TEEN TREE OF LIFE
THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD
AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST
Part 6
May 17, 2020
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Last week, we ended our study with how the Jews had missed the day of “their visitation” from the King of kings and the Lord of lords which is taught in LUK 19:41-44: When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a [a dirt wall or mound for siege purposes] barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Forty years later, the prophecy came true and the Roman army besieged Jerusalem, conquered it, and leveled the temple to the ground. No one in the Bible warned of hell as often or as vividly as Jesus Christ did. And one of those warnings came to Jerusalem just a few days after His triumphal entry when Our Lords said to the Pharisees: 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (MATT 23:29–36 New American Standard Bible)
How sad to know that the Jews had eyes, but they didn’t see and that they had ears, but they didn’t hear. They missed the whole point of the message that God had given to them. They were too occupied with their lusts and desires. Jerusalem had been told about “their visitation.” They had been told and shown that the king had come. But they ignored it.
Remember earlier in our study when we learned that those in the crowd had waved palm branches when Jesus Christ passed them on His way to His Crucifixion? Their actions showed that they were totally ignorant because by waving palm branches, they were showing that they expected Jesus to be another warlord – another general of the armies – one who would lead them to overthrow the Romans. Their actions indicated that they were ready to pick up their swords and shields and go to war if He would lead them. How wrong they were! Look at JOH 18:36 (The Message Bible): “My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”
Our Lord and Savior’s purpose in coming was to show the world a more excellent way – the way of love!! The apostle Paul explains this in 1COR 13:1-9 (The Message Bible) If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Paul ends 1CORINTHIANS 13 like this: The three most important things to have are faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love. (1COR 1:13 New International Reader’s Version) That says it all about Our Savior’s way of love!
His way of love extends far beyond just loving those who are easy to love. We all know that there are people in our lives who are mean and evil, and we have to deal with them every day!! He tells us how to deal with them in MAT 5:39-42 (New International Reader’s Version): But here is what I tell you. Do not fight against an evil person. Suppose someone slaps you on your right cheek. Turn your other cheek to them also. Suppose someone takes you to court to get your shirt. Let them have your coat also. Suppose someone forces you to go one mile. Go two miles with them. Give to the one who asks you for something. Don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow something from you.
In MAT 5:44-48 (New International Reader’s Version), Our Savior sums up His way of love like this: But here is what I tell you. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Then you will be children of your Father who is in heaven. He causes his sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don’t. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Even the tax collectors do that. If you greet only your own people, what more are you doing than others? Even people who are ungodly do that. So be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
The people who heard Him teach these words might have thought, “Well, those are beautiful words, but surely He doesn’t expect us to love Rome? No way, He would command us to love Rome. We can’t love Rome!” But that’s exactly what He was saying! He was saying, “Show them love!” The nation of Israel had the opportunity to show Rome something new and different. But because they completely misunderstood His Mission, He wept over them because He knew they would never have that opportunity again. He wept because He knew the Roman army would conquer Jerusalem and level the temple to the ground.
There were actually two times during which Jesus Christ predicted the destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in 70 A.D. The first was when he entered the city and the people laid their clothes on the ground before him in LUKE 19, which we looked at in more detail last week. The second time was as He was being led to the place of His Execution. The streets along the way were packed with His enemies along with those who enthusiastically followed His teaching and were hopeful that He was indeed the prophesied Messiah. The apostle Luke describes the second time in LUK 23:27-30 (New International Reader’s Version): A large number of people followed Jesus. Some were women whose hearts were filled with sorrow. They cried loudly because of him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. The time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the women who can’t have children! Blessed are those who never gave birth or nursed babies! It is written, ‘The people will say to the mountains, Fall on us! They’ll say to the hills, Cover us! [HOS 10:8]’”
Make it your goal that when Our Savior turns and looks into your life, He doesn’t weep again because of what He sees! Strive for the joy that passes all understanding as you respond to His outstretched arms and hear Him say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant!”
{to be continued}