Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come.” John 17:1.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
We begun considering a conversation Jesus had with Me at the close of the Passover Seder the night He was betrayed just before going from the upper room to continue the conversation with Me, and His disciples, in the Garden of Gethsemane. And I would like to return to the beginning of that conversation with you in this lesson as well. There are many truths hidden within the depths of this prayer that there is always another level to look at.
Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” John 17:1-2.
He said the hour has come. Do you know what hour He is speaking of? Before, Jesus would say His hour had not yet come, but now it had.
“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” John 12:27.
What was the purpose that He came to that hour?
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy (undo) the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8.
He was about to crush the devil’s head as I had foretold to the devil, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And where would the victory foretold since the foundation of the world begin to manifest upon the earth? It started in a Garden and it would finish in a Garden.
When Jesus took flesh and came into the world as one like you, He had a mission that was born in Heaven long before it was born on earth. It was a rescue mission.
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.
And what He was to accomplish was impossible for man but more than possible for Me. Nothing is too wonderful for Me.
They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” Mark10:26-27.
When they tried to throw Him over the brow of the mountain in Nazareth, when they tried to stone Him in the temple, and when they tried to seize Him at the great feast of Tabernacles, they could not do so because His hour had not yet come.
So they were saying to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. John 8:19-20.
The hour that turned His indestructible eternal life in the flesh, for He, like Adam was created originally from above before he sinned, had a sinless life of perfection born from above by My Word in Spirit and truth. There was no lie in Him. He was formed from the imperishable seed of My Word.
But when in that hour in Garden of Gethsemane He submitted Himself to His assignment to take every sin ever committed by mankind into He own flesh, He had to die, for the wages of sin is death. In that hour that He prayed the cup of My wrath would pass Him by, He took all the sins of mankind into Him own flesh and drank the cup of My wrath. He, like the spotless lamb of the burnt offering, had accepted your sins in exchange for His righteousness.
When the sinner came to the gate of the outer court of the tabernacle of Moses with his unblemished lamb, the priest first inspected the lamb (not the sinner) and when the lamb was approved by the priests as spotless, the sinner would lay his hand on the head of the lamb and transfer his sin to the lamb and in return receive the purity of the lamb.
That night in the garden of Gethsemane, when His hour had come, I placed the iniquity of you all upon Him. It was like every soul had laid their hand on His head and transferred all sin to Him and in exchange received His purity.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Isaiah 53:6.
And that night it did fall and it crushed Him to the ground. His soul was sorrowful to the point of death and His sweat became as drops of blood.
That hour in Gethsemane, and you know it was one hour because you hear Him ask His disciples if they could not but watch one hour with Him (but they did not), all sin came on Him and then His destiny was sealed, to the dust of death I brought Him down. Dust you are and to dust you shall return. He took your condemnation so that for those who receive Him there is no longer any sentence of condemnation on your life. It is finished—fully satisfied and can no longer be applied. Double jeopardy applies.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue cleaves to My jaws; and You lay Me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Psalm 22:15-18.
There was no man to comfort Him from that hour in the garden of Gethsemane to when He was buried in the garden where the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man, was located. And when I raised Him from the dead with all sin gone and you all perfectly justified, Mary Magdalene thought He was the gardener, as Adam was when he fell from his exalted position in the light to that that of a slave to sin in the garden of Eden. Jesus had reversed the curse by becoming a curse for you.
Like the bronze serpent Moses fashioned on the pole of a cross at My direction as the antidote for those who opened their door to the snakes who bit them with deadly poison when they sinned in the wilderness, Jesus became sin for you and I judged that sin upon the Cross. And if you behold Him with faith, all that venom of sin is pulled onto Him and you are saved and free.
Jesus is your antidote for sin. I drew out all your sin and place it on Him and judged it accordingly. He saves you from the wrath to come.
And as Jesus opened His prayer to Me acknowledging His hour had come, He then stated, “Glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” John 17:1-2.
I have given Him authority over all in Heaven and on earth. I have given Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom I have given Him, He gives eternal life and they shall never perish.
No one who comes to Him will He ever reject, but you can only come to you if I draw you to Him and give you to Him. You go through Me to Jesus and then you come back to Me through, with, and in Jesus, reconciled and made clean of all sin.
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44
Jesus is the only one to whom I have given authority over all flesh. I have entrusted all judgment to Him for He is Son of Man and Son of God. He will judge the unbelievers (Gentiles, nations, pagans, sometimes referred to as the seas) strictly by their deeds, and primarily on how the treated believers (the brethren of Christ):
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the Gentiles (unbelievers, nations) will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Matthew 25:31-33.
For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Romans 2:14-16.
The dead (those not born again) were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Revelation 20:12-13.
The believers (the Church (New Covenant)), are not judged as to whether or not they will enter My Kingdom for they have passed from death to life and their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but each will be rewarded according to their deeds:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. 2 John 1:8
And the Jews (Mosaic Covenant) by the Law of Moses.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. Romans 2:12.
Everything about your future depends on Jesus. Whether one knows it or not, scorns it or not, rebels against it or not, dismisses it as folly or not, acknowledges Him or not, He will be your Judge. He is the one to whom you must render an account. And all is open to His eyes, for He is My Word incarnate, and My Word is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 12-13.
Every knee will one day bow before Him, it is wise to start now.
Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to (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 2:10-12.
His wrath may soon be kindled.
Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17.
It was hardened hearts with no compassion that never linked with My Word that angered Jesus in their hypocrisy as they hid their malice behind the law while promoting themselves as people of the Word. They put heavy burdens on people in the name of religion and never lifted a finger to budge them.
But for those whose hearts link with His in love for the Word, Jesus shields you from the wrath to come. He is the rock in which I hide you and cover you with My hand until the wrath passes by. Like I did Moses.
You belong to Jesus. You are His flock and He laid down His life for you, but He took it up again and you with Him. And in Him you belong to Me. One.
I love you. In the next life lesson we will continue with Jesus’ conversation with Me as His legacy to you the night before He died for your sins.