Here's a topic that I've been working on from my homework… any correction or suggestions would be appreciated.
A real Teacher.
Having the King James and a Strong's Concordance are great founding tools, but having a teacher that can guide and stop you from chasing the rabbits of tradition is also very important. Moses was a great teacher in his time. I find the Pastors Murray to be great teachers of our time. But nobody compares to the depth of teaching that Jesus demonstrated. He was teaching when people didn't even know it. In Luke chapter 22 we have an example of when Christ asked the Father for a "cup" to be removed from Him:
Luke 22: 42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Many churches see this as Jesus having a moment of weakness. Yet nothing could be more misinterpreted than that assumption. He wasn't worried about what was going to happen to Him because that was already in motion. He was talking about the future ramifications and how the people would face the end times. The cup is described in the book of Revelation (when He comes back and finds humanity chasing a false god):
Revelation 14: 10
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
The wrath of God in its purest state in poured "into the cup of his indignation" meaning the punishment Christ imposes on those that didn't come out of confusion:
Revelation 18: 6
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
That is the Father pouring out His cup of wrath upon the children that didn't make it. When it happens the sentence is double! So I just want to set it straight that when someone tells you Christ had a moment of weakness they are showing absolute ignorance. He was teaching so that we could learn to avoid a cup that is coming. Christ knew that the greater plan of salvation includes the destruction of those souls that simply refuse to get with the program. His hope is for "all" but the reality is some wont make it. Imagine when He comes back to find his children running around cutting each other's heads off! To find children bickering and bitching about their own glory! We are as written. The punishment for some is great but it is necessary.
Is the details behind this cup too small of a fact to have any concerns? Maybe your church got everything else right and just are a little misguided on Jesus' state of mind under such trying circumstances? Then again maybe they missed it because a greater truth is hidden from them? After all He does reveal to His individual children in their time regardless of where they are. Maybe this is how He pulls you out of the fire? This isn't about what church is right. This is about what truth you are able to find and what you do when you find it? It can be measured by your personal effort to ensure what you are being taught is correct. The reward will be double your effort in either direction. It can be twice as good or twice as bad. But it is very real and we have an entire history leading up to the very descriptions we are about to experience. What's in your cup?
Concepts like turning the other cheek or a moment of weakness seem like minor misunderstandings but the implications paint a totally different picture of God then the reality He set forth. It's all there. We just need to dig with accurate discernment. Jesus was marching to the beat of our script without hesitation. He knew what was going to happen to himself but His focus was on protecting you. Even those that hated him most. Could you knowingly face such a fate? Can you see the difference between Him and his greatest followers such as Peter that denied him three times before the @*$$ crowed? That's no ding on Peter it's a magnification of the awesomeness of Christ. I tell you for certain that Jesus never felt abandoned. He knew the exact scenario before it ever took place. He knew the very details of what they would do… I'm not saying this because he was God and God knows everything… I'm saying it for the very same reason you should know: it is written. How many times did Jesus say "Have ye not read?" The Old Testament contains plenty of prophesies that identify Christ. That includes the account of the crucifixion. The Old Testament describes it long before it was even a punishment and then it is verified in several books in the New Testament. If you work with these accounts together it's pretty easy to understand what really happened. I'm going to put a few verses out there and you tell me if Jesus is being weak or feeling abandoned by God:
Matthew 27: 46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,[c] lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Ooops… Well? That didn't take long did it? Are my going to stand corrected that quickly? I mean there it is… right there in the good old King James Version… the same one I cite as a credible source… "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Not so fast my friend, that is how your church works and how their doctrine gets twisted. If you want to see what a great teacher and how engaged Christ really was that day you have to turn back to the Old Testament in the great book of Psalms. That would be one of the major sets of scrolls they studied because the New Testament had yet to be written. We see that Jesus was not talking from a personal thought because He was quoting from the very scrolls the people of that time were supposed to be familiar with. They should have recognized what He was speaking about came from Psalm 22:
Psalm 22: 1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
I would wager that He quoted it all, but even if He only had the strength to push out that priceless hint the fact remains Christ was teaching to very last minute. He was pointing to this Psalm and the people familiar with the scriptures could see how his final lesson mapped to the very writings and the evidence of who He was. The text He pointed to gives the very details of the crucifixion 1,000 years before the event.
Psalm 22: 14
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.
When they speared him it says water came out. When you hang on a cross for days your bones do fall out of joint.
Psalm 22: 15
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
How thirsty would you become after receiving the punishment He received, and then to carry the cross? He was thirsty. Although it will tell us they offered Him vinegar you will find that it was a cheap wine (meaning they were compassionately offering and not offering something undrinkable like we think of cooking vinegar today. Here's John's account:
John 19: 28
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.John 19: 29
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
Matthew's account:
Matthew 27: 48
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
Mark's account:
Mark 15: 23
And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not.
That may seem like a stretch on itself, or like I'm interpreting what I want the Bible to mean. Let's just continue a bit with the rest of Psalm 22 and see if you can see the connections?
Psalm 22: 16
Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
Documented right here:
John 19: 34
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And here:
John 19: 37
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
Let's build on that by returning to the Psalm for another key point:
Psalm 22: 17
I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.
That's covered here:
Mark 15: 31
Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
And here:
Luke 23: 36
And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,
Those that surrounded Him were the dogs (slang), band of evil men, chief priests and scribes, which are separate from those that knew what was really going on and stood off watching in vexation as the Lord was crucified. Luke makes that clear:
Luke 23: 48
And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.
They smote their breasts meaning they beat themselves in disgust and sorrow over what was going on.
Luke 23: 49
And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.
They stood off. Some were beating themselves. Surely there was plenty of tears and sorrow among the people that were watching with understanding. Let's return to the Psalm for another key point:
Psalm 22: 18
They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
That's documented right here:
Mark 15: 24
And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.
And here:
Luke 23: 34
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
And here:
John 19: 24
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
Did you catch that? The soldiers did what was written. But one of them knew that by doing this it would align with what the scriptures said. Wouldn't it be reasonable to argue that because an execution was going to happen that everyone was familiar with the case details just as we are today with the major trials in our nation? Psalms 22 didn't say "how" it would happen, it just said it would happen… and then it did. Whatever circumstantial explanation you want to quote doesn't matter because I would say your point could happen like that… but it still happened. That combined with all the other supposed circumstantial evidence described throughout the Bible puts the scriptures in a pretty consistent nature, far more than the concept of circumstantial evidence would allow. In my humble opinion this is a pretty good argument that God had the election spread all over to ensure the Word happens just as written. Sometimes they are doing their work and don't even know it. For all intents and purposes it very well could have been a voice from the crowd that fed their ears to the tasks, or it could have been from within the very soldier that pierced Him. God's at work here and these are critical details to the evidence our doctrine is real and intact.
The time for Jesus to return to heaven drew near. Just before dying Jesus commended his spirit to the Father knowing that He accomplished what He was sent here to do in the flesh:
Luke 23: 46
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
John also records that Jesus died on the cross:
John 19: 30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
He wasn't drugged and put in a tomb until waking? He experienced a complete life from birth to death.
There are a few more conclusive points that are right here for the taking since we dug this deep. In Mark 15 it mentions that a scripture was fulfilled:
Mark 15: 28
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
That has to do with him being on the cross with the two criminals. That is written in Isaiah:Isaiah 53: 12
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
This is talking about Christ. The New Testament provides adequate backup. First Mark
Mark 15: 27
And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.Mark 15: 28
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
And Luke:
Luke 23: 33
And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Then John:
John 19: 18
Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
Want some more? John also tells of how they wanted to break the legs of all three so they would die faster. The results of their efforts backfired and give even greater credibility to the reality of Christ:
John 19: 31
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
These were the Pharasies and Saggisies that sought His death. They were on a schedule for the Passover and wanted these people off the crosses. Breaking the legs was a method to expedite. Let's see what happened when they went to do it:
John 19: 32
Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.John 19: 33
But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
They broke the bones of the other two but did not break Christ's bones. Then what did they do?
John 19: 34
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.John 19: 35
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
For an emphatic double witness verse 35 guarantees this is a truth… What would knowing this do to help us believe? The very next verse leaves no question:
John 19: 36
For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
John is telling us there is scripture to pull from. Where? We find that in the book of Exodus when they are discussing the sacrifice:
Exodus 12: 46
In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.
The Passover Lamb could not have any broken bones… Wow! Our second witness is in Numbers:Numbers 9: 12
They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.
Jesus was the Passover Lamb that was promised. He became the ultimate sacrifice and it did happen during Passover. Don't you notice we don't have blood sacrifices in the church anymore? We read all about them in the Old Testament but when Jesus shed blood on the cross He ended all blood sacrifices. In death He became our Passover:
1 Corinthians 5: 7
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
So we have the Romans (a third party) who did not break His legs at the request of the Jews (those seeking to kill Him) and the result
was a perfect Passover sacrifice (just as written). Don't ever let anyone tell you Jesus had a moment of weakness on the cross! He was teaching all the way
through to the end. He knew the set up and the players just as He knows you. The question is where you find yourself in those scriptures? Are you on the right
side of him? The left? Will you spear and gamble? Will you mock and stare? Are you beating your chest? Time is recording and you are center screen just as
those were during their time.
