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| Hebrews 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. |
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John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by His own people and creation, because He tough and did works contrary to their traditions. He did not agree with the doctrines, teachings, ways and the works of the religious leaders. They were building their own house on the traditions of men, using God's Word for their own purpose and profit. Matthew 16: 6, 11, 12 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. How is it that ye do not understand that I spake [it] not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of thePharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees This is explained in: Exodus 12: 19, 20 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread. Our Lord Jesus Christ and His doctrine, is that unleavened bread come down from heaven. The doctrines of the Pharisees and of the Sadducess contain leaven. Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Hebrews 12:2-3 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Hebrews 13:12-13 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. 1 Peter 4:14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy [are ye]; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Our Lord Jesus was: First: Rejected by the builders - Those to whom the Word of God, and His promises had first come to. Those who had set up their establishments; i.e. Synagogues and doctrines in order to be leaders over God's people. Matthews 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17 Jesus saith unto them (To the chief Priests and Pharisees). Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Second: Rejected by the elders, i.e. Religious leaders. 1 Peter 5:1-4 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight [thereof], not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over [God's] heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and [of] the chief priests, and scribes, and is killed, and after three days rises again.
Third: Rejected by this generation. Luke 17:25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. When we suffer rejection because of Jesus‘ name, then it is not us, but Jesus Christ in us who is suffering the rejection: Act 9:4-5 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Our Lord identifies completely with our afflictions, when we suffer because of our faith and identification with Him, with His Name, and with His Word in today's generation. John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 1 Timothy 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe. Our blessed Lord Jesus took upon Himself our reproach. We were separated and rejected by God because of our sins. Jesus came and provided cleansing and deliverance from them. We can now stand before God our Father, through His offering. He was not ashamed of us, and took our filth, shame and sins upon Himself to nail them to the cross at Calvary. Now, we through His sacrifice may be clean, pure and holy before God the Father. HE IS THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN. After what He has done for us, how then, could we be ashamed to identify with Him and His Name? The one who is pure and holy was not ashamed to identify with sinners. Why should sinners be ashamed to identify with the Holy one of Israel? The price for salvation has been paid for every person on this earth. But this salvation must be received as a personal gift of God to us, in order for it to be effectual in our lives. Every person, individually and independently, must receive that great salvation and not neglect it if it is to be applied to their lives. Luke 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. The cross of Christ Jesus, was the reproach he bore. Let the scriptures explain this: Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34 Then said Jesus unto his disciples (before the crucifixion), If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. We are to take up our and not His cross. We must, by our own free will, deny ourselves to confess and take up being related to and identify with Him and His sufferings for upholding the Word of God. This will bring about rejection from others, because it is not popular in the world and even in the "Christian" world, to proclaim a different kingdom and rulership through a different walk, behavior and speech then the one that they have. Luke 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Daily we are representatives of Christ, a written letter of God to those around us. Daily we should resist sin and be ready to give testimony of our hope in Christ to those that ask us. If in times of trouble and pressure, i.e. tribulation, we behave and complain just as the world does, then they will not come to us to ask what hope is it that keeps us strong. But if we walk in the Spirit, we have a confidence of victory in us that cannot be shaken, regardless of the circumstances. Then people will surely come to us to find out where we get our joy and strength. Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. Here our Lord is speaking to a man that asked him "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" After giving him instruction, He says to him "take up the cross, and follow me." WHAT CROSS was our Lord Jesus referring to? Surely not the wooden cross from Golgatha because the crucifixion had not yet taken place. The cross our Lord spoke of to that man and He also speaks to us of this cross today, was the rejection that he would suffer, if he obeyed and did what the Lord told him to do. People would think that he had gone crazy for selling his belongings and then giving the money to strangers. Can you picture the ridicule, reproach, and rejection loss of friends and relatives? The loss of the admiration that he had known and had from them and others, he would have to suffer. This would be unbearable, unless he put down his pride and died to self. How would it be with us, with you and with me, if we really obeyed the instructions the Lord has given us? Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but are ye transformed by the re-newing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. We are not to do the will of the world, v.15, but the will of God. Matthew 10:37-38 He that loveth father or mother more than me am not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. These verses make it very clear that if we honor the words of our relatives, more then His word and His orders, we are not taking up our cross. His Crucifixion: Matthew 27:31-32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify [him]. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.
Now let's go back a few verses to verse 27: Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band [of soldiers]. So it was the common hall from which he was led away to be crucified in verse 31. In verse 32 it is written: "And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene..." The name, Cyrene, according to the Cruden's Complete Concordance's Index to Proper Names With Meanings, Zondervan Publishing House, August 1976, means: The Fountain of the Sun, a corrup. Of kure, Ceres, the God of fire, and called by the Cnidians, kura, i.e., the sun; and the Heb. en, fountain. We know from scripture that God, our God, is a consuming fire. In verse 32, Simon means, according to the before mentioned Zondervan Concordance, the same as Simeon, meaning "hearing with acceptance". What am I trying to show by telling you these details? Well I am reminded, of the following scriptures in this connection: Genesis 22:6-9 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid [it] upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here [am] I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Just like Jesus and Simon) And they came to the place, which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Luke 23:26 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear [it] after Jesus. According to Strong's Concordance, Gr. 68, the word country in this verse means a field (as a drive for cattle); generally the country; spec. a farm, i.e. hamlet:-country, farm, piece of ground, land. (From Gr. 71, to lead; by impl. to bring, drive (reflex.) go, (spec.) pass (time), or (fig.) induce-be, bring(forth), (let) go, keep, lead away, be open.) Jesus our Lord said in John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." and in Mark 15:21 " And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. According to the before mentioned Zondervan Concordance
Red reminds me of blood, and according to Leviticus 17:11 The life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul. This is what I see in these scriptures: I see God the Father in Simon (hearing and accepting the sacrifice of His Son). He is coming, from the field of Cyrene (a farm, a place of fire, where He is the husbandman); to help His Son carry the burden, as it had been His will for His Son to drink this cup. As opposed to what the theologians would do: Luke 11:46 And he said, Woe unto you also, [ye] lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. However, in 1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]. In the three before mentioned gospels, we have three witnesses testifying that it was Simon who bore the wooden cross to Golgatha. In the gospel of John, we will now see something else. It is because of what is written in John's gospel, that until today, believers hold fast to the idea that Jesus himself carried the wooden cross to Golgatha. We will now read it, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your understanding to see the cross, which John is referring to in: John 19:16-17 Then delivered he (Pilate) him (Jesus) therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led [him] away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called [the place] of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgatha: Here it says that he "went forth", that means he started towards. However, the cross that he indeed carried all the way to Golgatha could not have been the wooden one, since Simon was walking behind him with it, but he did carry his reproach and the rejection of his own nation the sons of Israel, all the way to Golgatha. Hebrew 13:12-13 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
Numbers 15:32-36 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: the entire congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. The disciple is not better then the Master. If we live Godly in Christ Jesus we will also be rejected and persecuted. When we start speaking and acting upon the instructions He gave to His disciples and the Words of our Lord Jesus. This world and the religious systems in it, will rejects us too. Are we willing to bear this cross all the way to Golgatha (death, dying to self through reproach, rejection and persecution) and there start to live for God? Before coming to the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, I had grown up in the teachings of the Catholic church. There I had learned that Jesus fell three times under the cross, and that a woman had wiped his face. We see this in some of their churches in the form of pictures, and even on the "Via Dolorosa" in Jerusalem. This I had considered to be truth, until the Holy Spirit drew my attention to my belief and asked me to find it in the scriptures. To my great surprise, it was nowhere to be found. I searched all four gospels and still thought it had to be there. But this lie, which had been feed to me and was still a part of me was not of God. Jesus did not fall under the cross even once, let alone three times. The bible does not teach that Simon fell under the cross either. This is how false doctrine gets feed to us and it becomes a part of us and we accept it as truth. We must always search the scriptures to establish if what we are being taught is indeed God's word properly divided as the word of truth. Jeremiah 6:10, 13, 14 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear [is] uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one [is] given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt [of the daughter] of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace. All bible quotes in this text are from the King James Version. Additions or explanations to the quotes are in brackets ( ), heavy type and underline are added for emphasis. |
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