This NEW approach for talkofJesus.com posts replicates an interactive technique used for centuries: introduce the story and characters, then interrupt the storyline briefly to provoke thought about the story. The author’s design is for you to respond to the storyteller.
As author of most posts here I ask you:
Do you talk of Jesus?
After you read Scripture, do you comment or respond to the writer with a question?
Page TWO:
Thanks to Paul Harvey for this engaging media concept of communication developed for radio in the 20th century.
Story telling goes back beyond the ancient oral traditions of the Bible. Scripture; however much like contemporary BREAKING NEWS, it often reveals only page one of a continuing story.
Sometimes as Christians we need to turn the page from a first century impact of Christ Jesus as revealed in Scripture — to questions we should ask if we could talk of Jesus Christ in this 21st century. We need to think about the story of the Lord and project our conversation into contemporary application.
The BIBLE still applies to a contemporary church of struggling saints of these last days.
You may know of a Christian ministry or witness whose stated purpose is to defend God.
RZIM.org and others focus on apologetics witness Jesus Christ to unsaved souls, comparing Christianity to other religions — even to atheism. Some have come to Christ through these ministries by learning the logic and love of the Lord God calling sinners to Christ.
Yet think of the irony of it:
If any have NO NEED of defense, it would be ALMIGHTY GOD.
(Apologetics is not really defending God,
but answering those who question God - unbelievers
and those who refuse God's love - apostates.)
Defending God and Christ Jesus to unbelievers is not my purpose, which is to grow your faith IF you are a Christian follower of the Lord.
As I have stated recently, talkofJesus.com is not focused on unbelievers, but on followers of Christ who want to talk of Jesus in the context of scripture.
Continuing in the Gospel of John we move on from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the defense of Jesus by Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane.
John 18:
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” …
10 Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus.
11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”
Who is Malchus?
Malchus is δοῦλος doulos of the High Priest, perhaps better translated in the KJV and other translations as ‘servant.’
In fact, Judas had left the upper room in Jerusalem to betray Jesus to the ruling council headed by the High Priest Caiaphas.
The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they could not find any.
Mark 14:55 CSB – of the Sanhedrin, religious rulers of Jerusalem
Malchus’ name means ‘king,’ from a Hebrew origin pointing to the tribe of Benjamin. (The priests of course were Levites as prescribed by Law.)
How ironic that Peter should defend Jesus, King of the Jews, by lopping off the ear of this man Malchus, whose name meant king.
More about Malchus
Malchus would have been ordered to lead these armed police officers of the Sanhedrin, guided by Judas, to bring this popular Messiah back to them for trial.
John has already told us:
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
Malchus would have been a personal servant to Caiaphas, an assistant with some authority assumed by his role in serving the High Priest. The Temple police held similar authority. And add to that a few Roman soldiers in the entourage lead by Malchus whose role was to see that the Jews did not get out of hand in this area governed by Pilate.
Judas is, no doubt, among the men sent to bring Jesus to the justice of the Sanhedrin, but Malchus, servant of the High Priest is the man leading them into Gethsemane under the cover of night.
Luke’s account
Of course John, Matthew and Peter would have been among the awakened Apostles present in Gethsemane. Peter, who would later lead the church until his own crucifixion, responded by cutting off Malchus’ ear just after Judas’ kiss of betrayal of Jesus.
Brash as always, Peter will defend the Lord – an ironic gesture defending the One who could instantly have angels present to ‘smite’ the lot of them – IF, that is, defeating men of dust was Jesus’ will.
Jesus heals the ear struck by Peter’s sword! His enemy, head of an armed force sent by the Jews to apprehend their Messiah Jesus to be tried and convicted covertly under the cover of night. The Lord just betrayed by one of His Disciples shows mercy to the men Judas led to apprehend Him.
Defending Jesus
John is about to tell us more of the saga of Peter on this night in which our Lord was betrayed. In fact, as you know, away from Jesus Peter could no longer defend Jesus even by admitting to be a follower.
If that how it is for you, beloved believer in Christ Jesus?
How do you defend Jesus when confronted by the multitudes?
Is your defense of God an aggressive agenda of man, a political position of proving that Jesus wants what you do?
(For that was what Judas expected of his King Jesus.)
Do you praise the Lord in the church building, yet deny your God on trial in the rise and fall of blame by the darkness of this world’s accusations?
Even Peter struggled with that, dear friend, but the risen Lord Jesus restored Him again and again.
How ironic that we would defend the LORD God, that we want to defend Christ Jesus who came into the world to save us.
In these last days, which began under the darkness of a night in Gethsemane, God has defeated sin and death for us
— by the grace of the Lord’s love
for those He has chosen.
We believe in the One Son the Father sent to suffer for our sins, the Messiah Jesus.
For Christ Jesus our Lord, we make no apologies to a world without ears to hear the Good News — a world directed by Satan for just a time more.
Jesus uses ‘Father’ as a relational approach to God, just like the trust which the boy Jesus surely must have had with Joseph, husband of His mother Mary, many times.
Yet what does this mean to a disciple of Jesus’ teaching to address the Lord God as Father?
Father, the hour has come
There’s a certain immediacy to saying, ‘the hour’ is come, or now is or has come. It is the precise time we have been awaiting – a time prepared long before now.
Our present focus of The Hour Is Comeis Jesus’ prayer at the precise time after Judas left the room and prior to the Lord and the Eleven departing for Gethsemane where He is about to be betrayed.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
Jesus begins His conversation in prayer by addressing the LORD God in a most intimate and relational way.
“Father,” the Son of Man so boldly addresses Almighty God in heaven. What a connection!
A Man Who IS more than a man — speaking directly to the LORD GOD, as if He Who IS the very Son of God would humbly address his papa on earth.
Trinity begins with the Father
The lesson and relationship learned from Jesus’ prayer is both mysterious and wonderful — glorious in a sense of worship and humbling in the light of an intimate relationship.
Later we will focus again on Jesus the Son of God, His connection through the Holy Spirit and a new covenant of grace for all who will follow Jesus as Lord. But for now we look up only to the Father, as did Jesus in His prayer..
Choose any of the three definitions you like, but realize that John and the Eleven are listening to the Son of Man, Jesus their Master and Teacher, pray directly to the LORD God in heaven, whose Voice they have heard previously.
generator or male ancestor
metaphor for:
the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
a title of honour
teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received (We don’t really honor teachers in this way in these last days, but some give this authority to a priest leader of a flock.)
the members of the Sanhedrin (As you know, Jesus had some issue with these ‘fathers of Israel’ as well & they will be the ones to clandestinely convict the Messiah of God our Father sent as our atoning Sacrifice to save a remnant of Abraham.)
God is called the Father (This applies is many ways you may read here, but above all ‘Father of spiritual beings and of all men.’)
By all Authority implied in Jesus’ opening of HIS High Priestly Prayer, it is highly significant that the Lord Jesus ‘lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father …’
And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament the definition instructs us from the everyday Greek word used by Jesus and those in Jerusalem governed by Rome:
πατήρ : ‘from a root signifying “a nourisher, protector, upholder” (Lat., pater, Eng., “father,” are akin), is used
[God’s] “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son. The spiritual relationship is not universal.
[& an additional insight: Note: Whereas the everlasting power and divinity of God are manifest in creation, His “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son, Mat 11:27; Jhn 17:25.
The spiritual relationship is not universal, Jhn 8:42, 44 (cp. Jhn 1:12; Gal 3:26).] [I will leave you to your own further revelation of the Father through your research of these scriptures. RH]
The ‘Father’ of Jesus’ prayer
With additional insight of bowing down to God the Father in our prayer to heaven, let us recall that Jesus had already taught the Disciples that which we know so well and do take for granted.
The Lord’s Prayer
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
‘Our,’ which precedes Father, in the Lord’s Prayer is a personal possessive pronoun, a possessive plural in corporate prayer.
So perhaps appropriate in a singular personal possessive sense in prayer, you or I might reasonably pray,
“My Father in heaven. Holy is your Name.”
(And recall that the Lord Jesus has declared: “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]
What glorious mystery for us to observe Jesus and the Father, who are One, in this, His most personal prayer prior to the Son’s sacrifice on a Cross for our sins.
The Disciples had been accustomed to Jesus praying to the Father at many times corporately before the multitudes, more privately among them and privately away from them at times.
So from this final prayer following the last supper of Jesus and the Disciples, John witnesses this high priestly prayer of their Master and Teacher Jesus, a beloved father to the Twelve for these past three years.
πατήρ – patēr– a title of honour – teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received
Jesus continues and prays just a short time later:
21 that they may all be one;
even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,
that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
Relationship with our Father in heaven
Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, later writes to the church in Corinth:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you
Again, the Apostle Paul and Jesus both point to the glorious mystery of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as ONE, as well as a personal relationship between the spirit of a redeemed man like you or me to the ONE GOD, Who IS Spirit and truth.
John 17:
Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer as intercession for these disciples and those to follow:
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…
25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me…
What must the Disciple have thought following Jesus’ prayer to the Father?
What do you think of this prayer to the Holy Father in heaven by the Highest of High Priests praying for your soul?
“Lord,” they called Jesus — “the existing One” as more than a Son of Man, as the LORD GOD IS ONE!
אֱלֹהִים
‘elohiym– ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God
Our LORD is the ONE GOD — Trinity — the Son interceding by prayer and His own priestly Sacrifice for those who believe and would be saved.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
