Jesus' Life

    Jesus gave us all a tremendous gift. He gave us His life in order to save us. I am going to give an account of Jesus' betrayal and death since it is Easter weekend. Jesus died on Good Friday and rose again on Easter. Now, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, so let's start at the beginning.
     In John 17, Jesus prays for Himself and His disciples. He prays in verses 4 and 5 this prayer; "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was." Later on in the chapter, He prays this for His disciples: "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." (verses 14-19) As you read on, you read a prayer that Jesus prayed for all the believers now and in the future. This is really cool, I think. He thinks of people who were with Him at the time, and those who would be with Him and working for Him in the future!
      After Jesus prayed, He and His disciples went to the garden of Gethsemane. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, came with a group of troops and officers that the chief priests and Pharisees gave to him. Armed with weapons, lanterns and torches, they answered Jesus' question; "Whom are you seeking?" They replied that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He told them it was He, and they fell to the ground! Jesus asked them a second time, and told them that He was the One they were seeking. He told the soldiers to let His disciples go, to fulfill the saying He spoke. (vs 4-9)
     Simon Peter, of course was the one who fought the soldiers. He grabbed his sword, and cut off the high priests servant's ear. Jesus was not happy. He rebuked Peter, and was led away by the soldiers.
     Jesus had an audience, if you will, with the high priest, and after that was led to Pilate for judgement. Since it was the time of the Passover, Pilate would release one prisoner to the people. He offered to release Jesus to the people, but they wanted the other prisoner, Barabbas. He then asked what he should do to Jesus, and all of the people cried out, "Crucify Him!" Pilate ordered Jesus to be scourged. Then, He was mocked, and sentenced to be crucified.
     Jesus died an excruciating death on the cross, and then was laid to rest in a tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea.  The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. What was amazing was that the stone had been rolled away! She ran to tell the other disciples, and they came running to the tomb. They went in and all of Jesus' burial clothes were lying there. He had risen from the dead! He has conquered evil and the devil and all of our sins! He loved us so much that He came and did that for us! No, it wasn't something He wanted to do, but He still did. HE DID THAT FOR EVERY ONE OF US!!!!! HE LOVES YOU AND  HE WANTS YOU TO LOVE HIM AND ACCEPT HIM!!!!! PLEASE DO THAT!!!!! HE LOVES YOU JUST AS YOU ARE!!!!! HE CONQUERED SIN AND DEATH SO THAT WE WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!!!!! LOVE HIM... COME TO HIM.... HE WANTS YOU, FLAWS, BROKENNESS, AND SADNESS. JUST COME BEFORE HIM AND GIVE YOURSELF TO HIM. TELL HIM THAT YOU'RE SORRY AND JUST ASK HIM TO HELP YOU AND TO LOVE YOU AND BE WITH YOU. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? HE WILL!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAPPY EASTER!!: )