True Life Story of Christ, Pt. 7

Ronald Weinland

June 6, 2020

This is the continuing series True Life Story of Christ with this being Part 7. I believe there will be one more section to this because there is a portion there we don’t really need to cover as much in the series that we’re going through. Again, part of the primary reason for doing this was to bring everything up to date so we could have it on the website on the Holy Day section there on Passover, which goes into the period of Pentecost.

The reason for that, again, is for anyone new coming along that would be able to go there and have a story of something that people really haven’t heard in the sense of the truth, in the sense of truth being shown throughout the process there of things where people are totally deceived in the world, don’t have any understanding, and to be able to express some of those things, explain some of those things.

Because as people go through that story and they’re able to see something, if God is drawing them, calling them, giving them the ability to see and understand, it’s amazing how those things just fit into place and make for a very powerful impact in people’s lives. That’s the purpose of it.

This is going to be followed by another series, of something I want to get into, but it’s about praying for these kinds of things as well, our part in that. But we’ll get there.

So, we’re going to continue here today in Mark 14. As we continue in this story we’re getting closer to the end, but we don’t need to go through the section here, as I was starting to say, about the three days and three nights because I can direct people in here then to that, that it’s covered on the site in videos, Three Days and Three Nights. It takes up quite a portion there of scripture and a lot was covered in that and there’s no sense in covering that in this section as well, the period that Christ said would prove that he was the Messiah.

So, picking up the story again here in Mark 14:12, and this, again, is the 13th day. This is the day before Passover. I marvel when I go through some of these things that are written here because it’s so tough sometimes in translations and different periods of time that we’re talking about and the lack of understanding that people have of the Old Testament, and because of that there is tremendous confusion then even in people who translated in what they say and how they say it. There are just a lot of things that aren’t done well.

But to prove all these things if you go word by word it makes it even more difficult because, again, translating is not a word by word process. It’s a matter of what is the purpose, what is the context, what is the spirit of what is being said, and sometimes you just can’t do that by one word in one language and try to find another word, unless you understand what’s being said. That can take a lot of words sometimes to express the same thing. That’s the frustration in some of these translations.

So anyway, we’ll hit on some of those as we go through here. But it says right here in the beginning, Mark 14:12, The first day of Unleavened Bread. Now, if we read the rest of this in context, we know this isn’t the first day of Unleavened Bread. That’s dumb when it comes to understanding the truth, when it comes to understanding God’s law in the Old Testament and understanding here the timing of what’s being said. But people in the world, if they don’t have that knowledge, if they don’t understand what it says in Leviticus 23 about the Holy Days and the order, it messes people up.

This here has messed up people in God’s Church! I have to qualify that a little bit because I’m not sure they were in God’s Church at the time they began to be messed up. The point being is that if people through sin, by doing things they shouldn’t be doing in life, by not living by what they should be doing and living by, if they’re not watching and being alert spiritually in their lives and begin to quench God’s holy spirit, there comes a point in time where they can’t see as they used to be able to see when they were being drawn or as they were growing and they begin to lose and they begin to use human reasoning rather than what should be clear to them by God’s spirit.

When God’s spirit is there things will become clear. They will either be clear at that point or they will become clear as this person strives to understand what is being said. God will lead them to that ability. But if people are messing around with God’s law, not living by what they should be, they’re going to begin losing. We had a lot of people that began to be messed up.

It still boggles my mind when I think about it. There were tons of ministers. One organization I was in that guesstimated that about half the ministry believed in a 14/15th Passover because they couldn’t grasp these things. Where did they lose that? …if they ever had it.

So, for people in God’s Church to read something like this we know what it’s talking about. We know there is no contradiction. But if people begin to dwell on certain things and think, “Oh, man, I don’t know now. Maybe…?” That’s what happens in the mind, people begin to think. I use that loosely. They begin to “think.” That isn’t always good. Sometimes when people begin to think from their own mind rather than what God gives to them, begin to use their own reasoning, their own understanding, their own perception of things apart from what God has clearly stated, that’s dangerous. That’s a dangerous area to be in, and yet I’ve known of hundreds and hundreds of people who have done just that – they started “thinking.” Too bad.

Then the first… Just tell you about this word here. It means “the first in importance.” That’s how it’s used in scripture. In one place it talks abut the chief or the chief of the Jews, the first of the Jews. What does that mean? Well, it’s talking about in importance here as far as the leadership of the Jewish people. Well, I think there’s a verse coming along here before too awful long that uses that. But it’s talking about “the first in importance” in the sense of the leadership were meeting together, the chief of the Jews meeting together to make certain decisions and so forth.

That’s what it’s talking about here. And so, when it says, Then the first day, it’s like of Unleavened Bread, and then it goes on to say, when they killed the Passover… So they killed the Passover on the first day of Unleavened Bread? This has screwed some people up, it really has. You can look at this and say, “How did that mess people up?” Because they started “thinking.” It’s not about the first day of Unleavened Bread. That word is used loosely here as time, like time, this period of time.

And so, when it talks about The first in importance of Unleavened Bread, we can talk about Unleavened Bread is coming,” “We’re in the season of Unleavened Bread” or “We’re in the Passover season,” because you know what? It uses both kinds of expressions here depending on the writer. He can talk about the Passover, the Passover season which includes Unleavened Bread, but it’s not the Passover. But we talk that way, that Unleavened Bread is here. We know what comes first! What’s first of importance? Passover! It’s simple.

So, if you know God’s law, if you know the order of things in Leviticus 23 there is nothing to “think” about in the sense of using human reasoning to move away from something that’s given to us as a truth. That’s why I love what God revealed to us from the very beginning when we started talking about this particular subject, 14/15 Passover – just tell the truth. Don’t get into all their stupid arguments about 14/15.

Because there are different ministers out here who had different ideas how to arrive at a 14/15th. They didn’t all agree with each other, but they agreed with one thing, that which was false, 14/15th. When it came to Pentecost it got worse. People started messing around with different ideas about that.

I bring these things up because our history has been filled with this kind of stuff. We went through an Apostasy, so yes, our history is filled with this. It’s very much a part of our life. But the sharper you are in understanding those things as to what happened and why and how the stronger you can be to be able to spot those things when they happen in life. Truly.

You think this kind of information won’t be good in the future in a new age, in a new world? Yeah, it will be because you know what? There are going to be people who start “thinking.” Even when God’s Kingdom is there! We have work to do, especially at the beginning, because people are so steeped in other things and it takes time to make change.

That’s why I love Mr. Armstrong’s expression of three or four generations to clean, to refine, to get us where we can be worked with for the rest of the Millennium on a steady pace in a norm.

Then the first (chief) day (time) of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover… Simple for us. We don’t have to “think” about this. We know. We’ve been shown. It’s Passover. Passover is not in the Days of Unleavened Bread. We understand that back there – on the fourteenth day you will have this from evening to evening. Then it’s followed by seven days – the first day is a Holy Day, an annual day, annual Holy Day, and the seventh day is an annual Holy Day on the days of Unleavened Bread. So, it’s no mystery to us.

That’s why it’s amazing to think back how so many people got so messed up. That should strike a little bit of fear, of fear to ever deviate, to move away from, a fear to sin, a fear to get cut off from God’s spirit, a fear to quench God’s spirit, the flow of God’s spirit into our life. Because that’s what can happen. A period like Laodicea can happen. People can fall asleep. That can happen.

Then the first day (or time, literally) of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover…

So, here is another one, when they killed the Passover. Now, there are two things you need to know about this when it talks about this, uses this expression, because it can literally be about two different periods within Passover. Because there is killing that took place at the beginning of Passover on the night of the 14th; we understand that. It’s the killing of the lamb to be eaten. There is also a lot of killing that takes place in the afternoon of the Passover. A lot. Because now you’re not just killing lambs, different things to be sacrificed later on, sheep, whatever, cattle, all kinds of things being sacrificed. They start killing them in the afternoon, dressing them out and so forth so that by the time it’s sundown they can begin the part of offering up, and then taking care of all the things that they did to be able to participate, eat of those sacrifices.

That’s why it’s called a Feast day, because the feast starts that evening. So, it gets rather late, but they have it all prepared, so much of it, in the afternoon, and this is what happened to the Jewish people – they began to confuse the two. The Jewish people got confused by this and they began to get the times mixed up as to what was being done. That’s why they talk about this “going down of the sun.” So, it starts at 12:00 you know, and the going down of the sun… if you know what I’m talking about, referring to.

Anyway, what was happening at an afternoon period of time, if you will, depending on the number to be killed, to be prepared, there was just a lot of slaughtering taking place. Just all over the place depending on how many people were coming into Jerusalem at any point in time.

We saw something. It wasn’t Passover. It was in Egypt. But going through Cairo at a particular period of time that they celebrate they had people with these white garbs on with blood all over them, and children (because they were learning how to do some of this as well), and carts being pulled by oxen, donkeys, mules, I guess, whatever they had I believe it was there, going through the streets, the city of Cairo with the cars going by and everything, and people coming out from these different places bringing things out, parts of carcasses and so forth, throwing them in. Then you get behind one. There’s a smell to that. It was just everywhere. Blew my mind!

But it took me back, thinking back. Well, when you see a cart being pulled full of dead bodies inside of it, or carcases or bones, hides, whatever was there, it wasn’t a real pleasant sight, if you’re not used to that. But you can’t help but think back, this is the way it used to be a long, long time ago and how things were done, when sacrifices were done. If you were in a city gathered together and some of these things begin to be done in advance, trying to bring everything into one area, you couldn’t do it all in one area as far as some of the work was concerned.

Because if you go back in scripture and read some of this there were times when there were tens of thousands. I can’t imagine that much preparation of that many animals being killed because there were so many people. So, it’s a big thing and it’s hard for us to grasp some of this. The lamb, not as big. That can be done easily in a simple location. But when it talks about something of this nature, killing the Passover, it depends on what they’re talking about, whether it’s the lamb on the night or all the sacrifices in the afternoon.

Again, the reason I mention those things is because people in so much of the scattered group are totally blinded to that reality. What do you think is taking place on a preparation day, like the Passover was, in the afternoon as you’re getting ready to observe what you are as soon as the sun goes down, in offering up meat sacrifices and so forth? They just didn’t throw a cow on the fire, you know, or a sheep in the fire. There were things they did. They cooked them. That’s a part of the offering. That’s what it’s about. People got to participate in different types of offering like that. A feast!

…when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, Where do you want us to go that we prepare the Passover for you to eat? Simple! There is no confusion in this. “Where do you want us to go to prepare the Passover?” There is no confusion that this is somehow on Passover morning and that maybe he’s talking about something like the Seder or people that think 15th Passover, that this is getting ready for the evening of the 15th when the 15th starts, when the 14th sun goes down on it. Because people get messed up there.

So, when do you eat the Passover? As soon as the sun goes down on the 14th. When do you kill the lamb and prepare it? As soon as the sun goes down on the 14th. These things you do on the 14th.

So again, awkward translation because it could have been done a whole lot better.

Another account not so well translated, Luke 22:1. So, with the truth you’re not confused. If you start to think, reason away from the truth, then it becomes confusing, if you start seeing things that aren’t there. That’s what people do.

I hope all of you think so much so to you it’s like, “I don’t know how that could be! How could anyone possibly do that?” Please understand, there are people who went through Ambassador, there were people who went out in the ministry who were there for decades that this happened to, and many people in God’s Church.

Luke 22:1—Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. The literal translation: Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is speaking of Passover. So again here, its terminology here not the best in how it’s done in English at least, but we understand if we keep reading, things fall into place very simple. It’s not difficult at all.

“Feast of Unleavened Bread is drawing near.” You can call it the Passover season. You can call it whatever you want. Both names are interchangeable there depending on what you’re stressing.

Now, here’s the word, the chief or “the ruling” as it’s translated in some places, the chief priests and scribes sought or they were looking for a way how they might kill him, for indeed they feared the people. So, they were cautious about how they were going about this. They didn’t want to do it in the open, they wanted to do it in secret, and if they could do it at night, even all the better. That’s how people are, do it in the night. You know, don’t riot in the daytime; it’s too easy to get caught! Riot in the night. Hits pretty close to home, doesn’t it? Anyway.

Then Satan entered unto Judas surnamed Iscariot. So, sometimes people have questions about this, “What do you mean Satan entered into him?” Well, he had already had a mindset here to betray Christ. He already had that thinking going on in his mind. He was already critical of Christ, of how money was used. He was critical of how things were used that could have been turned to money. It became very clear in certain things that are recorded here. That isn’t uncommon.

I have known of, heard people from the very early part of my calling in 1969, riding in a vehicle with them in a car, being around certain ones in a group who were talking, and they were criticizing Mr. Armstrong for decisions he was making about how funds were going to be used in the Church. Even then it kind of boggled my mind. You think, “He’s God’s apostle!” Like, “Who are we?”

I used to think, “Of anyone in God’s Church, he has to be the closest to God.” So how does someone think that they have a better idea, a better way of doing something? If a decision is made to do something you support it, you back it. That’s how God works. That’s how God wants us to work.

Then Satan entered unto Judas Iscariot. So, because his mind was that way, he was already of a certain mind, it was very easy for Satan to work with him. Sometimes people confuse this with possession, total possession or whatever, and what that is about. This is not exactly the same by any measure, but it is a matter of moving someone in a very powerful way by great suggestion, if you will, on a spiritual plane in the mind to do what you’re going to do. It wasn’t as hard for him to do because it was in his heart and mind to do this already.

It says, Then when he had entered into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. So, he went his way and spoke with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them, how to betray Joshua unto the priests. Then they were glad and agreed to give him money. So, he promised to look for opportunity. Isn’t that amazing? To get something out of whatever you’re doing because that was important to him.

So, was it just a noble thing that he disagreed and wanted him to be taken away, wanted him to be betrayed, or was it because of this thing, there was such a powerful thing in his mind? Until he got it later on, then it’d hit him, what he’d done. But to think a mind that can be like that, that can do that?

I’ve come to understand that. Not betrayed on the same scale, but betrayed. We experience that a lot of times in God’s Church. We experience betrayal, and people who went through the Apostasy, there are a lot of people who have experienced betrayal to one degree or another, of things that are said or done against you…and sometimes for money. Anyway.

They were glad to give him the money. He was glad to take it. So, he promised to look for the opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Because that’s what they wanted. They didn’t want any multitudes, people following, because they feared the people, that something like that might spread. They were more concerned of the political type of response of the people, religious, whatever you want to call it, but it’s a kind of a move here not to want others go out who witness something, who begin to speak in a bad way toward you because you want the people to be with you, to follow you. You don’t want to give something there that they might trip up on or look unkindly toward.

So, he promised to look for the opportunity to betray them in the absence of the multitude. Then came the day, again, or time, if you will, of Unleavened Bread, it’s that time period now, when the Passover must be killed. So, it gets very specific. We know when that is, when the Passover must be killed. Now this gets more specific, so we realize here because of what follows and the timing involved here it was the night of the 14th that this was going to take place.

This isn’t hard. This isn’t rocket science. But it is if you start “thinking.” Isn’t that amazing? If you start using human reasoning it will screw up your mind to where you can’t even see simple things like this. That’s an amazing thing to understand, what can happen to the human mind when you’re separated from God’s spirit. You can begin to play with ideas of something that starts into the 15th. It’s amazing!

Verse 8—So he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover, that we may eat. So again here, this is about, other places this is spoken of here. In John it talks about it a little more in detail here as to the timing and so forth. But here in Luke it’s jumping ahead to this point here where he sent out the two to go ahead and prepare the Passover then.

And they said to him, Where do you want us to prepare it? So he said to them… We all know that to prepare it is going to be on the evening of the 14th. This is still in the 13th. You may not know exactly when in the 13th but you know it’s in the 13th. It appears by everything that’s here that this is the evening of the 13th and so they’re thinking about the next day and how they’re going to do things and talking about it, a time you would do something like that in that regard. Again here, so we know this conversation is taking place on the 13th. Not rocket science, again.

He said to them, Look, when you have entered into the city, a man shall meet you there bearing a pitcher of water; follow him to the house where he enters. I love this. This is awesome. Because everything is set out. It’s in his mind what God has prepared and how God has prepared it, how God wants it done. He knows this is what is to take place. He tells them this is what’s going to happen. Because God is doing things here so that it can be written, so that these things here can be for us, for any who read it who know the truth, who learn the truth of how awesome it is the Great God who orchestrates things in such a fashion to teach us about His power, about how awesome He truly is.

This is exciting. They don’t know how this is going to come about. They could have been told something else, to go do something else that was more logical in the sense of human reasoning, but here is something that you just don’t think about doing this way because it’s not normal. You’re not just going to go up to someone and say something. So he tells them to do this.

Sometimes we do things that might not seem right. That’s why I love the story of coming out of Egypt and they go down to a place that’s the “way of the Red Sea.” There was no way. It’s like saying the “highway of the Red Sea.” There was no highway of the Red Sea. There were others to go up into an area north of there, to travel, but there wasn’t any place to get across the Red Sea.

So, again, to me it’s exciting to see things like this because it’s about God’s way and it doesn’t hit, meet with human reasoning. There is something else involved there, that you go a way that God tells you to go, you follow what God leads you in and He’ll get you there. He’ll open up the Red Sea from time to time for you when it looks like “There is nothing in front of me. What do I do? …and there is nothing but evil behind; my back is to the wall. What should I do?” God works with us, leads us, and we grow in confidence and boldness in these kinds of things.

So it says, Follow him to the house where he enters. And you shall say to the head of the house… So when you follow this man in say to the head of the house, The Master asks of you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? So, again, has to be on the 13th. They go there, they follow him and they’re shown the room where they are to get everything arranged, prepared.

Then he will show you a large, upper room, furnished; there make it ready. Then they went and found as he had said to them, and they made ready the Passover. Then, when the hour was come, he sat down. So, when is that? We know it’s the 14th. They’re going to eat now this Passover lamb. This lamb that they had, this lamb that they were able to have a room where they could prepare everything, have the fire prepared. It takes a while to get that ready. You can do that before the lamb is killed, and quickly kill the lamb, put it on there to roast (because they had to do it the same way as they were told to do in the Old Testament), start roasting it, and then a few hours later…

I’ve got an easy way I do meat now. It’s on a device called a Traeger. It puts pellets in there, feeds them in according to the temperature you have there, and I put this little probe in the meat. I have an app on my cell phone, and I can look at it at any moment in time. It’ll tell me exactly what the temperature is in the center of the meat. It tells you because you picked out on this app what kind of meat it is and whether you want it raw, medium rare, whatever, well done, and it has different temperatures. It’s the way I love it. Before this I’ve hated anything to do with cooking. Now, I don’t mind because I can kind of enjoy it. “Oh, my app. Look at this! Man, this is good.”

Anyway, it was more difficult for them. They had to roast the whole thing. It had to take a few hours to have everything done like that, to roast a lamb all the way through, I’d think. What, two hours? Three? I’ve never done that.  Four or five? Whew! So, it was getting kind of late because you have to wait until after sundown. Now he’s sitting down. That’s where we’re at. It’s not a hard thing to understand the flow.

Then when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with him. He said to them, With desire I have longed… That’s what this word means here. “I have longed.” It’s from the word “to desire,” but it’s a word that means “deep desire.” So it’s something like a longing that he had.

Can you imagine? It’s hard to imagine, but it’s good to try, to grasp that in the last two weeks of his life, even three weeks as they started that journey down there toward Jerusalem, he knew what he was headed toward. He knew what Isaiah said and other things in prophecy said about the kind of beating he was going to take, the kind of disfiguring his body was going to take to where he wouldn’t even be able to be recognized by others because of the beating he took. He knew he was going to experience that. He knew he was going to be hung on a pole, and there he was going to die.

But he wanted to do it. He longed to do it. He longed to fulfil it so that his disciples could have more, so they could have the ability to receive God Almighty, the power of God’s spirit into their lives so they could be forgiven of their sins so they could have that experience of life that he had lived, that he lived, if you will.

Because he had that mind in him in ways that go far beyond what we’re able to receive. But we receive a portion of that because of our calling, because of what God places into our mind, and it gives us the ability to see things that others can’t see. Others can read some of the same things you have read and they’re going to see something totally different. It’s not what you see.

So again, With desire I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. They didn’t even know what he was talking about. Isn’t that amazing? “Before I suffer.” What is he saying, “before I suffer?” They still didn’t know he was going to be beaten, that his skin was going to be ripped off his body and on his face, bloodied so badly that people couldn’t recognize him for who he was, and to know that he was going to be nailed to a pole? They didn’t know. Later on they understood, and later on they appreciated more deeply these words of what was spoken.

We have the same kind of ability then to think about those things with God’s spirit, to more deeply appreciate, to be thankful for what he went through so that we have the ability to pray anytime we want to before God and cry out to God. Whether it be a time of normal prayer in our life or whether it be a time of far greater need because of something we’re going through that’s excruciatingly painful, that cuts deep inside. Perhaps something of our past that’s there that pops up again in our life. Because we are our past in large part – it molded us into who we are. That past is always going to be there in our physical lives. We battle with that all of our converted life.

But sometimes because of some incident, something that might happen, it may raise its ugly head again, and the pain and the suffering we went through back then is like it’s being repeated here. It’s trying to remind you. You don’t want to go through that and so you cry out to God to help to go through whatever it might be.

What an awesome thing to be able to do that. The Great God who wants to intervene to help you through that, He loves it when we look to Him, when we recognize He is our creator, He is our sustainer; He is the one that has given us our Passover. The Passover gave himself for us so that we could have that relationship. That’s why I love John 14, because Christ makes it clear, “I will be able to, the Father will be able to dwell in you now,” basically paraphrasing what is being said there in John 14. Beautiful!

So, he longed in ways that we find hard to grasp. But we should think about it because this was what was going through his mind in ways that we have never been confronted with anything like this by any measure to this level. Though there are things in our lives we go through that sometimes cause us to address or look at things that help us remember things like this so that we can go through them. Hope that makes sense.

With desire I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Beautiful.

John 13:1—Now before the Feast of Passover… They’re the words that are there. There is no feast on Passover so it’s using the words loosely. There is that which starts that leads into the Days of Unleavened Bread, and candidly, it starts with Passover, with all the animals that are killed in the afternoon of the Passover, but you don’t get to start feasting until after sundown, ever how long it takes to start roasting some or cooking, ever how they did it. I don’t know what you’d call it, but anyway, on the fires that they had there. Some of it was in pots, some of it was like stew type things where they were boiled or whatever. Some things were roasted and the like. It was a feast.

So now before the Feast of Passover when Joshua knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father… So that’s the time period we’re looking at here. This is going into Passover. This is the time very much on his mind, obviously. It was all that night. He didn’t sleep, obviously, all that night. …having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Then dinner being ended, the devil having now put in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him… So, this was something that Satan was working on with Judas because of that mind he had of criticism, of finding fault with the Messiah, of all things. Because that’s what they believed. That’s what they were being taught, he is the Messiah. The disciples, as a whole, believed he was the Messiah, that he was going to restore or establish God’s kingdom on the earth, that he was the King that was going to reign. This is what they believed.

So then dinner being ended, and Satan then having worked with Judas Iscariot through this period of time now, moved even more so with him to use this moment to betray him, Simon’s son, to betray him, Joshua, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came out from God… It said “was come,” in the King James. It’s “came out from God.” He came from God. He knew his origin. He knew his life, that he was the Son of God. But that’s what it’s about. …and was going to God… So his existence, his life was from God the Father in what was conceived in Mary. He understood those things.

…he rose from dinner, the Passover dinner. Isn’t that amazing? It was going to be the last time that anyone should have felt a need to, a responsibility to keep the physical Passover like this, of roasting of the lamb. Because he changed the ceremony. He changed the things that were to be observed from that moment on. So, it was the last dinner, in that regard, that was to be observed of the Passover, of eating of a lamb.

…he rose from dinner and laid aside his garments. He still observed what was commanded until he fulfilled it, and then from then on a new Passover was to be observed. …took a towel and wrapped it around himself. And after he had poured it into a basin he began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel where with he was wrapped.

Then he came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to him, Lord, do you washing my feet? Joshua said unto him… So it was like questioning. He didn’t want him to do it. “You are our Master. You are the Messiah, and you should wash my feet?” Because he saw him washing the others.

Christ said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will come to know after this. Peter said unto him, You will never wash my feet! Because there was that zeal that Peter had, which he had a lot of, toward Christ, toward defending him as we find out later here, ready to give his life, candidly, if need be for the Messiah.

So, he said, You will never wash my feet! In other words, “I’m not worthy.” It’s not about that. So Joshua replied to him, If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me. Didn’t see that one coming, see? It’s like, zealous, but if that’s what you say then what does he say? Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head! You know, you have to kind of laugh at some things like this at times because it just shows the zeal that Peter had and driven like he was. And so, “If it’s my feet, do more! I want a part with you, so much so!”  That’s what he was saying from the heart.

Joshua said to him, He who is washed only needs to have his feet washed, yet is clean every bit; and you are clean, but not all. So, you are clean, but not all. It goes on to say, For he knew who would betray him; therefore he said, You are not all clean. So again, this mind that was in him, he knew. God just gave him the ability to know all these things that were necessary to do what he was going to fulfill, to know what was in the minds of those around him, and on a plane and a level that is quite incredible that God gave to His Son.

So after he had washed their feet and had taken up his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? They obviously didn’t. That’s the point. But this is something new that’s to be done every year after this.

You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. A spirit, a mind and an attitude toward others in the Body of Christ. That’s why I love the way it expresses it in 1 Corinthians 11 when it talks about Passover and it talks about the inability of some to rightly judge, discern, the Body of Christ. And candidly, in the past, most have focused upon, if not all as a whole, the body of Christ, his physical body, not about the Church. Because what he was making possible was the fact of the Church, the Body of Christ.

So, there are those things that are physical, yes, to understand them, but what is important for what he did in his life as a Passover was to make possible the Church, a calling of people. Not just in the age to follow him for the next 2,000 years, but in the 1,100 that would go beyond that.

He’s talking about and teaching about an attitude of mind toward others, a way of thinking. That’s one of the primary areas in many ways that you have to grapple with throughout your calling to grow in. Of all things, that is one that you can never stop growing in. You can continually grow in that stronger and stronger because, candidly, this just isn’t in us as human beings. It just isn’t in us. It was in Christ who had no sin, who was the Word of God, the mind of God made flesh, which is hard for us to grasp and comprehend. We don’t have that. We have a measure of that, a portion of that in the impregnation of God’s spirit. What we do have is very strong, carnal, human nature, selfish human nature, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” that rule in our life.

That’s an incredible thing to understand. So we have to grow in an attitude of humility toward others in the Body, to learn to love others in the Body, to grow in that desire toward others, to think right toward others. Not to judge. Not to condemn. Not to look down upon in any fashion or form, and yet that’s the proclivity of our nature and that’s what we have to grapple with throughout our calling.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in things where if we’re not careful we can come to a point, or we can get to a point where the Church had definitely come to by the time of the Apostasy. I think of our being transferred to Toledo from Erie, Pennsylvania, when that took place back in 1994, May and on. It was in December then the Apostasy occurred. But after getting there and being in the midst of a larger group of people saw something that was quite bothersome and it manifested itself very powerfully in what we called the Y.O.U. program, the youth program at that time.

Parents were coming, different ones were talking about the problem that was existing in the youth program at that time was there were too many cliques. Too many people that were kind of pulling into different groups – the elite group, the not as elite group, and that’s carnal. You talk about carnality? And so, what group are you in? This was causing problems.

It didn’t take too long for a gigantic light to come on to see what the real problem was. It was because the parents were in cliques, the very same cliques. The more cliques stay together the more those children tend to stay together, click, click, click. It’s not the same clique, but you understand what I’m saying.

So, anyway, that’s the opposite of what we’re talking about here. It isn’t the right mind. It isn’t a mind that is all inclusive in one respect, and yet that has its balance in life as well, so you have to grapple with that. So, you go through various things.

In all of this the primary thing is to understand there are things you want to make sure you stay away from, and that is to ever let those kinds of things begin to enter into your life where you begin to look upon someone else in a different light by lifting yourself up. Because this is not about lifting self up, it’s about humbling self and understanding we are a family. God’s Church is about a family, and how the Body, as a whole, must work and function together. Each person has to discern and judge between themselves and God how to do that. But the thing you have to strive for is to strive to not have judgmental attitudes toward others, have a desire to truly be helpful to others, to work with others, whatever that might be, as friends. Whatever it might be, you have to judge those things.

We talk about that during the Feast of Tabernacles, for people to make an effort to include others more, to be able to get around more, to draw the Body closer together as one. A lot of that is just done by fellowship, by things we do, spending time together. Sometimes, especially the Feast because we’re out of our normal environment, being able to eat together, whatever it might be, breakfast together, a snack together, a function together, something together that helps to draw people closer together.

Now, as a whole, those things don’t just happen, except for what might tend to be a clique, because then it’s easy, because the other you have to work at. I hope that makes sense. The other you have to work at because it’s not in your normal thinking.

Because the reality is in life in all of us as human beings, certain personalities just tend to get along better in some things in life. Certain kinds of other personalities may grate a little bit. All the more to work on. Not to see that as a negative, but the reality is we’re all vastly different and we can’t expect others to think like we do, to act like we do.

What we do have together is the same mind – God – unity and oneness with the truth that God has given. And how precious is that? And so, to be thankful for that, to be grateful for that. Those are things that individuals have to pray about, have to ask God for help in.

Because I’ll just be candid with you – that’s something I pray about on a regular basis, for God to help me to have a stronger love toward every member of the Body, toward everyone within the Body. Because I understand my human nature and you need to understand yours because you’re the same way, see. We’re all the same way. We all have a pot full of this human nature thing. The reality is we can grow in that and we can see that.

That’s why I made the comment earlier that you can never quit growing in that. Because you always have human nature to deal with. There is always a level of something that you don’t see yet that you will come to see as you grow. But you can’t see certain things until you have grown to a certain point. Then God can help refine it even more to where you can grow on to another point in how we think toward the Body, how we think toward members of the Body. What is our level of mind toward sacrifice and giving, whatever that might be, sharing, whatever that might be? And so, we’re tried in those things, and there is always room for growth – always room for growth.

If nothing else is taken out of this sermon today, this one is exceedingly important, this thing of washing feet, because it’s about a mind and an attitude toward everyone else, a willingness to wash someone else’s feet. That means a willingness to get down on your knees, and that can be done in pride too, which sometimes in Passover turns into pride. I’m not going to get into that one. Because it becomes a routine, a religious routine. And so, we deal with that as human beings, but it’s an attitude of mind toward another person in the Body of Christ.

We may line up as we go through different lines, and have that routine, but to think about every member in the same way and have that attitude toward them spiritually? Well, there’s a lot there. There truly is.

For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. So again, it’s this attitude. Truly, truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he sent greater than he that sent him. The point being is when all is said and done it’s not a matter of this at all. It’s about family and if family can come to understand that within a family there is order, yes, but there should be that same desire toward all in the family.

For some to begin to think, as happens in societies, some societies have the macho man who whatever he says, whatever he does (the husband), is to be served. It’s a bunch of bull to have that kind of thing in a family. It’s like the attitude of mind of the wife is in the kitchen, “Ah, bring me a beer, honey!” These things exist and you know it. It’s like this separation of “I’m up here, you’re here, and the kids, they’re down here.” That’s not what a family is. To be united, to be one, that’s not how you think toward one another.

It’s not a matter of being over, above someone else. It’s not a matter of that. Are there things of order in a family? Absolutely. But not with attitude and spirit. Because when people get into those attitudes of spirit there are those who get to a point in time where they are beaten down, where they feel beaten down because they have been ruled over harshly by someone who doesn’t have the right to rule over, period, if you understand what I’m saying.

People get into these mindsets in thinking that are not balanced, that are not good. That’s why the society in the world is so screwed up. Things are not like they should be. Families are not like they should be. Homes are not like they should be. We’re to change that in our lives. We begin learning how to do that in our own homes, in our own environments, to understand the value of family.

I didn’t intend to go into all those things, but I guess there’s a purpose in all that for reasons that we need to examine in our own lives, to look into our own lives and make sure we’re not following the way of this world.

That’s why I hate entertainment today. I feel so sorry for kids that are growing up and seeing the kind of garbage that’s called entertainment today, whether it be a TV program or a movie. I’m not going to the extreme and saying, “So, go throw your TV out the window.” You know, we can teach as we go through things.

It’s like trying to harbour someone, keep someone from being hurt by the world because the world is evil so let’s keep you in a corner over here, and then you can’t learn what world is like. And so, if you happen to go out into it you’re sort of shocked, you can’t deal with it. We have to learn how to deal with the world as we go through the world. This can help us to become very mature people when we have God’s truth in our life. That’s what parents have the responsibility of teaching to children, God’s truth and the balance of life that we’re supposed to have, to be able to see things that are wrong and things that are right. To say, “This isn’t normal. What you’re seeing here isn’t normal. This is really abnormal. Shouldn’t be done. Shouldn’t be lived. Shouldn’t be thought.”

Anyway, John 18. So, indeed, blessed are you if you do them, as it talks about there, the things I’ve been talking about.

So again, after this it’s recorded how Satan had entered into Judas Iscariot, as we just read, and then Christ told Judas to go off and do what you’re going to do; do it quickly. So he went off right away to betray Christ. Then it was later, deep into the same night that Christ was seized.

Here in John 18:1 we begin: When Joshua had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the Brook Kidron. Now, what did he speak? He spoke the things that we read on Passover night, as a whole, things out of John 13 that we just read a portion of, John 14, 15, 16, 17, in through there. To me, they are the most awesome, the greatest things ever revealed in anything from God to human beings. The greatest, the most powerful and aptly so that Christ gave them on the very last night of his life to teach, to teach those who would follow, as far as the Church was concerned, that he was blessed to be able to give. That which is the most powerful in the word of God, that the word of God, the mind of God can dwell in human beings, that your mind can be transformed. That though we have carnal human nature we can see it for what it is. We can understand it for what it is. We can enter into the battle because we’ve chosen to fight against our own nature and to embrace God’s nature, God’s mind, God’s being.

That becomes our life, and the more we see that the more we want what God has to offer to us. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a powerful thing. All made possible because of our Passover.

And so again, this thing that has not been known by God’s Church, that which God gave to us only, not because we’re better than anyone else, but because of where we are in time and God had a purpose for revealing more at the end-time before His Son comes and establishes God’s Kingdom, that we be able to understand and see these things and have them recorded and written and taught, powerfully so, as the Church continues on into a new age.

What we have been blessed to help establish, to give, is that which continues on and is worked with at the beginning of the Millennium. That is an awesome thing to understand, the blessings God has given to us, to be able to drink those things in, to share them, to have them. Because you have the ability of being a part of that as well as in the sense of what continues on, what will be told to others, to be able to help others. Vast changes have to take place with millions of people.

When Joshua had spoken these words, what I just mentioned, he went out with his disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place because Joshua often met there with his disciples. So, he knew the routine. He knew the routine, how different ones went on to Bethany, two miles away from Jerusalem, and so this is a place where they would often go as his routine was, and he knew this. So, knowing Passover was going to be observed, knowing his routine in the past, pretty certain this is exactly where he’s going to be again.

Then Judas, having received a detachment, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Can you imagine the feeling of the other disciples, too, when they saw Judas with that group? The feeling of betrayal? “You’re with them?” “Why are you with them? This doesn’t make sense?” “Why are you spending, why are you coming with them?” That would be shocking, almost to the point of being unbelievable.

It’s like things happen to us sometimes in the Church when someone finally makes a decision; what’s really in their heart and mind becomes manifest that it’s against the Church or against someone in the Church. Those things happen. It’s just a way of life, isn’t it? It’s a way that God has given to us within the Church – to live, to experience those things – because we mature through those things that we experience.

So, think about those things sometimes. We just read these as stories and we don’t think about, “Well, yeah, that’s just like when ‘that’ happened, and I couldn’t believe it. It’s like, I didn’t see this coming.” And so often you don’t in God’s Church, in the past. That’s why I’m so thankful that those things aren’t readily happening… I didn’t say that very well. They’re not happening as they were from the time of the Apostasy, before the Apostasy, way before the Apostasy, for the past 2,000 years, all the way after the Apostasy and all the way through what we experienced in PKG until just in the last few years. More like 2013 and on. We’ve been very blessed, we truly have been, to experience what you’re experiencing now. This is awesome, it really is. Something to meditate upon sometimes, to think about why God’s given that to us. Lessons, things to be learned in that.

Therefore, Joshua, knowing all the things that would come upon him, went forward and said to them, Whom are you seeking? He knew all the answers. But again, it’s part written for their benefit, for other’s benefit that read the story. He knew exactly what was taking place.

They answered him, Joshua of Nazareth. Joshua said to them, I am he. And Judas, who betrayed him, also stood with them. Now when he said to them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Can you imagine? Whew! “Who are you seeking?” “I am he.” Then they fall down. Well, you could blame it on the night, “Can’t see very well. They have some torches, but the ground is kind of uneven here.” You can blame it on different physical things, think, make up anything in your mind, whatever. But the truth? Pretty hard to deal with.

Then he asked them again, Whom are you seeking? And they said, Joshua of Nazareth. And Joshua answered, I have told you that I am he. Therefore, if you seek me, let these go their way. “Take me only.” Awesome! So that’s what happened.

It shows that desire that he had that they not be hurt, that they not be taken, because at that point in time there would have been others who would have been taken as well. Candidly, he wasn’t going to let it happen, but he left that on them. In other words, the power was there that they would fall down more than once or much worse.

…so the saying might be fulfilled which he spoke, Of those whom You gave me I have lost none. So, of those who were there, his—Judas was already separated—I have lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. Pretty zealous. He’s ready to die. He’s ready to go to battle. He’s ready to do whatever. “You’re not taking him!”

The servant’s name was Malchus. Then Joshua said to Peter, Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given me? So, he was letting him know, “I have that which I need to fulfill, and this is from God.”

Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Joshua and bound him. And they led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law to Caiaphas who was high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

We’ve already touched upon what that truly means – referring to it’s better to kill him and get rid of him than the nation of Rome turn against us and part of the nation be destroyed. So, it’s better than he be destroyed, killed, whatever. That’s what was in their mind because they didn’t want to lose their rulership, their power, what they had.

We have the example here that goes on. Peter followed where Christ had been taken and he’d been recognized at different points here. We know that part of the story. But he denied knowing Christ.

Then it comes into the story again here and continues here, verse 19—Then the high priest then asked Joshua about his disciples and his doctrine. And Joshua answered him… So, boy, this brings up some memories – when they want to get at others. Reminds me of a time when some wanted the entire list of all in the Church. Thought, you have no right to that. Because there are things that people try to do then to go after others to find something wrong, to find something that they think is wrong, to find something. Anyway, those kinds of things happen because it shows here then what their motive was. They wanted to wipe him out and also anyone who believed in what he was believing. Get rid of the whole group there.

So, Joshua answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always met, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. Powerful, isn’t it? “They know. Just ask them. You don’t have to ask me.” Because there is the witness. So, “If others heard certain things then you have witness, you have some grounds. But if not, why are you doing this?”

And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Joshua with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest like that? And Joshua answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, bring forth the witnesses. Show me. Tell me. Let it be known. But if well, then why do you strike me? Awesome, what took place here. Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now, Simon Peter stood warming himself. And therefore, they said to him, Are you not also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not! So, we know the story here of Peter denying him the three times here.

And one of the servants of the high priest, a relative of those whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with him? See, they came together there and so he saw him, and here Peter, Peter is the one that whacked off his relatives’ ear, and still what does he say? Then Peter then denied again; immediately the rooster crowed. So, we know the story here of what Christ had told Peter before and how this shook him up.

Then they led Joshua from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. Very early, before the sun was coming up. But they themselves… So, this is happening all through the night, all these things that were taking place. Because Christ was up late as it was, the times that he went out to pray, and then after he was through with the different periods of time of prayer there – they were long periods – when the disciples had been falling asleep. Christ taught them even during that. Then they came and took him and it’s not even sun rise yet.

But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. So again here, what’s this about “that they might eat the Passover?” Again here, this is not rocket science if you know God’s truth. It’s clear. They already had the Passover. That was already observed. It wasn’t the lamb.

When it talks about, really, eating of the Passover, it’s the Feast. This is what they’re gathering there for, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. All these animals, that’s why they refer to it as the sacrifice of the Passover, the sacrifices of the Passover, if you will, or in this case here, “to eat of the Passover.” So, they’re going to do all this work to prepare it. It’s done on the Passover.

That’s why it has the terminology that it has, because it’s a preparation day and when all the hard work is done then they start doing the roasting of it, or the boiling of the meat, roasting, whatever terminology of cooking I don’t know very well, when they put it in the big pot, the big cauldron, whatever.

Verse 29—Pilate then went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? And they answered and said to him… Now, it’s amazing to me here that this was such an uproar of what was taking place that Pilate had to rise quite early to address these things. If he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. It’s like, “Dumb question! All this uproar? He’s a bad man,” basically, is what they were trying to communicate.

Then Pilate said to them, You take him and judge him according to your law. “Don’t bother me with this. You have something against him? Judge him by your law.” Well, they wanted more than what their law allowed.

Therefore, the Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. So now you really get to it. “We want him put to death. We can’t do that. You can.” …that the saying of Joshua might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die.

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Joshua, and said to him, because the method of death here was the pole to put to death. Are you the King of the Jews? And Joshua replied to him. So, they were in this uproar talking about what he’d been saying and what he was doing and here is the thing that Pilate then comes back and asks him.

Joshua responded by saying, Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning me? And Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? “Am I a Jew?” Basically, “This is amongst all the Jewish people. They had this uproar. This is what’s going on between you and them?” Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me, so what have you done? That’s what he said. “What have you done?” That’s basically what he was doing, asking, you know, “What have you done to cause this uproar? They want to put you to death!”

Joshua answered, My kingdom is not of this world – cosmos, order, or world, as it means here. At that time, of the world that existed at that time, of the Roman world that existed at that time. This is what he’s referring to. He came as the Passover. He didn’t come as the Messiah the first time. It’s amazing just to understand that. The world doesn’t understand it yet.

If my kingdom were of this world… Only a portion of it, the portion where he dies and so forth. Isn’t that amazing they don’t grasp, they can’t comprehend. That’s why sometimes when I look at some of these things we’re looking at right now, different video’s and stuff to do, and I think of things that are spoken of that they don’t even touch, they don’t even go into because it doesn’t fit into their scenario of things about Christ’s coming in the clouds and an army with him and him being called the King of kings, and on into Chapter 20 where it talks about and they’re going to reign together with Christ for a thousand years. Yet everybody is being told they’re all headed off to heaven.

But this here, to rule and reign for a thousand years? That’s the world, a new world, a new government that’s going to be given to the world. Not the Roman government, not the government that exists now, but a different one.

He’s just telling them, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight. Just exactly what they’re going to do as soon as they return because it talks about this army that comes with him. They’re referred to him as an army because they’re going to start to destroy.

To me, I’m very thankful that God has clarified that very clearly, things having to do with things that start with the Seventh Trumpet, His Kingdom, God’s Kingdom is established, Christ is returning, and he’s returning with 144,000 and it says very specifically, “To destroy those who are destroying the earth.”

That’s why I marvel at what’s going to take place because of what it says in the Sixth Trumpet, of those who are going to have the power to destroy one-third of mankind. That’s what it says if you read that in Revelation there. And you think, what is going to take place when Christ returns? How much is going to resist? How much has to be cleaned up? How much is determined? That Christ comes back, he’s coming back as a lion. He comes back with power to take control, and it’s not as a lamb who’s going to be led to the slaughter.

The world doesn’t see Christ in that light. They see him as weak and effeminate and picture him that way in all the paintings and everything they have, and he’s not coming back to be led to a slaughter; he’s going to instead slaughter. Truly. That’s what it talks about. It talks about the winepress of God Almighty. That’s an expression used that we’re familiar with if you know about stepping on, stomping on grapes and getting all the juice out. It’s used concerning the winepress of God Almighty and the blood of human beings. It’s not a pretty sight.

…he said, My servants would fight so that I would not be delivered to the Jews; but now, in other words, at the present time my kingdom is not from here.

Pilate therefore asks him, Then are you a king? And Joshua answered, You are saying that I am a king. In other words, “Are you speaking at me being a king?” For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.

How people get past all these things is mind boggling. But you know, something that’s simple to us because of God’s spirit isn’t simple in the world. You just can’t see what is hidden, and until God’s spirit is there to enlighten the human mind the human mind can only see something different.

That’s what happens to people who have known the truth. They lose that light and they start seeing other things that aren’t there. The world is just so much worse, obviously, because it has never had that ability to have any truth involved in or a part of what they teach and do, and so what they see when they read something, it’s so shallow and they can’t help it.

So, these things here that jump out at us, “That I should bear witness to the truth,” again here, “I was born to be a King.” We know when that is. King of kings. Lord of lords. The Messiah. The word…. People don’t know what the word “Christ” means. Most don’t even know that it’s the same word as the word for Messiah. They don’t know the definition. Anointed? “The Anointed One.” Anointed as what? The Messiah, the King?

That’s why they cried out to Christ when he was coming into Jerusalem. Because he was a descendant of David, the king, the one who was to be King to take the rule that was to be handed down.

John 18:38—Pilate said to him… For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Isn’t that an amazing thing? It’s a good measure to go by.

It’s a great thing to understand when people are being drawn into the Church. Because you can start discerning those things quite rapidly because why? They see the truth. They’re able to repeat things back to you. They see what you’re talking about. They see the Holy Days. They see the plan and purpose of God and it’s clear to them.

It doesn’t take very long to see a mind that’s being worked with. Not that that mind can’t make other choices along the way that hurt them, that take that away even, but if they’re able to continue on what an incredible process.

So Pilate said, What is truth? An infamous saying, in a sense, “What is truth?” How blessed are you that you know what the truth is?

Then, when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews? Then they all cried again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas! Now, Barabbas was a robber.

So, in other words, he’s much worse. Barabbas, he’s well known, a great thief, release him. But kill him. Incredible how people can get so worked up and it’s a spirit. It’s a spirit because it’s not just them at this point. I hope we understand that, that there is a spirit that works in the world, that moves people, that sways people in their thinking, that magnifies what’s in their mind that’s evil or that’s wrong or that’s thinking wrong and just magnifies it, intensifies it many times over. People respond to that.

We see that in the world today. I’ll tell you what, if you don’t see that going on in the world today? Pshew! Things are very stirred up out there. Something we need to understand – on a spirit plane the world is highly stirred up. I won’t go into it anymore. We should be seeing those kinds of things around us, to understand that, that there are things happening that aren’t normal, thinking that’s taking place, ways of expressing things that are not normal. There’s a reason for all this. Because of what’s coming.

When it’s coming, I don’t have the foggiest idea. I wish it was yesterday. But our desires of what we want carnally, every time I think that way, I think about everyone who has gone before us. Everyone who has gone before us, you know what they wanted? Same thing. It’s just that we know we’re there at that time period. Now, we live in that time period so whatever has to be done yet to be accomplished in God’s purpose and plan of what He’s working out, so be it.

But I so wish it was soon. 2020? Well, we passed that one, can’t be that. So, we’re still looking ahead, the next Pentecost, the next Pentecost after that, not having any idea what Pentecost it might be at this point because God hasn’t revealed anything along those lines to us. So, we just move forward, and we just keep watching what’s happening in the world.

A lot of things that just happened with this goofy COVID thing, it’s not normal. The response is not normal. What governments did is not normal, okay? There is something else going on there and I hope you understand that, that these aren’t just normal things taking place. These aren’t normal responses of how people are responding to some of this. There is more going on in a spirit realm. There truly is. That’s not even a mention how crazy things are getting.

So, this is just a manifestation of things. As they get closer and closer things get more stirred up. They know they have but a short time and they are stirred up, powerfully so. That’s why our prayers need to be about that in the protection of God’s people. Truly, to think about those kinds of things.

John 19:1—Then Pilate took Joshua and scourged him. So, again, a part of this is being done. You have to understand Pilate here in part of what he’s going through. Because he is bound by, in his thinking, a certain rule of law, if you will, that he has to follow, and so he’s striving to follow that in his own way and he hasn’t found enough to put Joshua to death yet by any measure, by what he said, by what he’s heard. And so, to appease all these people, just better to beat Christ with cat-nine tails, with whips—this is where the flesh starts getting ripped off the body—and doing the things they did. So, they’re all riled up, he’s the cause of it, that’s all I can see so we’re going to do this. Sick human reasoning.

And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. So again, all this mocking, because they’re enjoying this as a part, different from what the Jews would do, or the leadership of the Jewish people would do, because they don’t think much of the Jews. They look down on all the Jews. They’re ruling over them, see. That’s their mindset. And so, they don’t think much of the Jews and they know the Jews don’t believe he’s the king so he’s a King of the Jews. Look at this – beat him, bloodied, throw a crown on his head. Okay, that’s how we think of the Jews. He’s the King of the Jews. It’s a total putdown of the Jewish people totally. So that’s what’s in their minds, the soldiers and so forth. So, they’re just mocking and making fun all the way through here.

The human mind is so sick, it really is. It can be so sick when people get into these positions of power and what they will do.

Then they said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck him with their hands. So, it’s hard for me to grasp a mind like that, that does that kind of thing, that gets an enjoyment out of seeing someone suffer. But that’s how perverted the human mind gets, can become. So messed up.

Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you, and you may know that I find no fault in him. So, he’s hoping to appease them by what they see when he comes out. Can’t even recognize him – beaten to a pulp if you will.

Then Joshua came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Then Pilate said to them, Behold the man! Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying… Again, we don’t have a single word like is used in the English language with a little pole like that with a cross there. So, it’s a matter of hanging him on a pole or affixing him to a pole or nail him to the pole. It’s that kind of expression, whatever that might be.

Pilate replied to them, You take him and hang him on a pole, for I find no fault in him. So whether it be nailed to the pole, impaled to the pole, whatever expression we might use in the English language to describe this, different translations that could be used, that’s what it’s talking about.

The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to our law he should die, because he made himself the Son of God. So, we can’t kill him, but you can. Now, Pilate reacted a little differently now because of this.

Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Joshua, Where are you from? But Joshua gave him no answer. You have to understand, again, the mind of the Romans and some of the things that have been written of recent time here about how the Romans brought in different religious ideas that are very superstitious type of people in believing many kinds of gods. But anyway, this is in his mind here, if there be some God involved here and he’s being called this, he’s a little more on guard, if you will.

Where are you from? But Joshua gave him no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have the power to hang you to the pole, or affix you to the pole, or again, whatever expression we’d want to use in English, and the power to release you? “Don’t you understand where you are right now? Don’t you know that it’s by my say here and you’re not answering me?” This is unheard of. See, if somebody is going to be put to death and they’re being asked something and they can save their skin, they’re going to say something.

And Joshua answered, You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Wow! What an incredible thing! Because, it’s like, this is enough said to remove this from his responsibility in his thinking, as far as what he said, “If he be the…” somehow there’s a God involved in all of this and he’s taking this responsibility from him and saying, “The ones who delivered you,” basically, it’s their sin. They have the greater sin.

From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying… So again here, Pilate saw something. You have to understand this as a ruler, and having put many people to death, and seeing someone like him, it had to be a rather moving thing, in one respect, on a carnal human level, to see someone stand for such principle at a point of death, and knowing you had that power, and giving the kind of answer that he did.

So, it says here, From that point he sought to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Isn’t that amazing? Because he says he’s a king… Well, it goes on here, Moreover, whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. So now there are grounds to put him to death. So, if he was a king, claiming to be a king, others think he’s a king, then I have to do something. So now he couldn’t let him go because they had him.

It’s like they found the one thing that they could say that would save to the end. Please understand that all these things happening in the order and coincidence they did wasn’t to all of them. Okay? God orchestrates things, works through people, inspires things to be done in a certain manner, of things that they’re going to do, of things that they’re prone to do. But when God intervenes in various affairs like this there are those things that God can communicate that people don’t grasp and understand, which is what He did here to different ones.

If you let this man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes… So again here, Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying… Basically, he knew they had him. He had no other choice. …he brought forth Joshua and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation of the Passover… So again here, that’s what it was, it was a preparation day. It was on the Passover. All the killing of things to prepare for Unleavened Bread. So, Passover was the preparation day, and speaking in those terms of the sacrifices that are going to begin later on, but the killing that takes place first.

So, it says here going on, and about the sixth hour. Now, this, in this point here, this is Roman time. This gets confusing to people sometimes when they read through this and they can’t put the story together. Because it talks about the sixth hour something happened, and later on you read about sixth hour and it doesn’t fit into the picture at all. The ninth hour, and that doesn’t fit into the picture. This is about Roman time and what is being spoken of here, 6:00 am. So, totally different from how the Jews refer to different hours. This is that which would be, that which Pilate would be referring to or others of the Roman Empire, in that respect, would be referring to at this particular point in time. So it was about 6:00 am, the hours that start all the way through to the morning.

So again here, he says… it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your King! They didn’t like this, obviously, what was being said.

I’m just going to interject here. We’ll come back to John here in a minute. But I want to read Mark 15:22 before we close here. I’ll just read it to you: Then they took him to the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, the Place of a Skull. And they offered him wine and drink mingled with myrrh. It’s kind of like a medicine. It’s to kind of sedate a person because of what they’re getting ready to go through, with a mind and experience, what you’re getting ready to experience. It says, but he did not receive it. He was to experience it fully as it was as a human being. Incredible.

Then, when they had nailed him to a pole, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them for what every man should take, and it was the third hour. So, now we had the sixth hour, now it’s like you’re going backward in time. It’s not. Now we’re back to, in this particular case, in Mark’s case, it’s talking about a particular time in the morning by how the Jewish people would count time, 9:00 am in the morning. So, it’s their, what’s the sixth hour, if you will, for the Romans, 6:00 am, that’s the beginning of the count for those Hebrews, or the Jewish people. So, by the time you come up to what it talks about here as the third hour we’re talking about 9:00 am, what we would call 9:00 am in the morning. …and they nailed him to a pole.

So, the timing from this point on begins to be very specific, which is important because of three days and three nights, in understanding everything that happens on Passover day, and so at 9:00 am in the morning. So this started, some of this trial and things that were taking place happening at 6:00, the beating and everything that transpired, finally carrying, taking the pole to Golgotha, and by the time they got there then and actually nailed them to the poles was right around 9:00 am in the morning. That’s what it’s talking about.

So, at this part in the story we’ll come to a close here and come back to reading the flow in John next week, and probably get through this as Part 8 next Sabbath.