This Is Only A Test – Week 5 (5-5-24)
This is Only A Test
The Tree of Life
May 5, 2024
Our expectations are challenged by our perception.
Illusions:
- Wealth & Power
- Wisdom & Knowledge
- Comfort & Pleasure
- Obligation & Obedience
Luke 9:34-35 ESV
As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
Luke 9:51 ESV
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Jesus journey to Jerusalem leads him into a garden…
Matthew 26:36-46 ESV
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
The Cross as a Tree:
Acts 5:30 ESV
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
Acts 10:39 ESV
…They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
Acts 13:29b ESV
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.
Galatians 3:13b ESV“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
1 Peter 2:24 ESV
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
2 words…
dendron —>Living tree, produces fruit
Luke 6:43 ESV
“For no good tree (dendron) bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree (dendron) bear good fruit,
Revelation 9:4 ESV
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree (dendron), but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
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xsulon – wood, club, dead tree
Mark 14:48 ESV
And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs (xsulon) to capture me?
Acts 5:30 ESV
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree (xsulon).
Galatians 3:13 ESV
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (xsulon)”—
Revelation 22:2 ESV
through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
In the book of Revelation the Tree of Life is a cross.
I Corinthians 1:18-25
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach[a] to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Paradoxically this instrument of death becomes the tree of life.
Knowing its an illusion does not strip it of its power!