Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Cor. 15:58

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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

day 288: "Did others tell you about me?"

John 18:33-35

Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. "Are you the king of the Jews?" he asked him.

Jesus replied, "Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?"

"Am I a Jew?" Pilate retorted. "Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?"

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Leading up to Easter, we will be doing posts having to deal with leading up to Jesus' death and the aftermath.

Today, we are talking about when the Jewish Sanhedrin (the leaders at the time) took Jesus to the Roman governor, Pilate, for trial. Jesus had already gone through two illegal trials that night. It was very early in the morning, and they wanted to get Jesus convicted and crucified before the sun went down so they could celebrate Passover (irony abounds in this story...)

The leaders and priests wouldn't go into Pilate's (a Gentile) house because they would be unclean and couldn't celebrate Passover-- so they stood outside while they asked Pilate to kill Jesus--

Pilate wasn't a Jew nor did he care anything about their religion. The Jews were under Roman rule and couldn't put someone to death without Roman approval.

Pilate's main concern was whether or not Jesus was a threat to Rome. If he wasn't, he saw no need in killing him.

Of course, we know how this story had to end. It couldn't end any other way-- but Pilate decided to have a talk, one on one, with Jesus. It was only those two inside the hall of the 'hall of judgement', and Pilate had a few questions.

Today's post is about sharing Jesus' story. Pilate asked Jesus if He was the king of the Jews. Jesus didn't answer right away. Instead he asked if he figured that out himself or did someone tell him.


**How do people in the world know about Jesus? I dare say that 95-99% of the people in the U.S. *know* about Jesus in one way or another-- even if they don't believe.

How do they know? From TV, from debates on religion, from their little ole grandma.

But how many of them learned about Jesus from you....

Ouch...

Pilate had 'heard' about Jesus, but he didn't understand.

People today have 'heard' about Jesus, but they don't understand either.

We need to have a plan in place so we can talk to people about Jesus (I'm not good at it either). It doesn't have to be a big long hit them over the head with religion-- but as long as you get someone to think about Jesus or God, it might be more than they would have done that day if you hadn't.


God Bless You,

Kelly

Linked with: On Your Heart Tuesday


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