"But Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
Luke 23:28-31
In Luke’s account of Christ’s journey to the cross, he relays to us the last teaching of Jesus in the midst of pain and suffering as He struggles along the road carrying His cross among the hostile crowds to face His crucifixion. We read of Jesus feeling great grief and compassion, not for Himself, but for His weeping daughters of Jerusalem who totally miss what is happening before them. Just prior to this, they ceased a man named Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross the rest of the way up the hill to Golgotha. All the prophecies He was fulfilling before their eyes, they continued to be ignorant of even though they had had them hundreds of years. Isn’t that still true today of most professing believers? Our future we are fast approaching is made clear in the Old and New Testament if we seek the Holy Spirit for revelation and understanding. He promises to be our Teacher and lead us into all truth. (John 16:13)
Amos 3:7 declares:
"Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals his secret counsel to His servants the prophets."
A prophet is simply someone who can hear the voice of God. After the resurrection and the curtain was torn into, this includes anyone who wishes to enter into the Holy of Holies to hear the Spirit reveal all Truth to those who pursue Truth with all their heart. That can be you!
Let’s look at the last words spoken by Jesus just before His ascension after the crucifixion and resurrection in Luke 25:44-49:
Now He said to them, " These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. " Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are My witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. "
The prophecies had been available in the scrolls for over 700 years at the point in history we are looking at today. He was sent to glorify the love of the Father, and to reveal to us the price He was willing to pay for the purchase of His creation of mankind. Satan would be defeated on the cross by Jesus’ perfect, sinless, blood. Jesus’ sacrifice became our escape from eternal punishment and enabled us to receive forgiveness and experience redeemed lives. Jesus, determined to go to the cross, knew He was fulfilling His purpose for coming to this earth. Through prayers of deep anguish He had hammered out before the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will, but Thine be done." The cross was our only way to salvation, and should always be our glory and joy.
Then He warns us of the consequence of dying in our sin without repentance and forgiveness and cleansing from all our unrighteousness. If we reject the cross we will suffer eternal punishment for our sins. He is also prophesying of the coming tribulation we read about in Revelation 6:14-17:
"The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks , ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’"
These verses reveal the future for those who reject what Christ did for them when He came to this earth as the Son of God. He came not to judge, but to save the lost. He told us He came not to condemn the World, but to save it. And this He fulfilled.
John 3:17 declares:
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him."
However, when He returns the second time to this earth, it will be as King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords! He will return as the righteous Judge in all His glory. He is a holy, righteous God who made a way for all mankind to escape the wrath of God. We too are to love and strive for holiness as our God. If we choose not to, we will suffer His wrath. He is God; I am not. So if you don’t like this devotional please take it up with Him. As for me, I love the cross, because I am not ignorant of the scriptures. I know what that cross means to me. It is everything for those of us who have surrendered our lives to God. It is the greatest act of love to ever be performed by perfect love and holiness for us! Our Creator does not leave us in our sinful nature. Jesus enabled me to become a child of the Trinity! No one is excluded. He died for all!
He then asks the question, "For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will they do when it is dry?" I must confess this was puzzling to me. I read some commentaries. I still do not know fully, but I will offer the only insight I got after praying. When a tree is green it is alive. It has sap, and it can bear fruit. We know a dry tree is usually dead and snaps easily. It cannot bear fruit and it has no sap. The evil is crucifying an innocent man which I have to believe represents Jesus. If they are doing this to an innocent man what will befall the evil man?
There is no time with the Trinity. As this was happening to Jesus, He had a full understanding and clear vision of the past, present, and the future of mankind. He is God. He isn’t limited to a timeline or anything else for that matter. We are. We can not pull Him down to our level of understanding. We have to live by faith and trust in His love for us. He is God, and we are not. I feel a need to remind myself of this truth daily, and I am sure you may need to be reminded of it also… about right now! You will find all your answers in the Word of God. We must not allow ourselves to be ignorant of what God’s Word reveals to us concerning the past, present, and our future.
We are presently celebrating what Jesus did the first time He came to live among men. Let us teach this part of history to our children above all else. It won’t be taught in the so-called schools today that do not teach truth, but indoctrination of lies and deception. It is our responsibility as His followers to teach our families first, and then the rest of the world. What we are talking about here is the eternal truths of our history that determines an eternal future. What could possibly be more important than that?
May this Resurrection Day be celebrated no longer ignorant of the Scriptures that were fulfilled and the ones to come that will be fulfilled. We as individuals must purposefully accomplish this goal in our hearts, and discipline ourselves to make it our first priority for the love of God and for the love of our families. There is nothing worth seeking more than these truths.
We must prepare for great upheaval in our nation. It is our responsibility as disciples of Christ to proclaim the truth of God’s word and give hope to the hopeless. But first we must allow the Bible to define what it really means to be a true follower of Christ. It isn’t religious activity in His name never knowing who He is. You must seek His face for yourself and allow Him to reveal Himself and His love for you one on one. Three things are required: time set aside for Him – prayer, which must become a two way conversation – and devouring the Word of God more than any other book. It must become a way of life seven days a week, not only on Sunday morning. He alone is worthy of first place in all our lives. In losing our old ways of living we will gain new life and life eternal by obeying these guidelines.
I pray we will all experience a different Resurrection Day this year as we return to the Scriptures with our families and follow Jesus throughout any one the four gospels as He prepared the disciples for what was about to take place. We see Him live out in the Garden of Gethsemane the struggle He battled as He asked God to allow the cup of suffering to pass from Him. We see Him stand alone as all the disciples forsook Him for a time when He needed them most. More importantly He left us an example of what true, unconditional love is that only He is the source of. The natural man cannot love as the spirit man which is eternal. The greatest love story ever lived out is the story of God, the Father, sending His only Son to take our place on a cross to accomplish what we could never do ourselves. The only sinless man who ever lived was Jesus Christ, because God was His Father, and yet He was a man birthed by a woman, Mary. I believe we can clearly see agape love is synonymous with sacrifice. True love is loving someone more than yourself and being willing to sacrifice your all as the example He left for us to follow. It must begin with God the Father. Then we can love one another with His love as we allow Him to funnel through us His love.
What desperate need in this world there is for pure, undefiled love. Friends, it is available to all! Seeking out the true meaning of Resurrection Day is your pathway to it becoming yours. Follow the path and please take your family with you! Wishing all a glorious, upcoming Resurrection Day! He is risen, indeed!
In His love.
Teresa Roberts
Masterpiece Fitness
276-237-6680
A skippidy-do-da day at Stone Mountain this week while hiking enjoying the spring weather.
