{"id":31564,"date":"2024-06-17T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-18_12-27-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T03:33:00","slug":"john-18_28-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-18_28-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Major in the Minor and Minor in the Major"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 18:28-40 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 18:28-40.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 18:28 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 28:\u00a0 The chief priests and Pharisees who were handing Jesus over to the Roman governor believed that by entering the home of a Gentile (in this case, the palace of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate), they would make themselves ceremonially unclean according to their religious laws.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 opponents were so focused on keeping their religious rules on ceremonial cleanness, yet at the same time they were handing over an innocent man \u2013 the Son of God no less \u2013 to be killed.\u00a0 That\u2019s the danger of Christ-less religion: when you\u2019re so focused on keeping little rules that you miss God and even kill God in the process.\u00a0 This is also called \u201cmajoring in the minor and minoring in the major\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s where you spend the majority of your time, focus and energy on things that don\u2019t matter, while spending little time, focus and energy on the things that really do matter.<\/p>\n

John 18:29-32 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 29-32:\u00a0 Clearly no one \u2013 not the Jews who opposed Jesus or the Roman governor Pontius Pilate \u2013 wanted to have any responsibility for the killing of Jesus.\u00a0 No one wanted to get their own hands dirty, as evidenced by the Jews not wanting to become ceremonially unclean in verse 28 and Pontius Pilate later washing his own hands in front of the Jews and saying \u201cI am innocent of this man\u2019s blood\u2026It is your responsibility\u201d (Matthew 27:24).\u00a0 The only one who was willing to take any responsibility, ironically, was Jesus\u2019 himself, the only one who wasn\u2019t responsible for any sin.<\/p>\n

John 18:33-35 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 33-35:\u00a0 There are so many ironies to me in this sequence where Jesus is betrayed, arrested, mocked, questioned, and eventually sentenced and punished. One irony is that here we have Jesus, bound like a slave, being questioned by Pilate, who lives like a king, when actually the real strong king is Jesus and the real weak slave is Pilate.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing all the strangely ironic and humbling situations Jesus would allow himself to get into, all to save sinners like you and me and bring them to heaven.<\/p>\n

John 18:36 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 36:\u00a0 Jesus is right.\u00a0 If Jesus\u2019 goal in life was to build a kingdom on earth for himself, he would have never agreed to be bound, arrested, and later flogged and executed like a criminal.\u00a0 The fact that he was willing to go through such suffering and humiliation is because Jesus was a king whose kingdom \u201cis from another place\u201d.\u00a0 Jesus was focused on an eternal kingdom based in heaven rather than a temporary kingdom based on earth.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Your perspective on pain and what you will tolerate will in many ways be determined by what kind of kingdom you are focused on building.<\/p>\n

John 18:37-38a (NIV)<\/strong>
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“What is truth?” Pilate asked\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 37-38a:\u00a0 Jesus claimed that the reason he came was \u201cto testify to the truth\u201d and that \u201ceveryone on the side of truth listens to me\u201d (v37).\u00a0 Pilate, on the other hand, questions whether absolute truth even exists with his question \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d (v38).\u00a0 At the same time, Jesus was set on pleasing the Father at whatever cost, whereas Pilate was set on pleasing the people at whatever cost.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Your take on truth will have a lot to do with who you are living for and who you are trying to please.\u00a0 When a person questions the absoluteness of truth, the real question is whether they oppose the idea of absolute truth based on logic or more for personal, selfish reasons \u2013 i.e. because deep down they just don\u2019t want to be accountable to God and are focused on pleasing someone other than God.<\/p>\n

John 18:38b-40 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0\u2026With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 38b-40:\u00a0 Here we read about a criminal called Barabbas who took part in an uprising against the Roman government.\u00a0 According to Roman law, Barabbas should have been executed as a criminal, but he was set free because Jesus took his place.<\/p>\n

I am like Barabbas. I broke God’s laws and was part of an uprising that was all about rebelling against God. I deserved to die for my sins. Yet Jesus took my place and died so I could be set free.\u00a0 Now He invites me and you to be part of His own uprising, a movement of people who will follow Jesus and change the world in His name.<\/p>\n

Jesus, of all the ironies that fill these scenes of you being arrested, questioned and tried, the greatest irony is why You, the innocent Son of God, would allow Yourself to go through such trouble, shame and suffering for a sinner like me.\u00a0 I worship You as the king whose kingdom is from another place, whose kingdom is the only one that has lasted and will last forever.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 18:28-40.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJohn 18:28 (NIV)
\n28\u00a0\u00a0Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verse 28:\u00a0 The chief priests and Pharisees who were handing Jesus over to the Roman governor believed that by entering the home of a Gentile (in this case, the palace of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate), they would make themselves ceremonially unclean according to their religious laws.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 opponents were so focused on keeping their religious rules on ceremonial cleanness, yet at the same time they were handing over an innocent man \u2013 the Son of God no less \u2013 to be killed.\u00a0 That\u2019s the danger of Christ-less religion: when you\u2019re so focused on keeping little rules that you miss God and even kill God in the process.\u00a0 This is also called \u201cmajoring in the minor and minoring in the major\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31567,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31564\/revisions\/31567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}