Jesus of Nazareth was as human as all other humans, including the apostles He had chosen to carry on with the ministry without Him in the future. However, what they did not realize was that a Christless future would soon begin. This information came as a shock to them when He told them that He was about to suffer greatly at the hands of men, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and Scribes and be killed. Then, after three days, He would rise from the dead (Mk. 8:31). Obviously, He had known all along what would befall Him when He came to earth to become the Lord’s Messiah and mankind’s Savior.

For 29 years He had lived among other people like Himself, all the while knowing that the time would come when many of those around Him would turn on Him and demand His death. He understood that, in spite of all He would do for men, they would violently reject Him because of His message. They would kill Him because what He had been sent to tell them would be contrary to what they knew to be “God’s Truth.” Jesus also knew that He would have to suffer as no man has ever suffered for the message He had come to deliver. The only change between then and now is the extent to which religious man’s anger can be legally expressed. This will soon change as a one-world religion will turn on God’s tiny church with a deadly vengeance. As I have stated before, this religious civil war will center around Satan’s Sunday sabbath which will be globally embraced and enforced internationally by the world’s governments. The few who will tell the people about God’s Sabbath will become enemies of the state.

Some time later, following more teaching and ministering to the people, Jesus knew that the time had arrived for Him to suffer and die. Because He “knew the end from the beginning,” He began to prepare Himself to face what was going to come upon Him in a matter of hours. He knew what was written in the Book of Isaiah about Him, that His appearance would be torn and bruised more than any man had ever endured (Isa. 52:14). He knew that He would be stricken and afflicted. That He would be wounded with the stripes of a public beating administered by those who despised Him (Isa. 53:4,5).

With this savagery awaiting Him in a matter of hours, He arranged to have His final meal with His disciples. Afterward He and they then went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Having gone a short distance into the garden He was struck with terror and destress as we can only imagine. Going on a little further He fell to the ground and prayed that, if there was any way possible, the Father might find another way to accomplish His (Christ’s) mission, saying: “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take away this cup (of suffering) from Me. Nevertheless, NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE.” This He said twice. Then Judas arrived with a contingent of men to take Him to where He would be beaten, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Read Did Jesus Die On A Cross? Key word–Cross.

As one can only imagine, the time Jesus was in the garden preparing for the ordeal to come had to be the most excruciating period of mental and emotional stress imaginable. So powerful was the stress upon Him that the blood vessels in His forehead burst, causing His blood to mix with the sweat, creating a flow of bloody water which dripped from His face to the ground (Lk. 22:44).

This phenomenon is not limited to Jesus Christ. Science has proven that any human being can come under so much stress that blood vessels in the forehead will rupture and blood will flow out onto one’s face. Let us not forget that Jesus was a man like any other man. He hurt and bled like anyone else. The difference between Himself and those around Him existed only in the spiritual realm–A REALM THOSE AROUND HIM COULD HAVE ALSO ENTERED INTO HAD THEY WANTED TO. Nothing has changed.

I will leave you with this Truth: GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. What Jesus had in the spiritual realm, any person can have. What He did as a human being, any person can do. In fact, those of us who have been called to His ministry are COMMANDED to do everything He did, AND EVEN GREATER THINGS THAN HE DID (Jn. 14:12). I related some of those things in part one of this series. I have prophesied in other series that, in the near future, I will be called to obey the John 14:12 command to the fullest extent while the entire world watches. People all over the earth will see the Book of Acts repeated many times over via television, the internet, etc. As did Jesus and the apostles, I will be met with the same hatred by the same kind of people who hated and killed Jesus and His apostles–extremely religious people. As I have said several times: NO ONE HATES GOD’S WORD LIKE A SELF-PROFESSED CHRISTIAN. Why? BECAUSE HIS WORD PROVES THAT THEY ARE CHURCH-DEFINED CHRISTIANS, NOT BIBLE-DEFINED CHRISTIANS. This ministry was created to tell professing Christendom exactly that. L.J.