Category Archives: Christian Life

GETHSEMANE – THE PRESS

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GETHSEMANE – THE PRESS

“He took Peter, James, and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’, He said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’” (Mark 14:33, 34, NIV).

Gethsemane was an olive grove outside Jerusalem where olives were cultivated. The Greek word, gethsemane, meant “olive press” which symbolised the crushing weight of sin that Jesus bore on the cross. It was also symbolic of the weight of the human burdens which the Jewish people carried and the economic leash which tied the poor to the wealthy of Israel. The masses waited eagerly for Messiah to come, a Branch from the stump of the olive tree, to release them from their burdens.

Olives had great economic and religious significance for Israel. They were more than food. Olive oil had many uses, including in religious rituals. Olives underwent a laborious process to extract the precious oil. Firstly, an animal-drawn millstone was rolled over the olives to crack them open. The cracked olives were then gathered into bags and stacked beneath an enormous stone column which pressed the olives and forced the oil to drip into a pit at the base of the “gethsemane”, from where it was collected.

This process also had deep spiritual significance for Jesus in His agonising hours in the garden. As the oil was pressed from the olives by the weight of the stone column, so the world’s sin, pressed into His body, made the blood run from the pores of His skin.   

Every year, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a bull and two goats were chosen for the sacrifice. The High Priest would sacrifice the bull on the altar and sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies to purge the tabernacle/temple from defilement caused by the misdeeds of the priests and their families. One of the goats was chosen by lot and sacrificed as a sin offering for the people. The High Priest would again enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the goat’s blood on the Mercy Seat.

The second goat, called the Azazel or scapegoat, was chosen to carry the sins of the people away into the wilderness. The High Priest would lay his hand on the goat’s head and press the sins of the people onto the goat as he confessed them over the animal which was driven away into an uninhabited land to bear away the people’s sins for another year. In Isaiah 53, the prophet saw this event in the spirit and wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

As the oil was pressed from the olive, as the sins of Israel were pressed upon the goat, so Jesus bore the weight of the world’s sin in His own body, for us.

PILATE’S DILEMMA

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PILATE’S DILEMMA

“Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked Him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’” (John 18:33, NIV).

Never had Pilate encountered a man like this. 

Although He was the prisoner, Jesus was clearly in charge. The leaders and the people had lost it, screaming and yelling like kindergarten kids while He stood calmly observing them. He could have walked free on a few words of self defence, but He refused to respond to their lying accusations. He knew who He was. Pilate was unnerved. “Don’t you realize I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?” he demanded. Lies! Jesus responded with the truth, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Pilate was caught in this dilemma through no choice of his own. As governor of Judea, it was his responsibility to ratify the death sentence on those found guilty by the Jewish High Court. Jesus had been sent to him because the Sanhedrin had found Him guilty of blasphemy by claiming to be God. As a Roman, this was nothing to Pilate, so the Sanhedrin changed the charge to treason since Jesus also claimed to be king of the Jews.

“Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate demanded. It was a desperate question and on Jesus’ answer depended His fate.

“My kingdom is not of this world…You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”(John 18:37, NIV). 

“What is truth?” Pilate spat back. He was not interested in the answer. Without waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel and walked away. Faced with the worst dilemma of his life, his mind reeled. The mob was yelling, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” Inside, his mind was screaming, “Innocent, innocent.”  Even more disturbing was the warning he had received from his wife.

“Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.” (Matthew 27:19b, NIV).

What was he to do with Him? Yield to the mob and save his skin or yield to the truth and save his life? He chose to save his skin and lose his life.

Every day we face the same dilemma…follow the lies of the world and save our skin or follow the truth and save our lives.

“What is truth?” asked Pilate. Peter declared, “God had made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36b, NIV).  

The apostle John wrote, in the thick of terrible persecution, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 4). We alone can make the choice to walk in this truth or take the consequences. Are you walking in the truth?

GETHSEMANE – THE CONFLICT

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GETHSEMANE – THE CONFLICT

“Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible, the hour might pass from Him. ‘Abba, Father,’ He said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’” (Mark 14:35,36, NIV).

Although this is a familiar passage of Scripture to most of us, we may not realise what the real issue was for Jesus. In order to understand this, we need to go right back to the beginning.

God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:27) to be a visible reflection of Himself on the earth. Of what did this image consist? We find the answers in Exodus 34:6, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” and Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  Adam and Eve lived in perfect oneness with each other and with God until sin entered and destroyed their unity with the Father and distorted His character in them.

According to the Apostle Paul, Jesus came as “the last Adam”, (! Corinthians 15:45), to do what Adam failed to do, perfectly to reflect the Father in His oneness with Him and in His character as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, as a flesh-and-blood human.

Just as the devil targeted the unity between God and His earthly son, the first Adam, and destroyed it through his deception of Eve, so he targeted the unity between God and Jesus, His Son, to lure Jesus down the same road as Adam and Eve and disqualify Him from being the perfect man and the perfect sacrifice for our sin. But, throughout His earthly life, one thing Jesus protected and defended, His unity with the Father, by His obedience and submission.

Now, when His struggle was the fiercest, in the Garden of Gethsemane, His unity with the Father was being challenged and tested to the limit, to the point where He was so pressed with the conflict between the terrible price of the world’s sin and His passion to obey the will of the Father that the blood vessels in His skin burst and mingled with His sweat that fell to the ground.

The battle raged in His soul and He longed for the support of His disciples, but they slumbered, oblivious to the war between light and darkness being waged only a stone’s throw from where they lay.

The conflict finally ended with a quiet, deep commitment to submit to the will of the Father no matter what it cost Him. In Hebrews 9:14, we learn the secret of His power to obey the Father and give Himself over to His agonising ordeal of suffering: “Christ…through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself unblemished to God.”

From that moment until He entrusted His spirit to the Father, Jesus completed His life of perfect obedience.

TWO FEET OF PEACE

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TWO FEET OF PEACE

“Stand firm, then…with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace…” (Ephesians 6:14a, 15, NIV).

I often wonder why this verse is interpreted as an encouragement to evangelise, as though preaching the gospel somehow acts as a protective measure against the devil’s schemes. I prefer to understand it in the context of Paul’s counsel, in this passage, to “stand firm”.

It takes two feet to stand firm and maintain one’s balance. Someone standing on one foot is easily unbalanced.  What is the “gospel of peace”? Isaiah offers an explanation in Isaiah 52:7, (NIV).  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace…who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.”

The good news is that, “since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” (Romans 5:1, NIV). We have a firm footing in grace because we have believed that God does not count our sins against us because Jesus paid our debt.

Peace with God secures our eternal destiny but what about our day-to-day struggles in a world of trouble? It is imperative that we fully appropriate the legacy of peace Jesus left us to steady us in this world where we need it the most. To stand only on the “foot” of peace with God will leave us unsteady and unbalanced when the crises come and we are tempted to collapse in a heap of fear and doubt.

The Apostle Paul addresses the other “foot” in Philippians 4:4-9. Since the battle with Satan goes on in the mind our minds need to be secured against his wiles. Transforming our minds is the way to secure them and Paul gives us a plan of action.

The first step is to live in God and not in our circumstances. “Rejoice in the Lord.” (vs 4). When we derive our happiness from the good things that happen, we will lose it when things go wrong.

Secondly, we are to “let (y)our gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (vs 5). We must not punish other people for the way we feel. God hasn’t gone anywhere. He is still near and He’s in charge!

Thirdly, we must be honest with God about our anxieties. “Don’t be anxious about anything.” (vs 6). It‘s not our problem that’s the problem; it’s our anxiety that blocks the channel of our faith. We must confess our anxiety to God and He will exchange it for His peace.

Lastly, Paul says, “Fill your mind with good things and the God of peace will be with you. He will powerfully support you and act for you.” (vs 8,9).

Since the battle is in the mind and Satan’s ploy is to unbalance us, we need both feet of peace with God and the peace of God to stand firm.

KINGDOM FIRST

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KINGDOM FIRST

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33, NIV).

I have read several books by Dr Myles Munroe – a man who has extensively studied and written on the kingdom of God. Why the kingdom?

A fifteen-day fast resulted in a two-word instruction to him from the Holy Spirit, Kingdom first. Dr Munroe embarked on a 30-year quest to understand, seek, and live in the kingdom of God and teach it to the church.

If God’s instruction to him was Kingdom First, it should be no different for us because the command comes from the lips of Jesus Himself.

Jesus said we are to make the kingdom of God our priority and, in saying so, He turned the value system of the world on its head. What is the priority of the world? Things! Although we may think that money and things are the true measure of our lives, what is more significant is the way we use our time. Time is the currency of life and how we spend it reveals our priorities. Tragically, the priorities of the people in the church are often no different from the priorities of the people in world. Why?

We do not understand how the kingdom of God works.

We don’t take Jesus’ instruction to make the kingdom a priority seriously;

We find it difficult to trust Him to keep His promise that He will provide all the resources we need to fulfil His command.

Priorities are determined by our purpose. When we have no purpose or don=t know our purpose, we squander our currency of time with no return.  Says Dr Munroe, ANothing is more tragic than a life without purpose.@ (Applying the Kingdom, page 31).

According to Dr Munroe, this is what will happen if we choose to reject God’s purpose for His people and focus on the wrong things in life i.e. making a living instead of living a life.

Without the right priorities we waste time and energy on the wrong things, we do the unnecessary, we are preoccupied and major on the unimportant, we invest our time and money in what is valueless, we use our resources ineffectively, we abuse our gifts and talents, and we will ultimately be a failure in life because we did not do what we were called to do.

What is Jesus’ solution to this misunderstanding?

Firstly, our priority must be the same as God’s priority, which is:

To loose the chains of injustice; to set the oppressed free; to share your food with the hungry; to provide the poor wanderer with shelter; when you see the naked, to clothe him; and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. (Isaiah 58:6, 7)

Secondly, His promise will come into effect:

“The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.” (Isaiah 58:11a, NIV).

God’s requirement in the New Covenant is simple.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 1 John 3:21-24