April 7, 2011 … The Sinful Captors

Passage of the Day: Matthew 26: 47 … 47 While He [Jesus] was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

My Journal for Today: In his devotional book Strength for Today, John MacArthur, for this date, correctly observes that the mob who came after Jesus, including the Jewish soldiers from Herod’s court, were a prophetic life-picture of what the world – even today – would do to the Person and Name of “Jesus Christ.” How many times is it in the news today for worldly influences to attempt to “kill off” or erase any influence Jesus might have in our culture? There is a “mob” today who, if they could, would eliminate the name of “God” and/or “Jesus” from every vestige of our culture.

The mob coming after Jesus at the time of His Passion hid behind the guise and charade of legal justification, perpetrating a totally illegal, certainly sinful, mob-engineered act of murder. It was an organized “hit” with the purposefully intent to rid the world of the Man Who claimed to be “God.” And our unbelieving, flesh-driven world today would still like to eradicate Christ from any degree of influence over their lives. Christ comes in and demands allegiance to His word and His life; and He commands the world to believe and follow Him; and, just as in Christ’s day, the world politic did not want to relinquish power or control. And so, that world, as we read in today’s verse, was coming to kill Jesus, the self-proclaimed “Son of God.”

Cassie Bernall, at Columbine High School in 1999, when asked, with a gun to her head, if she was a Christian, said quietly and simply, without hesitation, “Yes.” And the young man who challenged her faith, couldn’t hear that and shot her dead. And now we have to ask ourselves as “disciples” of this same Jesus, … “Are we going to cut and run as did His disciples after the Gethsemane encounter? Or will we stand in and for His Name as did Cassie Bernall? Will we being willing, even onto death, to say, “I am His!”

Do we believe what Jesus said in His word? As MacArthur said, “… believers (i.e., Christians) are called to stand apart from any unbelieving crowd and defend the Name of Jesus Christ.”

But I ask myself (and you) … “Do we believe?” … AND … “Are we ready to stand for that belief, even in the face of death?!”

My Prayer Today: I stand with You, Lord; … give me the strength! Amen