April 17, 2024

Arrest and Betrayal - Morning Devotion on Apr. 16, 2024

Arrest and Betrayal

Returning the third time, he said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard." Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Rabbi!" and kissed him. The men seized Jesus and arrested him. Then everyone deserted him and fled.

Matt. 14:41-50

Had Peter or any of the twelve disciples been a friend of Golgotha, Jesus would not have died. God would not have had any grudges. If the twelve disciples had united and resolved to die with Jesus, a miracle would have occurred and Jesus would not have died. Jesus agonized for 33 years looking at the chosen people, and he shed tears for the three years of his public life for the sake of the people of the earth. Yet where did the people go who had put their hopes in Jesus? Where did the religious leaders go who had been observing him? Where did his disciples go, who had shared joy and sorrow as they followed Jesus during his three public years? Whenever they saw advantages to it, and in joyful times, they said that they were friends and disciples of Jesus and tried more than anyone to stand with him. At the end, their path had nothing to do with Jesus.

Who Will Become the Friend of Golgotha?
October 19, 1958

If Jesus' three chief disciples had banded together and offered to die in his place, he would not have gone to the cross. Even if Jesus had not been released, if his three chief disciples had died on the cross with him, then all four could have been resurrected, and at that very moment Jesus could have ascended into heaven. Through those four being resurrected on earth, all the spirit world could have descended from that moment on, working through the hearts of the people and making it easy to restore the whole world.

Because that foundation was not laid at the time of Jesus, there has been a great gap between this world and the spirit world. Up to the present only those who excelled the three disciples of Jesus and were ready to be martyred for the sake of God's will could be contacted by the heavenly realms of the spirit world. Because of the failure of Jesus' disciples, those people had to be martyred, shedding blood to restore what the disciples failed to accomplish.

Self Reflection
December 1, 1976

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