Friday, November 6, 2009

LITN XXII, Verses 47 - 71

















47. But that was all that He could say to them, because while He was in mid-sentence, a mob led by Judas appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. And once they had converged upon them, Judas immediately went right up to Jesus, and without word or warning, kissed Him.

48. Jesus just looked at him and asked, "Judas...this is how you're going to do it? You're betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"

49. When the disciples realized what was happening, they said, "Lord, should we fight with our swords?"

50. But before He could even answer, one of them, who will now remain nameless, just started clumsily wielding a sword, managing to strike the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

51. But Jesus called out, "No...stop it! It doesn't matter now...the fulfillment has begun...there's no reason to fight it now!" And He stooped and picked up the startled man's bloody, severed ear from off the ground, re-attached it, and healed him. This was His last miracle performed as the Son of Man.

52. Then He turned to the chief priests, officers of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for Him, and said, "Is all this really necessary? Do you honestly perceive that I'm leading some kind of physical rebellion that demands you come for Me with swords and clubs?

53. I mean, every single day I was with you in the Temple courts, and you didn't lay a hand on Me then. But I suppose that this is appropriate...this is fitting for you, and for how you think...acting out your methods of control when darkness reigns depending on physical weapons to protect your interests."
54. But His words fell on deaf ears. They seized Him as a criminal, anyway, led Him away, and took Him straight to the house of the High Priest. Peter followed along after them at a safe distance.

55. And when he arrived at the house, he saw that some people there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, so he sat down with them.

56. One of the High Priest's serving maids walked outside to where they were sitting, and when she saw Peter warming himself, she just stopped in her tracks and stared at him. Unable to take her eyes off Him, she said, "Hey...this man was with Him."

57. But he completely denied it, saying, "Lady, I don't even know what you're talking about."

58. A little later someone else saw him and said, "You are definitely one of them...one of Jesus' close followers!" Agitated, Peter replied. "Man, I'm telling you...I am not!"

59. About an hour later another bystander spoke up and said, "Come on...admit it...you really are one of them...you are a Galilean...your dialect gives you away!"

60. Peter replied, "Look...I'm telling you for the last time...I don't know Him...never did...you people don't even know what you're talking about...shut up and leave me alone!" And as these words were still lingering in the air, a rooster crowed.

61. When this happened, Peter instinctively looked up to try to see Jesus, and when he spotted Him, He saw that Jesus was already standing there, staring at him. As they made eye contact, Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will utterly deny Me...you will deny any connection to Me three times."

62. And when the realization of what had just happened came crashing in on him, Peter went out and broke down and cried loud and hard.
63. Then the men who were guarding Jesus began to mock Him and pummel Him with their fists.

64. As a kind of frenzy set in among them, they blindfolded Him, and began to say while striking Him, "Prophesy, Prophet!...tell us who hit You!". They did this until they grew tired of it, then the guards took Him away, and started another round of beatings.

65. And they also continued the verbal abuse, peppered with constant insults and obscenities.

66. This went on all through the night, but at daybreak, the Council of the Elders of the people, the Chief Priests, and religious leaders all met together. Jesus was then led before them.

67. They said to Him, "If you really are the Messiah, tell us!" Jesus answered, "You men have proven that there's nothing I could tell you that you would believe;

68. And there's no question that I could ask you that you would actually answer.

69. But whether you believe Me or not, from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand...the place of authority...with God."

70. They replied, "So now You're saying that You are the Son of God?" He answered, "To you I am Whoever you say that I am."

71. Then they said, "We obviously don't need any more testimony...we've heard the blasphemy from His own lips."

9 comments:

Erik said...

This is fun, at 35,000 feet, reading the blog, and seems #1 on commenting. Technology is so cool.

Praise God for the manifestation of the Spirit in the natural in technology. Just think it, make minimal physical effort, and it appears in front of the world, from an airplane. And that silly mob thinks the clubs and weapons make a difference. Clubs and weapons are always subservient.

Wow, the Kiss. A little bitterness from Judas, angry that he was the one. A statement to say, ‘Fine, I did it, with protest, while doing it so no one can question it.’ Kind of like Jonah, although Jonah’s issues were more spread out and Jonah was a whiner. Not Judas. Judas understood, did not like it, did it, and was angry both for himself and for why it had to be this way, but understood, or at least accepted, this was his role.

Peter, what extremes, to save inconvenience, Peter denies any connection to Jesus. All pre-forgiven and covered, that tells us all, everything is pre-covered, even denying Jesus The Christ, or any other name that describes The Spirit , The Connection to The Body of God that is in EVERY one of us.

Peter did not have a knife to his throat, it would just have been a hassle. So, remember, Peter is an excellent example, clearly denying and covered ahead of time, for his sifting. The sifting came quick.

For each of us, we go through each thing, even if we sob after it, we also know, we have been covered ahead of time. Thanks Jesus for showing the with Peter, the rock of whatever church/temple/religion one relates to. That rock, denied what it was designed to raise up, and was covered in advance, as is EVERY person. There is nothing that separates US from GOD. If Peter was not dumped, NO ONE ELSE ever is. Jesus showed us with Peter. If Peter makes it, We ALL have already made it.

That’s one of the things I love about the Son of Man, Jesus, He hung with ‘low lifes’ like Peter and Judas. I Love that !!!!!!

PS Beautiful fall colors and mountains from above. God is so excellent. How did God make all this stuff!!! The sky, ground, mountains, all the people on the plane around me, how the air lifts the plane, the atoms, and molecules, energy in between??? Where did God come up with this ???? Keeps me in awe. I Love It.

Northern Light said...

The line from the old old song, "A KISS IS JUST A KISS" comes to mind. Ah.......no, not this time it wasn't. It was "the" kiss that fulfilled what was to come, just as HE knew. WOW

That alone is all I have to comment on right now. 3:24am

Peace,
Northern Light

Northern Light said...

Word Ver: outted

Yes, with that kiss, Jesus was "outted" as the one they were to arrest........and then.....

Karl said...

Amen Erik, our every day filled with miracles of His creation all around us.

Bishop, thanking you in advance for your obedience and joy in bringing us good pasture and refreshing streams today...flow where the Spirit leads.

Anonymous said...

I want to let you & your wife know how much I appreciate your ministry. I know you that you hear this from many people. I just wanted to express it.

I grew up under very strict orthodox jewish religion & speaking of christ or that God speaks to each of us & empowers us, was always frowned upon. (?????) I went with what I felt was real for me. (if that makes sense.)

I started watching your web broadcast 5 years ago. Since then I know without a doubt that God has been working through me & that it wasn't that my heart was going against generations of tradition. When it came to the religious side of my family beliefs, I never even thought of the box. I stepped outside.

When I came across CITN, I was so excited that a church had no limits to God's love & wisdom.
I felt that I should let you & your wife know...... Thank you.

- KR

Anonymous said...

69. But whether you believe Me or not, from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand...the place of authority...with God."

The Man, Jesus, NOW is not the man we read about in these Gospels as wonderfully enlightening as these words of Jesus are,(don't think I don't appreciate them and am blessed by these truths) Jesus Christ has moved to a much higher dimension and reality. When He speaks now He speaks through the Spirit of Christ from a much higher perspective through those who are receptive to the mind of Christ. Moving us to a higher plane of consciencness until now was impossible to comprehend or even imagine. And so, to those who's minds are operating in the past paradigm of the life of Christ are not really seeing the Christ of "Today" NOW. These are living in a world that does not exist except in their own mind. They are not by themselves though, there are many there with them.

The one seeing from a past perspective is seeing AN ILLUSION created in their own mind; not opening their spiritual eyes to THE NOW REALITY

"NOW" IS - any other time IS NOT

Thank you Bishop for "Church in the "NOW" and preaching and writing a NOW Gospel and message from the "Spirit" of Christ desperately needed today.

Peace, Grace, and Love to you,
Dennis

Anonymous said...

Pastor Debye,
Your words and your prayer were so anointed this morning I could hardly contain myself as you spoke this morning....

Peace, Grace, and Love to you,
Dennis

Karl said...

KR - Welcome to the blog, and for your testimony.

Bishop, have an awesome week and a great morning. Thanks for the word yesterday...seemed to confirm some things I was reading the day before out of Romans about Abraham and the promises made.

Karl said...

Hey Bishop, something cool just happened. After reading yesterday's AYITN messsage about dreams I was thinking in my head of the ELO song Hold on tight to your dreams, and I was thinking how that might be cool to put on one of my blogs...well, after brunch I came back here and the first song that came on was that song from your playlist...love confirmations!

so...I thought I would put the words here AND on my blog happybloggerheart.

Oh yeah, found that passage in Romans I mentioned...ch. 4:16 about Abraham and us.
"...He is the father of us all in God's sight."

Have a great afternoon!

Oh, I'm trying to pull together resumes today for a job fair I'd like to go to tomorrow. Looking for agreement as I try to pull things and myself together for job searching...thanks!

HOLD ON TIGHT - Jeff Lynne of ELO

Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see your ship go sailing
When you feel your heart is breaking
Hold on tight to your dream.

It's a long time to be gone
Time just rolls on and on
When you need a shoulder to cry on
When you get so sick of trying
Just hold tight to your dream

CHORUS:
When you get so down that you can't get up
And you want so much but you're all out of luck
When you're so downhearted and misunderstood
Just over and over and over you could

Accroches-toi à ton rêve
Accroches-toi à ton rêve
Quand tu vois ton bateau partir
Quand tu sens ton coeur se briser
Accroches-toi à ton rêve.

REPEAT CHORUS:

Hold on tight to your dream
Hold on tight to your dream
When you see the shadows falling
When you hear that cold wind calling
Hold on tight to your dream.

Oh, yeah
Hold on tight to your dream
Yeah, hold on tight...
To your dream.