Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Matthew 26 - The Garden of Gethsemane

Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:37-39

Jesus knew that the only way the promised Kingdom of God could come was for the handwriting of ordinances that stood against man (due to sin and transgressions of the Law) had to be put away.  And how could these ordinances be put away? Through blood/death. The wages of sin is the curse and then death - the guilty has to die and shed his/her blood to satisfy the sin penalty under the Law. All of us (before being born again in Christ) have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. 

But thankfully, God provided a substitutionary system whereby the sinner could substitute an innocent sacrifice to shed innocent blood in lieu of the sinner's blood; innocent blood is the only blood that God will accept as a substitute for the sinner's death and eternal damnation. The innocent little lambs and other animals sacrificed under the Old Covenant Temple system where merely a shadow of the true sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose blood would be so powerful, so innocent, that it would exceed the penalty and thereby bring the whole sacrificial temple system to an end. That is very good news!

As a man (who knew no sin), Jesus was subject to temptation to lose faith and be disobedient to God's Word, as all of us are tempted. But since He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He had the power to resist temptation and not give way to sin. However, as He began the terrible substitutionary process of taking on sin as the ultimate sacrifice, His flesh fought Him and wanted to take another route other than the one the heavenly Father had ordained. But Jesus knew there was only one way; He knew He must suffer for the curse, shed His innocent blood, and then die a spiritual and physical death, just as the scriptures had prophesied.

But, there was joy set before Him which enabled Him to endure this terrible ordeal: He saw us, the children of God, born again IN HIM, the trophies of God's grace, waiting for Him on the other side. And so, He endured the horrific pain of physical and spiritual affliction so that we can partake in His glorious resurrected life. 

He took our sin penalty and gave us His reward for obedience. I believe His time in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed three times for strength was the toughest time for Him. He could have walked away, but He didn't. He pressed through and went all the way to the cross, fulfilling God's beautiful plan for us!

Links:
https://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/unheeded-or-misinterpreted-signs-the-destruction-of-jerusalem-70ad/

http://bible.christiansunite.com/jos/warindex.shtml

http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com/

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/haggadah.html

Matthew 26 - Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:26-29

During this wonderful Passover meal with His disciples (which we refer to as the Last Supper), Jesus relayed the good news of the New Covenant promised by God long ago. It would be instituted through Jesus' sinless, tortured, broken body and His blood. 

Jesus instructed them to symbolically eat His broken body (symbolized by the unleaven bread) and drink His blood (symbolized by the wine - the Passover cup of Redemption). This was a sobering concept, considering that the Law strictly forbid any Jew from drinking the blood of the sacrifice (the life was in the blood!) We know from the Gospel of John that Jesus had lost many of His followers when He told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood or they would have no part of Him.  As expected, this statement caused great confusion. It takes the Holy Spirit and the new birth in order to fully comprehend spiritual truths. Spiritual truths appear as pure nonsense to a natural man.

That evening, Jesus also warned His disciples that one of them would betray Him, just as it had been prophesied in the Psalms. (See Psalms 41:9). As one could imagine, the disciples were extremely distressed to hear this! They loved each other and they loved Jesus and had been through so many things together during the past three and half years. They could not fathom any of them doing such a dastardly thing! And yet, Jesus knew that it was Judas. 

The Bible is unclear as to when Jesus discovered the identity of His betrayer, but I do believe that He was not 100% ignorant nor was He 100% in the know during the time of His ministry. The Old Covenant tells us that Jesus was hurt by the betrayal of His good friend, as any of us would be hurt by someone we love selling us out to our enemies.

Forgiveness could have been available to Judas, but the Bible says that Judas never sought forgiveness for his evil deed. He became the Son of Perdition spoken of by the prophets years ago.

Links:
https://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/unheeded-or-misinterpreted-signs-the-destruction-of-jerusalem-70ad/

http://bible.christiansunite.com/jos/warindex.shtml

http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com/

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/haggadah.html