Part 4 – Is that why Jesus died?

Even the Jews, who had all the pointers to Jesus being the Messiah in their Scriptures, still didn’t get it that he would die, or the reason for it. 

Even when Caiaphas the High Priest prophesied in John 11:51-52 that “Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for their nation but also for all the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one” – it still didn’t ring any bells that what he’d just said was straight out of Isaiah as the sign pinpointing who the Messiah was, what he’d come for, and how his death would accomplish it. And Caiaphas was just about to have Jesus killed in fulfillment of that prophecy too, but it wouldn’t mean a thing to him. How on earth could that be?

Well, we know from verse 48, that Caiaphas wasn’t really thinking about what Jesus’ death would accomplish for the whole world; he was thinking about what it would do for him. Caiaphas was in a difficult spot. If the movement Jesus began got any bigger the Romans might move in to crush it and in the process kick out Caiaphas and his cronies too. Jesus’ death, therefore, didn’t mean anything more to Caiaphas than saving his own skin. He said as much in verse 48, when he openly stated his concern that if too many people followed Jesus the Romans would remove “what little power and privilege we (priests) still have.”

What Caiaphas saw in Jesus’ death, therefore, was the chance to save himself and his own political future. And that’s all he saw. But most of his fellow Jews were just as short sighted and self-centred as he was, because all they saw in Jesus was a great conquering hero who would save them from the Romans and make them a great nation again. In other words, they ALL saw Jesus in purely selfish terms, as to what he would do for them, personally.

But let’s lift this up to us today, because at some point in our lives WE were faced with Jesus dying on a cross as well. And what did that register in OUR heads? Was it along the lines of something like this – that we sinned and brought down the penalty of eternal death on ourselves, but God unleashed his wrath on Jesus on the cross instead, so that our sins could be forgiven, and if we led a reasonably good life after that our souls would be taken up to Heaven? But is that why Jesus died?…(continues tomorrow)

Part 3 – It really was predicted

Imagine being a Scripture taught Jew since childhood sitting at a table with Jesus in Emmaus, not having a clue who he was, and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” he explains in detail “what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself,” Luke 24:27. 

Scriptures like Deuteronomy 18:15 – when Moses told the Israelites, “God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you. God will raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him.” And how Moses repeated those same words in verses 18 and 19 too (so would Peter in Acts 3:22, and Stephen in Acts 7:37).

The Jews of Jesus’ day KNEW, therefore, that a great prophet like Moses would arise again. They were looking for him too, as we see in Philip’s excited shout to Nathaniel in John 1:45, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth.” 

Philip got that part right, but still no clue that the One Moses wrote about would also suffer and die, or why his suffering and death were necessary, or what would actually be accomplished by his suffering and death as well. That part was still a mystery to all Jesus’ disciples.

But how did they MISS it, when only two hundred years earlier an amazing book had hit their Jewish bookstores specifically predicting the Messiah’s arrival, including actual dates they could work out for themselves, that also predicted his death as well? There it was in Daniel 9:25, that great prediction of an “Anointed One” who would put an end to sin and “set things right forever” (24) – BUT, who would also be killed (26).

Surely that would ring a bell or two in their heads as they sat there with Jesus taking them through the prophecies they were already familiar with in Isaiah – like the one in Isaiah 49:5-6 that spoke of a great Servant whom God had chosen to “recover the tribes of Israel” so that Israel would become “a light for the nations to make God’s salvation global.” And how that Servant, in the process of saving Israel and the whole world, would also suffer and die – mentioned in considerable detail just four chapters later in Isaiah 53. 

It was all there in their Scriptures, but so difficult for them to accept. And not just difficult for those two men either…(continues tomorrow) 

Part 2 – Understanding dawns

As soon as Jesus was raised back to life again, he got right down to the business of explaining what had just happened – first of all to the ladies gathered at his tomb, and then to two men on the road to Emmaus. 

The two men were deeply saddened by Jesus’ death because, Luke 24:21, they thought Jesus “was the glorious Messiah who’d come to rescue Israel,” but now he was dead. It must have been quite a shock, then, when Jesus, who’d joined them, burst out with, “You are such foolish, foolish people,” verses 25-26, because “you find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?”

It was? But where in Scripture was the Messiah’s suffering predicted? They hadn’t a clue, so in verse 27, “Jesus quoted them passage after passage from the writings of the prophets, beginning with the book of Genesis and right on through the Scriptures, explaining what the passages meant and what they said about him.”

The two men were so excited by what was in their Scriptures all along that they asked Jesus to stay over that night to explain more. But during supper, when it dawned on them who Jesus was, he disappeared. So they packed their bags and headed straight back to Jerusalem to report to the remaining eleven disciples what had just happened.

But half way through their report Jesus suddenly appears (36). And again he reminds them, “When I was with you before,” verse 44, “don’t you remember me telling you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true?”

Well, yes, that IS what he’d told them in Luke 18:31, when he’d said they were all going to Jerusalem, and when they got there “all the predictions of the ancient prophets concerning me will come true.’” 

And in John 5:45-46 he’d mentioned one of the prophets by name too, when he told the Jews who wanted to have him killed, “Your accuser is Moses,” because “he wrote about me, but you refuse to believe him, so you refuse to believe in me.” So again, it was in their Scriptures all along, starting with the writings of Moses, that Jesus would be coming – and what he was coming for. What other scriptures could there be, then?…(continues tomorrow)

Part 1 – No one saw it coming

As Christians we believe that Jesus won a massive victory for all humanity when he died on the Cross.

It was the day the dark forces that had been ruling this planet since the time of Adam and Eve were soundly defeated. But, amazingly, none of the Jewish religious leaders saw it coming, nor did their scholars of the Scriptures, nor did the other Jewish leaders, and – most importantly – nor did the dark evil forces. They were ALL caught completely by surprise. Evil’s defeat was done and dusted before anyone realized it had happened.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “None of the rulers of this age understood it; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” The powers controlling the world had no idea what they would be unleashing by killing Jesus. But why didn’t the dark forces with all their cunning see it coming? How did they bungle things so badly? Well, that’s God’s genius, because who would have guessed by Jesus dying that evil would be defeated, or that death would bring victory? 

On the surface it made no sense at all. It made no sense to the disciples either. When Jesus “began to speak plainly to his disciples” in Matthew 16:21, “that he would suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders, be killed, and three days later would be raised to life again,” Peter yelled out, “Heaven forbid; this is not going to happen to you.” 

Why on earth did Jesus have to DIE? But at this point the reason for Jesus dying was still hidden from the disciples (Luke 9:45), and they were too scared to ask Jesus for further explanation because what he was saying didn’t sound good at all.

But even the prophets who made the predictions about the Messiah dying couldn’t put the two together either. As Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:10-11, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.” 

But it wasn’t meant for the prophets to know, because “they were not serving themselves but you,” verse 12. It wasn’t meant for the “angels who longed to look into these things,” either (verse 12). It was meant for us, and all those since Jesus’ death, as we see in what Jesus did right after his death…(continues tomorrow)

Daniel – part 3 (part 2, March 24)

Daniel was in a fix. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was “so angry and furious” at his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers for not interpreting a troubling dream he’d had, “that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon,” Daniel 2:12. 

For some odd reason the king hadn’t consulted Daniel about his dream, despite Daniel’s ability to “understand visions and dreams of all kinds” (Daniel 1:17). Was Daniel even aware, then, of the “decree” that had been issued in chapter 2:13 “to put the wise men to death,” and that “men had been sent to look for him and his friends to put them to death” as well?

Perhaps the first he heard of it was when he bumped into “Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard” in the palace, and discovered Arioch had been sent out “to put to death the wise men of Babylon,” and here was Daniel face to face with him. So what was Daniel’s reaction? Drop everything and run? Or bellow to Arioch, “Whose daft idea was this, then?” – something I was sorely tempted to yell during the pandemic in response to similarly dictated extreme measures – or stick his chest out and shout, “Now look here, my good man, don’t you know who I am?”  

Fortunately, Daniel was a wise man. Clearly, the king was in a psychopathic rage and totally off his rocker including Daniel in his decree, when wisdom was so much what he’d valued in Daniel (1:19-20). So, reading the situation and how delicate it was, “Daniel spoke to Arioch with wisdom and tact,” verse 14.  

So rather than being overcome with fear, or defending himself, or openly challenging the decree with an opinion of his own, Daniel “asked the king’s officer” a question – not something I’m very good at when faced with idiotic decrees from on high. But Daniel kept his cool, and showing no signs of fear or aggression he asked Arioch in verse 15, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” 

How I wish I and millions of others had asked that question of our governments when they landed us with lockdowns and other harsh decrees, despite the virus having little effect on the general population. But fear and aggression took over, and I include myself in that. So what made Daniel so wise in his reaction?….(part 4 in a couple of weeks)    

(Part 2, yesterday)

It’s through the culture Babylon creates that it attempts to wreck the Church. So can we know what to look out for, then? 

The next two chapters in Revelation give us clues to the methods Babylon uses. It either swamps the Church with its culture, so we’re too weak and infected to resist – or it slowly and sneakily injects its culture into the Church, so we don’t even notice it’s happening. 

But Jesus loves his Church (Revelation 1:5), so he has angels pass on personal messages from himself to each of seven churches in existence at the time. And each message is tailored to the church it’s sent to, with a mixture of encouragement, correction, warnings and promises, to equip the churches with weapons to fight off Babylon. 

Jesus knew what his Church was in for, having faced the opposition  of Babylon himself. But he also knew what resisting and beating the opposition did for him. It “perfected” him, Hebrews 5:9. Up against the cunning and influence of Babylon he “learned obedience,” verse 8. He learnt as a human that the way to defeat Babylon was keeping his eyes and heart firmly fixed on his Father’s wishes and commands. So in the book of Revelation he passes that on to his Church, that the way for us to defeat Babylon is to keep our eyes and heart firmly fixed on him, because he’s the one who “holds the keys of death and Hades,” Revelation 1:18, not Babylon. 

Babylon may give the impression it’s all powerful and it governs our lives, because for now it fills every part of our culture. There is no escaping it. It permeates and poisons everything. Witness what happened to the whole world in the pandemic. Even the brightest and the best got caught up in lies, willing ignorance, propaganda, fraud, power, greed, divisive vitriol, and even when proved wrong they refused to admit it. Talk about a “revelation” – because it gave us real and personal experience as to what Babylon is like, and the oppressive and sneaky power it wields.  

And it’s that same revelation the book of Revelation is about, all of it designed to warn and equip the Church as to who our enemy is, how to recognize it, and how to fend off its influence. It’s a personal message for his beloved Church from Jesus, and does he ever know what we need, as we see coming up in chapters 2 and 3. (Part 4 in a couple of weeks…) 

(Part 1, yesterday)

The kingdom opposing the Church is given a name: Babylon. Which may not mean much to us, but to the Jewish Christians reading the book of Revelation in the first century it would, because Babylon had destroyed their country in 587 BC and dragged them off as captives. Everything they’d held dear as Jews, their city, the temple, their traditions, rituals, teachings – all wrecked because of Babylon.  

And now it was being revealed 600 years later that Babylon had risen from the ashes of its destruction by God (Jeremiah 25:12-14), and this time to wreck the Church. And like the Babylon of old it would become THE power in the world too, described in Revelation 17:5 as “Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the Earth.” 

And this awful Babylonian prostitute “woman,” verse 6, would exist for one reason, to become “drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.” Its one purpose and goal is to suck the life out of the Church and that way eradicate anything to do with Jesus.  

That being the case, how does Babylon do it? Is it by open warfare against Christians, like Saul chasing down Christians far and wide and having them arrested? Well, yes, because that’s happening today too, but violence and persecution haven’t been Babylon’s main weapons of choice in its attempt to destroy the Church. 

Its main weapon and greatest strength, according to Revelation, is its ability to seduce. She’s the “mother of prostitutes” – and she’s very good at it too, “For ALL the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her immorality. Kings have committed adultery with her, and because of her desires for extravagant luxury, the merchants of the world have grown rich by her,” Revelation 18:3. 

It makes Babylon easy to recognize, because the culture it creates is obsessed with two things: “luxury” (whatever money can buy), and “immorality” (perverted sexual fantasy). Which isn’t surprising because, verse 2, Babylon is “a home for demons and every evil spirit.” It’s through a demonically driven culture, therefore, that we see Babylon’s main weapon of choice. So has it worked? And more to the point, is it still working today? (Part 3 tomorrow…)

The “Who” is stated clearly in Revelation 1:1. God gave the book of Revelation to Jesus “to show his servants what must soon take place.” An angel then passed the revelation on to John, who addressed it to “the seven churches (Jesus’ servants) in the province of Asia,” verse 4.

So this is a message meant for Jesus’ servants, the Church, as a reminder that Jesus “has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father,” verse 6. But why was that so important? 

Because there’s another kingdom in operation on this planet that’s also fully aware that the Church is God’s kingdom in the making, and one day it will take over. So, how can this other kingdom stop it happening?   

No way can it defeat God’s Church in open battle, because the power behind the Church is “the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades,” verse 18. The Church is the instrument of the resurrected Jesus, “seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power, and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come,” Ephesians 1:20-21.  

So what can this other kingdom do about that? If nothing, then it might as well pack up bags and not fight a battle it obviously can’t win. And that could have been the end of the book of Revelation, one chapter and all done. But the story continues in chapter 2, because the other kingdom hasn’t given up, despite the odds so obviously stacked against it. And, amazingly, despite the heavy artillery all being on the Church’s side, this other kingdom makes some serious inroads into the Church. 

And those inroads are all directed toward one end too, to get the Church to “lose its connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow,” Colossians 2:19. 

Which explains why Revelation opens with a stirring picture of Jesus, and nailing it down that he’s one who “gives the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God,” Revelation 2:7. He holds the key to that, and because he’s also “the First and the Last,” Revelation 1:17, he can take us right back to when things began in the Garden of Eden and re-create the chance for us to eat off the tree of life instead. 

He can do that. And the other kingdom knows it, so how does it get the Church’s eyes off it? (Part 2 tomorrow…) 

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said he would build his Church, and there’s a clue in what he meant by that in the Greek word for “Church” in that verse. It’s Ekklēsia (ek-lay-see-ah), a familiar word back then to both Greeks and Romans as a form of government. 

Ekklēsia, for instance, was the word used by the Greek city-state of Athens to describe its sovereign governing body, which it called “The Athenian Assembly.” The Assembly was the cornerstone of Athenian democracy, because it was open to all adult male citizens of Athens, regardless of their wealth, occupation or social standing. Any one of them could address the Assembly directly, speak his mind openly, hear what others had to say, and together they would vote in laws for the governance of their city. 

The Ekklēsia, therefore, was the ruling council of Athens, but not a hierarchy. It was made up of ordinary citizens being called to assemble together to come up with laws and decrees that met the needs of the state. It was totally secular, and not a religious body at all.   

It seems odd, then, that Jesus didn’t use any religious term to describe his Church, nor did he say, “I will build my temple.” Instead, he used a form of secular government initiated in Greece and adopted in part by the Romans of his day too. The Roman Ekklēsia, for instance, was also a ruling council of citizens, acting as an arm of the Roman government to make sure the policies and decrees of Rome – passed down to them by the local Roman governor (like Pontius Pilate) – were put into action.  

And this was all very familiar to the Jews of Jesus’ day; they knew who the Ekklēsia were and what their job was. So when Jesus mentioned that he was establishing his own Ekklēsia, imagine the impact that word would have had. It meant that he too was setting up a ruling council, a called out assembly of citizens, whose job as his Ekklēsia would be to act as an arm of the kingdom of God to ensure that the policies and decrees of Heaven were established on the Earth.  

It was a secular government model, therefore, that Jesus was patterning his church on, to describe what the Church’s purpose was. It gets the point across that his Church exists to re-establish God’s government on the Earth – exactly as God intended in Genesis, that through his ruling council of Adam and Eve and their descendants the kingdom of God would be planted all over the Earth to transform the world into the likeness of Heaven. 

Well, now it’s the turn of his Ekklēsia in this day and age to do that, so that wherever us ordinary folk are the kingdom of Heaven is being established. 

Psalm 8 gives an extraordinary answer to the psalmist’s question, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” – the answer being: we were made just “a little lower than God,” verse 5, “crowned with glory and honour” as “rulers over the works of God’s hands,” verse 6, with “everything put under our feet.” 

So it comes as no surprise to see Christian and non-Christian alike taking a serious interest in the environment, since we were born to look after the planet. Some, unfortunately, actively resist looking after the planet in pursuit of profit and prestige, and some “worship and serve created things rather than the Creator,” Romans 1:25 – like the worship of the Earth goddess Gaia making a comeback today. But putting aside the worship of money and a pagan goddess, the desire to preserve and sustain our planet is a worthwhile goal, isn’t it? 

But we don’t seem to be very good at it. We’re very good at flying private jets to locations where we come up with visionary ideas for saving the planet, but we’re not very good at playing out these ideas in real life. 

Take the electric car, for instance. Visions of non-polluting (and non-existent) tail pipes caught my imagination too, and especially when fears of the globe heating up and cities disappearing under water inflamed the news and authors of doom. And politicians were outdoing each other in their proclamations on which year their countries would have “zero emission” cars too.   

So I dutifully did my research on electric cars, kicked a few tires on live specimens, and imagined sailing by filling stations feeling very good about myself. It was more than a trifle disappointing in my research, then, to discover that the cost to the planet to build and operate electric cars, and provide a sufficient grid system to power millions of them as governments mandate we all drive electric only, was unnerving to say the least. And the pollution created in mining the materials for just one battery – well, I didn’t feel good at all about electric cars after that. 

What seemed so obvious and certain began to show cracks. I began to wonder what the real motive behind pushing electric is: Was it the love of money, yet again? If so, Paul wrote, “Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so arrogant and obsessed with money….and tell them to be rich in helping others, being generous and willing to share, because that’s a firm foundation for life now and forever,” 1 Timothy 6:17-19. 

And a firm foundation for fulfilling Psalm 8 too.