SPIRIUTAL DIARY FOR
4/17/2017 9:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jesus’ Trial: Act Two”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
18:19-24
Message of the
verses: “19 The high priest then
questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. 20 Jesus answered
him, "I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and
in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.
21 “Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them;
they know what I said." 22 When He had said this, one of the officers
standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, "Is that the way You answer the high
priest?" 23 Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify of
the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?" 24 So Annas sent Him
bound to Caiaphas the high priest.”
As we have studied the gospel of John we have seen the
hatred that the Pharisees and the rest of the religious rulers had for Jesus,
and as we look back at John 11:47-50 we see what they had already planned for
Jesus: “47 Therefore the chief priests
and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing?
For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all
men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place
and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that
year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into
account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that
the whole nation not perish."” They
had already determined what they were going to do with Jesus and so the trials
that He went through had nothing to do with justice, but they were only a means
to get what they wanted and that was the death of Jesus. Now we know that this was in the plan of God
for this to happen, and yet these who did this would be held accountable by God
for what they did. I know that this is
difficult if not impossible to understand, but none the less true.
This short trial before Annas was only to try and get the
Lord to incriminate Himself , but since it was impossible for Christ to sin, to
do wrong, this was not going to happen.
MacArthur writes “Just as the Fifth Amendment to the United States
Constitution does not today, Jewish law protected the accused from being forced
to testify against himself. It was
Annas’s responsibility to inform Jesus of the charges against Him. Instead, he asked vague, general questions,
hoping to uncover a crime to justify the death sentence that had already been
decided on.”
Jesus certainly was aware of the land and that is why He
stated what He stated: “Jesus answered
him, "I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and
in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.” Jesus spoke openly to the crowd and had no
hidden motive or agenda that was only known by His disciples, and so Jesus then
challenged them ““Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I
spoke to them; they know what I said.”
In saying this it “was not an act of insolent defiance, but a demand
that the requirements of the law for legitimate accusers and accusations be
observed; The Lord unmasked Annas’s hypocrisy, and challenged him to present
his case and call his witnesses.”
4/17/2017 9:39 AM 4/17/2017 10:33 AM
Think about why this happened: “one of the officers standing nearby struck
Jesus, saying, "Is that the way You answer the high priest?"” Here we have an officer who takes it upon
himself to strike the Lord Jesus Christ because of the way that He answered the
question that was asked by his superior.
Do you think that he did this to save face because his superior was
humiliated with the answer that Jesus gave?
Do you think he was doing this to gain “brownie points” with his
superior? Think about what this officer
did as he actually struck the God who created him. I say that He created him because He had
created Adam and Eve and we are all off springs of them.
In my devotions this morning as I was listening to Acts
23 about the account of when Paul was struck in his trial in front of the high
priest and that has always been a mystery to me for I did not think that this
was legal for that to happen, just as it was not legal for this to happen to
Jesus, and yet Paul quoted a verse that was a way for him to humbly apologize to
him.
Think about the calmness that Jesus had in this
situation, for after all we have written that He was the One in charge of what
was going on and also we know that this was prophesied that this would happen,
and Peter later wrote in 1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not
revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting
Himself to Him who judges righteously;”
Now as I read this I think about all the times when I got angry over
things that haven’t meant a hill of beans later on. God is dealing with me over this in my life
and as I look at the life or Christ in this section I realize that because He
is not only my Savior and Lord, but He is my example too.
Jesus then answered the one who struck Him “"If I
have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike
Me?"” Jesus surely knew the law,
knew that the officer should not have struck Him and so this is why He answered
him this way. Jesus in this way was
demanding a fair trial, which we know that He would not receive for it was as
if they were saying “don’t give me the facts that show that You are innocent,
let’s get on with the execution.”
Annas gave up and then “sent Him bound to Caiaphas the
high priest.” It was only Caiaphas who
was the reigning high priest, even though he was only a puppet to Annas, could
bring any legal charges against Jesus.
Now we will next look at the final act in Peter’s denial
in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have heard this
story that is going on with Jesus in the sections we are studying and I think
that because I have heard it over and over again that I don’t take the time to
dig into what is happening and then to my shame kind of gloss over it because
of the familiarity of it. This really happened to my Lord, and He did it for me
and I desire to pay closer attention to it as I study these passages so that
the Spirit of God will bring about change in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Pray that the Spirit of God will bring
change to me as I study these passages.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John” (John 1:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did Belshazzar se a
hand writing mysterious words?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/17/2017 11:04 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment