Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor. Matthew 27:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
When you partake in the body and blood of My Son you are joining in His very life, not just from a distance but walking it with Him in the Spirit. When you join yourself with Jesus you are one spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? 1 Corinthians 6:15.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
Many of you are longing, praying, and begging Me to make you pure and holy. I have a surprise for you, you already are! When you were born again in Jesus by My Word, I put My Spirit in your heart, and you have the holiest of holies and the purest of the pure living in you and that now is who you are in Christ. Look to Me and be radiant with joy and your faces shall never again blush with shame for cleansed in the blood your sins are gone, He made peace through the blood of the Cross between you and Me, and presents you holy, blameless (pure), and beyond reproach before Me. Colossians 1: 20.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Colossians 1:21-22.
The beauty within of a born-again believer is My glory.
The King’s daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is interwoven with gold. She will be led to the King in embroidered work. Psalm 45:13-14.
I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27.
Stop begging for holiness and purity and just tell those thoughts and impure intentions that the devil shoots your way that you do not even entertain such things for you are justified, sanctified, and made holy in My sight.
And you will find all this in Jesus. Take and eat, this is His body given up for you. Partake of purity and grow thereby. Be washed in His blood and your sins will be gone. But when you partake you must do it in remembrance of Him. You must remember, you must walk with Him and see all He suffered so you can be holy and stand aside in grateful awe of so great a Salvation. And I have put you in Him and Him in you. Your hope of glory.
So let us continue the journey to the cross, the grave, the resurrection, the ascension, the coming of My promise of the Spirit, and all that is still to come—the glory of the eternal Kingdom.
After the trial before the Jewish people, the very ones who studied My Word but did not recognize the Word when He was before them, Jesus spent the rest of the night being beaten and abused by the guards. Love Himself was in the hands of sinful men because He had become sin for your sake though He had never sinned. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” And they remembered His words. Luke 24:6-8.
That night of the betrayal was spent in the power of darkness where sinners dwell. But because He did that for you, I am able to rescue you from the power of darkness and translate you into the Kingdom of My beloved Son.
Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14.
He not only spent the nights after His burial in the depths of darkness but his night after His betrayal as well. He spent three days and three nights in the deepest depths of darkness, in the very heart of the earth (hell), but on the third day, I drew Him up out of the pit and placed Him on the highest height—the Name above every other name. Psalm 2 is a dialogue between Me and Jesus, the Messiah, My Son, the day I raised Him from the dead.
“But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession . . . Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! Psalm 2:6-8, 11-12.
The night My Son was betrayed, the Jewish priests and scribes, the whole Sanhedrin, was up and ready to prosecute My Son. They wanted to go quickly for they feared if they held Him too long without portraying Him as a blasphemer and criminal, being a revolutionary punished by Rome, the people would riot to protect My Son. They wanted His death to be on the part of the Roman occupying forces and not on them. So they planned on using Pilate and playing upon his weakness to find favor with Ceasar, which would be jeopardized if he did not put down a possible rebellion by a Jewish man claiming to be the King. All had been premeditated and calculated on the part of the religious authorities, whom My Son properly called hypocrites. That is why Jesus told Pilate the that ones handing Him over to Pilate were guilty of a greater sin than Pilate, but Pilate condemning a man he proclaimed innocent found he could not just wash his hands and put the blame on others. He had a responsibility because of his government office to act justly as well.
And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. Luke 12:47-48.
Jesus was up all night but so were the Jewish upper echelon. Early in the morning, as soon as they could get Jesus before Pilate, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor.
When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned by the ones he had sought favor with, he felt remorse for his part in the condemnation of Jesus. You see here the tactics of Satan. He tempts you into sin, as he did with the first man and woman through visions of grandeur and a liberated, powerful life without Me, and then when you fall into his trap he turns on you like a scorpion and whips around to sting you with accusations, guilt, shame, and fear over what you did until you are destroyed by your own hand. Judas, being unable to handle the accusations in his heart, ran and returned the thirty pieces of silver that had been so attractive to him before to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They had no sympathy for him, he had aided them in their diabolical plan so that they had another to blame for the betrayal. They replied, “What is that to us? See to that yourself! That is your responsibility.” They bound up heavy loads for people to carry and then did not lift a finger to budge them.
Judas threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. This grieved Me and My Son. He could so easily have repented and run back to Jesus as He was being led to Pilate and been welcomed back by Jesus as His friend and beloved disciple. He should not have run to the ones set against Jesus for relief of his guilt. He could have stood with John, Mary, and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross and repented with the thief next to Jesus. There was no mercy with the priests and elders for him. It was like running to the devil for help when he has stung you. But My Son took the sting out of death. Only in Me is your soul at rest for from Me comes your hope. A future and a hope are from Me. Shalom. Jesus died to give it to you.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.
There was a basic problem with Judas that many have even today as well. He was not grateful for what he had been given. He did not have a deep awe and gratitude for being with Jesus and hearing Him teach and preach and being part of the great miracles that were taking place proving He was the Messiah and Lord that they all so longed for. He was looking to much at himself and his position, his glory, his financial gain, his future, his prestige, and despising what had the greatest value in his life, which was his call to be with Jesus. And he was not the only disciple with this problem. If you recall there was more than one time when the disciples were arguing among themselves as to which of them was the greatest. And two of them were after the seats of power next to Jesus in His Kingdom. But I am slow to anger and I teach you the way you should go. And the Holy Spirit led them all to greatness as they grew up in Christ. Judas dropped out too soon and missed all I had planned for him. A life of wonders, signs and miracles doing the work of the Kingdom on earth.
And I call each one of you to that glorious call as well. You are all called to My eternal glory and My Kingdom. You, like Judas, though not quite in the same way, are chosen to know and be with Jesus, with My Word. You are chosen to partake of His life in the precious Covenant meal of His body and blood. You are called to make Covenant with Him, and through Him with Me. You have the opportunity to know the creator of all, the Most High, and the King of kings and Lord of lords. You have the opportunity to live the abiding life of abundance in Me, your healer, provider, helper, righteousness, sanctifier, and Father. Are you thankful? And are you thankful for forgiveness? Judas sought it but had no thankfulness for it because he did not believe he had it. When you are scornful of what you have and do not value and guard it, Satan, the destroyer, will steal it from you, for you are not guarding it, and will then turn and destroy you.
“Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and he (the enemy) will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.” Deuteronomy 28:47-48.
Never fall into the hand of the enemy, for I see an enemy’s hand in this. Stay off his territory, rather take him off it and possess it for the Kingdom. If you sin, and a lack of gratitude is sin, you open yourself to attack for you have stepped out of love. Love is within My jurisdiction, sin is not. And you will not be safe there. There is a reason I tell you that My Will for you in Christ Jesus is to rejoice aways, pray without ceasing, and to give constant thanks. I want you in perfect protection and in ever increasing abundance.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” Matthew 23:37-38.
The chief priests took the pieces of silver that Judas had returned and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” But they did not want to give up the money, being avaricious men. And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. And thus they fulfilled what I had spoken by My Spirit through Jeremiah many years before it took place, but I speak the end from the beginning. “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel; and they gave them for the Potter’s Field, as the Lord directed me.”
Everything Jesus said or did fulfilled a Scripture from the Law and the prophets. Nothing was left out. I speak the end from the beginning.
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:44-45.
Next Jesus will stand trial before the Gentiles, the unbelievers. But that is for the next life lesson. We have covered a good amount of territory today in the Spirit on the way to Calvary and beyond. And you are walking it with Him as members of His body, the Church.
I love you. I am calling you. Do not turn aside to go your own way. I have given you the Way. And He is love. There is no better way to go. Divine love, My kind of love, alone can make you great. Love alone can lead you home.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13.