This is the second book

NEXT DAY, BETH ANY & HUNGRY

Come with me to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover' when our Lord Jesus was there, the city was crowded with folk, crowds would have been there from all over Israel for this annual feast, Jews from the surrounding countries would be present, making their annual visit. As Jesus went into Jerusalem He rode on a colt, this colt was white, not broken in, for the breed of animal it was very lively indeed and hard to control, it was also a beast of burden so what can we draw from these points? When victorious armies came back into a town or city, they rode in on brown stallions or mares, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a white colt and this meant peace for the people of that day, indeed when uHe rode on the animal they shouted, Peace in Heaven' and in forty seven days or so He was in heaven, He being the Prince of Peace, He ascended to the right hand of the Father. Now with the breed of this colt they were exceedingly difficult to break in, but the disciples found the colt as Jesus had said, they brought it to the Master, on it was placed cloaks and Jesus rode without any trouble at all, this indicated that He, our Lord Jesus was the Master of every created thing. Then I have noted that the colt was a beast of burden, which indicated that He, the Prince of Peace came in all humility. So it was in these circumstances that Jesus went on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and all that meant to Him, then He went for the evening with His twelve lads to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus at Bethany

While in Jerusalem we are told in the Gospel of Mark that He(tm) went into the temple and looked round at everything, I wonder what He thought of it all? There would have been all the worshippers there with their sacrifices of lambs, turtle doves and pigeons, He would have understood that they all pointed up to Himself as He was to give His life at the end of the week, a ransom for many. Then while in the temple He would have seen that great veil, which He knew that in five days time would be ripped apart, from the top to the bottom, this indicated that it was a work of God and not man. The veil was one inch thick, it was rent apart indicating the old priestly order had come to an end, that we, through our dear Lord Jesus would be able to enter into the Divine presence, into the presence of the living God, I wonder what thoughts raced through His mind? At that home at Bethany in the evening He would have rested and possibly told those present of the truths touched o�n in the events of the day, had refreshment and then to bed. On the following day we are told, and I quote Scripture, The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry'. It is three points out of this verse that I want to dwell on, they are NEXT DAY', BETH ANY and HUNGRY'

All Scripture was given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of our God, as I understand this, every word is important. If we understood the language of the Greeks that the New Testament was written in, then we would know far more of its teaching. To cope with the matter under consideration I have checked the verse from Mark c11 v12 in three different versions and there is very little difference between them so we are on safe ground. In understanding Scripture we must always understand its setting or context first of all, then see how the Scripture points to our God and ourselves, if we do not then the whole point of the exercise is lost.� It is said that if you take text' out of context' then you are left with a con'

First of all let us consider what teaching there is behind the words NEXT DAY. In the life of our Lord Jesus He was always a busy man, during the three years of His ministry He healed many, many folk, far more than what we have recorded in the Scriptures, He gave much teaching, only a portion of which was recorded for our instruction, yes He was very busy indeed, always in the life of our Lord Jesus was there always a next day'. Now this teaching was true of the whole of His ministry, and indeed let us consider for a moment when His span on planet earth came to an end what was His next day'

On that terrible day Good Friday, our dear Lord was taken and by wicked hands was crucified, it was the only way the folk involved thought they could end His influence. After a time on The Cross, the soldiers went to Him, could see that He was dead so did not break His legs a(r)s was the custom, they thought that was the end of this Jesus. Now we must remember who our Lord Jesus was, He was the Son of the living God, the only begotten of the Father and death could have no hold on Him. Our Lord Jesus, in the wonder of His being, went through death, not into it, but went through to the wonder and glory of the resurrection on the third day and that was His next day'

Then the disciples bared themselves in a room for fear of the Jews, they were young men and as their leader had been taken they would have thought that they were the next for the chop, Jesus came to them in that bared room and said, Peace be unto you'. Then Jesus, during the next few days met with them again, prepared a meal of tilapia fish, then went that walk on the road to Emmaus, with Cleopas and his wife Mary and was made known to them in the Breaking of Bread'. Even after the forty days Jesus spent with His disciples there was �still a next day', at the end of His term here on Planet Earth He ascended up to be with the Father and is now, at this moment on the right hand of His Father God interceding for us, crowned with resplendent glory, as taught in the Scriptures and there is still a next day' for the Master. That next day' is when He will return as promised, with all His glory and take us to be with Himself which will be far better than what any one of us have experienced on Planet Earth. We sing about this in that special hymn by Caroline Noel

Brothers, this Lord Jesus

Shall return again,

With His Father's glory,

With His angel train,

For all wreaths of empire

Meet upon His brow,

And our hearts confess Him,

King of glory now

~Yes, in the life of our Lord Jesus, there was always a next day' so now what for ourselves?

It is not right to think that once we have become a believer then that is the beginning and end of it all, there must always be a next day' in our Christian experience, we must continue in the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Now Scripture teaches this point, when Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch they encouraged the believers there to, Continue in the grace of God' and when Paul was writing to the Colossians he encouraged them to continue in their faith'. Yes there is always a next day' in our experience, to go on, knowing our God better, through our dear Lord Jesus, we are encouraged to grow and become full grown men and women in Christ Jesus, we learn in our todays, to live for our God in ones tomorrows. When we come to the end of our span here on planet earth there is1/2 always a next day' for us who believe, that next day', is to go to be with Christ which is far better, just think of that for a moment, it will be far better than anything we have experienced here in time. Think for a moment of all the high points in life, now as we go to be with our Lord it will be far better' than all of them, it will go beyond all those wonderful experiences in our lives. Then we will go through death and wake in paradise in the arms of Jesus, what a day that will be! Then we will see our God in a way that we have never understood while here in time, we will be with Him, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

At will then worship our Lord in a way that we never understood in time, singing those eternal songs of praise that we can pick up from the Revelation and other books in the Scriptures that salvation belongeth to our God and the Lamb. At that time we will also see our loved ones who have gone �before and understand then in a way that we never did while here in time and I do look forward to it all, what an exciting time it will be. Now the question could well be asked, How shall we recognise our loved ones?', just consider the following for a moment. At the time that we are thinking of all worldliness will have passed away, there will be no sexuality, everyone will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and now just dwell on this last point for a moment. In glory we could well recognise our loved ones by what we new of Christ in them when they were here with us in time, yes please dwell on this for a moment, for to me it is a lovely thought. If we dwell on these words correctly, then we will understand correctly the words in Matthew c17 v8, They saw no man, except Jesus only'

The next word we are going to consider is the word BETHANY. Now all the names in Scripture have a meaning, Shakespeare said, 'What's in a name', as far~ as our God is concerned there is much, a name points to a persons character. Abraham meant father of a great multitude', Jacob a supplanter', Peter the rock' and Jesus, He shall save His people from their sins'. The names of towns and cities had special meanings, Shiloh means sent forth, peace in abundance' and Jerusalem means the vision or possession of peace', so what for the word Bethany? I have looked this up in my Bible Dictionary and its meaning is affliction and joy' where do we go from here?

Let us think of Bethany in its Biblical setting, it was the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Mary and Martha knew what affliction was. Their brother died when our Lord was not there, they were a lovely family, a home that Jesus visited often and they suffered bereavement and this was their affliction. Our Lord came to them after four days, stood outside the grave and s�poke just three words, they were, Lazarus come forth' and he did. Our Lord Jesus was with our Father God when the world was created, He spoke and the world came into being such was His divine power and He spoke to Lazarus and he responded, what power He had! We are told in the Scriptures that My word shall not return to me void, it shall accomplish that for which it was sent'. You see Mary and Martha had the joy of affliction' the joy of having their brother back with them again. Having considered this point let us see something of the affliction and joy' in the life of our Lord

In Hebrews ch12 we have the following words, Therefore seeing we are compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin whicTh does so easily beset us. Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy' that was set before Him, despised The Cross, scorning its shame and is now sat down at the right hand of the Father'. Now Jesus for the joy' that was set before Him, went through The Cross, despising its shame, now what was the affliction' that Jesus went through so that He might have the joy', what was that joy'?

I want us to consider for a moment just four of the possible joys' that were set before our Lord, the first was that He would go through The Cross to be back with His F
�ather, to be in His Father's bosom again, He did not speak in John's Gospel, of the suffering of The Cross but just of the joy of being again with His Father. Then we have His joy' how through the work of The Cross our sins are separated as far as the East is from the West, not from the North to the South as these two points can be reached, but from the East to the West, so far has He removed our sins from us. In another place of Scripture we are told that our sins are put behind the back of our �God, they are washed away by the life giving, the shed blood of our Lord Jesus and that was another of the joys' that were set before our Lord. A further joy' was that of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that we have with us as we believe, that our Father God is with us through our Lord Jesus, by His Spirit and we pray for this joy' in the prayer of the Benediction, when we pray for the fellowship of His Spirit and this blessed prayer is fulfilled in our lives as we believe. Now the final joy' that I am going to speak of, is the joy that through our dear Lord Jesus, our eternal destiny is sealed, at this moment, at this very time our Lord Jesus is now preparing a place in glory for all those who love Him, just read for a moment the first few verses of John's Gospel c14, this is what it teaches, when we pass through the gates of pearly splendour, to be with our God and behold Him in the fullness of His glory, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

Now for all thesIe joys' to be enjoyed in the life of our Lord, He was prepared and did endure The Cross, despising its shame, let us dwell on this for a moment, that was His Bethany', His affliction' that there might be the joy'. Jesus went through a trial that, according to the laws of the day, should not have taken place, He was beaten, scourged, had to carry His Cross part of that way to Calvary. Jesus was crowned with a crown of thorns and how terrible that must have been, then to cap it all He, in the fullness of His divine being bore the penalty of my, of our, of the sins of the wor(r)ld. Such was the occasion we are dwelling on, that in the middle of the day there was darkness for three hours, there was a quake that shook Jerusalem and the whole area, marks of this quake are still there today and then the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom indicating that the old priestly order had come to an end. The veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, indicating to us that it was a work of our God, man would have done it the other way. Yes Jesus endured the agony of The Cross, despised its shame, this was His affliction' for the joy' that was set before Him that we have considered

The last point that we are to consider is that Jesus was HUNGRY', now this points to His humanity. Jesus was and still is the eternal Son of God, He is also the Son of Man, we are told that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. Jesus was the great God-Man, He hungered and had to eat, He go

t thirsty and drank, He knew sorrow and wept. Now just understand this in the words of J C Ryle, he says - We see in the beginning of this passage, one of the many proofs that our Lord Jesus Christ was really man. We read that, He was hungry'. He had the nature and bodily constitution, like our own in all things, sin only excepted. He could weep and rejoice, suffer pain, be weary and needed a rest. He could be thirsty and needed to drink. Jesus could be hungry and needed food. Expressions like these teach us the condescension of Christ, how wonderful they are when we reflect upon them! He, who is the eternal God, He, who made the world and all it contains, He, from whose hands the fruits of the earth, the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the� field, all had their beginnings, He, even He was prepared to suffer hunger, when He came into time to save sinners. This is a great mystery. Kindness and love like this pass the understanding of man, no wonder Paul spoke of the, Unsearchable riches of Christ', yes He became Man

When thinking of our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man my mind always goes back to the story of Ruth in the Old Testament, how Boaz became the Kindsman-redeemer to the family of Naomi. Boaz loved Ruth and wanted her for his wife, because of his love for her and Naomi he was prepared to pay the price of the property that belonged to Naomi's husband so that Naomi could live off the estate for the rest of her life, he could do this because he was a kinsman of Elimelech her late husband and only a kinsman could do this sort of thing. Now for a sign that the deal had been done Boaz took off one of his sandals and gave it to the other contracting party to show that the contract was complete, please remember this point for a moment. Now in this setting let us think of our dear Lord Jesus, He was and is our Kinsman-redeemer, He became as one of us, as a man that He might redeem us, and a sign that the contract had been completed was The Cross, as the sandal was for Boaz. Our Lord Jesus was and is the great God-Man, a crowning point in His humanity was the transfiguration

Just consider this point, had our Lord Jesus any sin at all, which He had not, then the transfiguration would never have taken place and what a moment of glory it was for our Lord as witnessed by Peter, James and John. Let us just now think of the three records of the transfiguration and recorded in three of the Gospels and let them speak for themselves, just use your imagination a little for a moment and imagine that you were there. In the firsAt record we are told of His transfiguration we read, He was transfigured before them, His face did shine as the sun and His garment became white as light', then at the second account we read, And He was transfigured before them, His garments became glistening, exceed white, so as no fuller on earth can whiten them' and them finally, As He was praying, the fashion of His countenance was altered and His raiment became white and dazzling' what an experience this must have been for those three brethren

When you think of those three men seeing our Lord in some of His eternal glory one would almost ask the question, Why did our Father God not take His only Son back to glory at the point of the transfiguration?' Jesus had to go through the transfiguration, to enable Him to conquer The Cross that heaven might be peopled

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This is the second book