Shortly
before Jesus was crucified, He was
arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin,
Israel’s Supreme Court.
The Bible says,“The
chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin
were looking for false evidence
against Jesus so that they could put
Him to death. But they did not find
any, though many false witnesses came
forward.” (Matthew 26:59,60)
Even though the false witnesses
accused Jesus of several crimes, He
did not defend Himself.
Wishing
to move quickly to a guilty verdict,“The
high priest[Caiaphas]stood
up and said to Jesus, ‘Are you
not going to answer? What is this
testimony that these men are bringing
against you?’ But Jesus remained
silent. The high priest said to him,
‘I charge you under oath by the
living God: Tell us if you are the
Christ[the Messiah],
the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it
is as you say,’ Jesus replied.
‘But I say to all of you:
In the future you will see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of the
Mighty One and coming on the clouds
of Heaven.’ Then[with
a show of indignation and outrage]the
high priest tore his clothes[something
which God forbade the high priest to
do,Leviticus 21:10]and
said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy!
Why do we need any more witnesses[to
condemn Him]? Look, now you
have heard the blasphemy[with
your own ears].’ ” (Matthew 26:62-65,
insertions mine)
Caiaphas
had heard that Jesus claimed to be
the Son of God on many
occasions. Therefore, he
reasoned that if he could get Jesus
to declare Himself the Son of God,
the Sanhedrin would hear this
“blasphemy” and reach a
unanimous verdict. When Jesus
confirmed that He was the Christ, the
Son of God, He insulted the most
sacred doctrine within Judaism, a
doctrine called
“monotheism.”
The
Jewish version of monotheism teaches
there is one God. His name is
Jehovah and all other gods are false
and imaginary. The Jews
considered any challenge to this
doctrine to be blasphemy, punishable
by death. Jesus understood the
trap before responding to
Caiaphas. If He denied His
identity, He would be a liar.
If He spoke the truth, He would be
killed for blasphemy.
Monotheism
and Judaism
The
basis for Jewish monotheism is
described in the Old Testament.
Consider the following three
passages. One day, Moses saw a
burning bush and as he approached,“
‘Do not come any closer,’
God said. ‘Take off your
sandals, for the place where you are
standing is holy ground.’ Then
He said, ‘I amtheGod
of your father[Amram],
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob.’[Notice
the singular, “I amthe God.”]
At this, Moses hid his face, because
he was afraid to look at God.’
” (Exodus 3:5,6, italics
and insertions mine)
Later,
from Mount Sinai, God spoke the first
commandment:“I am
the Lord[Jehovah]your
God, who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery. You
shall have no other gods beforeme[Notice
that “me” is singular.].”
(Exodus 20:2,3)
Shortly before Moses died, he made
the declaration:“Hear,
O Israel: The Lord[Jehovah]our
God, the Lord isone[Notice
that “one” is singular.].”(Deuteronomy 6:4)
Finally, notice what God said about
Himself: “This
is what the Lord[Jehovah]says
— Israel’s King and
Redeemer, the Lord[Jehovah]Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart frommethere
is no God[Notice that
“me” is singular.].”
(Isaiah 44:6)
These
verses and many others in the Old
Testament explain why Jewish
monotheism teaches there is one God
and His name is Jehovah (Eternal
God). We need to understand
Jewish monotheism because Jesus came
to Earth to confront this doctrine
and the Sanhedrin sentenced Him to
death for it.
“Then
the high priest tore his clothes and
said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy!
Why do we need any more witnesses?
Look, now you have heard the
blasphemy.’ What do you
think?” ‘He is worthy of
death,’ they answered.” (Matthew 26:65,66)
Because monotheism is the foundation
of Judaism, the Jews in Christ’s
day believed it was impossible for
Jehovah to have a Son.
Currently, orthodox Jews still
anticipate the Messiah will come, but
they insist He has to be an ordinary
mortal because monotheism mandates
that it isimpossible for
more than one God to exist.
Judaism’s
View of Jesus
The
high priest became livid when Jesus
said that He was the Son of
God. The problem was this: If
Jehovah had a son, there had to be
two Gods! If there were two
Gods, monotheism was a false doctrine
and Judaism was a false
religion. This story in John 5
will help to illustrate the
problem. One Sabbath day, Jesus
came upon a crippled man lying beside
a pool of water in Jerusalem and
Jesus healed him. Later, when
the man learned that Jesus had healed
him, he told the priests.“So,
because Jesus was doing these things
on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted
Him[as a law breaker].
Jesus said to them, ‘My Father
is always at his work to this very[Sabbath]day,
and I, too, am working[within
the boundaries of the Sabbath
commandment – which the Jews had
badly distorted].’ For
this reason the Jews tried all the
harder to kill Him; not only was He
breaking the Sabbath[they
thought], but He was even
calling God His own Father,making
Himself equal with God.” (John 5:16-18,
insertions and italics mine)
The
Jews understood a son was the equal
of His father because this is the
order of life. A watermelon
produces a watermelon because the
seed within the parent is identical
to the seed within the
offspring. A cow produces a cow
because the seed within the parent is
identical to the seed within the
offspring, and the seed within the
father is identical to the seed
within his son. “Like
begets like.”
Therefore, when Jesus said that God
was His Father, the Jews became
furious because His use of language
declared that He was equal with
Jehovah. They screamed
blasphemy! Stone Him!
Jesus
Spoke the Words of the Father
When
Jesus said that God was His Father,
it was actually the Father that spoke
through Jesus’ lips. Jesus
did not speak on His own. The
Father wanted the Jews to know that
Jesus was His equal, so the Father
spoke words through the lips of Jesus
that clearly conveyed this idea to
them. The Jews were outraged and
insulted by the Father’s words,
but Jesus was not the one
speaking! Jesus said:“For
I did not speak of my own accord, but
the Father who sent me commanded mewhat
to say and how to say it.” (John 12:49,
italics mine) On another
occasion, Jesus said:“These
words you hearare
not my own;
they belong to the Father who sent
me.” (John 14:24,
italics mine) Jesus said to His
disciples,“Don’t
you believe that I am in the Father,
and that the Father is in me? The
words I say to youare
not just my own.
Rather, it is the Father, living in
me, who is doing His work.” (John 14:10,
italics mine) While praying for
His disciples, Jesus said to the
Father,“For I gave
themthe
words you gave meand
they accepted them. They knew with
certainty that I came from you, and
they believed that you sent me.” (John 17:8,
italics mine)
This
is a profound point to consider: The
Father confronted the Jews through
Jesus and He received their
abuse. The Jews were insulted
and highly offended because their
religious beliefs did not align with
the truth about God. This is
how it will be during the Great
Tribulation. Jesus will speak
through the lips of the
144,000! His words will be
insulting and inflammatory, and
Satan’s agents will punish and
torture God’s servants as if the
144,000 spoke on their own! We
should not be surprised because the
sinful nature is hostile toward
God. (Romans 8:7)
For a moment, put on the sandals of
the Sanhedrin. How could a poor,
homeless and homely looking man from
Nazareth, about 33 years of age, be
so insulting and brazen? How
could He claim to be the Son of
God? How could He be an equal
of Jehovah?
The
Father confirmed who Jesus was on
several occasions: At His
baptism, the Father spoke from
Heaven. He said,“This
is my Son.” (Matthew 3:17)
On the Mount of Transfiguration, the
Father spoke from Heaven. He
said,“This is my
Son.” (Matthew 17:5,2 Peter 1:16,17)
Just before His crucifixion, Jesus
was in the temple and He called upon
His Father to speak from Heaven so
that everyone present could know that
He was the Son of God – and the
Father did! (John 12:28-30)
When Jesus died, the Father sent an
angel to tear the temple curtain from
top to bottom. This wool
curtain, believed to be about 4
inches thick, separated the Holy
place from the Most Holy place.
Tearing it open indicated temple
services were finished. The
Jews killed “The Lamb of
God” and His death terminated
the Levitical system. (Mark 15:38,
Colossians 2)
The
apostle John describes another time
the Father conveyed the fact to the
Jews that Jesus was equal to
Himself. One day, after healing
the man beside the pool,“The
Jews gathered around Him[Jesus],
saying, ‘How long will you keep
us in suspense? If you are the Christ[the
Messiah], tell us
plainly.’ Jesus answered,
‘I did tell you[that
I am the Christ], but you do
not believe. The miracles I do in my
Father’s name speak for me, but
you do not believe because you are
not my sheep. My sheep listen to my
voice; I know them, and they follow
me. I and the Father are
one.’ Again the Jews picked up
stones to stone him, but Jesus said
to them, ‘I have shown you many
great miracles from the Father.
For which of these do you stone
me?’ ‘We are not stoning
you for any of these,’ replied
the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy,
because you, a mere man,claim
to be God’ ” (John 10:24-33)
When
the Father said through Jesus,
“I and the Father are one,”
He did not want the Jews to
understand that He and Jesus were the
same person. Instead, the
Father wanted the Jews to understand
that He and Jesus were like identical
twins. The Father wanted the
Jews to learn this because they
worshiped and embraced a
“Jehovah” which was nothing
like the “Father.” “Jesus
said to them, ‘If God were your
Father, you would love me, for I[am
exactly like the Father and I]came
from God and now am here. I have not
come on my own[I am
not saying what I want to say or
doing what I want to do]; but
He sent me. . .’ ‘He who
belongs to[the
genuine]God hears what
God[the Father]says.
The reason you do not hear is that
you do not belong to God [you
belong to your god, the devil].’
”(John 8:42,44,47,
insertions mine)
I
hope you now understand how the
Father’s testimony which Jesus
spoke put the Jews and Judaism in a
very difficult position. The
Jews could either admit that
monotheism was a false doctrine or
kill a lowly looking homeless man for
blasphemy. If the Jews admitted
that Israel’s most sacred
doctrine was false, their religion
which dated back to Abraham, would be
shaken. Truth is a doubled
edged sword, isn’t it? (Hebrews 4:12)
Have you had a cherished view about
God crumble? Have you
experienced a complete paradigm
shift? Have you lost friends,
family, church and job because of new
light? If you have, you
understand the bittersweet joy of
truth and the pain of rejection.
Jesus
and the Father are One
Jesus
spoke the Father’s testimony
which Jesus gave to the Jews. The
Father made it perfectly clear that
He and Jesus were equals, and the
Jews correctly understood the
Father’s testimony. This
is proven by their responses to Jesus
on several occasions. The Jews
eventually killed Jesus for
blasphemy. If you had been born
and raised a Jew and could trace your
religious culture and heritage all
the way back to Abraham, and you
heard the Father say through the lips
of Jesus that Jesus was a God, how
would you have reacted? What
would you have thought if Jesus said
to you:“He who
belongs to God hears what God says.
The reason you do not hear is that
you do not belong to God?” (John 8:47)
Jesus said He did not come to Earth
on His own. Hewas
sent to Earth to confront
many errors which the Jews embraced
as truth. Jesus allowed the
Father to speak through his lips and
the result was very painful.
Looking ahead, the 144,000 will
endure the same hardship for 1,260
days. No one with a sinful
nature could faithfully endure
this. This is why the sealing
is such a wonderful doctrine. Jesus
will remove the sinful natures of the
144,000 before their work begins;
otherwise, the sinful nature would
retaliate and would ruin their
ministry! They would not be a
perfect reflection of Jesus!
Retaliation is rooted within the
sinful nature and it has to be rooted
out! To be continued.
