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The murder of Jesus PDF

218 Pages·2010·1.11 MB·English
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The Murder of Jesus The Murder of Jesus A Study of How Jesus Died BY JOHN F. MACARTHUR JR. THE MURDER OF JESUS: A STUDY OF HOW JESUS DIED Copyright © 2000, 2004 by John F. MacArthur Jr. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All Scripture quotations in this book, except those noted otherwise, are from the New King James Version, © 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission. Quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. ISBN 0-7852-6018-8 Printed in the United States of America 04 05 06 07 08 PHX 5 4 3 2 1 To Joe and Georgia Aleppo beloved friends whose tireless labor for the cause of Christ is a constant encouragement to me, and whose passion for the truth has knit our hearts together. Contents Introduction 1 The Plot to Kill Jesus The Conspiracy Is Born Christ Is Anointed for His Burial The Traitor Makes His Deal 2 The Last Passover The Last Passover Prepared The Feast Eaten The Evil Deed Foretold The Traitor Unmasked A New Feast Instituted 3 A Warning against Over-Confidence The Disciples’ Insufficiency Christ’s Perfect Sufficiency 4 The Agony in the Garden His Sorrow His Supplication His Submission 5 The Kiss of the Traitor A Mob Approaches The Evil Deed Is Done A Slaughter Is Averted The Disciples Flee 6 The Kangaroo Court of the High Priest A Cowardly Nighttime Trial Solicitation of False Testimony A Desperate Attempt to Get Jesus to Incriminate Himself A Predetermined Verdict Ruthless Cruelty 7 Peter’s Denial The Groundwork for Failure Spiritual Defeat Repentance 8 Crucifixion Morning The Strategizing of the Sanhedren The Suicide of Judas The Sanctimony of the Temple Authorities 9 What Shall I Do with Jesus? The Crowd’s Accusation Pilate’s Verdict Jesus’ Silence Pilate’s Predicament Herod’s Turn The Crowd’s Hostility The Governor’s Acquiescence 10 Murder at Golgotha The Mockery The Shame The Curse The Pain The Humiliation 11 The Seven Last Sayings of Christ A Plea for Forgiveness A Promise of Salvation A Provision for His Mother A Petition to the Father A Pleading for Relief A Proclamation of Victory A Prayer of Consummation 12 All Creation Groans The Sun Darkened The Veil Torn The Earth Shaken The Dead Raised The Centurion Saved The Drama Ended Scripture Index About the Author Introduction THE WORLD has recently been drawn to the death of Jesus through the movie, The Passion of the Christ. It depicts the single greatest event in history more graphically than anything ever has before. Since the film only covers the eighteen hours of Jesus’ life from His agony in the garden to His horrific death, the audience is left with the tormenting question of how He could have been treated so cruelly. Whatever motivated people to do what they did to Jesus? Seeing the film leaves many in a state of trauma, searching for some way to understand why Jesus was treated so unjustly and made to suffer so greatly. Perhaps this was also your response to the movie, which is the reason you are reading this book. I’m glad about that, because the search for the true understanding of Jesus’ death will satisfy more than mere curiosity for you; it will literally open the way to heaven. Long before the advent of cameras in the courtroom, it was clear that the finest courts of earthly jurisprudence sometimes convict the innocent or exonerate the guilty. Take, for example, the case of Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1977 for the murder of a Texas policeman. A 1988 documentary, The Thin Blue Line, raised troubling questions about law enforcement’s handling of his case and helped win him a new trial just hours before his scheduled execution in 1988. A year later he was released from prison when the prosecutor in the case dismissed all charges against him, acknowledging the lack of any real evidence to convict him. An even more disturbing case was that of Kirk Bloodsworth, sentenced to death for rape and murder in the 1980s. After nearly a decade on death row, Bloodsworth was released in 1994 when sophisticated DNA tests proved beyond question that he was innocent of the crimes he had been condemned to death for. More recently, a Los Angeles police officer admitted that he and his partner shot a man they had in custody, leaving him permanently paralyzed. They then planted a weapon in order to frame the man on an assault charge. The victim, Javier Francisco Ovando, was convicted on the basis of that false testimony and sentenced to twenty-three years in prison. He served three years before the truth was discovered. He was released from prison in 1999 when one of the offending officers confessed, but Ovando will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. We’re rightly appalled and outraged by such cases, and yet they do not appear to be diminishing in number. Nearly every week, it seems some new, gross miscarriage of justice is dissected on 20/20, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, or similar network news magazine programs. Americans’ confidence in their criminal justice system may be at an all-time low. Modern society’s concern about justice gone awry is nothing new. Notorious cases of innocent victims who were imprisoned or executed wrongfully litter the pages of history, from the bibli cal account of Naboth, who was framed and executed by Ahab in ancient Israel, to the witchcraft trials of medieval history, right down to the present age. On the other side of the ledger, history is also replete with accounts of guilty people let off scot-free by so-called courts of justice, ranging from ancient aristocrats who routinely got away with murder, to modern organized-crime bosses who use bribery and intimidation to manipulate the system in their favor. Clearly, real justice has often been elusive in earthly courts. Innocent Joseph languished in a dank prison while his false accuser, Potiphar’s wife, lived in Egyptian luxury. Nero set fire to Rome for political purposes and falsely accused Christians of the crime; then he enlisted Roman courts to perpetrate a slaughter against innocent believers, punishing them for an act he himself committed. Medieval clergy lived lives of wanton profligacy while the Church’s office of the Inquisition approved the torture and killing of godly people accused of “heresy.” With the Supreme Court’s sanction, modern abortionists routinely kill infants at birth, while government bureaucrats spend billions to protect snail darters and silverspot butterflies. Human courts have an uncanny knack for turning justice completely on its head. The wicked frequently prosper while the righteous suffer wrongfully. Nowhere is this seen more graphically than in the arrest, trials, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. No victim of injustice was ever more innocent than the sinless Son of God. And yet no one ever suffered more agony than He did. He was cruelly executed by men who openly acknowledged His faultlessness. Yet at the same time Barabbas, a murderous, thieving insurrectionist, was summarily set free. It was the greatest travesty of justice the world will ever see. Consider the facts: Jesus Christ was the only truly sinless individual who ever lived—the most innocent, blameless, virtuous man of all time. He “committed

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The pieces are in place. The curtain rises for the final act. God is about to die.An unprecedented conspiracy of injustice, cruelty, and religious and political interests sentenced a man guilty of no crimes to the most barbaric method of execution ever devised. The victim was no mere man. Jesus was
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