6 Weeks To Resurrection - The Annas Meeting

After His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is lead to what will be the first of His trials. John 18:13  First they led him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.  The picture to the right shows a picture from inside the family tomb of Annas where the famously discovered ossuary of Caiaphas was discovered in 1990. This demonstrates to any reader, that the events of the gospels are historical and involved the people that are mentioned in their narratives.   The High Priest's Palace has also been located, and was during its day a palatial multi-story mansion. This is where Jesus was brought, bound for what is his first trial. The Passover ended, Jesus went to the Garden with the disciples on what would have been after 9pm on a Wednesday. It is around midnight when Judas appears in the Garden with the guard to arrest Jesus. For what to us would have been very early Thursday morning (2 am or so), he is escorted from the Garden to the High Priest's Palace. John 18 and the other gospels describe the events, but what is important to understand is that what happened to Jesus was illegal in all sorts of ways.  Both the gospels, the characters mentioned, and historians outside of the scripture all mention that the events were irregular and violations of the rules that the Jews themselves set for things such as this.  Two primary things are 1.)  That he was brought to Annas before he was brought to the Sanhedrin was illegal. Annas had no authority, was not in office, and could not decide anything as far as Jewish law.  2.) The fact that it was still night and that Jesus was beaten were two NO NO's of Jewish law. They would not do this in any other case -- but they did with Jesus. What does this tell you?

Another key event that happens here, is that this is where Peter denies Jesus. To understand this and to see where it occurs really brings home the emotions and fear of the night. In the upper right of the picture is the Reception Hall where Jesus was brought. Just down to the left is the Courtyard where Peter was have stood, "warming himself" Jn.18:18. There was a doorway that is there, and this is where Peter denies Jesus, and it is also where Jesus looks at Peter as the denial occurs. The weight of that moment can be palpably felt, as for Peter - he is crushed. He has not done what he has said he would do. For Jesus - the finality that events are now set in motion and his death is upon Him. 

What can we learn from these events?

1. Prov. 29:25  The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. Fear causes people to do things that they normally would not do. Many things that we do sometimes that we consider "dumb" are things that we do out of fear. Fear that we cannot do without something. Fear that someone will not like us. Fear that we will be blamed, accused, etc.  But, hear the proverb because Trusting in the Lord casts out fear because with God no matter what comes, my path is set. Jesus trusted God in this time of fear. Peter did not, neither did those who accused Jesus. Do you? Or are you afraid?
2. Mt .6:41  "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  This is so true.This was also Peter's dilemma. His spirit was indeed willing to die with the Lord, but when it came time to face the pain - he became weak. This is true with us too. We all go to church, talk bible, and many things that outwardly are spiritual good things. Yet, when the time comes to face the pain, guilt, truth or whatever, our flesh becomes weak and we give in. 1 Jn.1:9 if we confess our sins, God forgives.
3. Jer.10:23  I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Learn that you cannot captain your own ship as many have been taught that they can. We master little in life, and our life is not one of them. Without God in our lives, we are a shipwreck waiting to happen.

Many things happened in this trial that Jesus went through and there were yet more to come. We see humanity at its worst, and God at His best. Ever wonder what would have happened if God had reacted to the world as we would if it were our child -- "What do you think you are doing to my boy?" Me thinks the world would be a crispy critter!  Aren't you thankful for grace?

Jim

6 Weeks to Resurrection: The Night of Gethsemane

There are three actions emphasized in Mark’s narrative regarding the Gethsemane event that lead into the crucifixion, that warrant further investigation. 

1. The kiss of Judas. Mark uses the normal word for kiss, which means "to love," in telling of the arrangement Judas had made with the chief priests. They were to seize the one whom he (Judas) kissed. In the actual moment, when Judas carries this deed out, Mark uses an different form of that word, that means a prolonged kiss, a lover's kiss -- a deliberate, prolonged, apparent-ly loving act, yet done with cold determination to accomplish his own purpose. We shudder at the thought and speak with disgust at those who would do such a thing. Yet, this same heart can exist within us, and at times we do the same type of thing – especially in mob mentalities. We “sacrifice” someone with “a word of kindness,” then leave them to vultures who do nothing but tear and rend.  Judas “thought” he was doing right. I wonder what he was thinking when he hung himself over what he had done after the fact.
2. Second is Peter's “defense.”  Peter is in this passage, trying to make a show of carrying out what he believed. He grabs the sword and, as the priests and soldiers move in on Jesus, he slashes away. But so poor is his aim that all he does is lop off the ear of the high priest's servant. This is such a beautiful example of the flesh at work! We may strike out in our attempts to carry out our purposes, but all we accomplish is the lopping-off of somebody's ear. Attempts to do what we think is right -- but it is not of the Lord. We have all done this. The glorious thing, Luke tells us, is that Jesus reached out and touched that servant and healed his ear. How many lopped-off ears have we been responsible for during our lifetime that Jesus has to come behind us and heal because we thought we were doing what is right.
3. Third is the sudden flight of the disciples. They all forsook him. I am sure this means that, at that moment, after three-and-a-half years, all their confidence that Jesus was indeed the Messiah suddenly forsook them. His willingness to give himself over without any resistance into the hands of his enemies and his refusal to defend himself in any way becomes, in their eyes, his renunciation of being the Messiah. Now it is every man for himself, and so they flee. In Luke's account of the resurrection - remember that as two disciples walked along the road to Emmaus, a stranger appeared, a man whom they did not recognize, and they discussed with him the events that had taken place in Jerusalem. They said to him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, "We had hoped (notice the past tense) that he was the one who would redeem Israel," (Luke 24:21). Their hope was gone, so they forsook him and fled.  And thus the smiting of the shepherd resulted in the scattering of the sheep.

Mark adds what is almost a postscript in Verse 51 “And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body; and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.” (Mk 14:51-52)  Whoever this young man is, it is explaining to us how we get the account of Gethsemane. None of the disciples could have given it. One was with those who were arresting Jesus, one who betrayed him and killed himself before he could have written anything (Mt.27:5; Acts 1:17,18). Seven of them were in a part of the garden some distance from Jesus. Three of them were close to him, but they were sound asleep and could not have heard the crying and the prayers; they did not see the angel come and minister to him. But somebody was watching. A certain young man (perhaps Mark himself), was there watching the whole thing. He is the one giving us the story, that we might have hope in the hour of our Gethsemane. This account can help us, when we either feel that we do not want to do what God tells us to do, or feel confident that somehow we can work it out in our own strength. In that hour, this account to reminds us that we can “come to the throne of grace and find mercy and grace to help in time of need."

Someone may be in Gethsemane's Garden right now. So, who are we? Judas? Peter lopping off ears? The running disciples? – or maybe even the young man? There may be some who have just come through it. Will we open our eyes and hearts to understand this passage? We have Jesus, risen from the dead, who goes before us to meet us. The shepherd upon whom we can rely, to whom we can go in the hour of anguish and find the strength -  to do what we do not want to do to obey when we would rather do something else. Are you in Gethsemane?

Jim

It's History - It's Scripture! God Talks!!

In ancient Greece the Olympic Games were held in the July of the first year of each

Mark Antony

Olympiad, which was a 4 year period that ran from July to June of each succeeding year. These were magnificent events of the day, just as they are in our modern times.  The 202nd Olympiad ran from July AD 29 to June AD 33 with each year of an Olympiad beginning on the 1st of July. July so renamed from the Roman term Quintilis by Mark Antony to honor Julius Caesar, who had reformed the Roman calendar in 46 B.C. to what became known as the Julian calendar. This is neat history, but why the significance in consideration of spiritual matters?

The resurrected Jesus in Acts 1, instructs his disciples not to leave Jerusalem – that they will be given power from the Holy Spirit by His authority. As previous in their history of walking with the Lord, they did not understand, wondering if Jesus was talking about something political. Yet, they obeyed the voice of their Lord. The Passover ended, the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover Feast had begun. Jerusalem was full of worshipers from all over the known world of the day. The Bible records the events during this celebration in Acts 2. The sound of a great rushing wind, something like flames hovering about the disciples. Just as strange, the disciples began to speak, but not in their native Aramaic or Hebrew, but in languages of other nations that they had not learned. They were understood by countless foreign visitors to the city.  Hecklers shouted: “They’re all drunk!”  This is now when the now Apostle Peter stands in the confusion and speaks his famous sermon of which is recorded and we are all familiar. Peter argues from the words of the prophet Joel recorded in 835 BC (Joel 2; Acts 2).  Peter asserts that Joel’s prophesy has been fulfilled and that his listeners know it—that they have seen the signs themselves. This is the same argument the apostle Paul made in Rom.10:17, 18 and this would have no persuasive force unless Paul’s and Peter’s audiences knew that these things had occurred.  Both men assumed that everybody knew about the signs. Of particular interest for us: Joel said there would be astronomical signs. What were they? Peter states, “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood…”

• The gospels record that the sun was darkened on the day of the crucifixion, beginning at noon and going until 3pm (Mk.15:33).
• The non-Biblical Roman sources confirm this. Phlegon Trallianus records in his history, Olympiades .. "In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, [AD 32–33] a failure of the Sun took place greater than any previously known, and night came on at the sixth hour of the day [noon], so that stars actually appeared in the sky; and a great earthquake took place in Bithynia and overthrew the greater part of Niceaea,” — TRALLIANUS, OLYMPIADES
• Another historian, Philipon (with Origen), confirms the historicity of Phlegon's statement by writing, "And about this darkness - Phlegon recalls it in the Olympiads...Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Christ, and no other (eclipse), it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any (similar) eclipse in previous times ...and this is shown by the historical account of Tiberius Caesar."
• Julius Africanus, a Christian historian (160-240 A.D.) records, “On the whole world
  
  there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”

What do you think the odds are, that 

1. in the 800’s BC a man would speak of a day in which the Lord of all man would come, and its harbinger would be an eclipse and blood moon? 
2. That a Greek freed-man during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian writing of the Olympiads, would arbitrarily record of an eclipse in the same year as the gospels and Peter record in Acts, at the same time of the crucifixion, resurrection of the Lord and the events of Acts 2? 
3. Or, that a historian some 100 years after the fact, would reference the event correcting another man’s writing of it and call it an eclipse without reason for occurring?

This was obviously not a simple astronomical event. It is history – it is scripture. Think God is trying to tell us something?

Jim

"Lord..what about.."

"Lord...what about...?"

"Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

James 4:15

Even if we do not understand what God’s will is, we need to respond to that direction. In fact, when we don’t understand it is even more imperative that we do exactly what he directs us to do in the scriptures. This though can become hard, because it seems repetitive and feels at times like we have to wait forever for an answer. Sometimes, God asks us to make the choice to do his will before we know the specific details of his plan. That’s because part of God’s plan is to develop trust. This is where many of us get into a battle of wills with God, wanting him to reveal his plan to us first and then will we decide whether or not to do what he tells us to do. But this isn't the way it works.

One reason God doesn't give us the full picture of his plans for your life is that you may actually be overwhelmed by what you would see. Peter records, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully..(1 Pet.1:10)." We do not know why it was not revealed to them, but it wasn't. Perhaps it may have been difficult for them to complete what God had in mind, if they had known. Perhaps God simply wanted their faith and trust. But that’s the point—there’s no way you can fulfill what God asks without God empowering us to do so. Even Peter was in a constant battle with Jesus over what to do. Just knowing Jesus what he did of Jesus at the time, the one time that Jesus begins to reveal some of what is about to happen to Him, Peter jumps in and says, "Not so Lord." Satan took occasion of Peter's not knowing and desire to anticipate, to try to stop through Peter what Jesus had just revealed was the will of God! Jesus states then, "But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (Matt 16:23)."

It is a wondrous thing to know without doubt, what God's will is! That is why on some things, we have the Bible - so that we can "the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:17)." Yet, we must also be content with what God has revealed to us, and learn to leave to the will of God in trust that He knows and is preparing what is best for us those things that have not been made known. On another occasion after the resurrection, Jesus was talking with his chosen apostles, Jesus revealed to Peter a portion of what his future would behold (Jn.21:18). Yet, Peter as impetuous as ever, wants to know what is not meant for him to know - "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus responds to Peter, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me! (Jn.21:22)"

These then, are the things that we must remember. What is written in God's word, is there for my learning, my faith, and to DO! Outside of this, we must simply revert back to one principle - "YOU FOLLOW ME." Don't worry about what you do not know, don't fret because you do not know where certain things are going to lead you in your life.

Where ever you go, whatever you are doing - FOLLOW the Lord and trust that God will bring about His will in your life in His own way and own time.

Jim