Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 289

October 14;         John 18:4;          86/260;         ‘Exactly as Planned’

John 18:4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, "Whom are you seeking?" 

The Lord Jesus came to do the will of His Father, which was to redeem the world from sin and sickness.  Our redemption had to be Jesus’ will as well.  Their love for us was their motivating force.  Here are some biblical truths that prove the entire plan of salvation was planned and known by both the Father and the Son.  The Old Testament prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, saw the entire plan of salvation long before it happened.  The Great Redemption Chapter, Isaiah 53 with great detail, detailed exactly what Jesus would do.  Isaiah saw this 700 years before it occurred.  The angel Gabriel told Joseph, Jesus’ ‘father’ that our Lord would one day save His people from their sins.  Shortly before Jesus was water baptized, John the Baptist saw Jesus and declared, ‘behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’  Several times when Jesus was alone with His disciples He would tell them of His suffering and resurrection from the dead.  It is also clear that Jesus’ spiritual enemy, satan and the religious leaders of Israel, who had access to the Old Testament scrolls, but never connected the prophecies about what the Messiah would do and that the Messiah indeed was the Lord Jesus Christ.  They erroneously thought that His death, burial and resurrection was the end of whom they rejected.  This verse also intimates that Jesus was following the plan and Gethsemane was to be the place He dealt with His tormented soul and that it would be here that His betrayer would come, fulfilling the plan.