defile | kingspeech

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium (judgement hall, governor’s palace). And it was early. They themselves did not enter the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled (become ceremonially unclean), but might be fit to eat the Passover [supper].
John 18: 28

I was reading this verse when it occurred to me how far off the mark the pharisees were. They did not enter the Praetorium because they didn’t want to defile themselves!! If they defiled themselves they would not be able to partake of the Passover meal. Are you serious???!!!! Didn’t they know the Passover was a shadow of Christ? They had the Messiah with them, the sacrificial Passover lamb but they didn’t realize it!!!!

That got me thinking about the Pharisees. How did they get so blind? We can learn a lot from them for sure. The one thing that came to mind was law and tradition. To the pharisees everything was about law and tradition. You had to do this and do that. Wash your hands in this way, pray this way, you have to, you have to……
And because of that attitude their hearts became hardened. Grace was not part of their vocabulary.
We need to be careful. Are we living by law or by grace?

Now a great crowd of the Jews heard that He was in Bethany, and they came there, not only because of Jesus but that they also might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.
So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also, John 12:9, 10

The Pharisees were out of control and they were supposed to be spiritual leaders!!!
Another attitude that contributed to their crazy behavior was the fact that they thought works was enough! They relied on their own strength to get them to heaven. They thought by doing, they could obtain salvation. They prayed, tithed, went to church, memorized scripture, fasted, all because they thought it would impress God…..How wrong they were. Our works in the sight of God, are like filthy rags! Works are not enough.

Something else to notice about is this, to the pharisees everything was about what you could see. They focused all their attention on the external instead of what was on the inside. They measured themselves and other people on outward appearances!!! They ignored the heart. They never searched their own hearts. They never realized their hearts and become hardened. What a shame.

All these things blinded them. They blinded them and hardened their hearts. Let us be careful how we walk. Ask God for wisdom. Let us not be like the Pharisees who missed God. We can easily be misguided just like the them. Let us be aware of the enemies devices…….

Rolain

This was something God spoke to me about a few weeks ago. God is holy and He has called us to be holy. (1 Peter 2:9) But what does being holy mean to you?
When I think of holiness I think of consecration. I think of being set apart. But this is the thing, a lot of people don’t understand about holiness. Holiness doesn’t just happen. It is a very deliberate thing. God strengthens us as we cry out to be holy but He doesn’t just make you holy with a click of a finger! Instead, He reveals areas of your life that you need to surrender to Him. He also asks you to give up things that He knows will defile you.

This is a partnership. I like the way someone illustrated this life we live. He said, we think God is looking at us with all of our sin and shaking His head but instead He wants to stand with us looking at our sin and discussing how it needs to be dealt with!

I like that illustration very much. Holiness is deliberate. Once we understand this principle we will live our lives very differently.
God understands how weak we are so He is not expecting us to do things in our own strength. Instead, we are to look to Him and cry out to Him for help. We need to get accountable, read the word, pray, fellowship but most importantly of all trust in the Lord and rely on His strength to help you be holy!