Have You Crucified Jesus today by your actions?

Have You Crucified Jesus?

"Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene." (Mark 16:9) Three days before, he was killed by one of the most terrible and inhumane forms of execution known to man; crucifixion.

THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST

2000 years ago, the sinless blood of Jesus Christ dripped to the ground as He hung on the cross. Some 1000 years even earlier, the prophets of Jehovah God foretold of this gruesome event in Psalm 22:1-18 (fulfilled in Matthew 27:27-39); Isaiah 53:1-12 (fulfilled in 1 Peter 2:21-25); Zechariah 11:12-13 (fulfilled in Matthew 27:1-10). Perhaps the most graphic prophecy of the crucifixion is found in Psalm 22:16-17 "For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me." We know that this was fulfilled in John 19:31-37 when Christ was nailed to the cross in his hands and feet, but none of his bones were broken. With this kind of detail of prophecy only the wilfully blind reject the inspiration of the Bible.

A little known fact is that Pilate, the Roman ruler, did not want Jesus Crucified for he knew that Jesus was innocent. But Pilate the "politician", wishing to please his "constituents", allowed Jesus Crucified at the political gun point of the people. Here is how the story goes in Matthew 27:15-26 "Now at the Passover feast the Pilate was accustomed to release for the multitude any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they were holding at that time a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas (a murderer). When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, 'Whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas, or Jesus?' And they said, 'Barabbas.' Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus?' They all said, 'Let Him be crucified!' Pilate said, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more, saying, 'Let Him be crucified!' And when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the multitude, saying, 'I am innocent of this Man's blood; see to that yourselves.' And all the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us and on our children!' Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he delivered Him to be crucified.

What is interesting is that a few months later, these same people who said to Pilate, "His blood be on us and on our children" changed their tune in Acts 5:27-28 "The high priest said, 'We gave you (Apostles) strict orders not to continue teaching about Jesus, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with Jesus, and intend to bring Jesus' blood upon us." But the facts of history are undeniable and Stephen charged the same leaders in Acts 7:52-53 "Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it." This is the message of the Bible.

THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRISTIANS

Like Christ, His followers must also be crucified, Not literally, but symbolically when they are immersed in water at baptism. Romans 6:2-6 "all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus have been baptised into His death?

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Matthew 16:24) Paul said in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." And finally, in Galatians 5:24 "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

CHRISTIANS WHO CRUCIFY CHRIST

But Christians can be the most guilty of anyone on earth of crucifying Jesus. "For in the case of Christians who have once been enlightened and then have fallen away ... they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame." (Hebrews 6:4-6) Again, "For if after Christians have escaped the defilement's of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and, 'A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.'" (2 Peter 2:20-22)