Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him – John 18:12 KJV
..one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? – John 18:22b KJV
24 Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.
28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment..
29 Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation..
33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
19:1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
His scourging poured forth sinless Blood by 39 lashes upon Jesus’ back.
Pilate and the politically motivated religious leaders of Jerusalem made mockery of mercy (one less lash than Rome’s forty which should cause death) by condemning the Son of Man in whom they found no guilt.
John 19:2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head..
3 and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again.
Judas & a detachment of troops & officers from the chief priests & Pharisees,
Hosanna to the Son of David:
Behold the Man
Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”
Jesus, the King of the Jews
From Glorified King to Crucifixion on a Cross
About the sixth hour [noon]
14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Look, your King!” 15 So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”
16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.
17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between…
21 So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; rather, write that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”
A Temporary Victory
The powerful have won the political battle of the day!
Yet complete defeat is near for political rulers of the Empireand the powerful leaders of religion in Jerusalem.For by their own shouts the preordained Sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world is now to be fulfilled.
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
It was nearly noon, the Passover Lamb now prepared by scourging. “CRUCIFY, CRUCIFY!” shout the crowds. We will NOT follow Jesus.
Jesus the Christ will take back the power of sinfrom the enemyand defeat deathfrom a Cross of Sacrifice.
.. this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Acts 2:23
And how is this the Spirit of Grace?
For this grace you must also wait until next time.
Don’t we hate to hear it? While occupied in our own daily trespasses we stop up our ears to any who would warn of our sins: “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold…”
And to make things worse, in the day of our demise the seer such as Amos could well lament, “I told you so, but you refused to listen.”
Now the seer shows signs he tells Israel’s leaders ‘the Lord GOD showed me.’
Would a leader – a king, premier or president – dare ignore something that a seer [Amos] says the Lord God showed me?
How could a priest serving a people pledged to God not hear Amos when he demonstrates ‘what the Lord God showed me?’
Wailing in the streets
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,
“There is wailing in all the plazas, And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
… For I will pass through you,” Says the Lord.
It is not as if the LORD leads them out of their troubles as before from Egypt through the wilderness and before Israel subduing her enemies in the promised land.
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
Amos 5:18 CSB
The seer shows the fear of the LORD that will consume a man fleeing an enemy arrived safely at home, but there bitten by a snake.
Are we not all prey of the serpent of eden without the Lord God?
Rather than consuming Israel’s offerings for sin on the altar the Lord would consume Israel!
The Day of the Lord
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
We will have more about festivals to consider
when returning to the Gospel of John shortly.
22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them…
The Lord will no longer accept Israel’s worship!
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?
Amos reminds that they had nothing to offer there before the pillar of fire of the LORD!
Idolatry
NO OTHER GODS!
The Law of the Living LORD our God is quite clear: He IS GOD and idols (even of good “Saints” or a Jesus of stone) are not. Yet Israel became a whore on the mountaintops of the stone images of idolatry.
27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Woe to those at ease
We have heard this before from the Prophet Isaiah who also preached against rituals and idolatry after Amos. The true prophet so often warns, “This is what the LORD God showed me.”
Warning & Advice to Scoffers Who Rule Isaiah speaks to scoffers of God. Yet are your ears this day so filled with twisted speech that you do not even understand the significance of his warning?
Amos now warns the rich who govern and direct worship in Israel.
3 Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near; 4 Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; 5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; 6 Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
… now go into exile … And the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away…
Judgment on Jacob
8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself, The Lord God of hosts says: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it.”
I will leave it to you to read the five signs Amos tells us, ‘the Lord God showed me.’
Let the Holy Spirit convict the church!
The Lord Jesus, Redeemer of Israel, later showed signs no other Prophet could ever do. Yet even the Messiah Jesus was not believed.
So how do you think Amos was received by the leaders of the land and their appointed teachers and priests?
The five signs build in intensity and importance.
A brief glance
7:2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! … So the Lord relented…
4 The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! …
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me,
“Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Opposition
10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying,
“Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words…
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!
Amos responds to the priest with the anointing of the Lord in his calling.
“I was no prophet…, But I was a sheepbreeder.
I will spare them no longer
What do you think?
The Lord has relented from punishment for sin. Will you repent?
And once again, the Lord holds back and does not punish. Will you now repent?
So the Lord measures the place of your worship, the people of His pasture. It is a time for harvest, a festival of blessing in times before.
3 In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration.
“Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!
Silence!”
Do you now FEAR THE LORD?
4 Hear this,
you who swallow up the needy, And make the poor of the land fail…
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make that grief like mourning for an only son and its outcome like a bitter day.
11 Look, the days are coming— this is the declaration of the Lord God— when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.
SILENCE! of the LORD. Do you hear it?
God’s Judgment Unavoidable
Did you repent when you heard the word of the Lord?
And did you bow down when the Lord showed you mercy?
Now, therefore, the Lord stands beside the holy altar of worship and Amos speaks the unspeakable judgment of the Lord upon the people of His Own covenant.
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said,
“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
“Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them; Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down;
The word of the LORD – Amos 9:2 NKJV
The further words of the Lord paint a fearful judgment and death of the people of His promise, a covenant Israel has broken.
The Prophet Amos confronts you and says, God showed me all this that you might repent. Do you?
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
Amos 9:10 KJV
The ending that is not yet the end
Amos offers only a distant glimmer of hope.
“On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old…
The Lord God will once again accept worship by the sons of David. Yet how?
We will learn more of this next in returning to the Good News of John.
Then the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, “Behold, another man running by himself.”
And the king said, “This one also is bringing good news.”
2 Samuel 18:16
Watchtowers at gates of old city
Of Gatekeepers and Watchmen
Soldier of Roman Legion
It would have been a Roman Centurion, Roman guards at the gates of first century Jerusalem.
Armed soldiers, some who had marched on Roman roads connecting nearby towns and slaughtering rebellious zealots in the mountain passes guarded the gates.
As each festival approached with its crowds of pilgrims flooding the streets of Jerusalem, each watchtower with its Roman overseers would look to turn back any threat to their subject-king and their Caesar.
A Roman guard in each watchtower of Jerusalem would have sent out an alarm if any opponent approached their captive city.
They were unlike the faithful who worshiped here and the not so casual crowds of curious visitors of this day.
Damascus Gate of Jerusalem
Who approaches our city?
Will they enter through the gate by permission of their king (or city leader)?
Are they any threat to the Emperor’s representative, our leaders and our Legions?
Who may enter?
It was common practice of the people, including shepherds leading sheep for the slaughter of the sacrifice, to travel here from far away hills and trade within Jerusalem’s walls. Then they worshiped within the courts of their Temple, surrounded by walls of watchmen.
The gatekeeper is much more than a ticket taker, so to speak, a man of authority.
Please keep in mind the context of John’s gospel in the earthly journey of Jesus and the Apostles to Jerusalem. Although we pause once more in John’s witness of a man born blind, the context of Jesus’ actions set the stage for what will happen next.
Rome will destroy Jerusalem later, as Babylon and others had destroyed her before. This nervous alliance between a subject king of the region and ruler of Rome governed the day-to-day lives of Judea’s subjects.
Some mattered more than others. A ruling council guarded their revamped religion and culture: Pharisees, Sadducees, rich landowners paying taxes for the Roman army to remain there in peace.
They kept pretense of self-rule under Herod as a self-subjugated nation which could be crushed by Rome at any hint of rebellion.
A Roman legacy of a Judean King
Back in 19 B.C., Rome had allowed their great builder king to start rebuilding the Temple. Ten thousand skilled laborers and a thousand Levites built it with contributions of Jews mostly from the diaspora to the east just beyond Rome’s grip. It would not be completed until A.D. 63, just seven years prior to their destruction of all Jerusalem. – Source
Those now in authority choose who may enter Jerusalem. Several acted as gatekeeper for a gate entering the court of the Temple, a designated religious police poised at its gates. And as always, those judged for crimes were sentenced by a court sitting at the gate.
But now their jewish judgments must be confirmed by Rome’s prefect who cruelly crushed opposition by the constant reminders of their Roman crosses of crucifixion along roads to the city.
Like always, men of no threat to anyone often sat within the gates begging from faithful pilgrims coming and going into the city.
“For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
– the words of Jesus, Matthew 26:11 NASB
David’s Watchmen
When David was king, Jerusalem had fought for the LORD rather than bowing down to a Caesar. Yet even David sat as gatekeeper of Israel after opposition by his own son.
David’s great kingdom long forgotten, Jerusalem’s leaders mustered the crowds toward a new faith of confidence by the name of David, although few remembered David’s defeats and difficulties.
One such ne’er-told scripture would have been of David’s time after Absalom’s revolt. It was a day not so grandiose as their many reminders to first century crowds of Solomon’s first Temple.
7 The people of Israel were defeated there before the servants of David [Judah], and the slaughter there that day was great, 20,000 men…
17 They took Absalom and cast him into a deep pit in the forest and erected over him a very great heap of stones. And all Israel fled, each to his tent.
24 Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and raised his eyes and looked, and behold, a man running by himself. The watchman called and told the king.
And the king said, “If he is by himself there is good news in his mouth.”
And he came nearer and nearer. Then the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, “Behold, another man running by himself.”
And the king said, “This one also is bringing good news.”
…
Why send two?
Two messengers. King David awaits good news as he sits in the gate as gatekeeper of the City of David.
Men from the watchtowers above see a distant scene long before David has news of what has happened. Two separate messengers approaching the stronghold of Jerusalem where the people had kept their king behind as gatekeeper.
Why two? What details of the battle for the LORD will they reveal?
“O my son Absalom
The report of hope turns into great sorrow for the king.
“Let my lord the king receive good news, for the Lord has freed you this day from the hand of all those who rose up against you.”
“Let the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be as that young man!”
33 The king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept.
Though his victory as King is secured, David would have done anything to have kept his own son from death.
And thus he said as he walked, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
2 Samuel 19:
8 So the king arose and sat in the gate. When they told all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate,” then all the people came before the king…
After several violent battles between the rebellious tribes of Israel David prevails as king.
Solomon then becomes Israel’s richest and greatest king, building the Temple of the Lord. But in his old age Solomon falls away from his faith and at his death Israel and Judah once again divide.
After some centuries both kingdoms fall, the Temple of Solomon destroyed.
A Babylonian-built Jewish temple
Perhaps you have never considered that the temple in Jerusalem could never have been rebuilt over the ruble where the Law was found without Persia’s and Babylon’s help. Of course, the LORD made it possible as the LORD had influenced Pharaoh before.
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Ezra 1:2 NASB
Therefore, ‘in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia.’ [Ezra 1:1]
For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.
Hebrews 3:3 NASB
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,
DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS…
Hebrews 3:7-8 NASB
Nehemiah & Ezra
Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel warned both Israel and Judah to return to the LORD, but they also provided hope for later faithful generations of God’s faithfulness.
Although building of the second temple was begun around 516 BC (many centuries after David), it was not completed until about 349 BC under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.”
Nehemiah 2:17 NASB
Again, note the passage of time and the patience of the LORD in completing His plan of redemption.
Nehemiah 4:
He [Sanballat] spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said,
“What are these feeble Jews doing?
Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”
The importance of gatekeepers guarding the gates of the faith, as well as the city continued as it had since the time of David and traditions of Moses.
… And Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.
17 Now the gatekeepers were Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their relatives (Shallum the chief being stationed until now at the king’s gate to the east)…
20 Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them previously, and the Lord was with him. Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper of the entrance of the tent of meeting. All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers at the thresholds were 212.
The Pharisees and priests (Levites) of the rebuilt temple of the first century had legitimacy of guarding the purity of the faith of the LORD.
Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, but the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine-tenths remained in the other cities.
We will next return to first century Jerusalem, but first hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah. (Without knowing their context you may have heard them before.)
Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. … The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy…
Yet previously Isaiah the Prophet had warned:
His watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied.
And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all turned to their own way, Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.
Into this same Jerusalem the Messiah Jesus enters the gates, encounters the watchmen and shepherds of Herod. Among other signs the Lord gives a man blind from birth his sight!
Could the LORD have sent a new gatekeeper of heaven to Jerusalem?
