Get Thee Behind Me, Satan I must confess, I get really indignant sometimes. I can't help it. Our Lord deserves more from us than half-baked religion (“Ephraim has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned” – Hosea 7:8). Our Lord deserves the faith of conquerors, faith that will loose the power of the Cross… So, if I sound a bit pushy at times, or if I sound like an old hell-fire-and-brimstone preacher, please understand that my indignation is directed at the spirit of the money-changers, the false teachers, the hirelings and the wolves in sheep’s clothing. And, it is a stern resistance to the forces that deceive these hirelings into deceiving you and me. Remember, after the moneychangers were thrown out of the Temple, they simply hid themselves in the shadows and waited until Jesus had gone, before they came out again. That’s what false teachers and wolves do, and the so-called spiritual leaders of the day, the Pharisees and the Temple Priests, allowed it. They could look the other way while the Temple became a house of merchandise, but they despised, rejected and threatened the preacher who had the words of eternal life. The Temple was a house of prayer, the center of the city, the focus of all who passed through. It had therefore become the hubbub of trading and selling for as many wheeler-dealers as could find room to set up a table for business. Call them what you will: brokers, peddlers, business men, traders, entrepreneurs, bankers or whatever – they exchanged foreign coins for the local shekels at a rather profitable rate, and they sold, often at a mean price, the birds and small animals for the daily sacrifices. The preacher they had seen and heard in the court yard these past three years had meant nothing to them, except for the time he whipped them with that cord and overturned their tables. Now the people were whispering about a cross being dragged up the hill on the back of that same preacher, but again, He meant nothing to them. So, while Jesus was being nailed to the rough back-breaking cross, and while His lifeless body was taken down a little more than six hours later, the moneychangers and the peddlers were conducting business as usual at the Temple. Rome had kept a curious vigil on the movements of two specific preachers because they drew enormous crowds, while Herod Antipas considered his own problems with them. Six months ago He had ordered the beheading of John the Baptist and now, this preacher that John had claimed was the Messiah, has been crucified. The men of the tables guarded the coin pouches they hid in the folds of their robes. There would be no one to object to their merchandising now, and as long as the people come and the sacrifices are made, it will be a prosperous day at the Temple… I hope these articles are touching your heart, and that you are compelled to look at Jesus and see no other, to savor His Word and to keep His cross the centerfold of every endeavor and every challenge. And that you flee any man – or woman - that preaches any Gospel other than the Gospel of the cross, through which you might be saved. If such a preacher does preach any other Gospel, and refuses to be corrected by the plain Word of God, shake the dust from your feet and run away… Elijah ran from Jezebel, fearing for his life! Elijah had so much faith he was frightening, he could make the Godly tremble just by entering their town. Only yesterday he had slain 400 prophets of Baal that Jezebel had fed at her table. Now she was searching for him and Elijah, an Olympic runner, was running… God looked at Elijah resting and cowering under the broom tree and sent an angel with bread and water to refresh and sustain him. Many days later, while he was hiding in a cave at Mt. Sinai, the Lord asked him, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Elijah was having a pity party – “They have killed all the prophets in Israel and I alone am left and now they want to kill me too.” God said to him: “Elijah, I still have 7,000 souls in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him with their lips” (1 Kings 19:18). God always has His remnant. We may feel quite alone and frightened at times, even abandoned, but God wants us to know, we are never alone. Even Jesus knew He could call ten thousand legions of angels if he needed to and they would come with swords drawn to serve Him. But He would face the cross alone. It was His destiny. It was for this that He was born. The burden of the cross began to peak in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus pondered the weight of the sins of the world, those hidden, slanderous, blasphemous, vulgar, thoroughly dark and sinister sins, and the crushing effect they would have on one mortal body. Try to remember the weight of just one sin that plagued your soul with guilt. Remember the sleepless nights, the sagging shoulders and the loss of appetite? Then try to imagine the burden of multiplied trillions of like sins filling and covering the already marred and bleeding body of one sinless and perfect man… Imagine the dread that actually drew blood from His forehead, hating the repulsive stench of every transgression, every iniquity, knowingly, unknowingly, carelessly, deliberately committed by every man, woman and child that ever lived and ever would live? Without the presence of the Father and the Spirit to strengthen Him, only the promise of a smashing victory could sustain Him, and if one sin fell through the cracks, all redemption would be lost. He had to carry them all. And the penalty must be paid for all… As the Son of God Jesus did not fear death. It could not hold him, and in fact, death was subject to Him. However, as the Son of Man, He dreaded the separation from the Father that His suffering and death would demand. As our substitute, accepting the punishment that was reserved for you and me, He would become the lone scapegoat that would face the rejection and the wrath of a Holy God… Would the world understand what He was going through right at this moment? Would they understand the cross? Would they care enough to remember it to their children, their children’s children and those that needed to hear? Jesus became the Lamb of God in the Garden of Eden. When the Father handed down the curses to the guilty parties, He announced to all the generations to come that this particular day would come, as He planted the Seed that would one day crush the head of the serpent. For four thousand years the Seed was hidden, shrouded in mystery, driving Satan’s blood pressure higher and higher until he was a basket case by the time of the feeding and healing of the five thousand. Satan had spent years, decades, putting sicknesses, diseases, deformities, afflictions and poverty on those people and Jesus healed them all on His lunch break. Then He addressed their poverty and their immediate need by furnishing them a late dinner. Satan is still reeling from the setback and the losses suffered in his own kingdom… Later that night Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee, in a storm, refreshing Himself against the darkness He had confronted and cast out of the crowd that day. Serpentine forces were strangling His people with fear and despair. They needed hope, they needed love, they needed a vision and they needed a Savior. When the time came, God did indeed “provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8), when Jesus became the Passover Lamb. There, hanging on that old rugged cross, bleeding from the gaping wounds of scorn and mockery, He heard a repentant thief on the cross to His right call Him, “Lord…” Jesus, the Savior since His birth, assured this new convert that he would be received into Paradise that very day. Then, after six hours of unspeakable torture, the promise of redemption was fulfilled. The Covenant of the cross, the betrothal between the Prince of heaven and the Church, was established and validated. The night before, He had been the servant of men, washing the Disciples’ feet. Before sunrise He had become the Lamb of God, led to the slaughter. He was still the Lamb, the sacrifice sent for Isaac, founder, keeper and husband of the Church, the triumphant Christ. Satan was defeated, his authority crushed at last. Jesus cried out His victory announcement, “It is finished,” and, with His blood depleted and nothing more to be said, He gave up the ghost. THE THREE DAYS: He died at 3 p.m. on Friday. From 3 p.m. to sundown was the first day. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday was the second day. From sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday was the third day. Jesus arose at some time between sundown Saturday and sunrise on Sunday, the third day. In like manner, the Rapture will be on the third day, the third millennium after His death which began with the year 2000. We do not know at what hour He arose, only that Mary saw Him in the pre-dawn hour in the garden, alive, healed, wearing clean robes and preparing to return to the Father. At this time we are in the wee hours of morning, just after midnight… People say, "But Jesus is not on that cross anymore. He has risen, and we mustn’t put Him on the cross again.” "Get thee behind me, Satan; you are an offense unto me; for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matthew 16:23). "Have we no shame, have we no understanding, attempting to deny and disregard that which is holy and gifted of God???” There was never a grave as lonely as the loneliness of the cross. There was never a cry more chilling than the cry heard from the cross. Our Savior was so laden with our sins God could not look upon Him. Never before, in eternity past or through the trials of the day, had Jesus been separated from the Father His friends took Him down and placed Him in a garden tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, quickly, for the sun was going down, ushering in a double Sabbath – Gods 7th day Sabbath and the Passover Sabbath. The ultimate sacrifice has been made and the blood has been applied. The death angel will have to pass over those that are covered by the blood of the Lamb. He can no longer claim them. They have been purchased with a great price, far greater than that of birds or goats or bulls. How can we separate Messiah from His greatest triumph, His most glorious hour? He despised the shame but He gloried in the victory. Mention the cross or the blood to Satan and he screams with pain. That is just a little bump of the power of the cross…the same bloody cross that washes us white as snow and saves to the uttermost. “That He might present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). “For by Grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Without the centrality of the cross there can be no true conviction and repentance and without conviction and repentance there can be no true redemption. The sinner that does not come face to face with the suffering servant reaps a counterfeit conversion. In essence, such a sinner is seeking redemption without brokenness, deliverance without faith, and forgiveness without repentance. He wants the package deal at a wholesale rate but there is no package deal and there is no wholesale rate. Holiness has a price, it is called obedience unto death. Righteousness has a price. There is only one such righteousness, the righteousness of God that is applied freely THROUGH Christ Jesus, the same Jesus that endured the scorn of the cross. Salvation has a price. It is called faith – the faith to believe God. Our role model is Jesus… In Heaven, we will watch with thanksgiving and adoration as Jesus takes the sealed scroll from the hand of the one who sits on the throne, and we will sing praises to the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 5). We will cast our crowns at His feet, and we will witness the breaking of each of the seven seals that spans the first three and a half years of the 70th week of Daniel. “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘You art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth’ ” (Revelation 5:9-10). He was God Incarnate, the only begotten Son of God, but he was also Son of Man. He had to be, because the created Adam lost it all, only a son of Adam could redeem it all, and He had to be as sinless as Adam was in the beginning when he wore only the Shekinah Glory as his only garment. The world still does not understand the power and the majesty of this love gift. Because Jesus and the Father are one, the Father suffered with the Son when He could not look upon Him or give comfort to Him. In fact, He had to reject and condemn Him. This was perhaps the most excruciating pain the Father suffered – having to abandon His beloved and only begotten Son. I can only imagine the sorrow God suffered as He waited for the day and the hour when He would say to the Holy Spirit, “Enough – go into the pit and revive Him. Bring Him out of there and raise Him up again...” If our past, our present and our future are covered with His blood, they will also be covered with the tears of our brokenness. And if we say we truly know Him, we will have known His suffering also… Today you will not hear a lot about the cross and you will not hear a lot about the blood. You may not hear anything. It is offensive to a great many people. Some even believe it is in poor taste to discuss it, since the graphics can hardly be softened to socially acceptable language. It is hard to believe that Jesus endured what these people will not dare to speak of… It is the testimony of the cross that sets a man’s heart ablaze with faith unto salvation. It is our helping to bear the weight of the cross, wet with His blood and the tears of the saints, that defeats the enemies of the cross. If you don’t want to talk about the cross – you are not saved… If you don’t want to talk about Jesus – you are not saved… And if you are not saved – you are in the wrong church… The moneychangers and the merchandisers look the other way as always, as the Bridegroom has declared: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be hated and despised” (Song of Solomon 8:7). Like the thief on His left the despisers reject Him. Like the thief on His right, the believers embrace Him. His arms were outstretched to both, His feet toward the cursed earth, redeeming and reclaiming the deed to earth, His pierced and bloody head laying upon the heart of His breast, the crown of His head bowed toward the world before Him… There can never be any doubt for those who seek the truth. And that truth is - Jesus Christ is Lord…
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