"how
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was
with Him. Acts
There are those religious ones who would have us believe that Jesus the epitome of love would go around blessing all kinds of people without exception. He would take time out to understand people first, and meet them where they are, so that He could draw them along to where they need to be. This is something that many humanist pschyolgists would do but not Jesus He knew their thoughts. In actual fact Jesus didn’t bless or accept all men but cursed and rejected many and He did things to irriate them so they were filled with rage and plotted to kill him. The bible records:
Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here." And he arose and stood. Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?" And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. Luke 6:6-11
Now
when He was in
Jesus didn’t bless the religious and political leaders of His day but cursed them! Woe to you doesn’t mean something good is going to happen to you? He told them they were serpents, brood of vipers who would not escape the condemnation of hell. He warned the public openly about them and their ways and said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.' Matthew 23:14-16
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, "and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. "Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Matthew 23:25-33
Jesus,
just like His Father, God, disliked hypocrites, thieves, liars, murderers,
deceivers, evil and wicked ones, (
Psalm 7:1, Proverbs 6:16-19, Revelations 21:8) especially when they were leaders
and He had not patience with them. He didn’t miss the opportunity to give them
the stringest rebukes of the
Pharisees for being proud, arrogant, false, and thieves. . They believed they
were right. They believed they, and only they, knew the way to bring forth the
And
the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, prophesy against the
shepherds of
"For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 'And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:22-23
Jesus judged the false ones of His day and He
publicly did not say nice things about them but told them that their end would
be worse than their beginning. He told them they were hypocrites, blind guides,
serpents, brood of vipers, and lawless ones, who would not escape the
condemnation of hell and there would be a day of judgment for them. Because Jesus was a Prophet, and
the Chief Prophet, and God was with Him, God would honor His words and they
would not fall to the ground. The Jewish religious and poltical leaders of Jesus
day along with their followers would not escape the condemnation of hell in the
speedy ensuring judgments that followed in 70 AD for whatsoever a man sows so
shall He reap! Flavius Josephus in writing about “The Siege of
Jerusalem, AD 70” testified:
Throughout the city
people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable
sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close
relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of
life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots]
searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or
just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless
gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors
like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or
three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse
which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end
they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields.
Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four
drachmas. http://www.loyno.edu/~rspipes/chicken/seige.htm
There is a real price to be paid for
rejecting truth and doing injustice, even in the current time of life, as the
people of
Then in 70 AD Titus marched against the city
with four legions of the Roman army.
They laid siege to
TITUS now promised
that the
The slaughter was
continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left but a small portion of the
outer cloisters, where 6,000 people had taken refuge, led by a false prophet who
had there promised that God would deliver His people in His Temple. The soldiers
set the building on fire and all perished. Titus next spent eighteen days in
preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily captured.
And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night alone putting
an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Outline_of_Great_Books_Volume_I/templejer_cg.html
If we examine the
Jewish people and their religious leaders, they were sincere and arrogant in
that they were right to crucify Jesus. After all Jesus was in their opinion and
according to their theology a false prophet and their leaders told them so. As a
matter of fact their leaders told them that Jesus was a Samaritan and had a
demon. They were God’s chosen
people who thought they had surrendered to Him but in reality denied Him. They
refused to see the plain truth that surrender is more than lies. It is a deep
desire to surrender all the lies. Most men look how they can carry on without
surrendering their will to God. They seek a sign rather than the truth. That is
why Jesus told them:
Then the Pharisees
and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from
heaven.
He answered and said to them, "When it is
evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; "and in the morning, 'It will be foul
weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'
Hypocrites! You
know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the
times. "A wicked and
adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it
except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed. Matthew
16:1-4
Jesus called them hypocrites and a wicked and
adulterous generation. They thought they could see what they cannot see at all.
They heard what they desired to and refused to surrender all. They thought and
therefore god has spoken. They thought it went that way. They forgot the lilies
of the valleys were created before them. They could not see the winds of change
were blowing and sweeping across their land. They thought they were secure and
continued in their traditional ways not know that the strong winds would be
blowing and devastating the land. It was coming nearer and nearer to the hour of
their demise. They mindlessly went on in life thinking themselves very spiritual
and assuming that sincerity and presumption where a guarantee of salvation. They
did not tune their heart and mind and spirit to God’s s still small Voice. They
did not take action in their limps and heart toward God's intentions and not
theirs. They assumed they knew everything and did not turn it all to the Lord.
They were proud of what they had achieved. After all, it was theirs? They never
anticipated that the word of the prophets would come to pass just as Jesus
prophesied and there were real consequences to their sin, rebellion and deeds.
As a result of the Romans laid siege to
It did not pay to
reject and murderer God’s true prophet and Son. A whole nation and its capital
were destroyed in the ensuing judgment of God that followed. As God’s word is
true even this day:
'I
will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will
put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command
Him. 'And it shall be that whoever
will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.
Genesis 18:18-19