２０２５年６月１日～約１年間かけ、キリスト教入門・神学コースで学んでいきたいと思います。只毎回集いたいのに集えない学びたいけど１年間を通すとなれば～？？？と思う方朗報です！この度HPから見る・学ぶことが可能になりました。数年後あ！こんな話してたよねって振り返えり誰かの力になることもあると思います。

第６回　God the Son   (B)

（第６回の　God the Son   (B)は英語・日本語に分けてがあります。ですのでダウンロード無しで印刷可能です）

6.   God the Son   (B)

His Crucifixion – Friday – The Day of the Passover Feast

Jesus is offered as the spotless Lamb of God   Matthew 26:57-27:56, Mark 14:43-15:41, Luke 22:39-23:49, John 18:1-19:37

           The day of Christ's crucifixion was one of the darkest days of human history. A sinless, loving man who had never done anyone harm was betrayed by one of His closest friends. Under cover of night, to avoid the thousands of people who believed Jesus was the Messiah, the Jewish religious leaders had Jesus arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, knowing the future and thinking of the horror that lay before Him once again surrendered Himself to the Divine plan. He sweat drops of blood (a medical condition called hematidrosis) as He prayed the words, “Not my will but Thine be done.” 

           He and the Father and the Holy Spirit had been planning this before the foundation of the world. They knew that man would choose to sin and that he would need atonement. So even though the human feelings of Jesus were crying out for an escape plan, He surrendered to the perfect will of God.

           After He was arrested, He was taken to the High Priest and accused of blasphemy, then they held a special counsel and sent Him to Pilate (procurator 総督 of Judea) who heard He was from Galilee and was under Herod's jurisdiction,　支配下 and sent Him to Herod who sent Him back to Pilate. Pilate thought Jesus was innocent so he tried to have Him be the one to be pardoned (a yearly tradition) but the Jews chose Barabbas (a robber and murderer) over Jesus. Pilate gave the order for Jesus to be scourged with a cat-o-nine tails. The Romans had no rule to stop at 39 strokes like the Jews. After the brutal beating, the soldiers put a royal robe on Him and a crown of thorns. They put a reed in His hand and mocked Him by kneeling to Him and blindfolding Him and then striking Him in the face and spitting on Him and asking, “Do you know who hit you?  When Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd and said, “Behold your king” The crowd chanted, “Crucify Him, let His blood be on us and our children.” and “we have no king but Caesar” so Pilate washed his hands saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” and gave the order for the crucifixion.

           They began to walk to Golgatha (the place of the skull), Jesus having been without sleep all night and having lost so much blood fell down with the cross on His back. They chose a bystander, Simon of Cyrene, to help Him carry it the rest of the way. When they arrived at Calvary,  Jesus was laid down on the cross and they put spikes through His wrists and through both feet to fasten Him to  the cross. They then raised the cross and dropped it into a hole. Jesus was crucified in a very public place close to the road and right outside the city. (Today it is near a Arab bus station) As people passed by they mocked Him and ridiculed Him. All of His clothes were taken off and the soldiers gambled to see who would get His robe. He hung on the cross from 9AM to 3PM. From noon until 3PM there was total darkness.  Jesus was facing intense physical and emotional pain. He was taking upon Himself the guilt and sin of the whole world. For the first time, He felt the Father turn His back on Him because of the sin that He was carrying for us. He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He gave up the ghost and the temple veil ripped from top to bottom and there was a great earthquake.

           The Roman soldiers broke the legs of the robbers on each side of Jesus so that they could not push themselves up to breathe and would quickly suffocate. They saw that Jesus was already dead and so they pierced His side with a spear. John tells us that water and blood flowed out.  (Medical terms: Pleural effusion from His lungs and pericardial effusion from His heart) Since this was Friday and the Jew's sabbath started that evening, they quickly took down Jesus' body and wrapped Him in grave clothes and ointment and put Him in Joseph of Arimathaea's  grave.

His resurrection

Other founders of religions are still in their graves

           There are many aspects that make Christianity unique from other religions (the Virgin Birth, the Crucifixion, the accuracy of the Bible, etc)  but the resurrection of Jesus is at the top of the list.

The founders of other major religions all died and were buried and you can visit their graves. ( Muhammed died in his early 60s in 632 A.D. His grave is in the mosque in Medina, Saudia Arabia; Gautama Buddha passed away in 483 B.C at the age of 80. You can visit his grave in Uttar Pradesh, India; Confucius passed away in 479 B.C in his early 70's. His grave is north of Qufu, China.)

Today hundreds of thousands of Christians visit the grave of Jesus Christ every year but the wonderful thing about His grave is that it is empty.

His burial                John 19:38-42

           Joseph of Arimathaea went to Pilate and asked that the body of Jesus be released unto him. Pilate agreed and Joseph and Nicodemus, both esteemed members of the Sanhedrin assisted in anointing the body of Jesus with myrrh and aloes and wrapping Him in fine linen grave clothes.

His grave

           Jesus was buried Friday afternoon in a new grave that was dug out of the rock. The Scriptures tell us that it was close to the crucifixion site and in a garden, also that “a great stone” “very great” (Mark 16:4, Matthew 27:60) was  rolled over the entrance.

The guards

           The high priest and Pharisees were worried because they remembered Jesus prophesying that He would rise again in three days and so they went to Pilate and asked for a band of soldiers to guard the tomb. Pilate told them “Ye have a watch...make it as sure as ye can.” The Jews had a corps of Roman troops, consisting of several companies, as a guard for the temple,  Some of these companies, which were not then on duty, Pilate gave them leave to employ to watch the tomb.

The Sabbath – Saturday

         The women disciples prepared more spices to anoint the body of Jesus with as soon as it became light on Sunday morning. This was a dark day as all the disciples had forgotten how Jesus had prophesied of rising from the dead. All they could remember was the horrible scene of the crucifixion and the fact that their King, their Messiah, their Friend was dead.

Sunday morning

            Early Sunday morning at least 3 ladies went to the tomb and before they got there, there was an earthquake and an angel rolled back the stone. The Scriptures say that the guards “did shake and were as dead men.” The angel then told the ladies that Jesus was not there but was risen! The women went and told the men disciples and Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. Jesus then showed Himself to Mary Magdalene and then to the other women disciples and then to 10 of the  apostles. Thomas wasn't there and did not believe until Jesus showed Himself again to all 11 apostles and ate some fish and honey to show them He was not a ghost. He also told Thomas to put his hand in His side and feel the nail prints in His hands. Jesus showed Himself to His disciples several more times and over the next 40 days Jesus was seen by 500 witnesses. He then ascended into Heaven and angels came and told the disciples, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.  Acts 1:11