Our paragraph topic is: (He tells them of trials and hard times to come) Part 2.
The disciples are all sitting around listening to the things that Christ is recounting to them of the events to come as though he was telling them a bedtime story. Their minds intently absorbing all that is said without understand fully the meaning of how it will impact their lives. It is almost as if they are in a dream listening to him speak not knowing what he is saying but taking it in for later reference.
Christ spoke to their souls. He spoke to things that would happen in the future. He spoke of things that they did not completely understand. Yet they listened, they heard, they remembered, they recalled all that was said and put to written word what they witnessed, saw, and what was said. The spirit works in ways that they did not understand yet it was within them and came forth from them for us today. He told them they will deliver you: "And will put you to death."
And death was the word that brought them back to reality because it was something that they all understood. They lived it daily. They saw it regularly. They knew it at the hands of the Romans frequently. It was something that brought both anger and fear. Anger because it came at the hands of an outside invader and fear because no one wanted to suffer the brutal consequences of death by Roman torture.
This was the way of life during the life of Christ. The people did not know or believe in life after death. They did not completely believe in heaven and the God of their ancestors. They read the Torah on Sundays as part of their ritual and heard from their elders but mostly were forced to follow the Law by the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Christ came to change all that. He came to bear witness to the truth, to open the gates of heaven, to allow all the waiting souls to enter, to pay the price for the sins of the world. He was the sacrificial lamb, the innocent one, the one born without sin.
Today we live our lives in pursuit of happiness. We seek to have those things and those ones in our lives that will give us pleasure and joy and make us feel good about ourselves. We care not about others as long as we are satisfied in our own world. We seek to surround ourselves with like individuals of the same mindset to create a circle of friends that make up our world. And as long as our world is complete we are happy. Death is the final goal in life and time is the gate keeper. And when that time comes the door opens and we must enter whether we are ready or not.
So life ultimately is about a choice. We have so many years to come to a knowledge and to make a decision based on that knowledge of who we are. Christ came that we would have the truth of that knowledge. He came that we could have life and have it more abundantly. For life is temporary here and permanent, eternal, there. Which we choose is up to us. Death is only the doorway to the truth. Christ awaits our choice. He has open arms for those who love him and want to be with him for eternity. The choice is ours to make. Make the choice to accept his open arms of love.
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage nd then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ . The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
