Tag: Crucify Him

52.q. Wilderness – 16.w. “And the LORD rejected”

 

Deu 28:43  The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

 Judges 2:3     So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

 2 Kings 17:20    And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

 John 19:15   They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

  1. shall rise higher and higher above you
  2. they shall become thorns in your side
  3. their gods shall be a snare to you
  4. We have no king but Caesar.

When you look at what our culture has become,  how it influences our thoughts, what we consider important and worthy of our time, what is tolerated, what is not condemned, what has weakened our commitment, what has stunted our growth, what consumes our hearts and minds, what causes fear, chaos, and confusion, what causes division, hate, and anger, and how the thought of the return of Jesus Christ at any moment is void from our daily lives, – have we not placed this world and what it offers above God? How much of our thoughts and times are consumed by what this world says is important.

Professional and college sports teams, players, and stats, TV series and movies, Facebook, Twitter, Rumble, Instagram, influencers, news media outlets (live or in print), abortion, pornography, LBGTQ pride, etc…… all of this rises higher and higher and they become a snare. Our Redeemer, Savior, and coming again King Jesus Christ is forgotten.  Our growth and maturing are stagnant if not totally snuffed out. The thorn in our side we once felt, we are now numb too. 

Does any of this sound like a blessing or a curse?

Consuming what the world deems worthy and right will result in a weakness of faith and reliance on Jesus Christ.  

Do we even seek to hear the quiet whispers or shouts of the Holy Spirit’s leading and conviction? If there is any Holy Spirit conviction, the time for repentance is today, now, and immediate. Oh that we would see what we have become and the pursuits of our hearts and minds that consume us. 

Neglecting God’s Word and being unable to hear the Holy Spirit leading are good indicators that the snares of this world have enclosed around you. God’s curses are promised equally as His blessings. How are we blind to what it means to live, godly, holy, and honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ if our hearts and minds are focused on things of this world? What consumes your time will consume your thoughts. 

19. “Their rejection of Jesus was rock-hard solid”

John 19:6When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

 The Chief Priests, officials, and guards all rejected Jesus Christ.  They willfully chose to reject Him and demand His death.  “We have no king but Caesar.” “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” In their hearts of stone, their rejection of Jesus was rock-hard solid.  

As believers, when we read this account of how Jesus was rejected, beaten, whipped, and crucified our hearts ache and feel empty.  We wonder how could they not see that this was the Son of God.  We wonder what could be in their hearts and minds that did not allow them to see and understand who it was they were condemning. Pilate caught a glimpse of who Jesus was and tried to find a way to release Him.  He knew one thing for sure and that was that this man, Jesus, did not deserve punishment or death.  In the end, Pilate made his choice right along with those who demanded Jesus’s death.  

Rejection of Jesus can be aggressive like this or it can be passive.  Every day we make choices.  These choices will either honor and glorify Jesus Christ or they will either aggressively or passively not.  Jonah is a great example of aggressively rejecting what God told him to do.  When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh he aggressively rejected what God told Him to do.   Though this is wrong I think it is far better to be aggressive in rejection than to be passively rejecting Jesus.  When a person aggressively rejects what God has told them to do, that person has made an absolute conscience decision to reject it.  They know it and they know God knows it.  Though their mind seems to be made up, their heart is not and God works through their heart to convict and turn them away from their acts of disobedience.    Passive rejection is much more subtle.  It quietly sneaks into the neglecting and complacent heart.  It allows a person to passively reject things of God and living for God. Awareness of Godly living passively drifts away.  Awareness of the hardening of their heart is blinded to their mind.  They live each day without being aware they have passively allowed themselves to openly reject or seek things of God. 

Aggressive rejecters and passive rejecters both have this in common.  They reject the Word of God.  The aggressive rejecters outrightly reject it and openly deny it.  The passive rejecters do the same but through neglect and complacency.  Day after day goes by without as much as a thought about His Word.  They might give a passing nod toward it on Sundays but continue on their passive lives as soon as they leave the building.  

The most depressing, heart aching, mind-numbing words that any soul will ever hear will come from the mouth of Jesus Christ “Depart from Me for I have never known you”.  Don’t allow Satan to blind your heart and soul to the things of God.  Do not allow worldly pleasures and wants to lead you down a passive road of rejection.

We have no King

“The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.”

Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

John 12:13    So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”  And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,  “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

Zechariah 2:10    Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD.

Isaiah 12:6     Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 62:11     Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”

Zephaniah 3:14    Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!  The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.

Jeremiah 23:5    “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’

John 19:15    They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

We need to be mindful of those who have the mindset of “we have no King” Prior to the coming of Jesus people looked forward to Him coming and rejoiced.  Likewise after His coming people rejoice or at least should have heart and mind of rejoicing.  If we understand, in part, His holiness and our sinfulness and the price/redemption freely given for all of those who believe, repent, and humbly serve, honor, follow and obey we should rejoice and give thanks to Him.  There is more though isn’t there.  It comes with the promise of the Holy Spirit to indwell, lead and guide us through this life in such a way that we honor Him and are a light for those still searching.  I rejoice in Him for salvation.  I rejoice in Him for the indwelling Holy Spirit.  I rejoice in Him for the joy, peace, rest, hope, power, and love.  I rejoice in His word that proclaims His majesty, strength, grace, mercy, wrath, anger and love.  I rejoice in how He opens His word to lead in understanding and knowing Him more.  I rejoice in the fact He has me in His hands.  I rejoice in knowing He is my God and knows my every thought.  I say this and yet I am not certain I would stand so faithful as Abraham who waited 25 years for the promise given him.  I am not sure I would be as faithful as Joseph and trials of betrayal and prison.  I am not sure I would be as faithful as the disciples in persecution.  I fail in so much, yet I do rejoice in this walk with God and seeing His hand at work in and through my life.  I rejoice in knowing He will never leave me or forsake me.  I rejoice in how He makes it clear we are to be fully committed with heart and mind deep desire to serve Him.

No Thought For Their Children

Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and we bear their iniquities.

Matthew 27:24

So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

Exodus 20:5
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments

Lamentations 5:7
Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
and we bear their iniquities.

I add comments today from a sermon preached by Johnathan Edwards which brings home the message of disregarding God and making decisions without Him in mind.   These scriptures today describe the sins of man carried out on their children well after death.

It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them.