There are some difficult words in the bible. Sword words will go through 9 of these for us to unpack and see how they play out in the gospel account. These words are important for us to learn so that when we are in that battle against ourselves, the world, and Satan, we can remember these words and fight like a good soldier.
God has made a covenant with us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This covenant was promised the whole way through the Bible and ultimatley finds its fulfilment in what Jesus did 2000 years ago. God did this to forgive us of our sins. It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that we can be forgiven by God and changed into different people living for King Jesus and not ourselves.
Prayer is us talking to God. There is no special action for your to prayer, lke holding you hands up or rocking back and forth or speaking gibberish. There is no special place to pray, like in Jerusalem, or at church only. Prayer can be done with your talking by yourself or with others. It can be done in your living room. It can be done while you walk and you don't even need to say words out loud but say them in your heart. God not only listens to your prayer but acts upon it too. Prayer is possible now BECAUSE of what Jesus did at the cross. He died in our place so that we can be friends with God. We can now boldy approach God and talk to him just as you would talk to your dad.
You would betray not a stranger, but someone who seems close to you. Jesus was betrayed by one of his friends named Judas. We betray someone usually for our own benefit and to the loss of the other person. You may be motivated out of greed or jealousy and want to be the king of the universe. Like Judas, we too have betrayed Jesus in our thoughts and actions. We also killed Jesus through our sin and we too want to be king rather than Jesus. But thank God that eventhough Jesus was betrayed, it was through this act that Jesus went to the cross as an innocent man and died in our place. Don't get me wrong, we killed Jesus at the cross. But Jesus gave us life at the cross as well.
Not many people in the history of the world have claimed to be God. If they have, then they are either a luny (and need some meds), or they are playing Celebrity Heads. Jesus clearly and continually claimed to be God. The BIble calls this Blasphemy and if anyone claimed to be God they were to be hanged on a tree and be cursed. The ironic thing is that Jesus IS GOD and was hanged on a tree NOT to be a curse, but to be a blessing for us. His death for claiming to be God made us right with God. It was there that God in Jesus reconciled the world back to him. He made peace at the cross.
Pilate asked if Jesus were indeed a king, and Jesus replies that he is. Jesus went on to say that his kingdom is very different to the kingdoms of the world. He was not a ruling military king that everyone was expecting. Jesus was a servant king. HIs kingdom is not physical kingdom in the sense that you can point to the United Kingdom on a map. Nor is this kingdom invisible in the sense that there is no evidence for it existing. Jesus' kingdom is found in his life, death, and resurrection. It is found when you see the lives of Christians changing from being lives of abusing people and cheating on people, to serving those you who once called enemies. We are not to make a kingdom of our own on this earth, but build a city within the city and to love the city we are in. But when Jesus says he is a king, that means he HAS a kingdom. Are you part of this kingdom? Do you have him as Lord? When we are under pressure, be reminded that we are strangers in a foreign land. Our ultimate home is heaven with Jesus.
To mock someone is to make fun of them. When Jesus is bashed by the Roman guards we see them mocking him also in many different ways. They put a robe on him and a crown of thorns to make him look like a king. The funny thing is that even though they were worshipping him as a king IN A MOCKING WAY, Jesus in fact IS the king. When the Romans took him to the cross and placed the sign "King of the Jews" above him, they were in fact saying the truth. They didn't believe it, but they were mocking Jesus and making fun of his claim. When the crowd his laughing at him and telling him to come down from the cross, they KNEW he couldn't because they thought he was powerless. But what the people made fun of IS the most powerful act in the universe. It was there, on the cross, in all its shame, that Jesus suffered for our sins, died for our victory, giving us peace with God and forgiving us of all our sins. The cross looks foolish, but do we not call it "Good Friday"? It is good because Jesus won the battle by dieing for us. You can mock it, but it is the greatest most powerful act ever.
This word is one that we may have heard before but never fully understood. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, one of the last things he cried out was, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It was there, on the cross, that God the Father turned his back on Jesus. He abandoned his Son, he left him on the cross. Why did He do that? Because Jesus literally became the sin of the world. It was at the cross that Jesus took on all the sins of me and you and everyone that has been and everyone that will be. Sin is anything that ruins our relationship with God. Jesus, however, had a perfect relationship with God. But to save us, Jesus was punished instead of us. Jesus was forsaken by God, abandoned by God, punished by God, INSTEAD OF US. Be reminded in the battle against Satan, that if you accept Jesus as Lord and Satan says that God will condemn us, remind the clown that God will not forsake me because Jesus HAS ALREADY been forsaken FOR ME.
Resurrection is sometimes a word that is twisted to mean what it should not. People think that resurrection may be like reincarnation, that someone dies and then comes back as a different person or animal. This is not Resurrection. Others have seen Resurrection like resuscitation, that someone dies for a period of a few minutes or an hour and then comes back to life. That is not Resurrection. Resurrection is the act of being dead for a while, like days, months, years, and so on, and then coming back to life IN THE SAME BODY, though in its glorified form, a body that will never die again. Many people have been raised from the dead in the bible, like the widow's kid or Lazarus or the little girl, but they died again later. Jesus however died, but then came back to life in his same body which had scars on it, yet a body that will stay alive forever. The bible says that we ALL will be raised from the dead on the Last Day and face Jesus. We will all be standing in our own bodies infront of Jesus. Some will go to hell who didn't trust Jesus, and others who trusted in Jesus will go to Heaven. The resurrection of Jesus proves that life MATTERS. It proves that our bodies MATTER. It proves that death is NOT THE END. Question is: Where are you going for the rest of eternity? How you think of Jesus will affect that answer forever.
After Jesus rose from the dead, he was roaming the earth for another 40 days. In those days he ate, drank, taught, and caught fish with his disciples. He was seen by over 500 people at one time, and then he ASCENDED into the heavens. Why did he ascend? Why did he leave earth? So that he could have all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus at the moment is ruling and reigning over all things for all times. He has total control over all situations and will one day come back and separate people into heaven and hell depending on their relationship with him. Authority is something that we must respect. We obey the policeman when he is on duty knowing that he is there to make the city a better and safer place to live in. We submit to our teachers at school or university because of their authority and what they know and the experience they have. We also try to obey our parents, knowing that they too have authority over our lives. But we must know that the highest authority in the world is not the Queen, but King Jesus. He not only reigns everything but he is a great ruler to have. He is one that actually gets in and does the hard yards for us. We must thank Jesus for being such a great person in such a high authority.
