Abundant Life – Page 60 – Write From Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

[The following article is an edited transcription of our March/April 1995 audio tape, The Last Week of Christ’s Life by John Schoenheit.]

Hello and God bless you!

I am John Schoenheit, and I will be teaching on The Last Week of Christ’s Life. Please turn with me in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7.

1 Corinthians 5:7
Get rid of the old yeast, that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Christ’s sacrifice was essential. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, mankind has needed a redeemer—needed a sacrifice. We have needed a sacrifice with sinless blood but yet one from the flock. That sacrifice was the Man, Jesus Christ.

It is very important to realize the importance to God of the last week of Jesus Christ’s life and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It has been, is, and will be unavailable for anyone to save himself. We cannot save ourselves by our good works. We need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in order to have eternal life, in order to have life in the age to come. Jesus Christ is that sacrifice, and he was prophesied all the way from Genesis 3:15 when God said that a seed of the woman would have his heel crushed but would crush the head of the serpent.

If we do not understand the importance of the sacrifice and the need for the sacrifice, then we will fall short in our thankfulness to God for what He has done for us. If I think that some how or another through my good works that I am going to make myself good enough to be acceptable to God, then what God has done for me will have less meaning.

Oswald Chambers, from his daily devotional book My Utmost For His Highest, writes about the need for the sacrifice of Christ. I am going to read from November 20 and November 21.

“Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God. God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blaspheme. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favor is through Christ and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin and our sanctification with simplicity of faith and to forget at what enormous cost to God that it was all made ours. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. It cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a Holy God. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in vice, constrained by the love of God.”

He goes on to say on November 21:

“Never build your preaching or forgiveness on the fact that God is our Father and that He will forgive us because He loves us. It is untrue to Jesus Christ’s revelation of God. It makes the cross unnecessary and the redemption ‘much ado about nothing.’ If God does forgive sin, it is because of the death of Christ.”

That is exactly correct. God loves everybody, but He is not going to save everybody. Love does not save. Sin required a payment, and that payment was in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lamb, the Passover, the one from among the flock, the Man who died instead of us so that we could have everlasting life, so that we could have life in the age to come.

If you have heard our teaching on The Kingdom of God: Paradise Regained, the picture of how we are going to be in the Paradise to come is so wonderful that I cannot imagine that every single human being alive would not want to be there. Yet, how do we get there? How do we attain life in the age to come? We get there through the sacrifice—the death of Jesus Christ. Because of that, the days leading up to the death of Jesus Christ are very important. The last week of Christ’s life, and the chronology of the last week of Christ’s life is very important. It is so important, in fact, that in the Gospel of John forty percent of the book concerns the last 6 days of Christ’s life here on earth—please, check this out for yourself. Forty percent of the book of John is just those last 6 days. Surely, it behooves us to pick up on what God is telling us by this and to spend some time in the last week of Christ’s life and in the concept of Christ our Passover.

Now that I have said that, I will say that in this teaching I am going to give a lot of chronological material. I am going to give a lot of detailed information. You might want to make a chart to help you line up this information. If you make up a chart on this information, then make it just like a calendar—vertical columns, a Thursday column, Friday column, Saturday column, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. After you make your vertical columns for the days, take and split the page down the middle in half horizontally because our days start at midnight, but the Judean day started at sunset. This is very important to remember as we get into the Bible itself in a few minutes because to us, you are moving along on Thursday, and Thursday does not become Friday until midnight. In the Judean calendar, the next day started at sunset, so Nisan eight would become Nisan nine, not at midnight but at sunset; thus, you make your calendar days Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, etc. and split it horizontally left to right. Your top half would be the daytime and the bottom half would be your nighttime and the start of the new Judean day. That is a very simple way to make a calendar, so that you can more easily keep track of some of the chronological information.

I would also like to say that some of the chronological information that I am going to present is detailed and often actually appears contradictory, and for that reason various Bible scholars have come up with different interpretations and different ideas of the last week of Christ’s life. I would encourage you not to get involved in all those contradictions, unless you particularly feel like you want to, but rather to see the heart of Christ in these days that God lines out. The heart of Christ is going to be very visible and very apparent, and we will watch for that.

Turn to Exodus chapter 12 because the Passover Lamb of Exodus chapter 12 was the type of which Jesus Christ was the true antitype. The Passover Lamb in Exodus was the type, and Jesus Christ THE Passover Lamb was the reality. Let us see what we can learn about the Passover Lamb and the Passover sacrifice from Exodus chapter 12 that will then help us when we get into the chronology of the New Testament and the last six days of Christ’s life here on earth.

Exodus 12:1-2
(1) The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt.
(2) “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

What you should be aware of here is that the first month of the Judean year had started with Tishri. God moves the first month by just telling Moses, “This month is going to be the first month of your year.” That would be the equivalent today of God speaking to you and saying, “January is not going to be the first month any more – September will.” He would just move the calendar forward by six months. That is exactly what happened here.

Exodus 12:3-5
(3) Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
(4) If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
(5) The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,

Of course, we know that Christ was without spot or blemish.

Exodus 12:5
and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

This is not a well-known fact, but the Passover animal could be a sheep or goat. Later, tradition will fix it as a sheep.

Exodus 12:6
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

I am reading from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. We read at twilight. The Hebrew text reads, “between the evenings.” In Hebrew, two evenings occurred; just like today in America, we have an evening. It is usually just when the sun is setting. It is a very nice time to go out on your porch or be in a park. It is evening; the cooler winds are starting to blow. The earlier evening in Hebrew reckoning was when the sun just began to fall. You could noticeably see the sun beginning to fall, so if you look up, and it is high noon or around high noon, then that is too early. If you look up, and you say, “Yeah, I can see that the sun is noticeably beginning to fall,” that was the early evening. To kill the Passover Lamb between the evenings, tradition fixes the slaughter of the Passover Lamb at about three in the afternoon.

Exodus 12:7
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

We know that the blood was placed on the doorframes so that the destroying angel would pass by and not kill the first born of the children in that house. The angel was to pass over, and that is the type of Jesus Christ. Without the blood of Christ, we are consigned to die, but the blood of Jesus Christ saves us from eternal death. He is the true Passover Lamb.

Exodus 12:8-9
(8) That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
(9) Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs, and inner parts.

Head, legs, and inner parts, some things need to be identified about this. It is not supposed to be a wonderful, enjoyable, and good tasting meal. It is eaten with bitter herbs; it is eaten with bread made without yeast, and yeast, of course, as you that cook know, is a sweetener that raises the bread and gives it loft and gives it a sweeter flavor. As far as cooking the animal, any animal that has been cooked with its guts intact will ruin the taste of the meat.

The Passover sacrifice was to leave an impression upon the people; it was an impressionable meal. Surely, that is the way that we should feel about the death of Christ. When we study the last six days of Christ’s life and when we study his beatings and when we look at what he went through, it should impress us that it was not a fun time and that a cost was there. It is almost ironic is it not, that in Romans chapter 5, salvation is called a free gift. Free to whom—it is free to us! It cost God the death of His son, and it cost Jesus Christ, also. We should be aware of that and thankful for that. That is one of the reasons for studying this last week of Christ’s life, so that we better see what that cost was.

Read the rest of the article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page.

Truth or Tradition now has a YouTube Channel!

Thanks for reading.

ADDED: I noticed that this post is getting a lot of views lately – WELCOME! If you’re interested in learning more about our wonderful Lord and Savior, please check out my Abundant Life category.

More from Write From Karen

Abundant Life

Teaching: Did God Really Forsake Jesus Christ on the Cross?

March 22, 2009March 21, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Matthew 27:46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

These words that Jesus cried out as he was hanging on the Cross have been a source of much confusion and debate among Christians through the years. Some teach that Jesus became sin, God cannot look on sin, and thus God forsook His Son. Others, citing the following verses, say that God did not forsake His Son when he needed Him the most:

John 10:30
“I and my Father are one.”

John 16:32
“You [disciples] will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”

2 Corinthians 5:19
“To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

By His very nature, our heavenly Father could not turn away from His only begotten Son, especially at the moment for which God has been preparing him all of his life. Jesus Christ was the crux of history, the one on whose shoulders the salvation of mankind was riding, the one who trusted his Father step by step all the way to this defining moment of His-story. And then God forsook him? That just doesn’t make sense. More importantly, it is not what the Bible says.

Many Bible commentators and teachers have promoted the idea that Jesus became sin for us and therefore the holy God had to forsake him because God cannot stand sin. This idea comes from 2 Corinthians 5:21, which in the NIV reads, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.” But an accompanying note indicates that another way to translate the phrase “be sin for us” is “be a sin offering.”

The NIV translators recognized that because of the semantic range of the Greek word for “sin,” hamartia, it can be used (by the figure of speech Metonymy) to mean “a sin offering.” Thus, they translate hamartia in Romans 8:3 as follows: “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

Hebrews 10:5 and 6 are especially relevant: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased’” (See also 6:8 and 13:11). These verses show that the Old Testament sin offerings, the best God could do for His people at that time, simply pointed to the coming of the only one who could sacrifice his own body as a once-and-for-all sin offering. [For further study read How can a man atone for the sins of mankind?]

Scripture is all about the great truth that by his genetic perfection (God’s choice via his virgin birth) and behavioral perfection (his choice to always obey God), Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the perfect offering (sacrifice) for all the sin (nature) and sins (behavior) of mankind. The righteousness Jesus “earned” paid the price for all men’s sins and made possible the “gift” of righteousness (Romans 5:17) to all who believe in his work on their behalf.

It is significant that the First Adam did sin—royally—and yet God did not forsake him. Cain sinned, and God did not forsake him either. The truth is that God has never forsaken His people because of their sin, so why would He do so with His own Son? There is no way (and no verse saying) that God forsook the Last Adam after he had walked a perfect walk all the way to the Cross.

There is another piece of evidence showing that God did not forsake Jesus in his final hours, and it has to do with the prophecy (see Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12; Ps. 34:20) quoted in the following verse, which comes right after the record of the Roman soldiers breaking the legs of the others crucified with Jesus, but not breaking his because he was already dead:

John 19:36
These things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

Think about the beating and torture that Jesus endured. And think about the fact that spikes were pounded into his hands and feet, each of which contains many bones. How was it possible that not one bone was broken?

We assert that it was as if God drew a line in the sand and said, “No more than that!” That prophetic promise must have given Jesus assurance as he went through his horrible ordeal. He knew that his Father was right there with him, and God’s keeping that promise was a forerunner of His greater promise to raise Jesus from the dead. [For further study read The Last Week of Christ’s Life.]

If God forsook Jesus on the cross because he became sin, what will God do when you and I sin? He would have to turn His face away from our sin, and from us, but that is not how our Heavenly Father is, nor what He does.

Read the rest of the article here.

Here’s a video based on the same teaching that might help explain this lesson a little more clearly:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about "Free Indeed: Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani…", posted with vodpod

Truth or Tradition now has a YouTube Channel!

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

March 15, 2009March 14, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

In this article, I want to focus on the definition of a “sacrifice.” We will examine what it was that Jesus sacrificed, what were the benefits to him (and thereby to us) for his doing so, and what it will look like for us to follow in his steps. I think it will become clear that we too should be making sacrifices in our own lives for the good of others.

1 Corinthians 5:7 and 8 (NKJV)
(7) Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
(8) Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

There is much figurative language in the above verses, but the point I want us to notice here is that the truth in verse 7—that Jesus gave his life for our sins—is the basis for the action that verse 8 encourages us to take—to live our lives with sincerity and truth. As Scripture says, Jesus Christ is the example for each of us, and we are therefore to walk in his steps (1 Pet. 2:21). Let us look at a contemporary dictionary definition of sacrifice: “The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.”

Now that is provocative. Think about it—this connotes a value system in which one thing, while deemed valuable and thus not easily let go of, is not considered as valuable as another thing in one’s overall estimation. This involves the exercise of one’s free will and the power we each have to make choices.

What was Jesus called to sacrifice? His very life. Psalm 22 prophetically depicts the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of the Messiah, with the first 18 verses pointing to his torture and death, and the last 10 verses pointing to his resurrection and his reign in the Millennial Kingdom. In between are the following pivotal verses, which poignantly foreshadow his crying out to God for deliverance from the grave.

Psalm 22:19-21 (NKJV)
(19) But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
(20) Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.
(21) Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me.

In that vein, it is noteworthy to compare the attitude of Socrates just prior to his death with that of Jesus Christ before his impending torture and execution. Socrates threw a party, gathering his friends to help him celebrate his exodus from this life via drinking the poison hemlock. Jesus, on the other hand, agonized alone in the Garden of Gethsemane to such an extent that the Greek text says he was “crushed with anguish” (Luke 22:44-NKJV “being in agony”).

Why the stark difference in their attitudes? Was it because Socrates had a better understanding of life than Jesus did? No, it was because Jesus had a truer understanding of death than did Socrates. Socrates erroneously believed what many people today believe (even most Christians), that death is the immediate “doorway” to a better life in some other realm.

Jesus Christ, however, knew the truth that death, as accurately defined in the Word of God, is “the end, or the absence of, life.” By definition, one cannot be both dead and alive. Jesus knew, therefore, that if he chose to step into the theretofore unbridged abyss of death, the only way back to life would be via his heavenly Father keeping His promise to raise him from the dead (Gen. 22:1-13; Ps. 16:10). That is why, in absolute contrast to Socrates, Jesus’ decision to sacrifice his life was not a flippant one.

What were the promised benefits that motivated Jesus Christ to lay down his precious life, which was most definitely “something prized or desirable” to him. What was the stupendous “something [that he] considered as having a higher or more pressing claim” compared to the preservation of his own life? The following verses answer that question:

Hebrews 12:1 and 2
(1) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
(2) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The “joy set before” Jesus was the great truth woven throughout the Old Testament that if he would go the distance as the only man who could live a sinless life and die a torturous death as the true Passover Lamb, he would be raised to newness of life, and so would all those who ever believed on him. He would reign over the world for a thousand years and later rule as second-in-command to God on a new earth, enjoying everlasting life with all the redeemed throughout the ages.

Because Jesus knew who he was, and that there was no one else who could do what he was called to do, he chose to walk the path set before him, which called for him to sacrifice his life. Now you and I are members in particular of the Body of Christ, representing him in this fallen world. So who are you? What are you called to sacrifice? And how will that look, behaviorally speaking? What will the benefits be to you for so doing?

Read the rest of the article here.

Truth or Tradition now has a YouTube Channel!

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer and Die?

March 8, 2009March 7, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

[This article was taken from the book “Don’t Blame God! A Biblical Answer to the Problem of Evil, Sin and Suffering.”]

Two primary qualities of God help us understand why Jesus Christ had to suffer and die in order to redeem mankind. First, God is righteous. Thus His justice demands that a penalty for sin be paid. As Kenyon writes:

God cannot ignore the fact of man’s hideous transgression. That transgression must be punished, and if man is restored to God, it must be upon grounds that will not pauperize man nor rob him of his self respect; but it must be upon legal grounds that will perfectly justify man in the sight of God…

Second, God is love. Thus, in His grace and mercy, He decreed that the penalty for sin could be paid by a substitute, providing that the substitute be sinless. God wanted, and mankind needed, a man who:

…met the demands, first, of the heart of Deity for a perfect human who would do His will; second, He met the demands of fallen man in that as a man He met the Devil and conquered him in honorable open combat.

Because of the magnitude of Adam’s sin and its reverberating ramifications, only the death penalty would satisfy true justice. Hebrews 9:22 says that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [of sin].” In the Old Testament, it was the death of unblemished “stand-in” lambs and other animals that God allowed to temporarily cover His people’s sins (Hebrews 10:1-14). These sacrifices were foreshadows, or types, of the coming Redeemer, Jesus Christ. He is the true “Lamb of God” whose blood was shed to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Hebrews 9:14
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

As we have stated, Jesus Christ was the only man who was “without spot or blemish,” both genetically and behaviorally. As such, only He could qualify to offer His life as the payment for the sin and sins of mankind. The suffering and death of Jesus Christ was part of God’s plan to make available salvation to all mankind.

Hebrews 9:27-28
(27) Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
(28) So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

What the blood of bulls and goats could do only temporarily for Israel in the Old Testament, the blood of Jesus has done once and for all for everyone who believes in Him. He bore our sins in his own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). By His freedom of will He gave up His life for us. He willingly endured the pain of the cross and death for all men. We must understand, however, that it was not God who was responsible for Jesus’ death. Note the following verses:

1 Corinthians 2:7-8
(7) No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
(8) None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The “rulers of this age” are Satan and his evil-spirit sidekicks (the disobedient angels that were cast down to earth with him). God’s Word plainly says that it is the Devil who was responsible for killing Jesus Christ.

Once the dominion of the world was given to Satan, and mankind was ruined by sin, God has had to ask people to step into harm’s way so that His redemptive purposes could be accomplished. Jesus Christ is the chief example of this, and there are many others (see Hebrews 11). Jesus suffered so that those who believe on him can one day have peace and joy forever, and a taste of it even in this life. In Jesus, we see the epitome of the redemptive value of suffering, a subject we will discuss later.

Hebrews 5:7-9 (Moffatt)
In the days of his flesh, with bitter cries and tears, he offered prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard, because of his godly fear. Thus, Son though he was, he learned by all he suffered how to obey, and by being THUS PERFECTED he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, being designated by God high priest with the rank of Melchizedek.

We feel the Moffatt translation (e.g.,“thus perfected”) best represents the truth of the Greek text that Jesus attained moral perfection through suffering and death. It was God who totally “perfected” Jesus by raising Him from the dead with a glorious new body and exalting Him as Lord, as the following verses make clear:

Hebrews 2:9-11
(9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
(10) In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
(11) Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Jesus Christ is the Last Adam, the fulfillment of God’s prophecy in Genesis 3:15. As our Redeemer, Jesus purchased our salvation with his own blood. He provided, and is, the way back to God that Adam had lost. Those who confess him as Lord and believe in his resurrection are saved, fully equipped to live in this corrupted world and guaranteed ultimate and everlasting victory over sin and death, as we shall see. [For further study read How can a man atone for the sins of mankind?]

Truth or Tradition now has a YouTube Channel!

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Jesus Christ the Lamb of God

March 1, 2009February 28, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

This week, let’s watch a video entitled: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about "Free Indeed: Jesus Christ the Lamb of…", posted with vodpod

Here are some additional articles about Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. I’ll be covering these articles more in-depth in the coming weeks.

The Last Week of Jesus’ Life

Did God Really Forsake Jesus on the Cross?

How Many Were Crucified with Jesus?

The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

Why Did Jesus Have to Suffer and Die?

23 Arguments for the Historical Validity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The “New Birth” of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ, Our Approach Offering

Living with the Power of Resurrection

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Possibly the Worst Day of Jesus’ Life

February 22, 2009February 21, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

You don’t think of Jesus as having a bad day, do you? Nevertheless, I want to look in this study at what was quite probably one of the worst days of Jesus’ life, and how he handled the challenge he was faced with.

Matthew 26:36-39
(36) Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
(37) And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
(38) Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
(39) 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].

Have you ever been so depressed that you wanted to die? That’s how Jesus felt on this day. There is no record elsewhere in the gospels where he felt so bad that he told any of his disciples about it, but that’s what he did here. And, he didn’t bare his heart before all of his disciples; he went off with only Peter, James and John into the Garden of Gethsemane, where he sometimes went to pray, and let them know how he was feeling. He didn’t try to put on a good, “spiritual looking” front for them. He was honest with them about how bad he was feeling.

Now here’s something to think about: If Jesus was so depressed, what was he doing wrong that caused it? Was he focusing his mind on the wrong things? Was he failing to look at things from God’s perspective? Was he failing to exercise proper control over his mind?

We know even as we ask this question that Jesus was doing nothing wrong. There was no sin or guilt in his life to pull him down. There was no shortcoming or failure in his walk with God that could have caused this. He was as fully committed to God as always, and as disciplined in his walk with God as he had ever been. And he was still so depressed that he wanted to die.

This lets us know that depression is not always the result of something you or I have done wrong. Depression can occur even when we are doing things right. If Jesus could get depressed in spite of his perfect walk with God, perhaps we should not be so quick to condemn ourselves or others when depression occurs.

Now being depressed is one thing; handling it the right way is another.

How did Jesus handle his depression? Did he seek for comfort at the bottom of a bottle? Did he look for recreational herbs to numb his mind? Did he gorge himself with food, or seek to forget his troubles in the arms of a woman? Did he seek out entertainments? Did he cut himself off from those around him? Did he curl up by himself somewhere and sleep for hours on end, unable to do anything?

How did Jesus handle his depression? He prayed. And he did something else that you never see him doing throughout the gospels: he asked three of his disciples to pray with him.

Can you imagine being Peter, James or John and having this weight dropped on you? It’s hard enough that Jesus is depressed; it’s another thing entirely to be asked to pray with him about his problem. The disciples had prayed for other people; they were not strangers to prayer. But praying for Jesus in a crisis situation was something entirely new — and, no doubt, frightening — to them.

What would you do in that situation? Wouldn’t you be on your best prayer behavior? This would be the most important prayer you’ve ever prayed. The farthest thing from your mind would be taking a nap. Yet, when Jesus returned to them after going off a little way to pray, he found them all asleep.

Why was Jesus depressed? Verse 39 gives us a clue. Jesus knew what it was that God wanted him to do, but he didn’t want to do it. There was a conflict here between the will of God and the will of Jesus. But rather than running off and doing his own will, Jesus went right to God in prayer.

What was the conflict? We don’t have to guess about this. The Scriptures tell us.

Hebrews 5:7
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

To put it quite simply, Jesus did not want to die. The “cup” that he asked God to let pass from him was his death.

God’s plan for the redemption of mankind was for Jesus, the one sinless man, to die in the place of sinful man, and for God to raise him from the dead. Now let’s be frank for a moment and forget that we’re talking about Jesus Christ. What kind of plan does this sound like to you? If God’s plan was for you to die and for him to raise you from the dead, how excited would you be about the idea? Would you follow right along, no questions asked, because of your trust in God? Or would you have some serious questions about whether it was really God who was talking to you, or whether you had understood Him correctly?

Read the rest of the article here.

Want to know more? Watch the below video and learn what else the Truth or Tradition ministry offers:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about "What does the Bible say about… Vide…", posted with vodpod

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Jesus Christ, My Hero

February 15, 2009February 21, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

I love the way that, in their respective translations of the Bible, Martin Luther and James Moffatt [1] rendered the phrase “mighty God” in Isaiah 9:6 as “mighty hero” [2] or “divine hero.” I encourage you to study the information listed under endnote two to really appreciate why they translated it that way. To me, Jesus is not only my Lord and Savior, he is also my hero.

I spent 21 years in the United States Air Force, and, as a military man, I love the depth of meaning in the word “hero.” Growing up, I used to think of Superman as my hero (I still love going to the movies to see him). However, as my relationship with Jesus continues to grow and I learn more and more about what he did, is doing, and will do for me, I know that it is only Jesus Christ who fulfills the definition of a true hero. I looked up “hero” on Dictionary.com and this is what it said:

1. A man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: e.g., He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
3. The principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.

When I first read that definition, I thought, “Wow, that really fits with what I know about Jesus.” So I thought I would explore this definition with you in the hope that we can connect more intimately with our Lord. First, let’s look at the phrase, “a man of distinguished courage.”

What did it take for Jesus to make the correct choice to follow the will of God when he came to a crossroad in his life in the Garden of Gethsemane? There he agonized about doing what he knew God needed him to do, and finally he said, “…Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39b). I say it took courage! I pondered what it must have been like for him to know he was going to be handed over to the authorities to be tortured and crucified. After all, this was not the first time anyone was crucified, and surely Jesus was very aware of the agony he would have to endure. Yet he made the freewill choice to obey God and go to the Cross for you and for me. Now, that’s a hero!

Here is a definition of courage that we used at our “Men of Courage” conference a few years ago: That quality of the mind that enables people to face difficulties or danger with firmness. Some synonyms of courage are: bravery and valor.

Back to the definition of hero, and the phrase, “admired for his brave deeds.” What did Jesus do that fits with that part of the hero definition?

I thought about the fact that he always did what was pleasing to God (John 8:29b). He healed the sick, spoke the truth in love, walked in compassion, was filled with mercy and grace, stood up to the erroneous religious leaders, willingly laid down his life for us, and how about saving all of mankind—at least those who choose to believe?! (just to name a few heroic deeds).

How about the second definition of hero?

“A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.”

The phrase, “opinion of others” got me thinking about what God thought about His Son. After all, it was God who promoted Jesus to be His right hand man after Jesus had accomplished his earthly mission in the plan of redemption. Given that “…God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name” (Phil. 2:9), and that God made him “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36b), it is clear that God thinks very highly of His Son. Why? Because Jesus walked out the course set before him and thus retrieved God’s shattered dream of a perfect race of people living forever on a perfect earth. And in my opinion, what God thinks carries more weight than what anyone else thinks. I am sure you agree.

The last phrase I want to look at is from the third definition of hero:

“the principal male character in a story, play, film…”

How fitting it is that Jesus is the subject of the entire Bible from Genesis 3:15 onward. He is God’s favorite subject! It was Jesus who carried out God’s plan of redemption, and it is Jesus who brought to fruition the “purpose of the ages.” Without the accomplished work of Christ, we would all be “…without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). How miserable is that?! No hope…and in the world! Yuk!

Jesus bled and died for us as the Passover Lamb. He controlled his mind, disciplined his actions, and prioritized his life to do the will of God, his Father. Doing that day after day, positioned him to be able to obey God and go all the way to the Cross and through its torture. With that final selfless act of obedience, he changed human history forever. He broke the curse of what Adam had done in his one act of disobedience, and thus made possible the reconciliation of all Creation back to God (Rom. 5:12-15, 8:19-21). Because of Jesus, everything will be put back the way it should have been from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. What a hero!

1 Corinthians 15:24-28
(24) Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
(25) For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
(26) The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
(27) For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.
(28) When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

As we press forward in our individual journeys to become like Christ, may we also drive our minds as Jesus did to always do the will of our Father. As Christians, let us draw strength from Christ’s spirit in us and make a difference in this world. Let’s be someone’s hero and do the will of God in a dying world! May our lives honor the sacrifice of all that Jesus made available to us in this day and hour. What a savior we have! What an example of how to walk and talk and be! What a hero Jesus is for all ages!