Gary Gleans

John 12:27-36 27  “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.  28  “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  29  So the crowd  of people  who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”  30  Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.  31  “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.  32  “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”  33  But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.  34  The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”  35  So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is

John 12:20-26 20  Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast;  21  these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and  began to  ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  22  Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus.  23  And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  24  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  25  “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.  26  “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. The fame of Jesus has clearly started to spread as there are now Greeks who are coming in search of Jesus.   The disciples are not quite sure what to do with this, so they pair up and go to inform Jesus of

Matthew 21:18, 19 18  Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.  19  Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be  any  fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. Mark 11:12-14 12  On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry.  13  Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went  to see  if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  14  He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening. There are some stories recorded in Scripture that do not seem to be consistent with the Character of Jesus, or at least what we are comfortable thinking about Him.   It seems rather petty of Him to curse a fig tree that did not have figs on it when figs were out of season.

Matthew 21:10-17 10  When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”  11  And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” 12  And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  13  And He said to them, “It is written, ‘MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN.” 14  And  the  blind and  the  lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.  15  But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant  16  and said to Him, “Do You hear what these  children  are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF’?”