So they arrested Jesus, took him off, and brought him into the high priest's house. Peter followed at a distance. They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat in among them.
A servant girl saw him sitting by the fire. She stared hard at him. 'This fellow was with him!' she said.
Peter denied it. 'I don't know him, woman,' he said.
After a little while another man saw him and said,'You're one of them!'
'No, my friend, I'm not,' replied Peter.
After the space of about an hour, another man insisted,'It's true! This man was with him; he's a Galilean!'
'My good fellow,' said Peter, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' And at once, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Master turned and looked at Peter, and Peter called to mind the words the Master had spoken to him: 'Before the cock crows, this very day, you will deny me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly.
The men who were holding Jesus began to make fun of him and knock him about. They blindfolded him.
'Prophesy!' they told him. 'Who is it that is hitting you?'
And they said many other scandalous things to him.
When the day broke, the official assembly of the people, the chief priests and the scribes came together, and they took him off to their council.
'If you are the Messiah,' they said, 'tell us!'
'If I tell you,' he said to them,'you won't believe me. And if I ask you a question you won't answer me. But from now on the son of man will be seated at the right hand of God's power.'
'So you are the son of God, are you?' they said.
'You say that I am,' he said to them.
'Why do we need any more witnesses?' they said. 'We've heard it ourselves, from his own mouth!'
The disciples fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying, they took up swords for violence, the Temple guard came out with swords and clubs against a man who never did any violence towards anyone except to tell the truth, this mob is led by Judas (one of Jesus' own disciples) Jesus is carried off to the chief priests house so they can question him in order to twist something he says into a charge against him the next day, the guards are pushing him around and mocking him and now Jesus' prophesy is coming true in Peter...denying even knowing the very man he received as the LORD's Messiah.
As Luke leads us in the Spirit toward the cross we ought to start to become keenly aware that sin is not just a theological idea. It is not a theory that put Jesus on the cross...it is real sin rooted deeply in us that produces real death. There's another thing Luke wants us to start to come to terms with...if you stand back and look at the sweep of things...everyone is guilty, all of them, all of us...all except the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, JESUS, in whose faithfulness we trust.
Ever pray dangerous prayers? Ever ask God to judge you as you judge others? To give you only what you need, no more, no less? To show you your sin and deal with it, mercifully, but effectively? I prayed some pretty dangerous prayers this last week. The Lord is faithful. I saw the Lord do some amazing things in the lives of some people who are very dear to me. All reason to give glory to God our Father and Jesus, His Messiah.
In this scripture sin is just swarming at Jesus from every angle. Ever felt like that? Ever been involved in something like that? Let a friend down at a key moment? Bullied someone? Judged someone wrongly in your heart? Mocked someone only to find out you were in the wrong? I have.
As we move into the most demonic time of the year, our church held 7 days of praise as a means to wage war against the darkness. We are called to do that sort of thing as citizens of Heaven, ambassadors of the Kingdom. I despise halloween for several reasons... a few years back one of the closest friends I've ever had disappeared for two weeks leading up to halloween and we found her passed on...this year God brought her daughter to me via facebook for some good conversation and to share some of her struggles with me (I was blessed and encouraged her to give my wife a call for some girl talk), also as a young man a group of my friends got jumped by some people and beat up pretty bad and of course the fact remains that halloween is an anti-holy day and the majority of what goes on and its basis is not appreciated by our King, JESUS. That's what I think of when I think of halloween.
I came under some pressure and took some heat this week...and I asked for it. The Lord has used it for good. The time at CCBB 7 Days of Praise was so refreshing in the midst of it and I praise God for all the awesome people God works though. So much junk in my heart got revealed to me this week and let me just say our sin is horrifying, God does not play around and He doesn't think its funny. Haven't been giving my family the attention they deserve, marriage issues, had some roots of bitterness in me to deal with (onions actually - onions have layers), had some unforgiveness issues so I made some calls to reconcile, felt some responsibility for my brother since I didn't abstain from alcohol around him which was stupid and insensitive (here's my 'defense'....he worked in a bar :-P)...anyway, I was up just praying, meditating, wrestling through the night a couple times this week...pretty intense. And of course I go on defense mode...shifting blame, trying to look good, be right, be in control, protect my agenda (which of course I think is always in line with God's agenda...lol), all those giants we face in the land as we battle the sin that dwells in us and do business with our loving Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It is an awesome thing to enter into judgment before our God, what else can you do but stand through it or fall on your face and cry out for grace? It is truth that have come to Mount Zion the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
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