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Tag: Matthew

  • Jesus – The Last Prayers of Gethsemane

    Jesus – The Last Prayers of Gethsemane

    “Drink from it, all of you;

    for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins…”

    After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

    Matthew 26:27b-28, the words of Christ Jesus to the Apostles; v.30 NASB

    Departing for Death

    The Lord blessed the Apostles in an upper room of Jerusalem in a High Priestly Prayer, institutes the Last Supper with the Twelve, reveals Judas as the one who will betray Him and finally departs the City of David one last time for Gethsemane with the eleven chosen Apostles.

    As we learned previously from John 18 in Jesus Leading Toward Gethsemane, the Gospels provide witness of much detail about this time of Jesus. All of this so far has happened in one day, mostly in the evening and what follows in the darkness of night.

    Although we have looked back mostly through John’s eyes, tonight we will fill in some detail from the other Gospels.

    Prayer before DEATH~

    Can any consequence common to man be any more daunting than facing death?

    The Messiah Jesus had known every temptation to men of dust except that which as we flee death denies our mortality.

    This night as the Son of Man and His eleven Disciples leave Jerusalem they are all certain that the Lord will be betrayed to death.

    Matthew 26:

    31 Then Jesus said to them, “Tonight all of you will fall away because of me, for it is written:

    I will strike the shepherd,
    and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.[b]

    32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

    Denial of Death’s Near Approach

    Matthew, John and the others must have wondered, yet known in their hearts, what Jesus now prophesies. The Messiah must die – the Christ they know may be mortal! (For Jesus has already told them more than once.)

    Certainly Jesus is not going to Galilee this night of all nights just two days before the Passover festival. The Disciples would have dismissed it and the ‘after I have risen’ part seemed far into the future.

    Peter however, brash leader anointed by Jesus who must later act in absentia for Christ, reacts boldly before all.

    Peter told him, “Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away.”

    Matthew 26:33 CSB

    In essence Peter states: “You can count on me!”

    Sure, you do that to comfort your friend and so do I.

    How do you respond to the questions at death’s door?

    Like Peter, would we feign faithfulness to a dying friend we cannot accompany through death’s door?

    We all know how it turned out when push came to shove by a charcoal fire a few hours later. Peter slinked away from confession of his love of Jesus while the Lord was accused falsely.

    His fellow Apostle, Matthew records that in response to Peter, Jesus prophesies his three denials.

    Mark 14:

    The first Gospel writer and apostolic scribe, John Mark, later records what may have been Peter’s post-resurrection confession:

    31 But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

    Mark adds reactions of the other ten as well:

    And they all were saying the same thing also.

    Let us not forget our tendency to ‘follow the leader’ when a bold representative speaks of some cause from which we will likely fall away by our faithlessness.

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com – regarding Peter’s denials of Christ Jesus

    Luke 22:

    28 “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials…

    31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

    33 But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”

    What do you about Jesus?

    Is this YOUR witness for Christ Jesus? ” — “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!”

    Will you really do it…

    Or like Simon Peter, will you shrink back from your defense of the Lord when Jesus is under attack by the world’s accusers?

    Jesus’ plea in Prayer

    Mark:

    32 They came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here until I have prayed.”

    Their dear friend who will soon die asks them to be with Him.

    Luke:

    40 When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

    Matthew:

    (who had been to this place with Jesus several times)

    37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed.

    Then He said to them,

    “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death…

    “… remain here and keep watch with Me.”

    39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying,

    “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me…

    … yet not as I will, but as You will.”

    Luke

    The agony of imminent death!

    43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

    And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly:

    … and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground…

    45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow…

    Reaction to sorrow..

    STRESS! The terrible personal confrontation of DEATH!

    The Lord Jesus reacts to it by praying more intently.

    And the Disciples, even His closest three friends on earth?

    Well… they failed their dear friend when He desired their understanding and compassion most.

    ‘The flesh is weak..

    Jesus’ Disciples fall into a resigning sleep at the prospect of complete change — the Sacrifice, ending the life of their beloved friend.

    Matthew

    & the others, awakened from sleep..

    40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter,

    “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 

    I must confess: Rare is the hour I do not fall asleep 
while praying for a time.

    The Lord Jesus continues with caution to His friends:

    “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

    42 He went away again a second time and prayed…

    Mark:

    39 Again He went away and prayed, saying the same words.

    40 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.

    Do you know what to say to Jesus when you fail Him in prayer?
My guilt grieves me in my severe shortcomings in prayer.

    41 And He came the third time, and said to them,

    “Are you still sleeping and resting?

    It is enough; the hour has come…

    .. behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

    42 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

    Luke:

    47 While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them…

    John:

    3 Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

    So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them,

    “Whom do you seek?”

    They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

    He said to them,

    “I am He.”

    So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

    John 18:6 NASB
    To be continued...

    What to you have to say about Jesus?

    Please comment here on what you have to say about prayer.

    How can I pray for you, dear friend — beloved brother (or sister) in the Lord?

  • Jesus’ Power to give Eternal Life

    Jesus’ Power to give Eternal Life

    … and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

    John 10:28 NASB

    Power and Authority

    From the Gospel John 17 we have begun to study the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer in The Hour Is Come and also recently addressed The Authority of Jesus, His Power over all flesh.

    Jesus preached about eternal life in synagogues, on hillsides and in homes of the Jews. The Gospels also include several scenes where His authority over life and death had always been questioned by Jerusalem’s leaders.

    The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”

    Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

    The Gospel of John 2:18-19 NASB

    This temple of Jesus is not the fortress of flesh or whitewashed walls of symbolic religion, but the Living and Holy Image of the Son of God!

    cut away holy of holies
    Interior of the Temple with High Priest facing the Holy of Holies

    Jesus has never in-person entered the Holy of Holies. The Son of Man never entered the building as a temple priest with the sacrifice of worship.

    Our Lord simply showed grace and clearly taught truth from the Temple’s public courtyards, Jewish gathering places walled in from the world and its gentile Roman captors, the public square of faithful Jews.

    Solomon's portico with view of the Temple and crowds

    Jesus preached in Solomon’s portico, a place remote enough from a public face of the Sanhedrin’s seventy religious rulers.

    POWER!

    He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said,

    “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? G1411

    Matthew 15:34 NASB

    ‘Who is this Jesus of Nazareth,’ the powerful religious leaders would have always asked as they had also of John the Baptist?

    δύναμις – dynamis – strength power, ability

    • Used here for both words: ‘miraculous’ & ‘powers’
    • Also used in this way in Mark 6:14 where speaking of Jesus and His Disciples ‘…people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous G1411 powers G1411 are at work in Him.”

    We are not talking political or military or religious power, but true and miraculous power over creation and the created – power of the Son of Man, the Messiah Jesus from the LORD God!

    Authority

    So many Jews had hoped that Jesus would use such power to overthrow Rome in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee.

    The image of a shepherd may be that of a powerful king like David or Solomon, but more commonly seen as one saving vulnerable sheep from wolves.

    “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

    from the Good News of John 10:18 the promise of the Messiah Jesus

    Although the Apostles knew their Lord and Master as a humble man, the Messiah Jesus also spoke of His authority as Master and Shepherd of His disciples many times.

    John 10:

    The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds – the Door
    Parable of the Good Shepherd

    14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep…

    ἐξουσία – exousia – authority

    Jesus claims the authority to lay [His Life] down and also sais, “I have authority to take it up again.” This was a remarkable claim of Jesus that He had the authority to cause BOTH His own death and resurrection. (We have addressed ‘The Authority of Jesus’ in our introduction to John 17.)

    “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.

    I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

    The words of the Messiah Jesus – John 10:17-18 NASB

    19 A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words.

    No wonder the Jews became divided because of these words about their Messiah’s authority.

    Consider the common definition of authority Jesus coveys:

    • power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases
    • physical and mental power
    • the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege)
      • (Here’s one no religious or political leader willingly gives up.)
    • the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed)
      • (Again, Herod, Caesar, Pilate, Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, priests – all have a stake in maintaining their tenuous authority & limited power.)

    Power over death and life

    Cling to this fragile flesh; for what little power we exercise over it.

    To some degree of authority: a king, our president, any judge of man’s courts — Rome’s Prefect, any governor and all authorities of man exercise power over other mortal men.

    We have NO choice in some matters. Yet these authorities of the flesh cannot give life, but grant mercy in its extension.

    Those who sought to seize Jesus of whom the crowds of Jerusalem had shouted, ‘Hosanna, Son of David; save us, blessed king,’ challenged many crowns. For the implied mortal and immediate authority of Caesar, of Herod, of Pilate, of Jerusalem’s political/religious leaders (the Sanhedrin, its priests and temple police) — all authority was threatened by the popularity Jesus.

    ALL could have lost their power of the day IF Jesus is crowned the “King of the Jews!”

    It MUST NOT HAPPEN.

    Therefore, show the crowds that THIS KING JESUS is no MAN of authority — for this claimant of Power from one High cannot even save His own mortal life (let alone that of the Jews). These same crowds will turn on Him when we have demonstrated our Authority over HIM.

    High Priest before the Altar of the LORD

    From an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus prays to the LORD GOD our Father for many things. Yet the Lord’s purpose is not to preserve any MORTAL life, but to SAVE select SOULS for ETERNAL LIFE.

    Though praying from an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus enters the most sacred place on our behalf – the Holy of Holies as our High Priest before God. Jesus stands before us praying for His authority to grant eternal life!

    From Death to Eternal Life

    Does this Jesus, Son of Man, really have such authority before the LORD GOD?

    For if He does, the Messiah of God IS everything He says that He IS.

    John 17:

    The High Priestly Prayer

    Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, 

    “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 

    This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

    … Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are…

    ἀγάπη

    I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

    John 17:22-23 CSB

    The Love that is the Glory of Eternal Life

    Aug -awp’-ay — agapē one of several Greek words for LOVE we fail to understand as men of flesh and as spirits given life by God. Yet Jesus Christ uses it on our behalf in His closing High Priestly Prayer.

    “…that the love  G26 wherewith thou hast loved me..” from the English of the King James Version: Jesus states the Father’s love for His only Son — this is the love for which Jesus intercedes for us in eternal life.

    And Jesus had recently told the Apostles, “Greater love G26 hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

    • affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love
    • love feasts

    An eternal life of relationship: Personal Relationship like that of Jesus with the Holy Father God — a glory of festive love as personal as the wedding, where the love of the bride and groom are celebrated by all who are invited to the feast.

    Christ Jesus our High Priest intercedes and asks His blessing on what is about to take place.

    Will you take up your cross and follow Him?

    To be continued...

  • Father, the hour is come

    Father, the hour is come

    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 Come is 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.

    John 17:1-2 ESV

    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..

    πατήρ – patēr

    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.

    1. generator or male ancestor
    2. metaphor for:
      1. the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
      2. one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
      3. one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
      4. a title of honour
        1. 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.)
        2. 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.)
    3. 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.

    Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament

    [& 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.

    Matthew 6:9 KJV
    father with turban and beard seated with arms around son

    ‘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.

    Luke 11:

    And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

    ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’

    And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say,

    Our Father which art in heaven,

    Hallowed be thy name.

    Thy kingdom come.

    Thy will be done,

    as in heaven, so in earth.

    Luke 11:2b KJV

    When your mortal ‘time is come’ will you able to approach your heavenly Father saying, ‘Thy will be done?’

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Jesus’ prayer in John 17

    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

    John 17:

    … “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…

    5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself…

    11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.

    Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me,

    that they may be one even as We are.

    One with the One Father

    Do you think that it is important to the Apostles that Jesus again prays to the Father with words confirming that He and the Father are ONE?

    שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃

    “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

    Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text, NASB

    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

    1 Corinthians 6:15-19 excerpt NASB

    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.

    John 18:1 ESV
    To be continued...