Jesus' Final Week According to All Four Gospels - Part Thirteen

The 14th day of Abib (Passover), continued.

Note: Click the links below for downloadable PDF files for you to read along.

Jesus' final week according to the four gospels:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q6aa32sNP__8anBWjm7TK2JAAyX_CRNP/view?usp=sharing

Scriptures for reading:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TK3HX9yO9B0H9HQCB3v81hd7rMIHnMuN/view?usp=sharing

Highlights:

* Every one of you who has received the Spirit did the same thing the disciples did to receive it: You loved Jesus and kept his commandments (Jn. 14:15)

* If Jesus whispers anything in our ear, we have been blessed.

* The "ruler of this world" in Jn. 14:30, is Satan, and it still is, but only because Jesus did not accept that position from Satan during the Temptation.

* Lesson: Only those who are walking in the Spirit can truthfully say that there is nothing in them similar to what is in Satan, and that no confusion remains in them as to what is God and what is of the Devil.

* The inability to discern the difference between God and the Devil is the root cause of all the ills of the world: all the heartache, all the wars; every disease and injury.

* We humans do not want to admit that what we like and what we want is akin to what Satan likes and wants, and that what we think about good and evil is akin to what Satan thinks.

* Both Satan and men have their minds on this physical world and what goes on in it.

* Jesus was betrayed by a friend who loved him with a carnal mind!

* All human religions hold some carnal things to be holy, and condemn some holy things as being bad. By this, by redefining good and evil, man's religions hinder people from believing the truth and coming to the knowledge of God.

* ... They hinder people from recognizing evil when they see it, including the Evil One himself.

* The hideous, mythological Satan of medieval Christianity is a bad joke. Christianity's mythological Devil has nothing in common even with carnally-minded men, but the real one does.

* We know that Jesus loved God and obeyed Him because God sent us the proof of it, the holy Ghost.

* Luke 22:31: "And then the Lord said, "O Simon, Simon! Satan has earnestly asked for you men, that he might sift you like wheat."
This brings us to another great lesson....

* "No failure need be final except the failure to repent." -- George C. Clark

* Question: Who would Satan have asked?
Answer: God

* Question: Did God give Jesus' disciples over to Satan to sift them?
Answer: Yes, and they all failed the test, no doubt just as Satan had predicted when he asked God for them.

* Luke 22:32: "But I have prayed for you, that your faith will not give out. And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers."

* Jesus obviously knew that Peter would be converted. Jesus knew that his prayer for Peter had been heard and that God would forgive Peter and heal his broken spirit.

* In 2001, when pastor John was dealing with so much, trying to rescue some of the saints in his congregation, things were, at times, very confusing, and very discouraging. But Jesus spoke to him one night and said, "Go ahead and try to make a mess that I can't fix."

* ... With that came a question: "Do you really know this about me?" The real question being something like, "Do you really know ME like this?" Or, "Do you really know that I am this way?"

* In other words, "Do you know how much I love you all, and how much I am willing to go through with to keep you all, and how determined I am to save you all?" In short, "Do you really know me?"

* Satan may have asked for Peter, to sift him like wheat, but it was God's idea -- just as it was God's idea to try Job.

* We all have but two choices, to be cut on or be cut off, pruned or destroyed, broken or altogether crushed.

* Without having Christ in us, there is nothing in the kingdom of God that we can do.

* If you have received the Spirit, you have taken the Lord's name. Now, you are expected to bear acceptable fruit to God.

* God may have loved us unconditionally before we were born, but now that we are here and He has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, don't thing for a minute that disobedience will be excused on Judgment Day because God once loved you unconditionally. That was before you were born.

* Our altar is invisible, and it is outside the gates of all of man's religions. That is why carnally-minded men scoff at us, but we see Jesus standing out there, and every time God touches a heart, that person can see him, too, and can hear the call to go to Jesus outside the gate:

"So then, let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach" (Heb. 13:13.

It will be worth the effort and all the scorn of men.