Jesus’ Perspective on His own Death

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Should Not Perish
3:16
Never, Never
Life, Love, Light
Condemned by Choice
This and That
Seven Expressions of Love from the Cross
Why?
I know, I know!
What?
UGH!
Expedient
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The Gift
The Hands of God
Immortality
COME UP HERE
Not by Works of Righteousness We have Done
Jesus’ Perspective on His own Death
I AM

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Thanks to the American Bible Society “The Gospel of John” for the video scenes.

I want to remind us of the perspective that Jesus, our Savior, had concerning His own death. Because I think it helps us appreciate it a little bit more. His death was 1) Purposeful, 2) Voluntary, 3) Joyful, and 4) Glorious.

Well, first of all, His death was purposeful. He recognized that He was going to die. John 12:27 says, “What shall I say, Father, do not let this hour come upon me. But that is why I came.”

The purpose of his death was also voluntary. It was a voluntary or volitional outpouring of His love, and it showed full and true submission to God, the Father. Romans 5:8, “for God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In the garden, Jesus said three times to the Father, “not My will, but Your will be done.” In John 10:17-18 Jesus said, “The Father loves me because I’m willing to give up My life in order that I may receive it back again. No one takes My life away from Me. I give it up of My own free will. I have the right to give it up and I have the right to take it back.This is what my father has commanded me to do.”

His death was purposeful. His death was voluntary. His death was also joyful. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was fully aware of the pain and the suffering that He would face at the cross, but He had his eyes on the joy, and that joy was purchasing our eternal destiny.

And then finally, Jesus considered death as the path to glory. In John 12:23 He said those words, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to receive great glory.” And this is an amazing verse to me because this is shortly before the passion week. This is shortly before He would go through all of that suffering, the betrayal, the arrest, the scourging, the piercing of his hands and feet, the crown of thorns on his head, and the gathering up the sins of the world that pierced His heart. He didn’t say the time has come for the Son of Man to be tortured and tormented and suffer for the sins of the world. No, He said, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He ignored the suffering and kept his eyes on the glory. And if we can grasp the truth of that verse, it would totally change our perspective of the sufferings in our life.

So this is His perspective of His own death. He was born to die.

Gene Cunningham - August 10, 2022

Rapture before the Antichrist is "Revealed"?

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Note seven reasons the Rapture occurs before His “revelation” to the world (2 Thess. 2:1–8): 1. Because the coming of Jesus Christ and our gathering to Him is cause for comfort from all fear, vv.1–2. 2. The “departure” (better rendering of “falling away”) or Rapture, must precede Antichrist’s coming, v. 3. 3. Antichrist will stand in the rebuilt temple (v. 4), which will not be built until after the Church is gone. 4. Paul refers them back to what he has already taught them about the Rapture, v. 5, see 1 Thess. 4:13–18. 5. The “restrainer” (vv. 6–7) can only be the Holy Spirit indwelling the Church. When the Church is removed, the restraining power departs also. 6. Only “then” (remember, a key word in the Olivet Discourse) will “the lawless one” be revealed, v. 8. This verse accords with Revelation 13, the coming of Antichrist and the false prophet. 7. These points all agree with Paul’s statement in Rom. 11:25 that “blindness in part has happened to Israel until [time limitation] the fullness of the Gentiles has come in [i.e., the Rapture of the Church].” Note: Regarding the word “revealed” (2 Thess. 2:3, 8) two words are used: apokalupto and epiphaneia. Concerning the first, “the word is very significant, not only as marking the ‘superhuman’ character of the one spoken of, but as placing it in mocking counterpart to the revelation of the Lord Jesus Himself” (Milligan). And concerning the second, “the word usually has some idea of striking splendor and was often used by the Greeks of a glorious manifestation of the gods” (Morris). Both of the above quotes are found in The Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, pp. 608, 609, by Rienecker and Rogers.