INSIGHTS & NOTES FROM
"VERS. 1 - 10. Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned."
"Sin began by severing the bond between man & his Maker, & what other bond can henceforth have any permanence?" "JUDAS... begins in the guilt of selfishness, & ends in its utter solitude." "He can no longer keep company with his own thoughts." "The heart of stone may be crushed & remain stone in its every fragment; it can only be melted when the love of God is suffered to shine on it." "How differently would Judas have been treated, had he gone to Christ!" "Infinitely better to meet the ridicule of sinners for not joining them, & to keep a good conscience, than to end by being subjected to their taunts with the bitter knowledge that they are deserved! (J. Ker, D. D.)" "Sin will surely prove evil & bitter, when the bottom of the bag is once turned upward." "What an awful difference there is in the look of a sin before you do it & afterwards!" "When we get the prize of our wrong-doing we find out that it is not as all-satisfying as we expected it would be." "Your conscience... it is reduced to issuing vain edicts & to saying, 'Thou shalt not!' & if you turn round & say 'I will, though,' then conscience has no more that it can do." "The worst man is least troubled by his conscience." "Judas repented not of his crime, but of its consequences." "Satan deludes men." "...whatever amount of repentance a man may possess, in the absence of faith in Christ the soul will perish." "...the atonement alone presents the only remedy that will meet all the deep-felt necessities of a guilty conscience. (A. Weston.)" "In true confession we take our proper place; we come to see sin somewhat as God sees it. (Dr. Bonar.)" "The sense of guilt may take either of 2 very different forms - 'godly sorrow' or the 'sorrow of the world.'" "...the poisoned arrow a man uses may wound himself." "It is conjectured that Judas may have hung himself on the edge of a precipice near the valley of Hinnom, & that the rope breaking by which he was suspended, he fell to the earth, & was dashed to pieces." "...no man who is capable of repentance is wholly & irredeemably bad" "...passion is thoughtless" "...Judas was displeased with the ugliness of his treachery, & had a misshapen sorrow, like a bear's whelp, but without any conversion to God, or hope of mercy, or prayer for pardon, or purpose to amend." "Vers. 11 - 14. And Jesus stood before the governor. - Pontius Pilate" "The Eternal Word keeps silence." "...the Saviour appears to have exercised the most marked grace towards all who were concerned in His final agony." "Pontius Pilate... 1. He was influenced by the fear of man. 2. He had a sordid regard to place & power. 3. He discovers a servile love of human applause. 4. The sequel of his history is affecting & instructive; the thing he dreaded came, he lost the favour of the emperor." "The fear of man bringeth a snare. (G. Clayton.)" "Calm endurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence." "Did not the silent Lamb of God furnish us with a grand example of wisdom?" "By His quiet He conclusively proved Himself to be the true Lamb of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)" "Vers. 15 - 18. Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ." "Ver. 19. His wife sent unto him saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man." "The wife failed; but it was well to have tried. (G. T. Coster.)" "The enormity of his sin is also enhanced by the warning he received through his wife." "What a scene will it be when this Roman stands forth to answer for himself at the tribunal of Christ." "Christ will then be in glory & power. (H. Melvill, B. D.)" "Ver. 20. And destroy Jesus. - The cruel purpose" "The enemies of Jesus shall be destroyed." "In the death of Jesus lay His most sublime victory for men." "Vers. 21 - 23. They said, Barabbas. - The choice - Barabbas or Jesus: - The same choice continues still." "There is, in everything, a better & a worse, a good & an evil to us. If we choose good, we choose God, Who alone is good, & is in all things good; if we choose evil, we do, in fact, choose the evil one." "Either we are striking more into the narrow way, or we are parting from it; we are, by God's grace, unbinding the cords by which we are held, or we are binding them tighter. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)" "Ver. 22. What shall I do then with Jesus? - The question that must be answered" "We must do something with Jesus. He is here. What shall it be? I. You can let Him stand without a word of recognition. ...II. You can thrust Him back from your heart & tell Him to stand aside. But surely you will not. Even Pilate treated Him better than that. III. You can look on Him merely as an optician to help blind eyes, or an aurist to retune deaf ears, a friend, a good friend, a helpful companion, a cheerful passenger on shipboard. Yet what good will all that do you? Surely He is something more. IV. You can take Him into your heart. That is the best thing you can do with Him, & the only safe thing. (T. de Witt Talmage, D. D.)" "THE ANSWER GOD EXPECTS US TO GIVE. Welcome Him to our hearts. Love Him supremely. Obey Him fully. Serve Him faithfully & constantly. (S. Smith.)" "...sinner, what will you do with Christ? Will you send back the insulting message that you do not want Christ to rule over you. (D. L. Moody.)" "Ver. 24. When Pilate saw that he could pervail nothing." "Whoever does wickedness through others is not less wicked than they, but more." "As soon as he said to them, 'Take Him; see ye to it,' he did all that was necessary to make him a partaker in their villany." "Wickedness which a man can prevent, & which he does not prevent, inculpates him. (H. W. Beecher.)" "Ver. 25. His blood be on us." "You then who knowingly continue in sin have identified yourselves with the enemies who killed our Lord. His blood is on you. (P. B. Power, M. A.)" "Vers. 29 - 31. And when they had platted a crown of thorns." "Thorns & rough blows accentuate mockeries & scoffs." "1. See what sin deserved. All laid on Him. (a) Ridicule for its folly. (b) Scorn for its pretensions. (c) Shame for its audacity." "Our rebellion is a crown of thorns on his heart." "The crown of thorns symbolized - I. That Christ was about to bear the CURSE for sinful man. Thorns were part of the original curse upon the soil. II. That Christ was about to endure PAIN for sinful man. The piercing thorns were harbingers of the cruel spear & nails. III. That Christ was about to CONQUER death for dying man. Christ was crowned before He came to the cross; undesignedly indicating His victory. (F. W. Brown.)" "Vers. 32. Him they compelled to bear His cross." "This incident shows us that Christ was as sensitive to bodily pain as we are." "The offence of the cross has not ceased." "...take comfort: the cross was carried by Christ before it was carried by Simon." "Vers. 33 - 37. And they crucified Him, & parted His garments, casting lots." "The winnings that come so easily are not so much the gifts of fortune as they are the baits of misfortune that lead on to beggary." "IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOOK AT CHRIST ON THE CROSS AND SEE NOTHING. For half a day there these soldiers sat, & it was but a dying Jew they saw - 1 of 3. They were unmoved witnesses of God manifest in the flesh, dying on the cross for the whole world, & for them. Their ignorance made them blind. Let us all pray to have our ignorance & blindness removed, our hearts softened by the sight of Christ crucified for us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)" "Ver. 38. Two thieves crucified with Him." "There is more reason to fear that sin indulged will get the better of you, than you of it." "Vers. 39, 40. He saved others; Himself He cannot save." "Christ seems a failure." "CHRIST WE CLAIM WAS & IS A SUCCESS." "As a martyr, example, victim of sin, substitute for sin, He could not save Himself." "The death of Christ a lesson of self-sacrifice." "He was bound there by the cords of love & by the bands of his own infinitely merciful purpose. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)" "Without shedding of blood was no remission. If others were to be saved Christ must die. The everlasting purpose of the Father was another reason why He could not save Himself." "Ver. 45. There was darkness over all the land."
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AuthorCross Preaching Pentecostal Pastor. Husband to Tonia, Father to 3 beautiful girls, Monica, Zoe & Briana, & Grandfather to Wesley & Elliott Archives
September 2023
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