{"id":4165,"date":"2020-09-01T22:24:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T22:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/?p=4165"},"modified":"2020-09-01T22:24:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T22:24:48","slug":"politics-conspiracy-and-an-unwitting-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/politics-conspiracy-and-an-unwitting-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics, Conspiracy, and an Unwitting Prophecy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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45\u00a0<\/sup>Many of the Jews therefore,\u00a0who had come with Mary and\u00a0had seen what he did, believed in him,<\/span>\u00a046\u00a0<\/sup>but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.<\/span>\u00a047\u00a0<\/sup>So the chief priests and the Pharisees\u00a0gathered\u00a0the council and said,\u00a0\u201cWhat are we to do? For this man performs many signs.<\/span>\u00a048\u00a0<\/sup>If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and\u00a0the Romans will come and take away both our\u00a0place and our nation.\u201d<\/span>\u00a049\u00a0<\/sup>But one of them,\u00a0Caiaphas,\u00a0who was high priest that year, said to them, \u201cYou know nothing at all.<\/span>\u00a050\u00a0<\/sup>Nor do you understand that\u00a0it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.\u201d<\/span>\u00a051\u00a0<\/sup>He did not say this of his own accord, but\u00a0being high priest that year\u00a0he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,<\/span>\u00a052\u00a0<\/sup>and\u00a0not for the nation only, but also\u00a0to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.<\/span>\u00a053\u00a0<\/sup>So from that day on they\u00a0made plans to put him to death.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

54\u00a0<\/sup>Jesus therefore\u00a0no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

55\u00a0<\/sup>Now\u00a0the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and\u00a0many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover\u00a0to purify themselves.<\/span>\u00a056\u00a0<\/sup>They were looking for[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, \u201cWhat do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?\u201d<\/span>\u00a057\u00a0<\/sup>Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

A Political Problem, V45-48<\/b><\/p>\n

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The gospel of Jesus Christ is comprehensive in its effect. It touches, disrupts, and subdues every area of life. This means that the gospel is not a private matter. The work of Christ\u2019s redemption is not just a matter of personal private piety that has no effects on the world around me. When we are told to keep our religion to ourselves, we are told to do an impossibility. Jesus Christ did not come to this earth to be beaten, mocked, and scorned; crucified, died, and rose, in order to be sequestered off to the private corner of a few and very small number of people\u2019s hearts and thus allow the heathens to rule the day. No, Jesus came to conquer kingdoms and rule nations. In the book of Revelation Jesus is seen as riding on white horse with a sword coming out of His mouth and conquering the nations. This is what Jesus does in history. The sword coming out of his mouth is the Word of God that is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it is the Sword of the Spirit, the word of the gospel. And that is how Jesus conquers the nations, by converting them through the preaching of the gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In our passage today we see that Jesus already began upsetting and disrupting kingdoms before He even went to the cross. Recall previously in John 11 that Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and the result is that many people began to believe in Jesus. And as many many people begin to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Pharisees begin to sweat. They\u2019re getting nervous. And what is their complaint about the people believing in Jesus in verse 47-48? Their complaint is not that they now have a very pious population, full of really nice people that you never find out what they believe. Their complaint is that if all these people start believing in Jesus, the Romans are going to take notice. And if this becomes a problem for the Romans, the Romans are going to come into Jerusalem and crackdown on the Jews. In fact, when they say that Romans are going to come and take their place and nation, the Greek word behind \u201cplace\u201d is used elsewhere to refer directly to the Jewish Temple. So they are afraid the Romans are going to come and destroy the temple or take it over or something. In fact, historically, the Romans were very kind to the Jews at this point in time, allowing them to carry on with their religion in the temple, probably due in large part to the incredible economic benefit it provided.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The point is that because many people are believing that Jesus is the Christ and that He raises dead people, the Jews now have a political problem on their hands. The gospel of Jesus Christ is political, meaning it has implications and effects that disrupt every area of life, it subjects all things under the feet of Christ, and it demands every thought be taken captive to the obedience of Christ. He doesn\u2019t just subject all our souls under His feet; no, all things. He doesn\u2019t just demand we take all our religious thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ; no, all our thoughts must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is not a private Lord and Savior who hides out in your heart. He is not just concerned about your invisible spiritual relationship with Him. Jesus is Lord out in the open. His death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement have cosmic, practical, societal, and political effects. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. He upsets the powers that be. He is recording all things to Himself, including public and civil life. The Jews knew this and they didn\u2019t want their political order disrupted by Jesus. Now, the Jews didn\u2019t understand the way that this would happen, through gospel preaching and faithful Christian living. They would\u2019ve assumed it would\u2019ve been revolutionary with a revolt that included swords and spears. But while they were wrong about how Jesus would disrupt the social order, they were right that He would.<\/span><\/p>\n

So the sign of resurrection that Jesus performed by raising Lazarus from the dead, caused many people to believe in Jesus. And when many people believe in Jesus, it has political ramifications. You see, the ungodly state sees it as a threat. Eventually the Roman Caesars began to see themselves as gods and they demanded their subjects to confess that Caesar is Lord, but the early Christians would not do that, and instead confess that Jesus is Lord. \u201cJesus is Lord\u201d is both a theological and political statement. In saying \u201cJesus is Lord\u201d they were saying that Caesar is not Lord. Now I\u2019m sure there would be some people who would say that those Christians should\u2019ve just said \u201cCaesar is Lord\u201d because Romans 13 bro, and after all Caesar is Lord of this world, but you can go home and say Jesus is Lord of your heart. Now that\u2019s silly, but there\u2019s people who would say that. But it doesn’t work that way. To paraphrase the famous Abraham Kuyper line, \u201cthere is not one square inch in this domain of which Jesus Christ does not say, \u201cMine!\u201d\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A godless state sees a bunch of Christians as a threat, because a godless state does not recognize a god above the state, which thus makes the state itself the all-sovereign god. And that\u2019s how we get socialism, communism, and other forms of totalitarianism. Christians cannot be duped here, those forms of government and society cannot allow Christianity out in the open, because Christianity undermines socialism and communism just simply by existing. Because when a bunch of people who live under such a state start believing in an all-sovereign God that is above the state, then the state\u2019s total claims are disobeyed. And so when a state tries to tell the church not to gather, or tries to tell them what we can and cannot do when we gather, we still gather as God tells us to do, because God is a higher authority than the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus it is that simple, quiet, and faithful Christianity disrupts the status quo of the state. Simply gathering for worship as God tells us to disrupts the status quo of the state and asserts a higher loyalty and authority. The Pharisees did not want their political status quo disrupted. Yeah, I\u2019m sure being free from Rome would\u2019ve been nice, but they did have it pretty good. They had their temple and it\u2019s incredibly great status in the world, and they were able to conduct their own lower courts under the Romans, and it was the time of the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome at this time. However, by trying to prevent the loss of their way of life, and the loss of their temple and status, they ended up losing it. They thought that killing Jesus and keeping peace with Rome would preserve their way of life, but instead it ended it. Within that generation that eventually killed Jesus, the Romans turned on the Jews. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD, such that not one stone was left upon another as Jesus promised would be the case upon that generation. It was the greatest time of tribulation with such awful suffering, starvation, and death. This was God\u2019s judgment upon them for their apostasy and rejection of the Son of God. The Jews thought that if they could keep the Romans happy, even if it meant killing Jesus, then their status would be preserved. Boy were they wrong. And there is a lesson here for us: Whenever you try to appease the ungodly society around you, to gain their approval or respect, you will not get it. Your virtue signaling will not be enough. You will be compromised and you will pay the price. I saw a picture recently that was the perfect illustration of this. It was a picture of a unitarian universalist church. And on the church sign it said, \u201cBlack Lives Matter.\u201d And the entire church was up in flames, because it was set on fire and destroyed in “Black Lives Matter” and “ANTIFA” rioting and violence that’s been going on in some cities. You see this \u201cchurch\u201d, if we can call it that, had done everything it possibly could to appease the culture and gain the acceptance of the culture around them. But it wasn\u2019t enough. In trying to preserve themselves and gain respect they lost it all. Young people especially, are going to be tempted in this way, to different degrees. You will be tempted to compromise to gain acceptance with a certain group of friends, or among co-workers. Do not be fooled, it will never be enough. You will never gain what you are chasing for, and you\u2019ll lose what you had. You have to be okay with being a disruption in an ungodly society.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Priest\u2019s Prophecy, V49-52<\/b><\/p>\n

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So the Pharisees are worried about what the Romans might do to them if a bunch of people start believing in Jesus. But as they are talking about this, Caiaphas, the high priest says, \u201cyou don\u2019t know what you are talking about; it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.\u201d And then it is rather quite amazing that John then tells us that \u201cHe did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.\u201d So when Caiaphas said that it is better that one man die than the whole nation perish, little did he know that he was prophesying what would indeed happen. Now in Caiaphas\u2019 mind, he is thinking that they will kill Jesus, so that the people stop believing in Him, and thus they will have their temple and status preserved. But God intended that Jesus would die, not to save the ethnic apostate nation state of Israel, but that He would save True Israel, and gather in all His elect. Now this of course is one of those amazing passages where we see both the responsible words and actions of man and the divine sovereignty and providence of God in the same event. This reminds me of what Joseph says to his brothers at the end of Genesis, \u201cYou meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.\u201d And that\u2019s interesting because I see Jesus here as fulfilling the type of Joseph, meaning that Joseph was a type of Jesus and we see that here in this passage. Remember the Joseph story: you had the brothers who did not like Joseph for the way he was treated, and dreams he had. So one day they\u2019re out working in the country and they see Joseph coming and they plot and conspire together against Joseph. They throw him in a pit and then decide to sell him to some slave traders who took him to Egypt. Then we know that Joseph, through a long series of events, providentially rises to power in Egypt and saves the nation and those scattered abroad by providing during a great famine. Joseph\u2019s being thrown into the pit and time spent in slavery and Egyptian prison and then rising to power was a type of death and resurrection experience, and thus it was through his death and resurrection that the nation was saved. Through one man the many were saved. That is what is happening here. The Pharisees, who are the older brothers of Israel, conspire and plot together against Jesus, yet, like Joseph\u2019s brothers, they do not succeed in getting rid of Him, for He rises again, to save a nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two other aspects of this unwitting prophecy that I would like to explore a bit further. The first aspect is the substitutionary nature of the death of Christ. In this unwitting prophecy, one man dies for the people, so that one man dies instead of the nation perishing. The Pharisees\u2019 mistake was thinking that they needed to hold back the wrath of the Romans, when it was the wrath of God that needed to be satisfied. This generation of apostate Pharisees were the objects of so many prophecies of judgment in the Old Testament and by Jesus for their vile hatred and rejection of the Son of God. And they were so blinded by their sin and hatred, they could not see the freight train of wrath headed right for them. And yet, apart from the work of grace in our lives, this is all of us. In our flesh, we all resent the fact that the gospel disrupts the sin and the status quo of our lives. And if we do not humbly receive this overturning of our sin, we rebel against it and would seek to put Christ to death, as it were, so that we might remain comfortable in our sin. And for such rebellion, the wrath of God comes upon mankind. Its coming like a freight train, and you cannot get out of the way. Unless you can remove your sin from yourself, you will not escape the wrath and judgment of God. And you can\u2019t. You can\u2019t remove it. There\u2019s an old Calvinist preacher from the 1950\u2019s who preached this incredibly powerful sermon, it was called A Tour of Hell. Basically in the sermon, he has a guide take the listener on a tour of hell and they see different people and things there. But at one point they come to a man who is just wringing his hands and shouting \u201cget it off, get it off, get it off!\u201d And the listener asks the guide who that is, and the guide says that it is Pilate, who sentenced Jesus to death. He\u2019s got the blood of Jesus on his hands and he can\u2019t get it off. Remember, Pilate washed his hands before the people when they demanded that Jesus be crucified. He only thought he could wash his sin away. You can\u2019t remove your own sin. But there is someone who can. This is what we call substitutionary atonement. The way that Jesus saves is by substituting Himself in the place of sinners. It should\u2019ve been you, it should\u2019ve been me, receiving wrath and judgment for our sin. But in the gospel, Jesus goes to the cross, as our substitute. He goes there on behalf of His people. And He went, taking our sin with Him, putting it upon Himself, indeed becoming sin, and enduring the full punishment of God\u2019s wrath toward us and our sin. He died instead of us. One man for the nation. You cannot bear the weight of your own sin. Trying to do that looks like an eternity in hell. You need someone who can bear it for you. That is only the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for many.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second aspect of this unwitting prophecy I want to consider is when it is said that it is \u201cbetter that Jesus die, than the whole nation perish.\u201d Now this is incredible that the Bible says it is better for Jesus to die than the whole people to perish. As reformed people we often say, and I\u2019ve said it many times myself, that God does not owe salvation to anyone. That he would remain entirely just if He decided not to send Jesus to die and instead just sent everyone to hell. And while that is true, it is also true that God deemed it better for Jesus to die, than to send everyone to hell. And that should really amaze us. Because from a human perspective the greatest act of injustice and the most terrible thing to happen was for Jesus to be crucified. The only perfect pure and holy man to ever live to put to a criminal\u2019s death at the hands of criminals and rebels is unspeakable. And yet, God deemed it better for such a pure one to die, than all the rebel sinners die. And that blows my mind. That\u2019s why God sent His son to die, because it was better that He die, than not die. It is certainly better for our personal gain that Christ died, for without His substitutionary atonement, we are left with and in our sins, to bear them forever. And there is particular glory in the death of Christ that God receives as Christ was lifted up to display His love and justice. It is a wonder of all grace that it was better for Christ to die for us than not. Such a thought should create in us a perpetual stream of gratitude and humility before God that we should ever live unto Him. This is one of those things that you feel so much weight there, but there\u2019s not much more you can say than to just say it, that it was better that Christ died for the many, than that all the people would perish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This death of Christ, is the foundation for all of Christ\u2019s conquering in the world. Indeed, the cross is indeed the way He conquers and grows His Church. What the Jews that would be an appeasement and a silencing of a movement, was in fact the impetus to set in motion a world conquering that would never be stopped and continues to this day. All of Christ\u2019s victories flow from His death. All Christian advancement and success is downstream of the cross, covered in the blood of Christ. Every victory in our lives over sin, over our struggles, every bit of growth, good works, and sanctification, flows out from the cross at Calvary where the blood of Jesus flowed down. If the cross is neglected or altered, or moved from its center foundational place, we can expect to fail. We can expect to stub our toes and fall on our noses until we are humbly brought back on our knees to the cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Passover Plot, V53-57<\/b><\/p>\n

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So from that day forward, the Jews sought to kill Jesus. Jesus, knowing this, and operating on the precise time table of His heavenly Father, no longer walked openly among the Jews. He now at this point moves strategically undercover, foiling their plans and avoiding arrest in order to carry out the precise plan of God and His timing. I think one thing we can learn from this is that there are certain times in the life of the Church when she no longer walks out in the open. That is not to say she acts in fear or shame or embarrassment. It is to say that there is a time for undercover strategy. When a time like this comes in the life of the church, contrary to how it may look, it is not a time of retreat, but rather it is a time for undercover strategic tactics of subversion. Indeed, it is not a defensive posture, but a time of offensive advancement. Jesus was not retreating. He was strategically moving toward the goal of His mission – the Cross. And so even when the Church is in underground times, she is still advancing by quietly undermining the statist strongholds of Satan. The gospel cannot be stopped. No matter what conspiracies and schemes the enemy may devise, they are no match for the preaching of the gospel. Kill Jesus, he\u2019ll just rise from the dead. Put the apostle Paul in prison, he\u2019ll just convert the prison guards. The conspiracies of Satan and his offspring are no match for the sovereign decree of God. Indeed, what they intend for evil, God intends for good.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n

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The gospel of Jesus Christ is a threat to the status quo of an ungodly city\/state. Not in a revolutionary sense. Christians are not to be revolutionaries, rioting, burning, and overturning cities. Well, we are to overturn cities, but not with torches and pitchforks. We overturn them by preaching the resurrection of Christ who overturned the grave. This gospel preaching overturns the idols of the city. Once we overturn the city with the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God – we build it back up. We do so by quiet and faithful Christian living. By loving our wives and wives submitting to your husbands; by training our children and planting gardens; by raising animals and sharing laughter around the dinner table; by praying to the Triune God and singing Psalms in our homes and churches. We do it by confessing our sins and fellowshipping at the Lord\u2019s Table each Lord\u2019s Day. We do it by remaining faithful to our covenants and serving one another. But you see, we can\u2019t wait to do this until the city has been overturned. We start now. For if we have not laid a foundation upon which we can build, then we are not yet ready for the city to be overturned and God will not give it to us yet. To disrupt the ungodly city\/state, it starts by disrupting the sin in our own lives. Before we can set the city in order, we have to set our own homes in order. That is where it starts, with what\u2019s right in front of us. If we want to conquer a city for Christ, and we should, it starts with confessing the sin we just committed and trusting Christ to forgive, and then coming to the table to eat and drink of the body and blood of our Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are a Christian, that is what you need to do today. If you are not, you still have your sins on your hands. So today, you must lay them upon Jesus, by faith, trusting His death, for yours. For he who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus promises us in John 11:25-26, \u201cWhoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    45\u00a0Many of the Jews therefore,\u00a0who had come with Mary and\u00a0had seen what he did, believed in him,\u00a046\u00a0but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.\u00a047\u00a0So the chief priests and the Pharisees\u00a0gathered\u00a0the council and said,\u00a0\u201cWhat are we to do? For this man performs many signs.\u00a048\u00a0If we let him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":4166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,27,28,30,32],"tags":[274,1381,557,562,565,678,679,681,687,699,765,936,950,954,992,1102,1172,1382],"class_list":{"0":"post-4165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-gospel","9":"category-government","10":"category-preaching","11":"category-theology","12":"tag-christ","13":"tag-conspiracy","14":"tag-god","15":"tag-gospel","16":"tag-government","17":"tag-jenkins","18":"tag-jesus","19":"tag-jews","20":"tag-john","21":"tag-joshua","22":"tag-lord","23":"tag-pharisees","24":"tag-plot","25":"tag-politics","26":"tag-prophecy","27":"tag-scheme","28":"tag-spirit","29":"tag-unwitting","30":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/09\/The-priests-take-counsel-with-the-Herodians.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/for-sinners-christ-came\/","url_meta":{"origin":4165,"position":0},"title":"For Sinners, Christ Came","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"July 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"9\u00a0As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, \u201cFollow me.\u201d And he rose and followed him.\u00a010\u00a0And as Jesus\u00a0reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Came\"","block_context":{"text":"Came","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/tag\/came\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4078,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-offspring-of-david-john-740-52\/","url_meta":{"origin":4165,"position":1},"title":"The Offspring of David; John 7:40-52","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"April 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 40\u00a0When they heard these words,\u00a0some of the people said, \u201cThis really is\u00a0the Prophet.\u201d\u00a041\u00a0Others said, \u201cThis is\u00a0the Christ.\u201d But some said,\u00a0\u201cIs the Christ to come from Galilee?\u00a042\u00a0Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes\u00a0from the offspring of David, and comes\u00a0from Bethlehem, the village\u00a0where David was?\u201d\u00a043\u00a0So there was\u00a0a division among\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/04\/king-david.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/04\/king-david.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/04\/king-david.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3908,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/taking-up-your-bed-on-the-sabbath-john-59b-18\/","url_meta":{"origin":4165,"position":2},"title":"Taking Up Your Bed On The Sabbath; John 5:9b-18","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"September 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Now that day was the Sabbath.\u00a010\u00a0So the Jews[a]\u00a0said to the man who had been healed, \u201cIt is the Sabbath, and\u00a0it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.\u201d\u00a011\u00a0But he answered them, \u201cThe man who healed me, that man said to me,\u00a0\u2018Take up your bed, and walk.\u2019\u201d\u00a012\u00a0They asked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/09\/317360.p.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/09\/317360.p.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/09\/317360.p.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4106,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-man-who-had-formerly-been-blind\/","url_meta":{"origin":4165,"position":3},"title":"The Man Who Had Formerly Been Blind","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"June 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.\u00a02\u00a0And his disciples asked him,\u00a0\u201cRabbi,\u00a0who sinned,\u00a0this man or\u00a0his parents, that he was born blind?\u201d\u00a03\u00a0Jesus answered,\u00a0\u201cIt was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but\u00a0that the works of God might be displayed in him.\u00a04\u00a0We must\u00a0work the works of him who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/commentary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/06\/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3743,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/the-testimony-of-john-the-baptist-john-119-28\/","url_meta":{"origin":4165,"position":4},"title":"The Testimony of John the Baptist: John 1:19-28","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"April 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 John's Confession \u00a0 The narrative opens telling us that the Jews sent the Priests and the Levites from Jerusalem to found out who John was. 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