John 19-20
"I present him to you, but I do not find him guilty of any crime....Here he is: the Man."
"Crucify! Crucify!"
"You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him."
What makes that situation different from crowds whooping up from whomever their "authority"is, and something terrible happens, and the "authority" backs off...I didn't do it? The "will" of the people, of the mob as it were, triumphs and effectively covers up the manipulators of power and opinion/thought line.
"Authority" even tried to get out of it: I can pardon you or crucify you. What's your answer? Question, no doubt spoken with some desperation.
"You haven't any authority over me except what's been given you from heaven." My betrayer is in bigger trouble than you. Pilate wants to pardon him: "He tried his best, but the Jews shouted him down." One of the statements/phrases that makes it "ok" to persecute Jews. tongue in cheek. But they kill the "King of the Jews," ostensibly the king of the gathered, screaming people.
John's gospel, like Luke's, "crucified with two others."
Even on the cross, Jesus fulfilling scripture, as if following a script.
"The eyewitness to these things has presented an accurate report. He saw it himself and is telling the truth so that you, also, will believe."
75 pounds of spices for body preparation.
Mary Magdalene, Peter, John. "Woman, why do you weep?" 2 angels and Jesus at the tomb. "Mary." Recognizes Jesus as she is named by him.
Go to my brothers and tell them.
Jesus shows up in the locked room. "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit."
"Breathed into them." Same as when the Lord breathed life into Adam, who at once became a "living soul." The same Spirit that moved over the chaos of creation moves over the chaos of our lives, bringing form out of formlessness and fullness out of emptiness, resulting in new creation.
"If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?"
"Don't be unbelieving. Believe...So you believe because you see with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing."
"Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it."
"God revealed himself in Jesus, but the revelation rarely conforms to our expectations. We have such stereotyped ideas of what God does and how God does it that we frequently misread the signposts." EP
2 Peter 1-3
"To you whose experience of God is as life-changing as ours..."
Peter, chief apostle in the NT, always listed first. It wasn't Peter's character that qualified him, but his calling. First called to be a disciple, then an apostle ("sent out"). Sent by Christ to proclaim Christ. Nothing original in his message...all from/of Christ.
"Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God." Everything we do that pleases God is gift; oh, how we can take credit for that!
Build on what you've been given with: good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, generous love, all fitting together and developing each other. Should be active and maturing in your life.
Confirm God's invitation to you.
God's glory, God's voice. The prophetic Word was confirmed to us. "No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion." Prophecy vs. apocalyptic.
Lying prophets among you. Lying religious teachers. Pit you against one another. Crowd of mixed up followers who don't know right from wrong. Give the way of truth a bad name; only out for themselves. Jailed the rebels in hell until judgment day.
God knows how to rescue the godly and how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire. There will be an end to evil. There will be a day when the patience of God is exhausted and God's judgment will begin. Especially teachers. "In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end. Their evil will boomerang on them....their specialty is greed and they're experts in it."
Hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention. Keep in mind what the prophets said, and the command of Jesus.
With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. Giving everyone space and time to change.
"Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival."
Be found living at your best in purity and peace. Salvation. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers.
How shall we live? We must do our best waiting and our best living. Not be impatient or get distracted and forget God. Live a holy life.
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