of them His Sons, His immediate family, and Jesus shared His glory with them, and taught them to Call God ‘Father’, and address to Him their prayers and say: “ OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN.” It was the start of a completely new relationship between God and man.

At the beginning of this section of His prayer (John 17) where Jesus starts to pray for them, Jesus actually says to God that He had done the job! “I have revealed you as the Father to those that you gave me out of this world.” To this end He said: “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in Heaven, (or which art in Heaven,) hallowed be your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive our debts, (or trespasses), as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil. The KJV adds here: For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13) To have God as ‘Father’ reveals the real character of all true Christians, for they share one life with Him, glorious, pure as He is, and eternal. God cannot anal the existence of a Son for He would destroy a part of Himself and that is impossible.   

When after His resurrection, Jesus revealed himself to Mary Magdalene, she took hold of Him and Jesus said: “Do not hold on to me (K.J.V. says: ‘Do not touch me’) for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them. I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17.) I have revealed your name to the men you have given me!! That is really something out of this world! This is indeed the work of the Good Shepherd who came to earth to gather together His sheep, led them in green pastures beside the still waters, cared for them protected them, gave them what He had, gave them what He was, now the time has come to face the CROSS and return to heaven, and He is greatly concerned about them so the prayer for them continues and He says:

“They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name ~the name you gave me ~ so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by the name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that The Scripture would be fulfilled. (John 17:8-12.)

There is an awful lot of doctrine to be found in these words, Christian doctrine that is exploited so little, it declares the security in Christ of every believer! Yet the time has come to leave them, but his prayer shows the concern that Jesus had for His disciples. He was going to leave them and return to His Father, they were going to stay in the world, and Jesus would not be in it to protect them from it. We must understand that Jesus-Christ sees the ‘world’ just at it really is. It is a spiritual system of which the devil is the head and that if he had such determination to destroy Christ, what will he try and do to these weak men that He protected and kept safe from all direct attacks. 

I believe, that Jesus had in mind especially the immediate situation that would arise while He was going to be taken from them by force and condemned to die. Did He not say to Peter prior to His passion: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you Simon that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back (KJV says: (When thou art converted) strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31.) Fully aware of the designs of the devil towards Him and His disciples, He is asking for the greatest protection they can ever enjoy, the personal care of His Father and that only their Father can offer them: “Father, protect them by the power of your name.” The power of God’s name has been known for ever since Solomon mentions it saying: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10.)

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but hat you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. AS you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”

Christ has so changed them, that by the word that they heard from Him, they are like Him, born from above. If true Christian could really believe and practice their faith their lives would be revolutionized. Most of the time they gravel in self-pity, and never live up to their true identity. Jesus goes as far as to say that they are in the same position that He is, for He also was not of the world, because of this the world hated Him, and it will hate them also. Christians, when tried for their faith, should have the same joy in the world that Jesus had who for the joy that was set before Him endure the CROSS despising the shame. The world does not know anything either about God or His Son Jesus-Christ, how could it know anything about those that are His? It is by a statement so profound that Jesus ended His prayer for his immediate disciples. 

Knowing fully well what was expected of Him, and the suffering and shame that He had to endure, Jesus was full of joy because at last, by this so severe battle of the CROSS, Satan would be defeated and his house would be spoiled and all His saints set free! The beauty of Christ is so, out of this world, that I contemplate with wonder the fact that all that believe on Him share with Him all that He is. In the light of this, what a privilege is mine, and that of all saints in Christ, to suffer the wrath of the world for Christ’s sake, it proves that we are not of it and that, one day, just as Christ left it to go back to His Father, so shall all Christians go, to their Father’s house, all that are His! Saints are you having a hard time, where ever you may be? Rejoice, for great is your reward in Heaven!

3. JESUS PRAYS FOR ALL FUTURE DISCIPLES.

To end this wonderful prayer, which completes the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus adds to His prayer people that had not yet believed in Him. He was looking into the future, which He knew so well, and He knew already those that would believe in Him through the message that His disciples would begin to take to the world. Such is the power of God, for in His economy all those that will come to Christ throughout time are already saved and part of this glorious Church; ‘the called-out ones’. When His mission will have ended, Jesus will say: ‘Father, they are all here; I have not lost one of those that you gave to me.’ One sheep is so precious to Him that He will send one of His servants to the end of the earth to find it, and bring it into the safety of His sheep pen! 

Jesus said: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those that will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:20-23.)

So, in His prayer for his disciples that He was going to leave behind, He included all believers afar off, so that all may share the blessing of His call, to this very day and time in the glory of a risen Saviour and the protection of God Almighty, their Father. “That all of them may be one!” Father, just as you are in me and I am in you! As I was reading this portion of Christ’s prayer I have suddenly been completely baffled, I don’t even know if it is the proper word, ‘baffled’, utterly amazed may be a better one, because what Jesus asks of His Father is simply terrific and so wonderful. How can this be possible? Yet it is! There are times when the truth of God’s intentions for His children takes another dimension, and this is one of those instances. 

As soon as we talk about the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ comes to mind the one that so many have been taught from childhood: ‘Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name…’ etcetera! But this prayer in John 17, is truly the Lord’s own prayer, and I believe that all of this prayer, has already been answered, not only for those that have died and are with Christ, but it is answered for all those that are living at present and those who will believe in the future, people that are not even born, for this is actually what ‘The Election’, really means! People that have been: ‘Chosen in Him (in Christ) before the foundation of the earth!’ (Ephesians 1:4.) Think of it! It actually means that me as a lost sinner, and I include into it all persons saved by the grace of God, and all those that will be, we all are  here and now, one in Christ our Lord, united with a indissoluble unity, which means forever and forever , safe in Jesus who is in God. Christians are in Jesus, God is in Him just are He is in us and we altogether, with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one entity, one Holy Family, sharing the same life, eternal, Holy and complete; can you grasp it? You better, because this is actually true and real of all those that have been born of God! There are no boundaries to God’s gifts in Jesus Christ our Lord, it is like an ocean, like infinity! It will never end!

Now Jesus goes even further, it is astonishing that there is even more to what I have just expressed; the work of Jesus-Christ is so vast that it reached even greater heights then those we have already climbed.  He mentions something that He has already done for His immediate disciples and for all those who through their teachings will believe in Him, saying: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.” Every believer is already sharing Christ’s glory. We cannot comprehend this amazing statement. All Christians know very well their present weaknesses, failures and remember their sins of the past, which nag ceaselessly, it is because of it that they are prone so often to doubt their true position in Christ. 

Everything a Christian has been given and the new person that he is, through faith in Christ, depends on what Jesus has done and who He is, these are the words that He gave to His disciples, as he said: “I have given them the words you gave me and they accepted them.” (John 17:8) For a Christian to arrive at this full assurance, that in Christ he is saved and sanctified and glorified, NOW! It is a hyper ball, yet a glorious fact, not because of what he has done, or what he is still going to do towards his sanctification, God sees us in Jesus and as He is so are, we, in Him! Christian look at Jesus-Christ our Lord, think about all that He is in every way, and then believe, with all the help that the Holy Spirit can give you, that God sees you in every way just as He sees Jesus. Every Christian, is who he is, because he is in Christ and Christ is in God. Jesus has done it all, for every true believer, in God’s economy, he was saved in Him even before the foundation of the world. It remains for everyone to appropriate what His words say!

I have discovered that it is in times of doubts and disappointments, which may follow an emotional or spiritual crisis; I have to really believe it even if my carnal mind tells me otherwise and especially if I do not feel it. We cannot expand on this for it would take a lot of time, but you can read the Word of God, and follow it through and ask the help of the Holy Spirit to grasp what is the glory of the blessed Son of God, and apply that glory to yourself and the whole Family of God, for the Bible says so often that Jesus-Christ having been glorified has also glorified those that believe in Him! Christians are too often very subjective creatures, it is their greatest fight, but they must turn away from self and look to Jesus only. They have to act on the truth of the following words, and realise that faith grows:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those that God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30) It is all of God, in Christ and only through Him!

So, this oneness was very much in the heart of Christ when he said: “May they be brought to complete unity”.  Now, let all these religious people that seek to bring this unity by human means, this ‘One Church’ movement, chew on it. The divisions in what is a purely human Church, of which Jesus is not the head, will never happen, and realise that as far as HIS church, it has never been fragmented, for in HIM it has always been one church, HIS CHURCH! Having called men unto Him by the preaching of the Gospel, the real purpose of His mission in the world men could not see or understand it, but he actually fulfilled everything His father sent Him to do. Those that He called and changed so radically must live to reflect the glory he gave them! 

Now, it is obvious that the world has never, then and now, recognised the Glory of Jesus-Christ; on the contrary it has despised Him and everything that He said, as it still does to this very day. The religious rulers of His native land, the Jews, called Him a sinner, a charlatan, and rejected Him openly and condemned Him to die the cruel death of the CROSS! Having done this awful thing to Jesus-Christ they persecuted the Church everywhere, starting in Jerusalem, they followed them to Samaria, throughout Palestine, then wherever they went, according to the commandment of the Master. Jews, in the localities they touched with the Gospel, never ceased to resist the Holy-Spirit, and persecuted the believers vehemently. But The glory of Christ and His glory in all the redeemed, will become very plain indeed when Jesus comes down to earth with all His saints. At His coming, the remnant of the Hebrews which will be spared and kept alive, will Hail Jesus as their Messiah when He returns to earth in all His Glory! With all His glorified saints!

We now come to the last portion of this prayer; the prayer Christ offered to His Father for all his disciples. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

 We have read verse 3 at the start of this prayer where Jesus says: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you and Jesus-Christ whom you have sent.” We see that The Gospel has a spiritual message to bring, and its true purpose is to bring to those that receive it, a revelation of the true character of God, as a Father to those that Jesus has redeemed!  Every word, every miracle, every place Jesus visited, and every person he touched with the truth, revealed something of God. He says that He did it, and that He will continue to do it till the end, so that the love, God the Father, has for His Son Jesus-Christ may also be known assuredly by every one of His sons. 

The choosing of His disciples, the call of every one of them, the care and the protection that Christ offered to those he saved, is the greatest love story the world has ever known or seen. Exclude the love of God from the preaching of the Gospel, exclude from it the CROSS, what have you got left? A dead Church, which has lost its ‘Raison d’être,’ empty, with no future, in has become the most dangerous entity on earth, because having lost contact with Christ; it spreads lies that destroy the soul of those under their care. Millions of people have been brainwashed to believe, that if they live as good a life as possible, it will see them through the gates of heaven; Roman Catholics believe that the purgatory will cleanse them, for as long a time as it needs for them to become pure, and then they will be ushered into the presence of Jesus-Christ who eventually will present them to God! 

What folly! It is only through faith in Christ, that a man, at the very moment he confesses from the heart that Christ is Lord, the Son of God, raised from the dead, he is saved and receives the glory, the purity, the sinless life of Christ down here, and will enter heaven not by merits, but purely by grace. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, ~ and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God ~ not of works, so that no-one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8.) Great Britain is a Kingdom, every prince or princess born into the royal family are born as every other baby in the realm, they know nothing about their status. It is only later, as they grow, that they realise who they are! Christians are born into God’s family as babes, they are fed on baby food, but when they appreciate later who they really are, that they begin to marvel at it! Christians have been born as sons of God the moment they believed in Christ, but they have progressively grown into the knowledge of it as they grew in grace and the knowledge of God. It is written: “Like new born babies, crave pure milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2) As a skilful shepherd the apostle Paul writing to the Christians in Corinth tells them: “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly ~ mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.”! (1 Corinthians 3:2) A lot of Christians stay in adolescence for too long, doubts are terrible impediments, nevertheless Jesus will take them on, in His love, unto perfection.

If anyone wants to know who Jesus-Christ is, where He came from, where He is now, why He came to earth and what He has done on it, one must read John 17. If anyone wants to know who a true Christian really is because of all that Jesus did, one need to read John 17, one will find much of what He needs to learn about Christ and those that are His! Yet there is so much more, the Bible is full of the Glory of Christ! But none can see anything at all in it, unless God in His mercy grants Him the faith to believe it and opens his eyes to the truth of Jesus Christ his Son! 

THE AGONY OF CHRIST IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE!

After the precious time that Jesus and His disciples spent in the upper room as recorded in chapters 13 to 16, concluded with His amazing prayer in chapter17, after Jesus offered his prayer, the apostle John takes us into the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus and His disciples often retired. Jesus knew how difficult would be the conflict that He was about to have with the devil, but as He said: ‘Father, the hour has come’ and His work had to be completed, thus the sacrifice of Himself and all the suffering was unavoidable!  They barely got there that He said to His disciples: “Stay here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, along with him, and began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and Keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed: “My Father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

In other words, Jesus said ‘don’t let me go through this experience, if possible spare me from it!’ He did not mean His death on the CROSS, as some would have us believe, because for this very purpose He came on earth, of His own free will. He had power to lay down His life or not, just as He says: “For this my Father loves me because I lay down my life (for my sheep) ~only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18.) Jesus was praying His Father to let this immediate conflict with the devil, to be annulled if it were possible. Now I do not purpose to try and explain, or imagine just how awful it must have been for Him, to humble himself to that level, to meet thus with one of His fallen creatures, since He created everything, and everything He created was originally perfect. 

The trial that Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane was in the spiritual realm we know absolutely nothing about it; what we learn from it is that Satan waited for this encounter and His purpose was to kill Jesus, and he was about to throw at Him all the he could. How do we know? Because after the temptation of Christ, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel chapter 4 we read: ‘When the devil has finished all this tempting, he left Jesus until an opportune time.’ (4:13.) He waited for that time and he was present at the ‘rendezvous’’! There is no record in Scriptures of another encounter between them, this was obviously his opportune time and he was never going to get one again; ever! Nevertheless, whatever Satan was allowed to throw at Him Jesus took it and He came out victorious. 

The conflict was so severe that Jesus sweat drops of blood, He was near death, but the angels came to strengthen Him, and then He was ready to face His accusers who would condemn Him to die on a CROSS. Men are so glib about eternity, and most believe that a little faith, however little or much one may have, of whatever faith or confession one may belong to, that it will be enough to see them into heaven! That lie is the Bad News from hell, promoted by the devil through churches that have abandoned the truth to suit the spirit of the age. 

Whilst Jesus struggled as He did, suffering a deep inner conflict to the point of death, He returned twice to Peter, John and James, whom he appointed to pray with Him and found them asleep, their eyes were heavy due to everything that preceded that moment, Jesus was surprised to find them asleep and said: “Could you men not keep watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40) Luke, in His record of that moment says: “He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.” (Luke 22: 45.) They were mere human, they had been in the upper room where they had the traditional meal of the Passover, and what was happening to our master was disturbed them very deeply, I am not surprise! 

After all their promises of support they discovered, as we so often do, that they badly knew themselves and the limits imposed upon us by our weakness, as the Bible says: “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. (Matthew 26:31) But I am sure that they meant and wanted to stand by Him, but they did not expect what was about to happen. With the best will in the world, we must confess that our shortcomings are always with us. It shows that we need more than good will, to do the will of God. Nevertheless let us be encouraged by the change that happened to them later, with the help of the Holy-Spirit they did mighty exploits, These men who at one point, because they feared the Jewish authorities, met and remained behind closed doors, yet few days later they became fearless unto death ; nothing deterred them from preaching the Gospel and glorified their Master in the eyes of the people! 

The Disciples of Christ went through very stressful times. As Jesus was revealing to them that the Jewish Authorities were going to put Him to death, and all the sufferings he expected, they were overwhelmed and wondered why it had to be so! Jesus knew it, and he knew also that they would all forsake Him and return to their previous activities. In reply to this statement Peter said to Jesus: ‘If all forsake you, I never will, I am ready to die with you’, Jesus replied: ‘Peter, before the cock crows you will have denied me thrice!’  This is the record: “The Jesus told them. ‘This very night you will fall away on account of me, for it is written. ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee’. Peter replied, ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I will never! ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered: ‘this very night, before the cock crows, you will disown me three times.’ But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the other disciples said the same.”  (Matthew 26:31-35.)  The apostle Peter is always labelled as the only one who said this, but they all said it, and all fled and forsook Him, nevertheless Peter alone denied Him! Once Jesus was arrested, submitting Himself to the authorities the Bible says: “Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled!” (Matthew 26:56.) 

These evil men could not have arrested Jesus Christ, but: “His time had come”! These sons of the devil, as Jesus called them, could not have laid a finger on Him, they tried many times before, but as the Scriptures say: “His time had not yet come.” But now Jesus submitted Himself to them, knowing that in few days hence His work will have been finished and that He would return to His Father from whom He came! I glean in the story that the disciples expected Jesus to resist them, when Peter saw that He did not, did he feel let down? I cannot say, nevertheless he was ready and took His sword to start a fray, one does not curry a sword unless one knows that he will need it, so taking it he cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. But Jesus said to Him: “Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26: 52a)

It is said that it is easier to start a war then to end it, to break a relationship is so simple, a wrong word when temper is out of control is enough, and one finds that it can never be repaired. But Peter had much to learn about the spiritual warfare into which Jesus Christ was entering, but when his turn will come by faith he will triumph, and without resisting he will die a martyr’s death! Legend tells us that He did not feel worthy to die like did our Master Jesus, so they crucified him upside down; he won the crown by the Spirit and the weapons of faith! Jesus said to them: “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels”? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:52b.) The unseen, but ever-present armies of God, were always at hand, Jesus had but to call, but then there would have been the CROSS? Without which Jesus would have failed to save His sheep, which in His great love He came to save, but as Jesus said: It had to happen as it did. Jesus submitted Himself willingly; all the Old Testament prophesies were alive in His heart, so he knew all that had to be done!

1. The name of Judas, who betrayed Jesus His Master, is used all over the world to depict a treacherous person, one that nobody wants in their party. Among all the people I have known no-one ever called their child ‘Judas’! If it ever happened, he would have a bad time, especially among the Christian nations; Judas the betrayer, whom Jesus called the ‘son of perdition’. In His prayer Jesus says to His father: While I was with them, I protected them (His disciples) and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so, that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. (The KJV. At this point Jesus calls Judas ‘The Son of perdition.’) So, Jesus was aware of how His end would be organised by one of the twelve, whom He chose at the beginning. 

Jesus knew why Judas was allowed to be one of the Twelve, and warned His disciples who needed to know it, when He said: “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfil the Scriptures: He who shares my bread has lifted his heel against me. (Quote from Psalm 41:9) I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. I tell you the truth…After he had said This, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified. ‘I tell you the truth; one of you is going to betray me. His disciples stared at one another, at loss to know which of them He meant… Simon Peter mentioned to John and said: ‘Ask Him which one He means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it’? Jesus answered: ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into Him…’What you are about to do, do it quickly.’ Jesus told Him”…. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night! (John 13:18-30)

After this troubling episode Jesus went on commemorating the Passover feast, which was so important, being it was the first of the ‘New Covenant’ which He was about to ratify with His own blood. All previous Covenants were ratified with blood; this Covenant being ‘Eternal’ as well as New needed the Blood of the Lamb of God. It was also in that feast of the Passover, which was the last one the disciples commemorated under the Old Covenant, that Jesus chose the bread and the wine as emblems; the bread as His body and the wine as His blood. It is written: “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying. ‘Take eat; this is my body.’ Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. This is my blood of the New Covenant, which is poured for many,’ He said I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 26:26-29) There and then Jesus ended The Covenant of Law as given by Moses which God gave to the people of Israel. Jesus came to fulfil all the demands of the Law, it was now time to introduce the New Covenant, as already mentioned in a previous chapter! 

This is the reason why John the Baptist met Jesus to establish what was preordained for them by God before they met, and this is why John said, “This is He!” It bears repeating: “The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, ‘the Lamb of God’, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me. ‘I myself did not know Him, except that THE One who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptise with the Holy-Spirit. I have seen and testify that “this is He!” (John 1: 29-34.) 

When Abraham was going up mount Moriah with His son Isaac, whom He was told to sacrifice, God was testing Abraham to see how far he would go to obey his command, at one point Isaac said: “Father? Yes, my Son? ‘The fire and wood are here’ said Isaac, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son”.(Genesis 22:6-12.)  Just as Abraham was going to plunge the knife to kill Isaac his son, God stopped Him and said: “Do no harm to your son, now I know that you fear God”. The Bible shows the importance of Abraham to show that it was by his faith in the promised redeemer that He was justified, and calls him the Father of all believers.

Do not wander at that my dear friends, God has a good reason for everything He demands, even if you don’t understand it, trust Him! If you are a Son of God by faith in the Lord Jesus-Christ, God will always test your faith, a faith that is not tested remains very weak and uncertain. Whatever the test may be, God will send it to strengthen you and consolidate your union with Him. This lesson is enough to show that God would find the Lamb for the offering, and that John the Baptist, when He saw Jesus that day, said: ‘This is He!’ How is it that two thousand years before Christ came as the lamb of the offering, the blood became the central bond between God and Abraham, by his faith in Christ already then, he became the Father of all believers! 

Abraham is declared in the New Testament as a man saved by grace, which through faith, was declared righteous. The sacrifice of the guiltless propitiates for the guilty, which by faith in Him, is forgiven and made as righteous as is Jesus-Christ the lamb of God, now sitting in heaven at the right hand of God. It is the Father who says of His Son: “Surely He (Jesus) took our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace (with God) was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Saved) We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (our beloved master) the iniquities of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6.) Many references in the New Testament expand this truth concerning Christ and His sacrificial death, for us guilty sinners. In this case the subject was Jesus-Christ, for the lamb mentioned so often in the Old Testament, is a type of Christ, the perfect antitype. As such Jesus would lay down His life as an offering for the sinner’s sins and by it redeem the chosen from the bondage of death, offering Him through His resurrection a New life, untouched by sin and eternal!

2. Before the Passover Feast, Judas made up His mind to betray Jesus. We do not know much about the reasons that spurred Him to do so, but his betrayal was prophesied in Psalm 41:9 by King David who said: “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” This Jesus quoted in the upper room where He ate the Passover with His disciples saying. “He who shares my bread has lifted up His heel against me.” (John 13:18b.) This is a record: 

“Now the feast of The Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. (Thirty silver coins. Matthew 26:14-16.) He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Him Over. (Luke 22:1-6.) We realise by the treacherous way Judas acted, how man in general can only get worse, and that sin, unless it is broken by the power of the blood of Christ, eventually leads man to his final destruction. Nevertheless, some sins are one step too far and they can never be forgiven; the Bible mentions that “Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:15.) One sin can grow and make from a man a brute. 

No man can ignore sin, it is a noose around his neck, he cannot escape from its punishment. But through Christ, there is a way of repentance, but no man can convert himself, the conversion of a man to Christ is purely and totally the work of God applied by the Holy-Spirit. Although Judas was intimately involved with the life and ministry of Jesus-Christ, walking with Him and listening to His teachings, as did the other eleven disciples, yet he remained unmoved, nothing of what he saw and heard entered his darkened soul. He was purely with them to do what he was appointed to do, when the time came, he planned the treason and sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Having decided with the religious authority how to apprehend Jesus he spent the rest of his time waiting for the right moment. He even sat with Christ, as did the other disciples, went through the ceremony of the feast, and when He took the morsel of bread which Jesus dipped into the wine, he ate it, but: “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him,” (John 13:27.)

From then on, he was responding to the devil and was utterly possessed with the evil intent of destroying the Son of God, thus undertaking a mission utterly impossible. As I read this account, I can see that Satan did not know that the CROSS was going to be His undoing, if he did, he would not have used Judas the way he did, and he only managed to do as much as he was allowed to, for even Satan is under divine authority, but the CROSS was destined to bring Jesus-Christ to the end of His mission, for it was the very purpose for which He came: “To give His life a ransom!” The Cross became Satan’s undoing. There is no possibility of true forgiveness but by faith in Jesus-Christ who died for our sins.

THE ARREST OF CHRIST! 

After Jesus returned for the third time from His prayer in Gethsemane, and found the 

disciples still asleep He said to them: “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Here comes my betrayer.”(Mark 14:41.) In John 17 Jesus said the ‘time has come’, in The Garden, at that precise time of history, Jesus says the hour has come, and the whole process of His judgement by sinners began, Jews and Romans, Israelis and Gentiles will unite in this heinous crime, which is now the greatest sin men ever committed. They have done some terrible things since the fall of Adam in The Garden of Eden, but none was as heinous as the rejection of Christ. Whilst it was willed by God, for this reason He came on earth, men are still responsible for their sins and the evil that they do. While the disciples were sleeping, Judas, driven by the pressure of evil intent, was assembling a mob to apprehend Jesus. 

His death was even predicted by Simeon when as a baby, Joseph and Mary brought Him to the temple to present Him to the High Priest. Whatever sin men commit, whether pressurised by circumstances or wilfully by carelessness, they are nevertheless guilty before God, and the punishment for any sin is death; yet of all sins the death of Christ is the worst; this treacherous deed has brought the final judgement on the Nation of Israel, for it is then that it died spiritually, which meant, that rejected by God they joined the spiritual state of all other gentile nations, Israel entered thus into a spiritual wilderness that have known  all men since God’s judgement at the Tower of Babel! They have never recovered their status, although they exist today as a nation, they are not different to any other gentile nations, Israel is simply a Human and a political set up, yet any Jew or Gentile can be saved by accepting Jesus-Christ as his Saviour. This phase of History started with the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot. So, we must return to Him, for Jesus said: “Here comes my betrayer!” (Matthew 26:48.)

THE PLOT AGAINST JESUS!

“Just as He was speaking, Judas appeared. With him was a crowd of armed men with swords and clubs, sent from the high priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. (Mark 14:43) Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples, so he came to the grove guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priest, and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.” (John 18:2-3.) Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: ’The one I kiss is the man arrest Him and lead Him away under guards. (Mark 14:44-47.) Going at once to Jesus, Judas said: ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed Him. Jesus replied. ‘Friend, do, what you came for.’ (Matthew 14:49) Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them: ‘Who is it you want.’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘I am He,’ Jesus said, (and Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said: ‘I am He’, they drew back and fell to the ground. Again, He asked them: ‘Who is it you want?’ And they said; ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ ‘I told you that I am He. ‘Jesus answered, ‘if you are looking for me, then let these men go.’ This happened so that the words He had spoken would be fulfilled: ‘I have not lost one of those you gave Me.’- John 6:39- (John 18:4-8.) Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested Him. With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, and drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. (Matthew 22:50-51.)  Then Jesus said: ‘No more of this’ and He touched the man’s ear and healed Him. (Luke 22:51.)  ‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?’ (Matthew 52:54.) Then Jesus said the chief priests, the officers of the temple guards, and the elders who had come to Him. ‘Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your day ~ When darkness reigns.’ Then seizing Him, they led Him away and took Jesus into the house of the high priest. (Luke 22:51-54

We must not lose sight of Satan’s work and influence in all that was happening to the Lord. He threw all he could at the Son of God even to the point that He sweat drops of blood, and needed the intervention of angels to strengthen Him; the men in this evil plot were simply pawns in his hands, but not guiltless. Angels were at hand to rescue Jesus if He so desired, as He mentioned it to Peter, all He had to do is call and a whole legion, twelve thousand of them, would make short work of all the armies of demons. I am sure that these celestial beings could not understand how Jesus, the Son of God, with whom they were in heaven from eternity, knowing well His splendour and His glory, how could it be that Jesus was now submitting Himself to the evil intent of wicked men? But angels are not privy to the plan of God; they did not know the reason why Jesus, as a man, was going to die on the cross!  

Three years before this present event, Jesus went to the river Jordan and was baptised by John the Baptist, immediately following His baptism, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Satan could never approach Him at will, but after forty days and forty nights of fasting, as Jesus was hungry, Satan came for an encounter with Him. When Jesus was at His weakest point, physically, he came to tempt Him, he did so on three different levels. 1. As mentioned after forty days of fasting came to the end Jesus was hungry Satan approached Him and said why do you stay hungry? 1. If you are the Son of God, create bread out of these stones and eat! 2. If you are the Son of God nothing can harm you, you can cast yourself down from this pinnacle of the temple, where we are, and according to the promise you will land down there and no harm will come to you. 3. Lastly, he said to Jesus, ‘You came to this world to save the nations, you can save yourself a lot of trouble, I can give them to you right now, for they are all mine, all you have to do is to bow down and worship me! Christ refuted every temptation by quoting the Word and won the day. There is a great power in the word of God, when tempted by sin, it helpful to know what Gods says for Satan cannot deny the truth!

The Bible says: “When the devil had finished all his tempting, he left Him until an opportune time.”(Luke 4:13.) But now, in this Garden, it was different, for the devil knew that he did not have much time left to fulfil his ambition, He had as Jesus said,’ But this is your day ~ When darkness reigns. On this hour, on this day, Satan came again, with greater force than ever and from the time Jesus walked into the garden of Gethsemane, to His last breath on the CROSS he would not leave Him alone, using sometimes a person, sometime another, always tempting Him, nagging at Him, to do his bidding to disobey God, just as he tried with Adam in the garden of Eden, but at His weakest, Jesus was stronger than he, and came out of the fight victorious. Since Satan was allowed to tempt Jesus directly, he employed all his craft to no avail! 

If the CROSS of Christ is almost ignored by much of the official churches, and has lost its place in the pulpit of a fallen clergy, be not fooled, The Gospel is still the Power of God at work to save a sinner from hell. If the devil cannot erase, it nor ignore its power to save to the uttermost every sinner that comes to God, he will do all He can to tempt men to bypass the CROSS and invent another way, which foolish man follows. Looking at the world today, it appears that he has succeeded to a great degree, because he has men at his disposal, men disguised in a habit, which they should not wear, He will continue to speak to all those that listen to him, and do his bidding! In spite of all the devil’s craft The Holy Spirit still calls His elect by the same way, and all those He calls find, as they kneel at the CROSS, that the old-fashioned Gospel, still remains the only one that opens the way to a better life, eternal life, right here on earth. Nothing and no-one can deter Jesus to lead safely His sheep, till they reach their home, the house of God! ‘I am the way, said Jesus, the truth and the life, no man comes to God but through me’. (John 14: 7)

JESUS BEFORE ANNAS, THE EX-HIGH PRIEST.

“Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound Him and brought Him first to Annas who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year...He questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.

‘I have spoken openly to the world’, Jesus replied. ‘I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me, surely, they know what I said. When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck Him in the face. ‘Is this the way you answer to the high priest’? He demanded.

‘If I said something wrong.’ Jesus replied. ‘Testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’ Then Annas sent Him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest. (John 18:12-14 --- 19:23.)

Although Annas was the high priest, by Roman decree, from AD. 6 to AD 15, The Jewish elders and leaders still regarded Annas as the high priest, who according to their law remained a high priest till his death. Five of his sons, with Caiaphas, his son-in-law, were appointed high priests over a long period, yet Annas kept his hand over them, and never really saw himself as anything else but the high priest. These high priests had a religious office with great political powers, not being sons of Aaron they Had no right to this high office, which gave them jurisdiction over the people, so they applied the law vigorously and condemned people severely for crimes committed, but the verdict of death could only be pronounced by the Roman Governor. This might clear up the confusion that we find between Annas and Caiaphas, both mentioned as high priests.

By malice and treachery, the devil entered Judas Iscariot to get to Christ. He also knew, as a master of disguise and deception, how to use the pride and the foolishness of a godless clergy and corrupt religious powers which were in place to serve God’s purpose. Blindness is a terrible thing, but spiritual blindness is the worst of all infirmities. The worst enemies of Christ were the priests with the high priest at their head, political men, usurping a spiritual institution and manipulating it for their own evil purpose; they are the ones that led the nation of Israel into spiritual darkness and eventually to a total oblivion. The People of Israel had a great pride in their heritage and saw themselves as the elite because it is to them that God gave the Law. Their main support came from the Pharisees, which together with the Sadducees, were the open enemies of Jesus-Christ, whom their regarded as a charlatan and tried many times to kill Him! 

They hated Jesus, mainly because of His frank rebuke of them before the people, calling them hypocrites. At one time Jesus went as far as to call them: “You are of your father the devil and his works will you do!” (John 8:44.) So, their pride, their lies and hatred of Christ were potent, but without foundation, yet it was finally, through their hatred, that Christ would fulfil God’s plan and give His life as a ransom for many! It is not surprising that when their envoys arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, they foolishly displayed their ignorance, for they thought that they needed weapons to arrest Him, not realising that one word from Him would suffice to render them impotent, but it was their time, and so Jesus surrendered wilfully to them, to accomplish His Father’s will.

It was whilst Jesus was agonising in the garden of Gethsemane that the Jewish rulers were plotting His arrest. A large company of men were at hand to assist Judas and on his initiative, they entered the garden, prophesies, centuries old, were being fulfilled, the time foretold was ripe and the guiltless Lamb of God, as a criminal was apprehended and they led Him away! From the time Judas left the disciples and walked out from the upper room into the night, he gathered his mob which, with him, followed Jesus’ every move. They saw Jesus leave the upper room with Him disciples and followed him to the entrance of the garden hiding in the dense foliage, with Judas they waited for the right moment. In the past, led by the Lord, Judas entered often into the garden, together with the eleven but now, outside of it with his mob, he knew exactly what was happening. Having succeeded in his plan to sell his Master, Judas walked with the crowd of bullies, to apprehend Jesus and lead Him before a godless council; men that were in their elements, at last, they had Jesus in their power, now they were going to enjoy tormenting Him, until the early hours of the morning.

The gathering of the whole Sanhedrin Council, which was a body of seventy members over which presided the high priest, who at the time of Christ, had the political and the religious power by a decree from their Roman, who changed them at will. This Council having the high priest at the head, with the priests and the rulers of the people, governed the religious life of the nation of Israel. Which was more political than religious! They met regularly on the second and fifth day of the week. But on this important week, which was going to end with the crucifixion of Christ, they all remained in Jerusalem for the sole purpose of the apprehension and condemnation of Jesus-Christ. We gather this from the following passage of Scriptures which says: “When Jesus finished saying all these things, (Matthew 25:31-46.) He said to His disciples: ‘As you know, The Passover is two days away ~ and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’ Then the chief priests and the elders (taken from the Jewish nobility) of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill Him. ‘But not during the Feast,’ they said, ‘or there will be a riot among the people.’ (Matt. 26:1-5.)

It was in the presence of Annas that the case against Jesus-Christ began. It is John the apostle who alone mentions this very important omission in the other Gospels, which says: “Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound Him and brought Him first to Annas, who was the father-in law of Caiaphas, the high priest for that Year. (John 18:12-13.)  His house was just across the court of Caiaphas’ Palace, Annas was deposed from his high priestly office by the Roman rulers in AD 16. So, at the time of Christ was in his presence, he really had no right to either arrest Jesus, or interrogate Him! But history proves that Annas remained the power behind the throne, so to speak. Five of his sons were high priests sometime before Caiaphas, so he felt that nobody would dare to question him, and disagree on his procedure in the interrogation of Jesus. Annas, by confession was a Sadducee and all feared him, in his warped mind, he concluded that in the teachings of Christ there was a hint of sedition, and so he feared that the very high priestly office was in danger, especially that Jesus had a influence with the people, who regarded Him as a prophet. 

So Annas had no right to interrogate Jesus, but it suited him to have him brought into his house, it is from his house that he sent the soldiers and people to arrest Him. He wanted badly to have a go at the Lord, and purposed to trap Him and sent Him back to Caiaphas with a verdict of death. Priests and people with power stray easily, usurp authority over the common people for their own ends, and when it came to Christ and His disciples, which were Galileans, there was even a stronger aversion, they despised them. Even in the world today, people are prompt to judge and bully believers, making fun of their faith and of their master Jesus-Christ. There are some men, in every echelons of society that have an aversion towards true Christians. So Annas, purposed to lay himself heavily against Jesus, hoping to extract some signs of sedition from Him, this is why, he, as an ex-high priest, took upon himself to grill the Son of God and: “He questioned Jesus about His disciples and His doctrine, or teachings, I have spoken openly to the world,’ Jesus replied. ‘I always taught in synagogues or the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.” (John 18:19-21)

In other words, Jesus said frankly to Annas, what line of questioning is this? A man in your office should have concrete proof of what you seem to accuse me of! There are interesting details in history, I have not the time or the place to go into them, but if I had it, they would help us to see the whole story and discover how these despots came to power and corrupted the priestly office, which was originally very holy and very respected, since it was set up by Moses under direct guidance from God. To this very holy office, the Lord told Moses to consecrate and anoint Aaron, his older brother, and no-one, except his direct descendant had the right to fill that office! So Annas and his family had no right to the high priestly office, especially that they were not direct descendants of Aaron.  But his was not the time for them to be holy and righteous or even legal, their pursuit of Christ was built up on lies and false witnesses, there was no time for the slightest respect due to God, they were Satan’s disciples, who used them hoping to get Jesus out of the way for good! Annas’ position was purely political; his aim was directed at Christ, seeking His total destruction. Such were the feelings of bitter contempt and hatred with which Annas assumed the initiative to interrogate Jesus the Nazarene. Even his methods of procedure were wholly illegal, as was his interrogation of Christ in such a place and at such an hour of the day, for: It was illegal to question a suspect at evenings or during the night!

Annas did not recognised Jesus for who He was; to him Jesus was just another man out of the many that He condemned unlawfully and brutally to death. He was used to the outcry and cursing of men he condemned, especially if he condemned to death men that were not guilty of any crime. He did not know how very different Jesus was going to be, for He took calmly all the charges against Him. Jesus was not tarnished in any way by the corruptive power of sin, and that all His reactions to such injustices were not going to be similar to those of cursing men. So, as the mock trial went on, one of the officials that brought Jesus to Annas did not like the reply that Jesus gave to him which was, and I repeat it: “Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.’ (John 18:21.) “When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck Him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest? ‘I said nothing wrong,’ Jesus replied, ‘testify as to what is wrong, but if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” (John 18:19-23.)

It was truth that triumphed in the House of Annas; Christ’s rebuke to the wrong done to Him was a majestic intervention, God rebuked the evil that was done Him and the whole trial changed by the majestic presence and attitude of Jesus Christ, Christ’s demeanour was that of a King and it left Annas speechless, so much so that he could not continue with the trial; he just could not end it with the usual verdict, which he easily dispensed in the past he, but not now; whatever he planned right from the moment the mob left his palace to apprehend Jesus. So, he sent Jesus to Caiaphas, his son in law, to do what he was unable to do. Jesus was master of this situation and He did not wish to answer to Annas any longer! For some reason He just could not proceed with the accusation in process, it surprised the audience that expected the usual verdict from this corrupt high priest, they were astonished because nothing happened. These men could not understand why Annas sent Jesus to Caiaphas who was surprised when Jesus came to him, still bound, with no case against Him! It is so because he was not ready to question Jesus, for not all the members of the Sanhedrin did not expect to be needed and so left Jerusalem. 

JESUS TAKEN BOUND BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN.

On the evening of Thursday, Caiaphas called a meeting of the Sanhedrin Council at which only twenty-three members out of the seventy were present, it was enough for them to function legally so they waited for Jesus to come to them and rubber stamp the verdict. The Sanhedrin was a borrowed word from the Grecian days, ‘synedrion’.  Both before and at the time of Christ, it was the highest tribunal in the Land and met in Jerusalem, in the High Priest’s Palace. Under the Romans, except for a short period, this body had wide powers. It was Julius Caesar who extended the power of the Sanhedrin over all Judea. In the days of Christ, it had powers to arrest and judge all cases except those that deserved capital punishment. It is only the Roman procurator who could condemn a criminal to death, which was by crucifixion.

When Jesus entered the Council, which was sitting waiting for Him, Caiaphas as I said was surprised that Annas sent Jesus to him, beaten and bleeding from these awful brutal punches in the face, still bound in chains. As I said, The Sanhedrin Council was not prepared to have to question Christ, and obviously it was left to them to trump up some charges worthy of death. They tried so often to apprehend Him, now that Jesus was in their hands, they were not going to let Him go! It is obvious that ‘Jesus submitted Himself willingly’, to them, for his time had come! If He had, not how could mortal men rise against Him, except He allowed them to. As it will appear, Jesus by confessing that He was God, gave them the reason to condemn Him to death.

His death on a CROSS was foretold even as long as King David himself. Thus, this trial was also allowed of God, so as to fulfil His plan of redemption. Jesus suffered everything willingly: firstly, to accomplish the will of His Father in heaven, and secondly to save to eternal life all those His Father gave Him, ‘having loved His own He loved them to the end.’ It is just as Jesus said to His Father: “Father the time has come.” (John 17:1) The whole plan of redemption, is the greatest love story one has ever heard of, and it is Christ’s love that compelled Him to give His holy life, for the redemption of all those that would believe on Him. “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.”(Ephesians: 5:22.) The Church of Jesus-Christ is a holy gathering of all those that he called and calls, and at the end, when all the work is finished, not one sheep will be missing; Jesus, the great shepherd, will have saved them all! Halleluiah! 

“Those who had arrested Jesus took Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.”

What could they charge him with? Priests, teachers of the law, elders of the people, the whole Sanhedrin, how could such men become so corrupt? How can we reconcile this corrupt band of men to this holy institution, that Moses inaugurated, by the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the Holy Priesthood by sacrifices and the sprinkling of the blood? So strict was the commandment that God gave to Moses concerning the perpetual character of this holy office, for as long as the nation obeyed his Holy law. Sadly, through their rebellion and hardness of heart, their divine heritage was lost, so that, when Christ came, they were but a shadow of who they were! Oppressed by pagan powers and evil men, their puppets, took charge and drove the nation of Israel to murder their own King and Messiah! Yet Christ submitted Himself to this junta, and offered no resistance to fulfil the will of God and give His life a ransom. The case against the Son of God, which they concocted, depended on false witnesses, whose duty was to give false evidence against Jesus-Christ. They could charge Him with desecrating the Sabbath, for he healed sick people during the Sabbath, and in their eyes that was blasphemy! They had other details with which they thought Jesus and His disciples were breaking it. But whatever they heard from those tramped up witnesses had no credibility in their eyes. They needed much more tangible proof to take Him to Pilate and claim His crucifixion. 

I understand that it was not customary for the high priest to stand up before the Sanhedrin and take charge of questioning the suspect, who had to be considered guiltless until proved guilty. Some commentators of this case submit that Caiaphas, seeing that all their efforts were getting nowhere, stood up in a rage and took charge of the whole procedure, for time was getting shorter, morning was getting nearer, and they had to have a satisfactory end before day break. Since everything they did thus far was completely illegal, why worry about details that in their eyes did not matter, they had to find a way! It is written: 

“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death, but they could not find any. Many testified falsely against Him, but their statements did not agree.” (Mark 14:55-56.) Then: “Finally two men came forward and declared, ‘This fellow said, I am able to destroy this temple of God and rebuild it in three days. Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Are you going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? But Jesus remained silent.” (Mark14:57:62.)

This charge was a complete misinterpretation of the facts, because when Jesus said it, but He was not talking about the temple, but He was talking about His death and that would rise from the dead after three days! But this was spiritual language that they could not appreciate. Jesus knew that this was the will of God, and that His death would be followed by His resurrection, which was going to be an amazing victory over death, sin and Satan.  There is nothing new in the devil’s repertoire, he is a past master at using the Word of God to his own end, he started with Adam and Eve, later he did it with the help of false prophets in the Old Testament, then he continued in the New, by false teachers that from the birth of the Church disturbed it, as recorded in the life of Christ and the ministry of the apostles, and he still does the same to this day. He has always found men ready to do his insidious work. Caiaphas and the men with him knew exactly what they were doing, but what was that to those who decided to bring Jesus down by false accusations. Since no statement made thus far could agree, in desperation, Caiaphas by now furious and beside himself, for failing to impress even the Sanhedrin, feeling that Jesus, this carpenter from Nazareth, in his eyes an impostor got the better over him, he felt that the case against Jesus Christ was slipping through his fingers, with a devilish outburst of temper, said:

“I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, The Son of God.”  (Matthew 26:63.)

Jesus could not hold His silence to this important question, He regarded, no doubt, the prior charges brought against Him as trivial, without substance, this question He waited for, He knew that it would bring his cross-examination to an end, therefore He could not hide from them the fact that they were charging with, their Messiah and their King. How could he not glory in His mission on earth, as the Bible says, “For the joy that was set before Him he endured the cross despising the shame!” He would soon, return to heaven where He came from, so it was not possible to hide who He was, He would not even consider it, for He was in essence, the divine and the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. I somehow sense that Jesus, at last, could happily reply to the truth, since these puppets of Satan, thus far, said nothing credible, their false charges were not worthy of His reply! His silence suited Him although, it infuriated Caiaphas, therefore Jesus replied: 

“Yes, it is as you say”, ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64)

This seems like the end, to you Sadducees, hypocrites. Inspired by your rage and sinful pride you glory in the power of your office, breathing out cruelty on the innocent and holy Son of God, you do so, knowing neither the power of God nor the power of the One that you are treating with such contempt and cruelty! But for this very purpose He came to earth, to give His life and save those that would believe on Him. ‘It is your hour when darkness reigns’, it is your time and you have to do what you have to do, but this is not the end at all, for I shall return and you will see me coming in glory to take the kingdom prepared for me by my Father. I am returning to the Mighty One at whose right hand I shall reign over the redeemed, until the appointed time when I shall return triumphant and resplendent in glory. Even so come Lord Jesus!

What could we expect from Caiaphas after such a confession? This mannequin of the devil, arrayed in all the glory of the vesture of a high priest, started acting His part so well to prove just how long he practice it again and again, to impress as deeply as possible those that with him, have been waiting for this moment. Thus, Caiaphas was in his elements, smelling blood which, he so often saw flowing from his victims which he condemned at will, in complete agreement with the SANHEDRIN, the few that were present, that heard Christ openly declaring that He was God. His reaction to Christ’s admission of His divinity, was obviously inspired by the devil. Although, Satan knew who Jesus was, and how true were all the statements Jesus made to them about Himself, he so blinded this foolish high priest and the men in authority, he was now sure that their blinded hatred of Christ, would become the means by which they would condemn Him to death; so, with one accord they did so, they condemned Christ to death, not for what he did, not for what He said, but for Who He was, and in reply: 

“The high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy: What do you think? They all agreed and said “He is worthy of death”, (Matthew 26:65-66)

It was left now to wait for the time when they could take Him to Pilate. They left Jesus to the mob that arrested Him early in the morning, and together with the temple guards they began to mock Him. They spat on Him! There is nothing worse to bear then men spitting someone in the face, with His hands tied, hands that blest so many, whose touch healed so many, the Son of God could not even wipe it off His face, this face that angels looked at with wonder, was struck time after time, some slapped Him other struck Him with their fists, they blindfolded Him and said ‘Prophesy’ who hit you, and they said some other insulting things, playing with Jesus until day break.

Whilst this was being done to the Son of God, Peter denied Him. His sincere desire to stand by his Master and die if need be rather than deny Him, his devotion to the Christ he loved and never ceased to love, was human, of the flesh and could not stand the test of that awful moment. Seeing His master submitting Himself into the hands of sinners his vows were forgotten, under the stress of mocking he swore never to have known this man. So Jesus had to stand alone, just as He said he would, but as He crossed the court yard of the high priest house, preceded by the high priests, the priests, the teachers of the law and the elders of the people on their way to Pilate’s judgement hall, Peter saw His Master’s face swollen, bleeding and badly marred by the brutal, continuous fisting of the ungodly mob! yet somehow his eyes met with His, but for a moment, and it was enough for him to break down into a profound cry of regret, for he saw in them the same love as he had always seen before, when in the good days they walked from place to place with the disciples, preaching the Gospel, healing the sick and spending happy hours together.

“Just as he was speaking, the cock crowed, and then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and welp bitterly!” (Luke 22:60-62.)

“Early in the morning, all the chief priest and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound Him, led Him away and handed Him over to Pilate, the governor. When Judas who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said,’ for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us’? They replied ‘That’s your responsibility. ’So, Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (Matthew 27: 1-5)

Judas left himself opened to the evil one and paid the price of his treason; one cannot do this so efficiently and get away with it. Some people believe that Judas did not believe that this could happen to Jesus of Nazareth, that he planned it to put Christ on the spot in which He would be forced to reveal to the nation who He was, and take the kingdom to which He was appointed. It is always wrong to speculate; we cannot add or take away from the Word of God, it is an enormous sin, Jesus called him the son of perdition and that is quite a statement. Everything he thought and did was purely carnal, and he did it with his eyes wide opened. His remorse is not a proof of repentance, for that only God can grant to a person, it is clearly stated: “Do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kindness, tolerance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness leads you to repentance.” (Romans 2:3.) Regret, remorse can lead a man into depression, but repentance, which is God’s gift; leads a man to forgiveness and salvation. Judas planned meticulously his betrayal of Christ and there was no way back for Him. When one opens himself to Satan, he can only expect what Judas got, and his life ended so tragically and he went and hanged Himself! 

The hypocritical priests who disregarded their own laws, condemned their Messiah to death. Corrupting, with money false witnesses to testify against Him. Men without scruples, found that it was not lawful to put the thirty pieces of silver into the treasury money, decided to use it to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. Thus, was fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah who said: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter’s field as the Lord commanded me.” (Jeremiah 19:1-13 – 32:6-9.) Quoted in Matthew 27:6-10.) This also had to be fulfilled as the Lord had spoken!

JESUS LED BY THE CHIEF PRIEST TO PILATE.

Jesus beaten, bleeding and marred by the cruel treatment he received from the temple guards and their acolytes, bound as a criminal “Was led by the Jews 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, they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. (What hypocrisy, it shows to what immoral level can sink religious corruprion) So Pilate came out to them and asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’ ‘If he were not a criminal,’ they replied. ‘We would not have handed him to you’. Pilate said. ‘Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law’. ‘But we have no right to execute anyone,’ the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death He was going to die would be fulfilled. (John18:28-32.)

One cannot fathom the depth of hypocrisy religious men, amongst others, can sink into, not to avoid ceremonial uncleanness! This high priest, with his entire crooked band, has topped the height of indecency. ‘So, Pilate came out to them’ because they could not enter his palace for fear of becoming unclean! They were already corrupt to the core! How could that be their worry since everything they did before and at the time of Christ’s arrest lucked everything that is decent in human nature. But then there is no falsehood as great as the one that these Sadducee displayed, in the condemnation of Christ. High priest, priests, elders of the people, teachers of the law, all knew the Holy Scriptures, taught the people, led them thought the ceremonials of all the feasts of the Jews, which God commanded through Moses those many centuries ago! Whose duties were, among others, to sacrifice offerings brought to God by the people for the forgiveness of sins much lesser than theirs, for they had just committed the ultimate sin? 

They wilfully transgressed the letter of the law, and committed the unforgivable sin of condemning Christ to die on a cross. This is what can happen to a people, through a corrupt priesthood, or a band of adepts who blindly follow, like sheep led to the slaughter; men that  have all in the head and nothing in the heart. They learned by heart, or at least they should, every precept of the law, thus they knew fully well what God reserved to those who disregarded it; but with impunity they agreed together to end the life of a guiltless man, so strong, so satanic was their hatred of The Messiah, Christ-Jesus! Our mind boggles! How many times have they read these scriptures, how often did they teach them publicly in the temple and the synagogues, quoting the following?

“You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.” (Psalm5:4-6.)

“No-one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no-one who speaks falsehood will stand in my presence” (Psalm 101:7.)

“A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free.” (Proverbs 19:5) Judas and Those who trapped Jesus should have known that: “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapour and a deadly snare”. 

We are living in days where the ‘Beginning of the End’ of the world has started. The two world wars, have shrank the map of the world and turned the earth into a massive platform for every major event; the world is speeding towards the return of Christ, which is one of the most important phases in God’s plan for our planet Earth! Men disregarded all that God said up to the birth of Christ and during his life time. Israel as a religious nation was bankrupt, evil men were leading it to its doom, which happened in AD seventy when Titus the Roman Emperor, after a long siege, destroyed Jerusalem and dispersed the Jews over the whole of his empire! To this day, they are outside will and have not changed in their national attitude to Jesus Christ. They have suffered greatly because of their brutal rejection of Christ. ‘His blood be upon us and on our children,’ was their shout, and so it has. They will still, in their own land, where they are rooted again, cry to God to save them from a certain annihilation by the evil intent of the Antichrist, when only a feeble remnant will be spared to welcome Jesus-Christ as their King and Messiah.

So, we must not be surprised that what is known as the Church, is now also in a pitiful bankrupt state, for rejecting Christ. What happened to the Jews has happened to this human assembly, which has come down to be a religious, political organisation, that has lost its ‘raison-d’être’, and preaches morality, and teaches men basically, what all other religions profess to teach, without recognising the evil of sin which has brought man to death and will finish by utterly destroying him. Yet those that by faith in Christ have been created anew, to live it in the new order, which God will bring in by the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, will be spared from God’s wrath on the ungodly. The Church, which should preach the Gospel and be the herald in the world of hope and salvation, is at present in a worse state than it was at the time of the reformation. 

It badly needs another one, but it might never happen, this time it may never know a renewal as so many times before, and finish her days insignificant, as it is, worldly and dead! But one day soon the shout will resound: ‘The bridegroom is coming!’ But it is a tragedy because lamps are without oil, and no one is waiting for Jesus to come. To many the return of the Messiah is a myth, except for those who have the Holy-Spirit, for when He was poured out in the beginning of the twentieth century, the official Church and much of the Evangelical Church refused Him, and rejected Him just as the Jews Rejected Jesus-Christ. The Holy Spirit is mentioned as a ‘by-word’ but he has no authority over the Church and is not given any right to lead it in the truth.

It was at about seven on the Friday morning, this momentous day in human history, that all the Sanhedrin, priests and leaders of the people, headed by Caiaphas himself, took Jesus, with a cord around His neck to the governor’s palace, to hand Him over to Pilate. His hands bound as a criminal; but none of these actions were missed by Heaven itself, where angels wondered at the reason of this spectacle. Pilate accustomed to the usual disturbances of the Pascal Season, got up early, and entered the Hall of Judgment and found Jesus who had been led by a few of his accusers, but those of the clergy who feared ceremonial pollution refused to enter the Gentile’s hall. Pilate, who was used to these superstitious practices of the religious Jews, condescended to their request and went under the sun of an early spring morning to meet this blood thirsty band led by unholy clergy! As it is written ‘So Pilate came out to them’.

He sensed immediately the fierce atmosphere of the assembly and noted the bound victim they brought to him for his execution. Christ’s lot was now in the hands of Pilate, He was brought to Him to have his ascent and send Him to death. But Pilate was in no mood to condemn a man to death that he had not judged himself, and realising quickly that it had to do with their religious fanaticism, enquired as to what were the charges they brought and asked: “What charges are you bringing against this man? The question took them by surprise, and they soon realise that Pilate was not going to grant them their request without a fight, but they were prepared for anything. They had done their homework, and said, with disdain, which was common in their relationship with the roman governor: “If he were not a criminal,’ they replied ‘we would not have handed Him to you!” He had already been judged twice, by Annas the ex-high priest, where they took him to task, and in the house of Caiaphas where the Sanhedrin condemned Him to death, but Pilate alone could gratify their evil plot. 

The Sanhedrin knew that Jesus was innocent; it is proved by their démarche to produce false witnesses and by the unholy process of their accusations, but Jesus came into the world to die, and it was prophesied that He had to die on a CROSS! So, God chose man’s folly to accomplish His plans of redemption and Jesus-Christ submitted Himself willingly to them, most of the time He never spoke a word in His defence. Men in position of power are snared by the responsibility of their office; after a while they do not serve the people but themselves, instead of judging righteously on their behalf, they oppress men and exploit the poorest among them, honouring the richest. An attitude completely foreign to Christ their Messiah! I maintain, and I have for it the support of The Hew Testament teachings, that no Christian should ever be in such situations where they are not free to do God’s will! A true Christian should stand aloof from worldly position of power, for eventually they are but secular human institutions ser against the rule of God. They set up laws that are against God and His righteousness. But if Christ had to die by God’s decree, yet, for their actions, these men as all others, will have to give account before the judge of all flesh, on the morning of the last day! I read this not many days ago in my daily readings. It came just right to confirm what I wanted to say, I quote Charles Spurgeon who says it much clearer that I ever could!

“The wrath of man shall be made to redound to the glory of God. When in their wrath the wicked crucified the Son of God they were unwittingly fulfilling the divine purpose, and in a thousand cases the wilfulness of the ungodly is doing the same. They think themselves free, but like convicts in chains they are unconsciously working out the decrees of the Almighty. 

The devices of the wicked are overruled to their defeat. They act in a suicidal way, and baffle their own plotting. Nothing will come of their wrath which can do us no real harm. When they burned the martyrs the smoke which blew from the stake sickened men of Popery more than anything else! 

Meanwhile, the Lord has a muzzle and a chain for the bears. He restrains the more furious wrath of the enemy. He is like a miller who holds back the mass of the water in the stream, and what he does allow to flow he uses for the turning of the wheel. (Quote from the ‘Faith’s cheque Book page 235.)

As I said already, something displeased Pilate, in any case he was not in the usual mood, and did not want to condemn to death a man that he had not tried himself, and said to them: “Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law.” This reply surprised them; they were not used to be denied the condemnation to death those that their law found guilty, but the refusal from The Roman Governor’s attitude, who normally just rubber stamped their decision, disturbed them, and they suddenly felt that all they managed to do to Jesus, during the whole night, was going to be meaningless and that once again their Galilean Rabbi will be set free! So, they could not allow this to happen, they had to assemble all their devilish craft to make sure that their plans to get rid of this Galilean succeeded!

As a believer in Christ, I see through all these proceedings, the overruling power of God. He was master of the atmosphere that pervaded the assembly gathered around Pilate. He created feelings that could respond to His will even in men like the roman governor, for it is He, that raises men to power and puts them down; so, Pilate looked at Christ and felt somewhat of an unusual attitude from a man so hated, awaiting a verdict to send him to the cruellest execution known on earth. Jesus’s face was already marred from the effect of the mob that set upon Him at Annas’ house and at the Palace of the high Priest, where the Sanhedrin condemned Him to death and: ‘Then responding with uncontrolled brutality they spat in His face, and struck them with their fists, having covered His head others hit Him and said,’ Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?” (Matt. 26:67.) Yet His royal dignity shone through His disfigured beauty, and Pilate, who never felt any pity for a condemned criminal before, did all he could to set Him free!

If Pilate wanted to release Jesus of Nazareth, and He had the power to do so, his opponents were more determined than ever to see Him cursed, for as the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13. Quoted from Deuteronomy 21:23.) In their eyes, that is what this blasphemer merited. But in spite of all the different manifestations of men’s wills in this contest, Christ would die that day for it was God’s time, Christ’s work was done and God wanted Him back home! Yet the men that formed this corrupt clergy had to finish their part and said to Pilate: “But we have no right to execute anyone.” We have brought Him to you because we have done our part, we have condemned him to death, but you alone have now the power to complete His death warrant! 

How could Pilate just knuckle down to such demands? After all HE was the Roman Governor! So, he decided to look into this matter a bit more, so he went back to His Palace to reflect what to do next to set God’s Son free! It is possible that it was then that a note from his wife was brought to him on which was written: ‘Don’t have anything to do with this innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today, in a dream because of Him.” Pilate was not accustomed to his wife’s intrusion, so, it must have disturbed him even more, so he summoned Jesus to Him, and asked Him: 

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Is that your own idea, Jesus asked, ‘or did others talk to you about it?’ Am I a Jew?’ Pilate replied. ‘It was your people and your chief priests who handed you to me. What is it you have done?’  Jesus said: ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight and 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 I am a king. In fact, for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. What is truth?  Pilate asked. With this he went back again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against Him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the ‘King of the Jews’? (John 18: 33-37)

It is obvious that Pilate never experienced such a dilemma; he must have wondered what was happening to him! How could he feel like he did? But then, there never was such a case before men of any nation, no one before had God incarnate at the bar to be condemned by a mere creature like Him, Pilate a Roman Governor! How could he have been put in such a situation because of a religious hateful band, a clergy without humanity condemning a King of such stature! He realised also that they were right to a point and that it was the law of the Roman Empire not to resist the will of the nation’s legal government, so to a degree His hands were tied, there’s no way to could free Jesus without the consent of The High priest and those of the Sanhedrin that were with Him. Having questioned Jesus one more time, He came to realise that he was dealing with the King of the Jews, for that is what he called Him when he returned again to face the condemning mob. 

As it was the custom to release a criminal on every feast of the Passover, he thought that this might just be the thing that will convince them! Little did Pilate realise that he was dealing with higher powers that that of mere men. The devil that entered in Judas Iscariot as he was partaking of the emblems of the New Covenant, was also the one that was behind all the decisions made by the Sanhedrin, and especially that God was using the wrath of men to accomplish, through Christ, His plan of redemption! So once again Pilate reiterated: “I find no basis for a charge against Him.”! No doubt in despair trying to get the release of Jesus-Christ, he said:

“But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘The King of the Jews?’ Such a statement proved that Pilate had come to the conclusion that Jesus was not just a man and that He was not guilty of the charges they condemned Him for. To, what was almost a plea, as by now Pilate’s conscience was playing tricks on him, and his wife’s plea was ringing in his heart, the mob were beside themselves and shouted! They must have been screaming by now. Matthew, relating theses happenings, writes:

“The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Bar-Abbas and to have Jesus executed. Which of the two do you want me to release to you? Asked the governor. ‘Bar-Abbas’ they answered. What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify Him!’ Why? What crime has He committed? Asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify Him!” (Matthew: 27:20-23.) 

With one voice they cried out, ‘Away with this man! Release Bar-Abbas to us. Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting: ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ For the third time he spoke to them: ‘Why? I have found in Him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have Him punished and then release Him.’  

But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that He be crucified. So, Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:18-25.) 

While the high priest, Caiaphas, with his entourage, were busy to discredit Christ before Pilate, and insisted on His crucifixion. Whilst Pilate pleaded the case for his release, having found no ground for this drastic insistence, the chief priests and the leaders of the people, were busy to prime the crowds to demand, without them really knowing why, to demand the release of Bar-Abbas and the crucifixion of Christ. Manipulating the crowds is not a modern phenomenon, it goes much further than that, no doubt it even happened before that, at the tower of Babel for instance, Nimrod got the crowds to do just what He wanted, until the fire came down and consumed his idolatrous temple. It seems so easy to rally people to do evil, history shows that the crowds were never right, rebellion is in man’s nature and many for it will perish in the fires of hell! So, the high priest, the chief priests, the leaders of the people with glee tasted the bitter pill of victory, and managed to commit their greatest sin, and so Pilate could not do anything else, not even satisfy his wife’s plea for clemency and:

         “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead the uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’ All the people answered: ’Let His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:24-25.)

“I wash my hands of it.” How often has it been said by people of all nations? Sometimes it has been said in dire circumstances when men did not have an answer and would not be heard in much lesser conflicts, but Pilate by washing his hands before the people, became and is to this day, ‘the coward’s way out’, Pilate had the power to do what was right, but as the Bible says: “To please the people” be released to them Bar-Abbas whom they asked for. But Pilate in the end was just as guilty as all the others. I believe that he genuinely wanted to find a way to set Jesus free, because he could not find any good reasons for His crucifixion, this is why, at one point in His questioning by Pilate who said to Him: “Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said. ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you? “Jesus answered. ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin!”

Firstly, Judas handed Jesus over to Annas, then Annas, the ex-high priest, handed Him over to Caiaphas, finally Caiaphas handed Him over to Pilate. In God’s time, all of them will bear the weight of His anger! There are obviously degrees of sins, just as there are degrees of punishment. Some sins, God judges immediately, most of them He will judge at the judgement seat, on the last day. Where all sins will receive their just deserts, but through Christ all can be forgiven, if one believes on Him! Pilate finally handed Jesus to be crucified, this was his sin! I invite you continue this amazing subject with the following chapter.