2 April 2017

My dear readers,

(Extracts from RPG, Jan – Mar 1998, Edited by Dr SH Tow)

1. THE DRAMA OF REDEMPTION
Luke 23: 1-26, Isaiah 53:7-10

(a) The Jews. "And the whole multitude of them arose, and led him to Pilate, and they began to accuse him ..." These were the chief priests, the scribes and all the council. They brought false charges against Jesus, and false witnesses (Matt 26:60), but Pilate three times declared that he found no fault in Him, nothing worthy of death. But each time the Jews obstructed the process of justice by their loud clamour: "Crucify him, crucify him!" And the voices of them and the chief priests prevailed.

(b) The Governor. Pilate was corrupt and weak. He saw that Jesus was innocent and should be released. But he was more concerned with safeguarding his own position than seeing justice done. When he showed that he would release Jesus the Jews cried out, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend" (John 19:12). He bowed to their pressure and delivered Jesus into them to be crucified. After all, who was Jesus? His life was dispensable but Pilate's position was not.

(c) The Prisoner. Man of Sorrows! What a name for the harmless, spotless Son of God. "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth" (Isa 53:7). Helpless he stood in our place that our hopeless estate might be helped. Let us pause a moment in silent contemplation, and see our Saviour bearing all the insult and injury for us, enduring the contradiction of sinners (Heb 12:3). Surely He has borne my griefs and carried my sorrows!

(d) The Almighty. In all the drama we see God the Father in overall control, directing events from His throne in every detail. It was the wisdom and power of God that sent Jesus to suffer (1 Cor 1:23,24), a mystery which God ordained from before the foundation of the world, which none of the princes of the world knew: for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:7,8). In all the suffering God the Father had a part, for He was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Cor 5:19).

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for suffering for me.

2. THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS
Luke 23: 27-33, Psalm 22

Foreordained of God. The world will never understand the crucifixion, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18,24). By God's wise design "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Pet 1:20), God the Father predetermined how, where and when His eternal Son should die. It was God who "programmed the event" in every detail: that Christ should suffer at the hands of the Romans who introduced the utterly cruel and gruesome form of execution. At His direction events converged, human agents moved and circumstances fell into place, fulfilling His eternal purposes perfectly.

Foreshadowed in History. In the fullness of time God moved to redeem His people Israel from Egypt. One fateful night, the first Passover Lamb in each Israelite household was killed, and under the protection of its blood God's people were freed from the bondage of Pharaoh. In all subsequent years Israel commemorated the event by the Passover Feast – all these pointing to the coming sacrifice of our Passover, the spotless Lamb of God, our one perfect sacrifice which alone takes away our sins (Heb 10). Therefore our Lord determined that the Last Supper should be on the night of the Passover. Do you not see, dear reader, the hand of God?

Foretold by Jesus Himself. To Nicodemus who came to Him by night, our Lord described His coming death: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish" (John 3:14,15). God sent fiery serpents to punish the rebellious and ungrateful Israelites. To save them from their pain and death God commanded Moses to raise a brazen serpent, and as many as beheld the serpent of brass lived (Num 21:9). Even so our Lord Jesus was lifted up on the cross that as many as looked to Him in faith should be healed from the fatal serpent bite of Satan.

QUESTION: Reader, have you looked to the crucified Saviour for salvation?

3. HOLY WEEK HAPPENINGS
Luke 19: 41-48, Isaiah 56:4-8

(a) Weeping over Jerusalem. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets ... how often would I have gathered thy children together ... and ye would not" (Matt 23:37). "My own people have seen me, heard my words, witnessed the mightiest miracles, but they would not ..." Jesus' great loving heart felt for His own! His compassion for the Jews was outpoured, even as He saw the approaching bitter cup: His betrayal, mocking, affliction, judgment, condemnation, crucifixion. All these were about to descend on Jesus, the Messiah of God, Deliverer of the Jews, from the hand of His own people in Jerusalem. In their spiritual blindness, they knew not the time of their visitation.

(b) Prediction of coming destruction. For all their sins of pride, self-righteousness, stubbornness and hypocrisy, and for their killing of the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the peace of Jerusalem was taken away. Our Lord saw it coming upon His beloved people and country, and He wept. "For the days shall come ... thine enemies shall ... compass thee ... and keep thee in on every side ... and shall lay thee even with the ground ...". In AD 70 Titus led the mighty armies of Rome, laid siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the city, razed the temple to the ground and killed or captured over a million Jews in one terrifying carnage, "because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation."

(c) Cleansing the house of prayer. God had instituted the temple for a place of worship, where His people might present themselves in holy assembly, for prayer and praise. So should all our sanctuaries and places of worship be sanctified – different from other assembly halls – pure, solemn, quiet and dignified, providing an atmosphere for reverential worship. The Jews had turned their temple into a marketplace with buying and selling of "holy articles" of worship, making the house of prayer a "den of thieves". In His righteous anger He drove all the polluting elements out of the temple in one unprecedented purge.

QUESTION: By whose authority did Jesus cleanse the temple?

God bless all readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,
Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor