January 2021 – Praying Pint

19.d. “The doors being locked”

John 20:19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

The disciples have heard the tomb was empty. They had more than one evidenced account of it. You have to wonder what their discussions were concerning this. Was He taken? Has He risen? Was He alive? Each of them had to have these and other questions running through their minds. I imagine some of them had thoughts of shame and guilt and cowardliness and fear. The doors were shut and they were fearful of the Jews. They knew Jesus was not in the tomb and more than likely Jewish leaders would blame them and come for them. Maybe the same thing that happened to Jesus would happen to them. Imagine all of the thoughts they could have had running through their minds. Surely, after their desertion of Jesus on the day of His crucifixion, the disciples probably expected words of rebuke or blame. Instead, Jesus brought a word of peace, reconciling peace. Jesus stands with them. He just appears. He was not there and now He is on the inside with them while the doors were shut. He did not knock and ask to come in. He did not say, “let me in”. He came and stood in the midst and He spoke a blessing and forgiving words, “Peace be with you.” I am sure they remembered what Jesus told them the night He was betrayed, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away, and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.”

The harmony of God’s Word will grow our faith, trust, reliance, obedience, and love in and for Him.

19.c. “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him”

John 19:31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Psalms 22:14   I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;

Psalms 34:20    He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Zechariah 12:10    “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Psalms 22:16-17   For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—  I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me;

Revelation 1:7  Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

This was brutal work for rough men. They likely used an iron bar or a heavy club. “To secure speedy death the crucifragium, breaking of the legs with a heavy mallet or bar, was sometimes resorted to: as without such means the crucified might in some cases linger for thirty-six hours.” (Dods) This breaking of the legs must have been terrifying for a man still alive on a cross.

Imagine the fear of being told you are going to be flogged and the fear while being tied up. Imagine also the fear of being told you are going to be crucified and then laid on a cross with a burly guy standing at the ready to pound nail spikes through your wrists and feet. Then imagine hanging on the cross and seeing a guy coming up to you carrying a big club to break your legs. All of this Jesus endured save for the breaking of His legs. He did this for all who would believe, trust, follow Him. His death on a cross is a historical fact.

Most modern scholars agree that while this Josephus passage (called the Testimonium Flavianum) includes some later interpolations, it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus with a reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate. James Dunn states that there is “broad consensus” among scholars regarding the nature of an authentic reference to the crucifixion of Jesus in the Testimonium.

Early in the second century, another reference to the crucifixion of Jesus was made by Tacitus, generally considered one of the greatest Roman historians. Writing in The Annals (c. 116 AD), Tacitus described the persecution of Christians by Nero and stated (Annals 15.44) that Pilate ordered the execution of Jesus. Scholars generally consider the Tacitus reference to the execution of Jesus by Pilate to be genuine, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. And of course, this is recorded in all 4 Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Jesus endured all of this, save for the breaking of His legs. He did this for all who would believe, trust, follow Him. He did this for redemption, salvation, forgiveness. He did this in obedience to the plan and purpose of His Heavenly Father. He did this out of grace, mercy, and love. He did this so that those who believe (cling to, rely on, and trust in Him) would have eternal life with Him forever. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” By faith we trust. It is not by being good enough or doing good enough things in our life that makes the death of Jesus Christ a payment or substitution for our sin. It is faith in trust that what He did paid, in full, for our sin(s). It can’t be earned. It can’t be bought. Any hope in self must be surrendered. Any and all hope of being good enough must be cast far away from your mind. Only whey you fully trust, by faith, in Jesus Christ’s redemption will you be set free from guilt, shame, and self-reliance.

Too often we only think of this during Easter. This should be on our hearts and minds every waking moment so that we ever remember the price that was paid for our sins out of grace, mercy, and love.

19.b. “Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back”

Isaiah 17:10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge.

Jeremiah 3:21 A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Deuteronomy 32:8 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

Ezekiel 23:35 Therefore thus says the Lord the LORD: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

Hosea 13:6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.

Isaiah 51:13 and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth

Jeremiah 13:25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says the LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

The following was taken, in part, from an article written by Steve Huston under the title, “We have forgotten God”

Truthfully, we must bow to the fact that regardless of who will occupy the Oval Office, America is in desperate trouble because of the many decades of spiritual decay we have allowed.

A Trump administration may be better for our pocketbook than a Biden administration, and religious liberty may have had a better chance of flourishing in the past four years than is likely in the next four years; but, what did we do with our religious liberty?

What difference did we make in presenting the gospel to those around us and bringing our denominations and their respective institutions of higher learning back to the unadulterated truth of the Bible?

America remains full of moral decay; spiritual degeneracy – not teaching or learning the difference between the holy and the profane; leaders in our midst “are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain;”

We have experienced and continue to experience a loss of social standards and a loss of biblical standards in so-called churches as the Word of God is mixed with the false science of the world. Ezekiel 22:28-29 KJV calls it “untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies,” He goes on to say, “The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy…” Patrick Henry warned us about the path that leads to where we now sit: “Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” And Lincoln stated in his Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day: “We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.” When it all boils down, it’s not about political parties, communism, capitalism, or any other -ism; it’s not about economic strength or collapse; it’s not even about fair elections or religious freedom. AMERICA HAS FORGOTTEN GOD! America has forgotten what it is to go against biblical principles and fail; we’ve forgotten times of national repentance, fasting, and calling upon God and Him, in turn, hearing our prayer, forgiving our sin, and healing our land

“How did we get here? It was through neglect, not rejecting at first but neglecting to protect what we had been given. The best way I can explain and illustrate this is by pointing to the Scripture. “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip…How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation…” (Hebrews 2:1 KJV, Hebrews 2:3 KJV,)

Frankly, America got to where we are because we neglected to protect our Christian heritage, the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution; we neglected the great gifts of virtue and self-governance, allowing lawlessness to creep in little by little. We must become broken and repentant of whatever spiritual apathy we may have and ask God to set us aflame anew. It is our duty to live holy, share the gospel truth, know and share our true history, and to think Biblically. How else can we remind America about the God which she has forgotten?

“…it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

19.a. “The works of the flesh are evident”

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

How would you define the word attitude? Wikipedia calls it “a psychological construct, a mental and emotional entity that…characterizes a person….It is an individual’s predisposed state of mind.”

The real question isn’t how we define the word attitude, but how our attitudes are defining us. The Bible tells us that Christ wants us to be defined by His attitudes. Philippians 2:5 says, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (NLT).

Let’s take that a step further. Isn’t that the true implication of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23? Maybe we could paraphrase it like this: “As you grow in Christ, the Holy Spirit will produce in you the very attitudes—the predisposed state of mind—of Jesus Himself, which is more love, more joy, more peace, more patience, more kindness, more goodness, more faithfulness, more gentleness, and more self-control.”

Our attitude is important when it comes to our heart of obedience to the Father. If you have some unhealthy attitudes today, ask God to replace them with those of Jesus. (David Jeremiah)

19. “Their rejection of Jesus was rock-hard solid”

John 19:6When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “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 but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

The Chief Priests, officials, and guards all rejected Jesus Christ. They willfully chose to reject Him and demand His death. “We have no king but Caesar.” “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” In their hearts of stone, their rejection of Jesus was rock-hard solid.

As believers, when we read this account of how Jesus was rejected, beaten, whipped, and crucified our hearts ache and feel empty. We wonder how could they not see that this was the Son of God. We wonder what could be in their hearts and minds that did not allow them to see and understand who it was they were condemning. Pilate caught a glimpse of who Jesus was and tried to find a way to release Him. He knew one thing for sure and that was that this man, Jesus, did not deserve punishment or death. In the end, Pilate made his choice right along with those who demanded Jesus’s death.

Rejection of Jesus can be aggressive like this or it can be passive. Every day we make choices. These choices will either honor and glorify Jesus Christ or they will either aggressively or passively not. Jonah is a great example of aggressively rejecting what God told him to do. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh he aggressively rejected what God told Him to do. Though this is wrong I think it is far better to be aggressive in rejection than to be passively rejecting Jesus. When a person aggressively rejects what God has told them to do, that person has made an absolute conscience decision to reject it. They know it and they know God knows it. Though their mind seems to be made up, their heart is not and God works through their heart to convict and turn them away from their acts of disobedience. Passive rejection is much more subtle. It quietly sneaks into the neglecting and complacent heart. It allows a person to passively reject things of God and living for God. Awareness of Godly living passively drifts away. Awareness of the hardening of their heart is blinded to their mind. They live each day without being aware they have passively allowed themselves to openly reject or seek things of God.

Aggressive rejecters and passive rejecters both have this in common. They reject the Word of God. The aggressive rejecters outrightly reject it and openly deny it. The passive rejecters do the same but through neglect and complacency. Day after day goes by without as much as a thought about His Word. They might give a passing nod toward it on Sundays but continue on their passive lives as soon as they leave the building.

The most depressing, heart aching, mind-numbing words that any soul will ever hear will come from the mouth of Jesus Christ “Depart from Me for I have never known you”. Don’t allow Satan to blind your heart and soul to the things of God. Do not allow worldly pleasures and wants to lead you down a passive road of rejection.

18.z.

18.y. “Above all, taking the shield of faith”

“For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.” Psalm 11:2. There were wicked people in David’s time, just as there are wicked people today. We do not need to look very far to see and hear these people in action. Satan has always given ammunition to people who are willing to work his will. He gives them fiery darts to fling at us, and his weapons will increase in size and power as his evil is allowed to control people. Satan’s arrows are propelled by people who act as his bow…by those who have rejected God’s truth. Satan’s lies have become their truth. His favorite targets are Christians. His goal is to destroy our faith. God has given Christians weapons and we need to stand and fight. Jesus Christ sent us the Holy Spirit to guide, direct, empower, encourage, lead, and navigate through this world. The Holy Spirit does not lead us into fear of the matters of today or tomorrow. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Ephesians 6:16. Will you allow the fiery darts of Satan’s followers to cause you to fear, run, and hate. If your faith is in the Lord, then you have more than a shield of protection. We are protected by the very hands of God. Study God’s word and apply it to your life. In that way, you’ll learn of His grace, love, mercy, power, strength, and learn and grow to depend upon Him in faith. Do you actually think what is happening today is anything new? All of this fear, hate, anger, and confusion may be new to us because the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes and ears to see and hear the lies of Satan being spewed out by those he controls, but it is not new. It is just different for us. Most of us have lived quiet lives of shallow faith. Our faith has not been tested like this before. If ever there has been a wake-up call for Christians and non-believers it is now. If you try to make sense of what is going on right now, don’t even try to understand. These works and lies of those controlled by Satan will not make sense to believers. Stay in God and make intentional choices and decisions instead of irrationally fearing lies.

18.x. “I have given them your word”

John 17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

“See how the Lord Jesus himself takes all his teaching from the Father. You never hear from him any boast about being the originator of profound thoughts. No, he just repeated to his disciples the words he had received from the Father: ‘I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.’ If Jesus acted thus, how much more must the messengers of God receive the word from the Lord’s mouth, and speak it as they receive it!” (Spurgeon)

The whole revelation of God was and is manifested in the words, works, and actions of Jesus Christ. We would be in spiritual darkness without the revealed Word in Jesus Christ and the written Word of God. We are called to bring and reflect the Light of Jesus Christ into the darkness of this world. We do this for His honor and glory. Our goal is to be in the world but not of it or of the evil one. We are not to be fearful of this darkness. We are not to be surprised by the evil one directing the dark and evil deeds of those who are his captive. We are to live with a desire to continue to grow in our understanding and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are to live with a continued desire for His Word. We are to live with a desire to be obedient, faithful, and reliant on Him. How can this be if we choose to become complacent and neglectful of the very Word that will continue to grow us in this understanding? Christianity is not a course we take for a semester and think we have acquired knowledge for a lifetime. A believer is forever in study, forever gaining knowledge, and forever becoming so that no matter how dark the darkness is, people will see the light of the Gospel and give glory and honor to Jesus Christ.

18.w. “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

John 17:1 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. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

1 Peter 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

The life of Jesus was a manifestation of God’s glory, and the disciples beheld this glory (John 1:14).

Jesus only ever sought the glory of His Father (John 7:18, 8:50).

God the Son seeks to glorify God the Father (John 12:28).

God the Father glorifies God the Son (John 13:31-32).

Jesus could not truthfully or sanely pray this if He were not Yahweh Himself, equal with God the Father. In Isaiah 42:8 and 48:11, Yahweh proclaimed that He shares His glory with no one. If God the Father and God the Son share their glory, they must both be Yahweh.

“He had one main petition: that the Father would receive him back to the glory he had relinquished to accomplish his task. This petition for a return to his pristine glory implies unmistakably his preexistence and equality with the Father. It confirms his claim that he and the Father are one (John 10:30).” (Tenney)

18.v. “For he will speak peace to his people”

John 16:31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Psalms 85:8-11    Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.

Micah 5:5   And he shall be their peace.

Ephesians 2:14-17    For he himself is our peace

Philippians 4:7    And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 3:16     Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Jesus relied upon His close relationship with God all the way to the cross, and even upon it. In the loneliest moments imaginable, He understood that the Father was with Him. (Guzik)

“I remember that passage about Abraham going with Isaac to mount Moriah, where Isaac was to be offered up. It is written, ‘So they went both of them together.’ So did the Eternal Father and his Well- beloved Son when God was about to give up his own Son to death. There was no divided purpose; they went both of them together.” (Spurgeon)

Jesus offered His disciples peace. He made the offer in the most unlikely circumstances. At that very minute, Judas met with Jesus’ enemies to plot His arrest. Jesus knew that He would be arrested, forsaken, rejected, mocked, humiliated, tortured and executed before the next day was over. We think that the disciples should have comforted Him – yet Jesus had peace, and enough to give to others. Jesus did not promise peace; He offered it. He said, “you may have peace.” People may follow Jesus yet deny themselves this peace. We gain the peace Jesus offered by finding it in Him. Jesus said, “that in Me you may have peace.” We won’t find real peace anywhere else other than in Jesus. This word of peace is especially meaningful set in the context of conflict – tribulation and overcome both speak of battles to fight. “He promises a peace which co-exists with tribulation and disturbances, a peace which is realized in and through conflict and struggle.” (Maclaren)

Jesus also made the promise of tribulation. Peace is offered to us, but tribulation is promised. Understanding this removes a false hope. Struggling Christians often hope for the day when they will laugh at temptation and there will be one effortless victory after another. We are promised struggle as long as we are in this world; yet there is peace in Jesus.