Once again, while I am away speaking (at my final conference of the summer), I have not left you Podcast-less!
Welcome to Decision Night at Hartland Christian Camp.
As you will hear in the PODCAST, even though this message was not delivered at Safe Haven, it is the perfect followup to last week’s discussion of Passover.
I mentioned last week, and will remind you now, that before His arrest, Jesus had to keep a divine appointment in the Garden of Gethsemane. I didn’t explain that then; I do explain it now.
If you want to know what it meant for Jesus to bear the weight of your sin (and mine), this is THE picture of exactly what that meant.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
In our run-up to Easter, please join us in this week’s PODCAST as we follow Jesus step-by-step on this Virtual Israel Study Tour through the final hours of Jesus’ life.
Last week, we joined Peter in the seclusion of the Garden of Gethsemane. This week, we’ll meet again in the courtyard of the High Priest.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
Think of it. As you will hear in this encore PODCAST…
(An encore because I am speaking at one of my all-time favorite places in the world, Hartland Christian Camp)…
Promptly at 3 PM…
Exactly at That.Very.Moment when Jesus breathed His last…
Precisely to the second when Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished. Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”…
This happened:
“Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
Do you have any idea what that means? It will take the remainder of this discussion for us even to begin to understand What.That.Means.
Why did God tear the veil?
It was obviously God who ripped it. No human hand could possibly tear it. That veil was an elaborately woven fabric that stood 60 feet high, equal in height to a seven-story building. No one could tear that curtain. Only God could tear that curtain.
Which only amplifies the question, Why?
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
When we last left our old and dear friend, Peter, he was in Jerusalem, languishing in a Roman prison cell, awaiting what he thought was his certain execution.
As you will hear in this PODCAST, Peter had been held in that prison for up to eight long, arduous days—the week of Passover.
So to help you feel this story—if I may put it that way—I need you to think back to one week ago.
It was exactly one week ago when we—in Peter in HD Podcast #51—met the notorious-King Herod Agrippa.
And I need you to consider two compelling/colliding realities now coming into play as far as Peter’s state-of-mind-and-heart while in prison was concerned.
My dear friends, SO MUCH for us to talk about (please forgive that dangling preposition).
And please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
No surprise here. As you will hear in this week’s PODCAST, the hyperactive-apostle could not sit still long enough to put pen to parchment.
There is one of the four Gospels credited to Peter—but even that he could not write himself. Peter employed Mark to record his recollections. And no surprise that in reading what could-well be entitled, The Gospel According to Peter as Told to Mark, the one word that jumps out at us in Peter’s fast-paced, out-of-breath memoir is the adverb “immediately.” (Mark uses it 42 times).
All of which is to say that on the rare occasions when Peter did park himself at a desk to inscribe his insights (only twice—1 and 2 Peter!), we should sit up and take notice.
Case in point: 1 Peter 3:15.
“If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.”
Words, BTW, that define for us a biblical approach to personal evangelism—AKA witnessing, soul-winning, sharing your faith.
When they ask, we explain.
A principle that Peter learned, and learned well, here in Acts 10. The asker—Cornelius. Explainer—Peter.
Problem was—and it’s a HUGE problem indeed—Cornelius was an unclean Gentile centurion living in the unclean pagan city-capital city of Roman occupation of Peter’s land. This was for Peter One.Huge.Problem on multiple spiritually-threatening, faith-testing levels.
In order to understand, I need to put you into Peter’s sandals. And in order to put you into Peter’s sandals, I need to alert you to what has historically been the Greatest.Single.Threat to Judaism, and BTW, to us.
Now, allow me to lay out dots, and then connect these dots.
This entire discussion centers around one divine injunction, repeated several times in the Torah.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 referenced what he called the single most important event of human history.
And it all centers upon that one-telling-three-word-phrase, “the third day.”
Quite a statement that: “I passed on to you what was most important.”
Most: πρῶτος, a superlative in Greek. A word that means the best, the chief, the first and foremost of all. Meaning that Paul went over and above to point out in the most emphatic way possible that nothing that he could ever, or would ever write would eclipse this one statement in its importance:
“I passed on to you the best—the chief, the first and foremost in importance—fact of all time: Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.”
A most-important, and most-specific chronology — not to be overlooked.
In this case, the chronology is the story.
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
Exactly at That.Very.Moment when Jesus breathed His last…
Precisely to the second when Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished. Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit”…
This happened:
“Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
Do you have any idea what that means? It will take the remainder of this discussion for us even to begin to understand What.That.Means.
Why did God tear the veil?
It was obviously God who ripped it. No human hand could possibly tear it. That veil was an elaborately woven fabric that stood 60 feet high, equal in height to a seven-story building. No one could tear that curtain. Only God could tear that curtain.
Which only amplifies the question, Why?
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
Caiaphas, the high priest that year, must have been fit to be tied.
Well, somewhat so.
As you will hear in this PODCAST, it was Passover. The Holy City, Jerusalem, was teaming with pilgrims. The all-important 3 PM Passover sacrifice at the Temple was fast-approaching.
It was arguably single most financially-flourishing day of the year (second only, perhaps, to the Day of Atonement) as far as the corrupt Temple Industrial Complex over which Caiaphas presided was concerned. There was money to be made this day. Lots and lots of money.
But the heavens seemed to conspire against Caiaphas.
Of all the luck (bad luck indeed), a most-rare, hauntingly-eerie atmospheric anomaly threatened to diminish severely Caiaphas’ shady haul of ill-gotten shekels.
At 12 PM, high noon, a mere three hours before the afternoon sacrifice, the sky turned ominously dark. If it stayed that way, there would be no 3 PM Passover Lamb sacrificed that day.
Well, according to Matthew 27 — Read ’em and weep, Caiaphas.
“At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until 3 o’clock.”
A darkness that drove everyone away from the cross as they scrambled for shelter from the encroaching gloom of that midday backness.
Coincidence? No way!
Now there would be no Passover Lamb sacrificed at 3 PM on this day.
Or would there?
Please remember that depending upon your web browser and connection speed, it may take up to 60 seconds for this podcast to begin to play.
Gifts of Gratitude: If interested in expressing your gratitude in this biblical, tangible way--by giving a gift directly to me, OR giving a gift to a friend or loved-one-in-need in my name--please click on the Gifts of Gratitude tab at the top of this page. Thank you!!!
Dewey Bertolini 