Where You Sit and The Company You Keep Is Vitally Important

We have taken a longish time look in detail at this last day in the physical life of Jesus Christ as Dr Luke relates it in Chapter 22, but it is important that we do not hurry over the crucial issues raised in this passage. It is also helpful too to read the parallel passages in Matthew Chapter 26 and Mark Chapter 14. These accounts are given to us for a very real purpose.

In verse 54Jesus is led away, humbly but with dignity, and Peter follows, afar off and at a safe distance.

There is no safe distance when you are distancing yourself from Jesus. Peter is watching, trailing behind, and in great danger. We are called to come close, and draw near and be right at the very heart, and be involved, participating faithfully, following and serving Jesus, where He has placed you and appointed you.

Peter continues following, from a distance from the Garden of Gethsemane, through the valley, up the slopes past the Temple, watching where they were going, keeping an eye on what they were doing, and being careful not to be discovered and found out.

We have followed that route from Gethsemane on various occasions and it has not changed all that much over these past two thousand years.

The man who had vowed never to leave Jesus side was now keeping his distance.

Verse 55. Peter sat down with them. He sits down in the wrong place. We have to watch our company and be careful who we are with, and where we are seen. At times it matters.

Jesus would sit down with sinners, and mix with anyone, but this was different.

A young girl sees Peter – “This man was also with Him.” Here was an opportunity to witness for Jesus, and Peter denies His Lord. “Woman, I don't know Him.”

Peter was prepared to take on 200 soldiers and religious leaders with his sword, but the words of a young girl floor him. Sometimes it is the little things that get us down and defeat us, especially when we are sitting where we should not be sitting.

Trailing behind and falling behind and moving into the wrong company, and denying Christ. There is a progression, all within about the space of an hour.

Verse 58. Again Peter denies having any knowledge of Jesus. “You are also one of them.” We must be prepared to be called 'one of them' at times too.

Verse 59. Around that charcoal fire Peter must have become involved in the conversation. Someone recognised his accent, and accused him of being a follower of Jesus. If only he had kept his mouth shut, but he opened it on the wrong occasion, and kept it shut when he should have been speaking. “I don't know what you are talking about.” And immediately, the cock crows, and through the High Priest's Courtyard they eyes of Peter meet the eyes of the arrested Jesus.

You can go into that courtyard today. It has been uncovered and excavated, and you can look into the cell where Jesus would have been held. They are on the same level. When they were still doing the archaeological work I jumped over the rope and checked things out. Yes, the eyes of Peter and the eyes of Jesus would have met. It is interesting to check out what can be checked in Jerusalem and Israel, and to find it all accurate and authentic.

That loving look shattered Peter. After you have failed someone like Jesus, it is hard to look them in the face. He went out and wept bitterly. Peter seemed to have made such a mess of following Jesus. In a way, yes, but 30 years later he is still there.

Three times Peter denied Jesus as he was sitting around a charcoal fire. Two weeks later Jesus is around another charcoal fire and three times gives Peter the opportunity to declare his love and loyalty. It is good to get it all sorted out. Not only is it good. It is essential to have all these matters and issues sorted out and resolved.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

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Answer:
Theres no doubt that persecution is a stark reality of living the Christian life. The apostle Paul warned us that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12). Jesus told us to expect persecution from the world because if they persecuted Him, they will persecute His followers also. Jesus has made it very clear to us that those of the world will hate us because they hate Him. If Christians were like the worldvain, earthly, sensual, given to pleasure, wealth, ambition, the world would not oppose us. But Christians do not belong to the world which is why they hate and persecute us (John 15:18-19). Christians are, or should be, influenced by different principles from those of the world. We are motivated by the love of God and holiness, while the world is driven by the love of sin. It is our very separation from the world that arouses the world’s animosity toward us. The world would prefer that we were like them; since we are not, they hate us (1 Peter 4:3-4).

As faithful Christians, we must learn to recognize the value of persecution and even to rejoice in it, not in an ostentatious way, but quietly and humbly because persecution has great spiritual value. First, persecution allows us to share in a unique fellowship with our Lord. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul outlined a number of things he surrendered for the cause of Christ. Such losses, however, he viewed as rubbish (Philippians 3:8), or dung (KJV), that he might share in the fellowship of Christs sufferings (Philippians 3:10). The noble apostle even counted his chains as a grace (favor) which God had bestowed upon him (Philippians 1:7).

Secondly, in all truth, persecution is good for us. James argues that trials test our faith, work or develop (endurance) in our lives, and help develop maturity (James 1:2-4). For as steel is tempered in the flames of the forge, trials and persecution serve to hone down those rough edges that tarnish our character. Yielding graciously to persecution allows one to demonstrate that he is of a superior quality than his adversaries. Its easy to be hateful, but an ugly disposition throws a light upon our human weakness. It is much more Christ-like to remain calm and to respond in kindness in the face of evil opposition. Without question this is a tremendous challenge, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us and the wonderful example of the Lord to encourage us. Peter says of Jesus: When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to Him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23).

Third, persecution enables us to value the support of true friends. Conflict sometimes brings faithful children of God together in an encouraging and supportive way they might not have known otherwise. Hardship can stimulate the Lords people toward a greater resolve to love and comfort one another and lift one another to the throne of grace in prayer. Theres nothing like an unpleasant incident to help the more mature rise toward a greater level of brotherly love.

So, when we think about it seriously, we can move ourselves forward, even in the face of antagonism, whether from the world or within the church, and press on. We can thank God for His grace and for His patience with us. We can express gratitude for those whom we love in the Lord and who stand with us in times of distress. And we can pray for those who would accuse, misuse, or abuse us (2 Corinthians 11:24; Romans 10:1).

Recommended Resource:
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe

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Writers and religious skeptics have always come up with alternative narratives about Jesus’ life and ministry. But author Dan Brown brought it to center stage in a spectacular way, with his blockbuster 2003 fiction, The Da Vinci Code, followed by the movie and all its sequels and franchises.

Brown provoked speculation in both secular and theological circles—all the way to the Vatican:

Did Leonardo Da Vinci write an encrypted code on his famous Vitruvian Man? Was Mary Magdalene married to Jesus? Is there really a Holy Grail?

Seven years later, even Christian magazines are still asking questions like, “Why weren’t there women in Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting?” (Light & Life Magazine, March, April 2010, pp. 10-11).

I’d like some answers from you, Mr. Da Vinci…may I call you Leo?

How is it that you lived from 1452 to 1519—over 14 centuries after Jesus—yet you have all the secrets of his ministry that not even his contemporaries revealed, or the prophets were inspired by God to write?

Surely, a Renaissance man like yourself, jack of many trades, was able to construct a Time Machine. Is that how you went back and did the portrait of Jesus at the Last Supper, and hid at least one woman in the background, as some say?

What about those who claim you purposefully left women out of the picture?

Grid reproduction of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper"

Let’s spend some time on this unfounded “women missing from The Last Supper” claim. Before we ask why Da Vinci left them out of his painting, we could ask why they were left out of the Last Supper accounts, when we see women mentioned in many other New Testament scriptures.

All four disciples who wrote the gospels found it important enough to mention that women were the first to see Jesus’ empty tomb (Matthew 28:8-10; Mark 16:9-10; Luke 24:8-11; John 20:10-18). John speaks of the Samaritan woman at the well to whom Jesus offers “living water” (John 4:7-42), and the woman whom Jesus saved from punishment for adultery (John 8:3-11).

Matthew 14:21 specifically mentions women as being present, yet outside of the 5,000-man count at the five loaves and fish miracle. Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, are mentioned in Luke 10:38-41 and John 11:1-40.

Throughout the book of Acts and his later writings, the apostle Paul mentions by name many women who participated in spreading the gospel. In 2 Timothy 1:5, he gives credit to Timothy’s mother and grandmother for how they raised the young disciple.

So why, then, would women be left out of the Last Supper accounts? And why would Da Vinci leave them out of his painting?

Simple answers to these questions:
A Boston Museum of Science website devoted to Da Vinci’s works quotes the artist:
The most praiseworthy form of painting is the one that most resembles what it imitates.

I doubt Da Vinci, having said this, would have put brush to canvas for The Last Supper without first reading the Biblical accounts of its occurrence. Therefore, he imitated what he saw in scripture.

He didn’t read anything between the lines like people love to do with the Bible today in order to discredit the Book itself and its sources. He didn’t add women for one simple reason…they weren’t there.

And, I’m sure Da Vinci would say Jesus wasn’t married either.

But the most important answer comes from a Christian’s own faith: What’s in the Bible was divinely inspired by God through the hands of man, and God knew what books would be canonized.

The New Testament’s writers had a hunch their stories would seem unbelievable and questionable. That’s why Luke 1:1-2 states:
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been  fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses.

And 2 Peter 1:16 says:
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Why should Christians stick with what the Bible says?

As Christians, we must learn to trust the Lord with all our heart rather than leaning on our own human understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Our faith grows through hearing and reading the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

In other words, the greatest faith in knowing that Jesus was who He said He was, and that things went down exactly as they appear in the Bible, comes from believing the book itself…not through the speculations of man.

The people who write these modern-day things can’t prove what they’re saying; neither have they yet proven the Bible is false.

Scriptures quoted in italics within this commentary are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Serving Jesus Christ Is Full Of Painful Excitements

In Luke Chapter 22, we read of that scenario in verses 31,32, where Jesus is informing Peter that he is about to be sifted, but Jesus also reassures this man who is to lead the early church that he is being prayed for. We need to know this too in these challenging and peculiar days when so much of what we have been used to is being undermined and shaken just as the Scriptures depict.

There are times when we are sifted like flour, and put through the mill and pummelled as the dough is prepared. And after all that it is the fire to bake the bread! Read how the showbread was prepared for the table in the Tabernacle. There are profound lessons there for us, and particularly as we remember the thousands across the world who are being sorely and severely persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ in these present times.

Make sure you have access to the information provided regarding those who are having a hard time. “Release International” or “Open Doors” with Brother Andrew, or “Christian Solidarity Worldwide” or the “Barnabas Fund” are all excellent sources and resources. If you have come all this way with me through Acts and Luke then make sure you are praying for those who are suffering in a way that few of in the West experience.

But returning to our passage in Luke Chapter 22 – almost before the words of Jesus have come out of His mouth, Peter is saying, “You can count on me. I'll be with You. Some of the others in the room may not stick with You Jesus, but I'll be there.”

All this has to go. All this has to be dealt with, and dealing with this pride and arrogance and cockiness can be sore. That very night – within an hour or so – Peter went and wept bitterly, when he realised that he had denied Jesus three times.

It did lead to his conversion – to his coming back – to his becoming a new man – a man who could strengthen others. It was Peter who ran to the tomb three days later when he heard that something had happened to the body of Jesus.

From the text it looks as though they were all going to go through it to some degree, and don't we all. This has been our experience. There come times of testing and sifting, when Jesus allows things to happen to shake out the lumps, and knock off the rough edges, in order to refine us. How much more has he still to do?

Remember, it is to this man Peter, at the end of John's Gospel, that Jesus says three times, “Feed My sheep, and feed My lambs.”

Very often those who are able to minister and strengthen their brethren, and truly edify and build up the Church, are those who have experienced falling and failing.

Those who know what it is to have been through the mill and who have gone through a time of sifting and pummelling, know what it is all about, and once Jesus has dealt with them, He has lifted them up, and restored them, and given them a ministry, which otherwise would have been impossible.

Is this not one of the painful excitements of serving in the front line of the Kingdom of God?

I write this article during the week when I recall that it is now forty one years ago since the risen living and ascended Lord Jesus Christ baptised me in the Holy Spirit when I was on the point of resigning and returning to Motor Insurance. I thought I had got this ‘Call Thing’ all wrong, and then the caring concerned living Christ, who had called me when I was eight years old, met me in a room in Cowdenbeath, Scotland.

What a joy and amazing privilege it has been to know the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for over forty one years.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

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We Do Not Serve According To Our Feelings and Emotions

In Luke Chapter 22, we are reading of Jesus and His disciples in the Upper Room and they have been celebrating the Passover, but there are other things going on, and one of the lessons we have been learning is how to serve humbly and with humility. There is a reward. Those who serve as Jesus served, and those who serve in the Name of Jesus in The Kingdom of God, are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

Now, it may not feel like that at times. I am sure Peter and John did not feel as though they were in some new glorious Kingdom of Light as they were imprisoned in Jerusalem, within seven weeks or so of hearing these words of Jesus. That is why it is vital that we are not motivated or driven by our feelings and emotions or even our circumstances.

I am sure there were many occasions when Silas and Paul did not feel as though they were in a Kingdom bathed with love and light. Yet, they were, but in that Kingdom there is also persecution and pain.

Jesus is teaching them here about true greatness, in what has been called the 'upside down kingdom'.

Verse 31. Jesus turns to Simon Peter at this point, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” It is as if the pride and disputing and arguing and jockeying for position had opened the door to Satan's influences. It is as though the squabbling regarding promotion had weakened them spiritually, and they needed the chaff removed.

At this precise moment, their usefulness was NIL – because of SIN.

Sifting is to be put through the sieve – to be put through the mill, so that we can be refined, and have the lumps removed and rough edges knocked off us.

What a sifting Peter was about to experience, sleeping in Gethsemane, getting involved in some wild sword play, and then denying Jesus three times.

This is the calibre of the bunch of men Jesus chose, and Peter had to be groomed and prepared to emerge as leader after Pentecost. Peter had to learn the hard way. Things can be so very difficult, even after we have talked with Jesus. Things can be difficult even after we have walked with Jesus, and supped with Jesus, even after we have been called by Jesus, and having had revelations from the Father. God doesn't hide this aspect of Peter's life.

In the Alpha Course it is mentioned about how might we like it if everything we thought and said and did were shown up on the screen. That is virtually what God does here regarding Peter. It is written down and openly displayed so that we can read and learn. This is almost part of normal Christian growth and almost unavoidable, as we walk on the pathway to maturity. That is another reason as to why we do not act upon our feelings and emotions but we act and serve in obedience to Jesus Christ.

God allows these things to happen to us, and there are times when He even arranges for these types of things to happen to us, to enable us to develop and mature.

All this was allowed, so that that the wheat could be separated from the chaff, in the life of the man who was being raise up by God to lead that young dynamic Church.

It is not what you are that counts. It is what God can make of you. It is what God can do with you, and in you, before He can work through you.

The other side of it is Satan's desire to destroy Peter before his real work and ministry could begin. See his tactics. Know how he works. Imagine how Peter felt when he realised that he had denied Jesus, but all that was part of the sifting, and it was all forgiven. The prayers of Jesus would intervene. Jesus Christ was praying for Peter before this mighty storm broke, but Peter still had to go through the storm, and take some battering. We need to be clear on Christ's tactics too.

Peter went through the sifting, and suffered it all publicly. He must have been in emotional turmoil when he realised what he had done, and then when Jesus was raised from the dead, and was known to be alive, that was a whole new episode, and it is all written down for all to see.

We see the nature of God, and we see the nature of the enemy, and we see clearly how fickle we can be at times, and we see how real and fierce the battle can be. Do you see how we must not be motivated simply by how we feel or how positive our emotions might be. We require to be far more objective than that.

Jesus did not rescue Peter from the sieve. O, Jesus rescued him, but he had to go through the sifting, as did Paul, and the others, and it is all written down so that we might read and learn the lessons.

Originally here:
Word from Scotland

Author bio:
Alexander “Sandy” Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness – on the Moray Firth Coast – not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40 a.m., New Orleans time, at wsho.com.

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Those who were astonished by the courage of Peter and John when they preached the gospel were not ordinary men, but rulers, elders and teachers of the Law.

By contrast, Acts 4:13 (NKJV) says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

Can the same be said of us who are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, it is good to examine ourselves in the light of these words.

Are our lives and actions like those who had been with Jesus? If not, then others might see us as the enemies of God or as those under Satan. Let’s not forget that “friendship with the world is hatred toward God(James 4:4).”

Today there is a great temptation to love the world and the things of the world. It is obvious that many Christians have a superficial brotherly love.

Have we not become selfish, boasters, self-willed, not displaying unity of heart and mind? Satan takes advantage of such tendencies. The main reason for our failure is that we have forgotten that “…your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

If we kept this thought in mind, we would be more alert in our lives, Satan would have less success.

We must remember that the devil wants to create havoc in the lives of born again Christians who desire to serve the Lord.

He is on the lookout for our weak areas. Many of God’s servants have fallen for Satan’s tactics and have ruined their testimony.

Their failure should be a warning to us. If we seriously consider this and take care, we will be better able to “stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11), the one who even tried to deceive our Lord (Matthew 4:1-11).

If we live lives that are pleasing to the Lord, others will notice and testify that these men and women were with Jesus.

As we see increasing evidence for the soon-coming of our Lord, may we live lives which are pleasing to our LORD.

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