Who Persecuted Jesus?

Whirlwind

Whirlwind

Who Persecuted Jesus?

I was watching my old friend Arnold Murray on TV again this morning...and he really got me thinking with this one.

He was talking about Christ. And he said that the sinners in the sin-pits and bars and whorehouses and such weren't the ones who persecuted Jesus...even the demons that occupied the bodies of the wicked screamed out and identified our Savior as the Son of God and begged him for mercy (which, by the way, he showed them). But it was the Pharisees, the ones who practiced religion, who persecuted Jesus.

I was doing my morning-set of deep knee bends when good ol' Arnold was talking about this, and I just stopped...whoah! I never thought of that before. It just never struck me. The sinners fell down and asked Christ to forgive them. The demons begged the Son of God for mercy. But the self-righteous, the Pharisees, the ones who practiced religion, denied Christ as the Son of God.

Incredible how we learn something new every day, huh? This is just something so basic that it never connected with me before.

Makes me want to stand up and scream: I am a sinner, Christ Jesus! Son of God, save me!!!

:D
 
WOW. I really thought I had learned this lesson well. I mean, I've seen so much of this in church, and I've even seen it in myself growing up in church thinking all the wrong things. But obviously, I didn't learn the lesson right.

Because in everything you said, it wasn't until the end that I even though about which of those groups I would fall into.

Forgive me LORD, a sinner.

Rooster: Yes you are

Donkey: And you smell bad too
 
That is really cool! I just learned that Paul was once a Christ persecuter. And how the Pharasees tried to trip him up and he spent years going from one judge to another. I think this was probably before he got strarted stong in his ministry. I don't know, I didn't go back to the whole book yet of Acts. I think I was reading in Acts 24

Act 24:1 Now after five days Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul.
Act 24:2 And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation, saying: "Seeing that through you we enjoy great peace, and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight,
Act 24:3 we accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness.
Act 24:4 Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us.
Act 24:5 For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
Act 24:6 He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him, and wanted to judge him according to our law.
Act 24:7 But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands,
Act 24:8 commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him."

It was just very interesting to learn something new, and sometimes it is only new to me. God is so good!
 
Yup. God is good in how he reveals things to our hearts when the time is right. I trust Him in this.

Thanks for that, Sweets!:)
 
Christiantiy 101- religious people persecuted Christ and still continue to persecute His people today. (false) Religious finger pointers are driven mad by those who find freedom and rest in Christ.


Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
 
Very true what you say Whirlwind.
But the self-righteous, the Pharisees, the ones who practiced religion, denied Christ as the Son of God.
Click to expand...

Because the Pharasees did not want to be free from the law. We are now free from the law because of Jesus Christ , but they could not understand that because they did not want to accept Christ.
 
Whirlwind said:
I was watching my old friend Arnold Murray on TV again this morning...and he really got me thinking with this one.

He was talking about Christ. And he said that the sinners in the sin-pits and bars and whorehouses and such weren't the ones who persecuted Jesus...even the demons that occupied the bodies of the wicked screamed out and identified our Savior as the Son of God and begged him for mercy (which, by the way, he showed them). But it was the Pharisees, the ones who practiced religion, who persecuted Jesus.

I was doing my morning-set of deep knee bends when good ol' Arnold was talking about this, and I just stopped...whoah! I never thought of that before. It just never struck me. The sinners fell down and asked Christ to forgive them. The demons begged the Son of God for mercy. But the self-righteous, the Pharisees, the ones who practiced religion, denied Christ as the Son of God.

Incredible how we learn something new every day, huh? This is just something so basic that it never connected with me before.

Makes me want to stand up and scream: I am a sinner, Christ Jesus! Son of God, save me!!!

:D
Click to expand...
I call events like these "Light bulb" moments. Moments when you stand in awe (eyes bugged out, jaw hanging to the floor, arms loose at your sides) of how wonderful our Savior is!:D
 
Whirlwind; As you may already know, the Book of Matthew 1-12 (KJV) deals with Christ's birth, early life and His ministry. Along about Matthew 13:53-58 (KJV), we start to see that the 'synagogue elders' were not at all happy with Christ's Truth. By the time we get to Matthew 16:1-12 (KJV), it tells us the early troubles that Christ was having with the Pharisees and the Sadducces rejecting Him and scoffing at His teachings. They were plainly upset that this 'common man' seemed to know more than they did and they started to plan for a way to eliminate Him from their midst.

In Matthew 21:12-17 (KJV) we see that Christ was attempting to correct the people who were trading animals to be used in sacrifices while INSIDE the Temple. The Temple priests were indignant at what he was trying to do and this just added fuel to the fire regarding their ultimate plans.

In Matthew 23 (KJV), Christ openly criticized the church leaders and tells it to them point blank.

In Matthew 26 (KJV) the plot to kill Christ is set in motion and Judas is conscripted to betray his 'boss' for 30 pieces of silver.

The rest of the Book of Matthew 26-28 (KJV) recaps the death of our Savior and details His being taken into custody by a mob (not the Roman army as some persons suspect). Pilate, the Roman governor was indifferent toward the church elder's demands initially, but he knew that if he did not give in to their demands, that he would face a revolt. That would not look good in his reports to Ceasar or his future job resume's, so he finally turned over Christ to the legion of Roman soldiers who finalized Our Savior's death on the cross.

The vast majority of common persons were followers of Christ's ideals and teachings, but the temple officials just couldn't face the fact that He was competition to them, so they instrumented his demise.

Christ's crucifixion was prophesyed 1000 years earlier by King David when he wrote Psalm 22 (KJV). Read it over, and you will see a parallel series of events as told in Matthew 1-28 (KJV).

As we all study God's Word at our own rate and in our own good time, these occasional bits of informational revelation jump right off the page at us and we then smack ourselves in the forehead and say, "Why didn't I get that earlier?"

The more we understand God's Word, the more of God's Word we WANT to understand... Blessings to you in your studies.





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Thanks guys!:)

Yeah - this was one of those moments. God wrote it in big capitol letters taller than I am - so big that I had to step back a bit before I could see them.

And it's still happening...it's strange. Again, I have to say that there's another layer here. A deeper level that I'm just starting to understand is even there. The surface, if you know what I'm talking about, is only the first step. There's more deeper down.

There were no Roman soldiers present when Judas walked up and kissed Jesus on the cheek, betraying Him. Nobody taught me that there were soldiers present, but it's just something that I (and a lot of other people) assumed. Those soldiers present were the mismatched crew sent by the churches. I see that now, Pastor Gary! It's like a shape in the mist...when someone points the outlines out to you, you can make it out!:eek:

Chapter-by-chapter; verse-by-verse. I'm learning that this is something dangerous to some people.:( Because if we go chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse, we're all going to come to the wall of truth. We'll have to encounter that truth before we can continue on. This has been another phrase repeating over and over again during my studies...a phrase that I haven't heard so often before.:)

There's layers here. Almost like a video game. You have to unlock the passage to the next layer and listen for the clues and watch for the truth in things around you. It's amazing!:D Something they just didn't teach back in my "Good News" days.
 
Whirlwind said:
Thanks guys!:)


There were no Roman soldiers present when Judas walked up and kissed Jesus on the cheek, betraying Him. Nobody taught me that there were soldiers present, but it's just something that I (and a lot of other people) assumed. Those soldiers present were the mismatched crew sent by the churches. I see that now, Pastor Gary! It's like a shape in the mist...when someone points the outlines out to you, you can make it out!:eek:
Click to expand...
The soldiers you speak of were well trained an professional temple guards brother. They were considered quite elite.
 
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