DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS # 33)

The Foreshadowing of the Cross (See Matthew 16:13-28, Mark 8:27:-38, Luke 9:18-27)

Even before Jesus took humanity upon Him, He saw the whole length of the path He must travel in order to save that which was lost.

He knew the anguish that would come upon Him. He knew it all, and yet He said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, oh My God. Yes, Your law is within My heart.” (Psalm 40:7, 8)

Although the baptism of blood must first be received. Although the sins of the world were to weigh upon His innocent soul. Although the shadow of unspeakable woe was upon Him. Yet for the joy that was set before Him, He chose to endure the cross, and despised the shame.

The vacillating course of those who praised yesterday, and condemned today, did not destroy the faith of the true follower of the Savior. Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He didn’t wait for kingly honors to crown his Lord, but accepted Him in His humiliation.

The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer’s faith. It is that which Christ Himself has declared to be eternal life.

Never can humanity, of itself, attain to a knowledge of the divine.

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” The fact that Peter discerned the glory of Christ was evidence that he had been “taught of God.” (Psalm 25:14, and John 6:45)

“The keys of the kingdom of heaven” are the words of Christ. The words of Holy Scripture are His. These words have the power to open and shut heaven. They declare the conditions upon which men are received or rejected.

All are exposed to temptation, and are liable to error. Upon no finite being can we depend for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of Christ in our lives, and in the church.

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his strength.” The Lord “is the Rock, His work is perfect.” “Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him. (Jerimiah 17:5, Deuteronomy 32:4, and Psalm 2:12)

Jesus began to show His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. This caused Peter to declare, “Be it far from you, Lord: This shall not be done to you.”

Peter’s words were not such as would be a help and solace to Jesus in the great trial before Him. They were not in harmony with God’s purpose of grace toward a lost world, or with the lesson of self-sacrifice that Jesus had come to teach by His own example.

The Savior was moved to utter one of the sternest rebukes that ever fell from His lips. “Get you behind Me, Satan: you are an offence to Me: for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

The words of Christ were spoken, not necessarily to Peter, but to the one who was trying to separate him from his Redeemer.

It was to Peter a bitter lesson, and one which he learned but slowly, that the path of Christ on earth lay through agony and humiliation. Jesus now explained to His disciples that His own life of self-abnegation was an example of what theirs should be.

To the disciples His words, though dimly comprehended, pointed to their submission to the most bitter humiliation, submission even unto death for the sake of Christ.

Jesus did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and insult, and a death of shame. He who was rich in heaven’s priceless treasure, became poor, that through His poverty we might be rich. We are to follow in the path He trod.

The Christian is ever to realize that he has consecrated himself to God, and that in character he is to reveal Christ to the world. The self-sacrifice, the sympathy, and the love.

“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose His life, for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Selfishness is death. No organ of the body could live should it confine its service to itself.

He Was Transfigured (See Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36)

Jesus has often spent entire nights in the mountains praying. He who had formed mountain and valley is at home with nature, and enjoys its quietude. The disciples follow where Christ leads the way; yet they wonder why their Master should lead them up the toilsome ascent when they are weary, and when He too is in need of rest.

The Man of Sorrows pours out His supplications with tears. He prays for strength to endure the test in behalf of humanity. He must Himself gain a fresh hold on Omnipotence, for only thus can He contemplate the future. He also pours out His heart longings for His disciples, that in the hour of the power of darkness their faith may not fail.

Divinity flashes through humanity, and meets the glory coming from above. Arising from His prostrate position, Christ stands in godlike majesty. The souls agony is gone. His countenance now shines “as the sun,” and His garments are “white as the light.”

Moses upon the mount of transfiguration was a witness to Christ’s victory over sin and death. He represented those who shall come forth from the grave at the resurrection of the just. Elijah, who had been translated to heaven without seeing death, represented those who will be living upon the earth at Christ’s second coming, and who will be “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;” when “this mortal must put on immortality,” and “this corruptible must put on incorruption.” (I Corinthians 15:51-53)

Heaven had sent its messengers to Jesus; not angels, but men who had endured suffering and sorrow, and who could sympathize with the Savior in the trial of His earthly life.

Jesus was clothed with the light of heaven, as He will appear when He shall come “the second time without sin unto salvation.”

The disciples were “eyewitnesses of His majesty (2 Peter 1:16), and they realized that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, to whom patriarchs and prophets had witnessed, and that He was recognized as such by the heavenly universe.

“A bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”

As they beheld the cloud of glory, brighter than that which went before the tribes of Israel in the wilderness; as they heard the voice of God speak in awful majesty that caused the mountain to tremble, the disciples fell smitten to the earth.

They remained prostrate, their faces hidden, till Jesus came near, and touched them, dispelling their fears with His well known voice, “Arise, be not afraid.”

Venturing to lift up their eyes, they saw that the heavenly glory had passed away, the forms of Moses and Elijah had disappeared. They were on the mount, alone with Jesus.