TVCC Students,
We hope that you are having a wonderful week and that you are continually remembering your King who laid down His life for you. This past Wednesday we looked through the trial of Jesus and His response to His accusers. It is so crucial that we remember that He laid His life down- no one took it from Him. He had the authority and power to call down thousands of angels to help Him if He wanted BUT He chose to go to the Cross and experience physical and spiritual wrath in our place so that we might be credited with His righteousness and be able to again have intimacy with Him and the Father. What an incredible God we serve!! Here is a recap from Wednesday...
~John 18:33-40: Jesus is questioned by Pilate about who He is. Jesus reminds Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. We are again reminded that Jesus was able to go to the cross because He was able to look past it to the eternal glory that was awaiting Him after the resurrection (Hebrews 12:1-3). Jesus was not living for earthly comforts or pleasures but lived with a heavenly mindset and was thus ready to endure the Cross on our behalf. He knew (verse 37) that He was born for the ultimate purpose of bringing the Father glory through His own death and resurrection and He was thus ready to fulfill that purpose.
Q: Do you feel that your mind has been set on heavenly things or earthly things this week? What changes do you need to make in your life so that you can follow in the footsteps of Jesus and live with an eternal mindset?
~John 19:3: The scourging of Jesus would have been a horrific scene of 39 lashes with a whip filled with pieces of bone and other sharp scraps. Just as the Passion depicts this scene, it would have been excruciating and bloody. This was just the beginning of Jesus being led to death SO THAT we could be forgiven. Again, what an incredible Savior we have.
Q: Are you willing to suffer with Jesus if He called you to that?
~John 19:6: Pilate tried 3 times to get Jesus off but to no avail. His good intentions towards Jesus were not enough. Even though Jesus was destined for the cross we still need to realize that Pilate was swayed by the pressure of the crowd to do nothing and stand and watch as the Savior was crucified. Pilate was just as guilty as the others because he did nothing.
Q: Are you like Pilate? When you see unrighteous or unjust things going on around you, are you swayed by the crowd and your own pride to do nothing or do you stand up for what is noble and honorable even if it means that you look "weird" or "extreme?" Are you willing to look "radical" and "different" in order that Christ might be proclaimed in your life?
~John 19:10: Pilate again is seeking to find out more about who Jesus is and where He is from. In this situation, Jesus fulfills prophecies about Himself being silent before His accusers. Isaiah 53 is an incredible depiction of Jesus prophesied hundreds of years before He came and it is fulfilled to the very smallest detail. 1 Corinthians 2:8 says that if the crowd would have really known who Jesus was, they would not have crucified Him. He was silent in order to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and to allow Him to go to the Cross.
Q: Are you someone who listens intently to the Lord about when you are to speak and when you are to be silent? There could be times where we may be called to be silent when we are being accused in order to represent the Lord well.
~John 19:11: We see again that Jesus knows His own power and authority and the authority of His Father. Pilate and all other earthly authorities are all ultimately under the authority of the Lord in heaven. There is no authority that has not been authorized by the Lord (Romans 13:1). All of the trial of Jesus was ordained by the Father with a purpose: that we would be brought back to Him. We can look back to John 10:17 and see Jesus encouraging His disciples that He would soon be laying down His life for His people. HE GAVE UP HIS LIFE FOR US!
~John 19:12-16: Jesus was led to be crucified. We can look at Colossians 1:19-23 to see that Jesus was fully God and came with the purpose of reconciling the world to Himself. While we were enemies of the Lord, Jesus came and died on our behalf. We had nothing to offer Him. All of our righteous deeds were like filthy rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6). He came and died to make us pure and acceptable to the Father.
Q: How is the truth of the gospel affecting your life this week? Are you living a life of thankfulness to the Lord who GAVE UP His life for you?
Dear students,
We pray that you will really be meditating on the gospel this week. We were enemies of the Father and destined for eternal wrath and condemnation. Jesus left intimacy with the Father to give up His life for us. He was tortured both physically and spiritually on our behalf so that we could be declared righteous. Meditate on that this week. We pray that this truth would encourage great affection in your soul for the One who both created and saved you. We love you guys!
With hope,
~Sonny and Casi
No comments:
Post a Comment