ALL took place in 1st century Jerusalem in the brief span of one week!
Continuing Jesus’ trials..
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there…
Jesus has already been found guilty and tried by the Jewish leaders Annas and Caiaphas during the wakening hours of this day. Then they brought the Messiah to the governor Pilate, who has just questioned their prisoner in his own judge’s quarters (which the Jews would not enter).
In effect, the Roman Governor of all the province of Judea acting as High Court Judge of Jerusalem tells them, ‘Case dismissed.’
Now, after private questioning of Jesus about their accusation, Pilate once again finds Jesus, Not Guilty!
But now begins the politics of playing the crowds.
Justice by Public Opinion – a Poll of the people
Once again, some time passes as the Jerusalem crowds gather for the preparation for the Passover feast. The buzz of the multitudes outside must have reminded Pilate of the great accolades for Jesus as He had approached Jerusalem just five days before.
As Governor of Judea, Pilate also had to placate officials of the Sanhedrin who Jesus offended in the Temple courts on Monday.
What’s a politically correct way to please the crowds who followed Jesus AND the Jewish leaders who help Pilate maintain the peace of Jerusalem?
The Judge of Judea will show mercy to this innocent man.
So the Prefect likely sent guards to the prison to bring a second previously condemned man to the governor near to Pilate’s position above the crowds. Now the Jews will see the truth of an innocent Man compared to an insurrectionist murderer like this prisoner Barabbas.
“I find no grounds for charging him. 39 You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”
IF you didn’t already know the ending of this Good Friday, you might jump up and applaud Pilate’s political correctness.
Everybody wins when the governor shows mercy. This powerful Roman governor of Judea seems to judge truth with great fairness.
BUT, as you know, crowds may be easily swayed from doing what is right.
40 They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
CSB
John 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.
To be continued...
Page TWO - Please click Page 2 below for the questions.
‘What is truth?’ Pilate will soon ask the Creator of all things who came to this world of His creation.
Yet prior to the tragic truth of the trial of His righteousness sacrificed for us, Jesus prays for those given to Him:
“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” [CSB]
Christ Jesus, sanctified for us, prayed about truth. So just as we previously defined sanctification [in our last post linked above] let’s define truth as used in scripture.
what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth
in the greatest latitude
the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention
the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians
subjectively
truth as a personal excellence
that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit
The Truth of Eternal Life
All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
3 You return mankind to the dust, saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”
7 For we are consumed by your anger; we are terrified by your wrath. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days ebb away under your wrath; we end our years like a sigh.
But what next?
‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten… OR perhaps eighty, the Psalm reminds us… (OR perhaps a score more, but maybe just 50 years… or a death more sudden).
‘… Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.” – Psalm 90:10b NASB
Returning to the night of Jesus’ betrayal
The Messiah Jesus came to man — living among us and teaching God’s way.
The Lord looks toward heaven on this night on which He was betrayed. From an upper room in Jerusalem Jesus prays to God our Father. This perfect High Priest stands before His own Altar of suffering and Sacrifice on behalf of those the LORD has chosen.
For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:19 NASB
You will die and I will die.
The Son of Man did die… for those whom He sacrificed for Himself.
The witness of Scripture and the Gospel confirm what happened next to the Messiah of God. What will be next for you?
Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies… only the high priest enters…
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation..
.. through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
… sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh …
… “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” …
For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us
AND YES, fellow sinner, you know well from Scripture what is NEXT after DEATH.
28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Do You await HIM?
As Jesus our High Priest interceded for them, the Apostles only had hint of what would come next. Certain sacrifice of their Lord and ours! Probably persecution and death for each Disciple of Jesus, the only question being when.
Yet by the Lord’s prayer of protection He sent disciples into a world which hates Jesus, the Christ of GOD; a world which hates the very GOD it denies.
No question about it, ALL will die; but few await death with joyous expectation. Do you await the resurrection of our flesh and joining of your soul and the Spirit of the LORD GOD?
NONE want to face the Judgment of sin – an evil nature woven into our being which cannot face the Very Light of the Lord GOD.
Those who deny God or claim Christ falsely must, in time, face the judgment of having chosen darkness over the Light and Glory of God and of having refused God’s grace of a new choice to turn back to the path of righteousness which leads to life in paradise.
What is True of Christ Jesus?
The Good News of John about Jesus our Savior:
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
“Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
“This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil…
“But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Just a reminder to Christians of this 21st century, Jesus was Jewish.
Yeshua, from Ἰησοῦς in Greek, Iēsous from יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Hebrew meaning Yĕhowshuwa` (Joshua or Jehoshua = “Jehovah is salvation”) in English: Jesus. (The One born to a Jewish mother, a virgin betrothed to a faithful Jew, Joseph son of Jacob {Matthew 1:16}.)
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Gospel of Matthew 1:1 KJV
Although we have been following Jesus through the Gospel of John, for our understanding of the Messiah and His jewish upbringing as the Son of Man, we have just left some predictions of the Prophet Amos.
Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. The LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.
Ezekiel 44:1-2 NASB
“The priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the posts of the gate of the inner court.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
7 Yeshua emphasized, “I can guarantee this truth: I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:7 NOG
Later Jesus will tell the Apostles to also be wary of these religious hired hands determined to devour all opposition.
John tells us how Jerusalem’s religious leaders opposed the Messiah after Jesus healed a man blind from birth. But Jesus tells the crowds a parable against them.
12 A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away.
John 10:11 NKJV
19 Again the Jews were divided because of these words…
After this, a most popular Messiah Jesus enters Jerusalem for a festival.
Jewish festivals
22 Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.
A brief overview:
The Hebrew Civil Year began with Tishri [October]. At the Exodus the Ecclesiastical Year was made to begin with Abib [April], which, after the Captivity, was called also Nisan.- Hitchcock’s Topical Commentary
“Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Deuteronomy 16:16 NASB
But this minor feast (we now call the festival of lights) held importance to a Jerusalem which presumed to have purified and rededicated the Temple. In commemoration of the cleansing and re-dedication of the Temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes. –H.
The Story Behind the Feast of Dedication
Prior to the year 165 BC, the Jewish people in Judea were living under the rule of the Greek kings of Damascus. During this time Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greco-Syrian king, took control of the Temple in Jerusalem and forced the Jewish people to abandon their worship of God, their holy customs, and reading of the Torah. He made them bow down to the Greek gods. According to ancient records, King Antiochus IV defiled the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar and spilling its blood on the holy scrolls of Scripture.
23 Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews surrounded him and asked,
“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them.
Do you believe His signs?
Even in this day some will believe and come to faith through the Messiah, He IS the gate to salvation and the door to heaven. Others remain blind to truth.
Jesus has already given several signs, proofs in various places of miracles only God could do. The most recent of these, of course, was giving a blind man sight right there in Jerusalem.
“The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep.
Who do you follow?
Some preacher, a rabbi or teacher?
None are the Son of God, the Shepherd of the chosen ones of God our Father.
The Way to heaven
27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
Why would you doubt the authoritative gentle voice of the Shepherd at the door?
If you believe in God Almighty our God and Father, do you not see His power and compassion in the Only Son, Shepherd of the chosen to enter into His Glory?
Is Jesus your Lord and Shepherd?
For His love and anointing must be clear to those who are no longer blind.
Would you humbly turn from your sin to hear His gentle voice?
“Follow Me.” “I am the way the truth and the life.”*
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
A decision of life or death
How many times can you recall that the LORD strikes down the one who sins?
More times in scripture than we can recall.
The LORD GOD IS ALMIGHTY! Fear only him, the LORD, the Existing One.
John the Baptist had testified of the Holy Spirit of God descending upon Jesus.
The Lord Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. A Man of God thought to be from Nazareth asked men and women to follow Him.
Jesus, Son of Man as He referred to himself, showed signs and wonders to many.
What is left for the Messiah to tell us?
If we must follow Jesus, is He God in Person? – a “Son of Man” the very human Image of God (as a Son of His Father born to a woman)?
For the LORD God is One and our decision to obey the LORD is a matter of eternal life or judgment and punishment of our soul in death.
“I and My Father are one.”
John 10:30 KJV
Truth? or Blasphemy?
31 Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.
32 Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”
33 “We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you—being a man—make yourself God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods? If he called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’—and the Scripture cannot be broken— do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?
Jesus, Son of Man filled with the Holy Spirit of Almighty God! Once again the Lord confronts the hired hands of Herod, wolves luring the faithful away from the Shepherd, with Scripture and Truth.
How can they refute what everyone has seen with their own eyes?
37 “If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me…”
You too have seen many signs and miracles. Those in addition to Jesus’ compassion and love for the lost who have sinned.
A few repent seeking return to the safety of the Shepherd.
38 “… But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”
Jesus and God the Father are One! Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God are One!
What was it Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus?
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
But those who will not bow down to the LORD God accuse the Son of Man of blasphemy. (Let the casual 21st c. reader understand the significance of blasphemy– a sin against God requiring death of the offender.)
39 Then they were trying again to seize him, but he eluded their grasp.
A return to the wilderness
40 He went back across the Jordan River and stayed in the place where John first baptized people.
41 Many people went to Yeshua. They said, “John didn’t perform any miracles, but everything John said about this man is true.” 42 Many people there believed in Yeshua.
The Apostle John has already revealed the Good News of the Messiah proven by many signs in many places.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
“You have sent to John [the baptist], and he has testified to the truth.
“If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
“Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
The One Truth & nothing but The Truth
“I and the Father are One!”
John 10:30 – Strong’s: b) metaphorically, “union” and “concord,” e.g., Jhn 10:30; 11:52; 17:11, 21, 22; Rom 12:4, 5; Phl 1:27
This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.
What other sign do you need to open your eyes to what Jesus plainly has said?
I and the Father are One!
NEXT: The Resurrection of Lazarus ... God-willing...
![Before the mountains were born
[c]Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. Psalm 90:2 picture of mountains in mist by lake](https://talkofjesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ps-90-2.jpg)
