The Sinful Captors - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

“. . . A great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and elders of the people” (Matthew 26:47).

The crowd that captured Jesus at Gethsemane illustrates the world’s sinful, hateful rejection of Jesus Christ.

A crowd can have a positive, uplifting influence, as when a large group of neighbors bands together to help someone in need. But crowds can also have a negative impact, such as when they incite riots or heckle someone who is trying to give a speech.

The multitude that came to the Garden of Gethsemane to capture Jesus is a prime example of a crowd that formed for an evil purpose. That throng was not at all like the spontaneous groups of admirers that often sought the Lord. Instead, it was a carefully selected group whose only purpose was to arrest Jesus and ensure that He was executed.

Judas most likely rushed away from the upper room and informed the Jewish leaders that now was the time they had long waited for—an opportunity to seize Jesus, convict Him of rebellion against Rome, and force the Romans to put Him to death. By now the conspiracy against Jesus had grown very large and involved the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the entire Sanhedrin. In their desire to guarantee Jesus’ capture, the leaders gathered perhaps a thousand men that night.

This evil group was a prophetic portrait of the world’s opposition to Christ through the ages. The crowd illustrated sinful disobedience by falsely accusing Him of crimes, by mindlessly and selfishly participating in His arrest (even without an informed opinion about Him), and by cowardly using the cover of darkness and the safety of an obscure location to implement the leaders’ plot.

The unbelieving world has always disdained God’s kingdom and the mission of His Son. Instead of coming in repentance and faith and reverently embracing Christ’s work on the cross, the world wants to find any excuse to do away with the Savior. In contrast, believers are called to stand apart from any unbelieving crowd and defend the name of Jesus Christ.

Pray for the discernment and courage not to follow the mind-set of the world’s crowd, but to rather be obedient to the Lord Jesus.

The large crowds that followed Jesus earlier in His ministry were not always sincere. Read John 6, and note the various ways the people misunderstood Jesus’ message.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worships the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ( Revelation 14:9-10 ):

Kinda goes alo g with your article. The people who accept the mark will do so with the full knowledge that they are in direct opposition to God’s word. The angel going about the earth will make it perfectly clear to all that taking the mark is direct rebellion tO God. Everyone who does so will decide that they want to join the side of Satan beczuse they think he will win, and they will gladly do so because of their inner contempt for God and his people.

They don’t beleive the bible where it states:

and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

Taking the mark of the beast will be the final rejection of God, and will mark time when “all the world hears the gospel”, and “the fullness of sin” that brings about the wrath of God on a godless world will have begun.

The church is to bring the word of God to the nations, but it won’t be until the church is gone, and the angel flies over all the world proclaiming the word of God to everyone, and the people rejecting it (although some will listen and repent) that “the fullness” is complete. There will be no excuse from this point forward for rejectN the word, and no forgiveness for doing so- the time to repent will be immediately, as God’s patience will have reached its long suffering end.

Amen.

Prayer For Courage To Stand Firm

Father, we live in a world where spiritual deception and a watered-down gospel is luring many good men and women away from the pure milk of the Word of God, and instead of drinking from the fountain of life, so many people are compromising their faith by drinking from the broken cisterns of the world. Give me resolute courage I pray, to stand fast in the evil day and endow me with boldness and sufficient strength, that only comes from You, so that I may remain firmly anchored to the unalterable and infallible Word of God.

Keep me I pray, from being lulled into a spiritual slumber or lured into compromising the gospel of truth, for the sake of an easy existence or a peaceful life. May I recognise that one of the enemy’s chief objective is to render the witness of Christians impotent, by diluting the message of the glorious gospel of grace and twisting its eternal truths. I pray that my mind may be protected day by day as it is washed in the cleansing power of the Word of Truth, and may I put on the whole armour of God so that I may stand firm in the evil day. In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/prayer/prayer-for-courage-to-stand-firm-1279

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