Wrongful persecution. Jesus was wrongfully persecuted, it's a well-known fact. Jesus didn't refuse to teach the right way of Sabbath keeping, he wanted the people to know that they were perverting the commandment with their man-made, excessive strictures. When He tried to explain that David even ate the temple shewbread, they ignored all that truth though it was right there in the scriptures, and they persecuted Him. When he mentioned they thought nothing was wrong with helping one of their livestock if it was in dire straits on the Sabbath, yet they reject helping other human beings- they again, ignore Him and His truth.
Jesus was a living example of truth and how it was to be kept by us. There was a place and time for the ceremonial laws of sacrifice and such, but Jesus the human sacrifice, wiped all that away. The Messiah came to FREE the people of God from the ceremonial sacrificial services, from the temple services. No longer would the temple services be necessary. The huge wall of separation between the Jewish people and the Gentiles was being broken down so that all could comprehend God is the Father of ALL HUMANITY. As the Father of ALL HUMANITY, God was revealing a way for all humanity to find eternal life through His only begotten Son. The Messiah was for all humanity, not just the Jewish people. Many Jewish people believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and many Gentiles as well.
Truth.
We need to dig into the Word of God-
Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
SEARCH the scriptures.
2Ti_2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
STUDY to show yourself approved unto God.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
We are to LIVE by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of God! Do we? Do we really?!
Let's STOP just skimming over the Bible and dig deep for the meat of the word!
Heb_5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
We need STRONG MEAT!
1Pe 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby
When we are new Christians we need to desire the sincere milk of the word and grow. As we grow in Christ we need strong meat.
There are deep meanings behind the messages of our Savior, heart messages, spirit messages, we are to LIVE by the WORD- in order to live by the Word we must know the word.
God help us all! All through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Now and forever!!!!!!! Amen.
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CONTINUED-
(Excerpt)
Christ and the Pharisees -OR Christ's Faithfulness in Sabbath-Keeping.
BY A. T. JONES. 1894 [Religious Liberty Library, No. 18] [Cont.]
They tried one more tack, however, before proceeding to open violence. They set a trap by which to get him to say some word or give some sign which they could twist into a charge of treason or of disrespect for authority, so as to get him into the clutch of the Roman power and authority. "Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk." And they watched him. "And they sent out unto him their disciples, with the Herodians," as spies, who should feign themselves to be just men, that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. And they asked him that insidious question concerning the tribute, when he answered, "Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's and unto God the things that are God's. And when they heard it, they were not able to take hold of the saying before the people: and they marvelled greatly at his answer, and held their peace; and left him and went their way." Matt. 22:15-22; Luke 20:20-30; Mark 12:17 (R. V.).
This was Tuesday before the crucifixion. Then the very next day, "were gathered together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people unto the court of the high priest who was called Caiaphas; and they took counsel together that they might take Jesus by subtlety, and kill him. But they said, Not during the feast, lest haply a tumult arise among the people, for they feared the people."
Then that same day (Wednesday) came Judas to the chief priests and captains and offered to betray him secretly unto them. They gave him the thirty pieces of silver, "and he consented, and from that time he sought opportunity how he might conveniently deliver him unto them in the absence of the multitude." And the night of the very next day they captured him in Gethsemane, after midnight, and led him to Annas, and then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate, then to Herod; and back to Pilate. Pilate tried twice to get them to judge him themselves; but they
answered, "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." "We have a law and by our law he ought to die" And when Pilate had insisted, even to the sixth time, that he found in him no fault, and spoke three times of releasing him, and really sought a way to release him, then it was, that in their desperation, they cried: "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cesar." Pilate then took the judgment seat, and they demanded that Jesus should be crucified. Pilate said, "Shall I crucify your King?" And in utter renunciation of God and all that he had ever done for them, they replied: "We have no king but Cesar." Then therefore he delivered him unto them to be crucified. "And they led him away to crucify him." "And they crucified him."
Thus they accomplished their purpose; thus they persecuted Jesus to death for Sabbath-keeping-calling it Sabbath-breaking all the time. Thus they destroyed the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and did all that lay in their power to shut away from, the world God's ideas of the Sabbath, in order that man's ideas might prevail.
They shut away from the world the Son of God, and his salvation, and his sign of it, that they might appear themselves to save themselves from themselves. But how was it they accomplished this? When Pilate was determined to let him go, and sought how he might release him, and they saw he was about to slip through their hands, then they made it a
charge of high treason, involving both Pilate and Jesus; Pilate, if he let him go, and Jesus, if Pilate took judgment in the case.
Now, any one who set himself up for king, or made any pretentions toward it at all, in the Roman empire, even by a sign or a word, was guilty of high treason at that time; for Tiberius ruled. For a Jew to do such a thing was worst of all, and for a Galilean Jew to do so was even worse than the worst. For the Jews were the most unruly people under the Roman yoke, and the Galileans the most turbulent of the Jews. And when they said to Pilate, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Cesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Cesar's they simply said to him in other words, "Here is a Jew, and a Galilean Jew at that, who has set himself up for king of the Jews. We, the Jews, have prosecuted him before your tribunal. Now, if you refuse to take notice of this case, and thus let this pretended king of the Jews escape you, and escape us, when we inform Tiberius at Rome, that a Galilean Jew set
himself up for king and we ourselves rejected him, and prosecuted him before Rome's tribunal, and you sanctioned his kingship, and let him go, and refused to hear us,-you know what you will get. You know it will be your ruin." That was what their argument meant,
and he knew and they knew, that such a report to Tiberius would mean only death to him, for sanctioning the kingship of a Jew. And therefore under this threat they got Pilate to do what he was determined otherwise not to do.
And when they said, "We have no king but Cesar," and thus that they would carry to Rome with the rest of their report, this, that they had unanimously proclaimed themselves loyal to Cesar, and Pilate himself had turned traitor to Cesar, and had fought them down against all their wishes,-you can see what an immense weight it would give to such a charge in their threatened representations, or misrepresentations, to Tiberius. Thus they finally accomplished their persecuting purpose against Jesus for keeping the Sabbath in a way that did not suit them. (End Excerpt)
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