Good morning. We left Jesus being questioned by the high
priest about His disciples and His teaching. I have spoken openly to the world;
I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come
together; and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question Me? Question those
who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said. When He had said
this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, is that the way
You answer the high priest? The same thing happened to Paul in the book of
Acts. He got a bit upset then. As a reminder, this was Annas, the true high
priest - not the one put into place by the Romans. If I have spoken wrongly,
testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me? Of course he had no
answer. So, Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the (Roman designated) high
priest. Now Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, you
are not also one of His disciples, are you? In Greek you can ask a question
which expects the answer yes, or one which expects the answer no. This is the
one that expects the answer no. I am not. One of the slaves of the high priest,
being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, did I not see you in
the garden with Him? This one expects the answer, yes. Peter denied it again,
and immediately a rooster crowed. Remember that there was a disagreement among
the gospels as to whether the rooster crowed once or twice. You would think
that the rooster crowing would have jarred Peter into realization of his
denials of Jesus; but it didn’t. Would we have done any better than Peter –
probably not. Father help this to be a glorious day for the reader. Help
everything to be great at work and for him/her to get everything done that
needs to be done.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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