The Sifting Of Peter; Luke 22:31, 32.

Church History: Jesus, foreseeing the danger of Peter, and knowing that he was about to deny him, took the opportunity to forewarn him and put him on his guard, and also to furnish him with a solace when he should be brought to repentance. Satan hath desired. Satan is the prince of evil. One of his works is to try the faith of believers--to place temptations and trials in their way, which they may be tested. So Satan desired to have Peter in his hands, that he might also try him. May sift you as wheat. Grain was agitated or shaken in a kind of fan or sieve. The grain remained in the fan, and the chaff and dust were thrown off. So Christ says that Satan desired to try Peter; to place trials and temptations before him; to agitate him; to see whether anything of faith would remain, or whether all would not be found to be chaff--mere natural ardor and false professions.2
But I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not. Jesus, having insight into what was going on in the spirit world, made supplication that Peter might be enabled to endure the trial.
And do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren. The language sadly intimates that Satan's test would leave him in need of repentance. As the one who perhaps exercised the strongest influence over the other ten apostles, Peter is exhorted to use his own bitter experience for their benefit and strengthening.

The Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem

Church History: The Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem And the Cleansing Of The Temple; Luke 19:28–46. John 12:12 – 19
And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it. The summit of Olivet is two hundred feet higher than the nearest part of the city of Jerusalem and a hundred feet higher than its farthest part, so that the Lord looked upon the whole of it as one looks upon an open book. As he looked upon it he realized the difference between what his coming might mean to it and what it did mean to it; between the love and gratitude which his coming should have incited and the hatred and violence which it did incite; between the forgiveness, blessing and peace which he desired to bring it and the judgment, wrath and destruction which were coming upon it. The vision of it all excited strong emotion, and the verb used does not indicate silent tears, but audible sobbing and lamentation.8
The great Ambassador from heaven is here making his public entry into Jerusalem, not to be respected there, but to be rejected; he knew what a nest of vipers he was throwing himself into, and yet we see two instances of his love to that place and his concern for it.

Jesus Anointed At Bethany; John 12:1 – 11

Church History: Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me." 9Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
This is an account of our Savior’s entertainment at Bethany after he had raised Lazarus. A supper is made for him, at which Martha served, and Lazarus sat with him, but Mary anoints Christ with precious ointment. The action which this woman performed, she pours a box of precious ointment upon our Savior’s head, as he sat and ate, according the custom of the eastern countries at their feasts.
This action was resented and reflected upon by murmuring Judas, who valued this ointment at three hundred pence, and grudged the bestowing of it upon Christ. He accused this woman of needless wastefulness.
Lord! how doth a covetous heart think everything too good for thee? He that sees a pious action performed, and seeks to lessen or undervalue it, shows himself possessed with a spirit of envy. Judas, his invidious spirit makes him censure an action, which Christ highly approved.

The Plot To Kill Jesus; John 11:45 – 56

Church History: Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man dies for the people than that the whole nation perish." 51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life. 54Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. 55When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, "What do you think? Isn't he coming to the Feast at all?" 57But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was, he should report it so that they might arrest him.
Many of the Jews, when they saw the things that Jesus did, believed on him, and well they might, for it was an incontestable proof of his divine mission. They had often heard of his miracles, and yet evaded the conviction of them, by calling in question the matter of fact; but now that they had seen for themselves their unbelief was conquered, and they yielded at last. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The more we see of Christ the more cause we shall see to love him and confide in him. These were some of those Jews that came to Mary, to comfort her. When we are doing good offices to others we put ourselves in the way of receiving favors from God, and have opportunities of getting good when we are doing good.

The Death Of Lazarus; John 11:1 – 44

Church History: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." 4When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." 5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. 7Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." 8"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" 9Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. 10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." 11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." 12His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." 17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." 28And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. 32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34"Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. 35Jesus wept. 36Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" 38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." 43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
The resurrection of Lazarus has been recorded only by John. Various reasons have been conjectured why the other evangelists did not mention so signal a miracle. The most probable is, that at the time they wrote Lazarus was still living. The miracle was well known, and yet to have recorded it might have exposed Lazarus to opposition and persecution from the Jews. See John 12:10-11. Besides, John wrote for Christians who were out of Palestine. The other gospels were written chiefly for those who were in Judea. There was the more need, therefore, that he should enter minutely into the account of the miracle, while the others did not deem it necessary or proper to record an event so well known. Bethany was a village on the eastern declivity of the Mount of Olives.

Jesus at a Pharisee’s House; Luke 14:1–6.

Church History:In this passage of story we find, Jesus was eating and drinking, conversing familiarly with all sorts of people; not declining the society of publicans, though they were of ill fame, nor of Pharisees, though they bore him ill will, but accepting the friendly invitations both of the one and the other, that, if possible, he might do good to both. Here he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees, a ruler, it may be, and a magistrate in his country, to eat bread on the Sabbath day, (Luke 14:1). See how favorable God is to us, that he allows us time, even on his own day, for bodily refreshments; and how careful we should be not to abuse that liberty, or turn it into licentiousness. Christ went only to eat bread, to take such refreshment as was necessary on the Sabbath day. Our Sabbath meals must, with a particular care, be guarded against all manner of excess. On Sabbath days we must do as Moses and Jethro did, eat bread before God (Exodus 18:12), and, as is said of the primitive Christians, on the Lord's day, must eat and drink as those that must pray again before we go to rest, that we may not be unfit for that.
He went about doing good. Wherever he came he sought opportunities to do good, and not only improved those that came his way. Here was a certain man before him who had the dropsy, (Luke 14:2). We do not find that he offered himself, or that his friends offered him to be Christ's patient, but Christ came to him with the blessings of his goodness, and before he called he answered him. It is a happy thing to be where Christ is, to be present before him, though we are not presented to him. This man had the dropsy, it is probable, in a high degree, and appeared much swollen with it; probably he was some relation of the Pharisee's, that now lodged in his house, which is more likely than that he should be an invited guest at the table.
They watched him, (Luke 14:1). The Pharisee that invited him, it seems, did it with a design to pick some quarrel with him; if it were so, Christ knew it, and yet he went, for he knew himself a match for the most subtle of them, and knew how to order his steps with an eye to his observers. Those that are watched needed to be wary. It is, contrary to all laws of hospitality to seek advantage against one that you invited to be your guest, for such a one you have taken under your protection. These lawyers and Pharisees, like the fowler that lies in wait to ensnare the birds, held their peace, and acted very silently. When Christ asked them whether they thought it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day (and herein he is said to answer them, for it was an answer to their thoughts, and thoughts are words to Jesus Christ), they would say neither yea nor nay, for their design was to inform others against him, not to be informed by him. They would not say it was lawful to heal, for then they would preclude themselves from imputing it to him as a crime; and yet the thing was so plain and self-evident that they could not for shame say it was not lawful. Good men have often been persecuted for doing that which even their persecutors, if they would only give their consciences the opportunity to speak out, would want to be lawful and good. There was many a good work Christ did, where they cast stones at him and his name.
Christ would not allow himself to be hindered from doing good by the opposition and contradiction of sinners. He took him, and healed him, and let him go, (Luke 14:4). Perhaps he took him aside into another room, and healed him there, because he would neither proclaim himself, such was his humility, nor provoke his adversaries, such was his wisdom, his meekness of wisdom. Though we must not be driven off from our duty by the malice of our enemies, yet we should order the circumstances of it so as to make it the least offensive. Or, He took him, that is, he laid hands on him, to cure him; he embraced him, took him in his arms, big and unwieldy as he was (for so dropsically people generally are), and reduced him to shape. The cure of a dropsy, as much as any disease, one would think, should be gradual; yet Christ cured even that disease, perfectly cured it, in a moment. He then let him go, lest the Pharisees should fall upon him for being healed, though he was purely passive.
That our Lord Jesus did nothing he couldn’t justify, to the conviction and confusion of those that quarreled with him, (Luke 14:5-6). He still answered their thoughts, and made them hold their peace for shame who before held their peace for subtlety, by an appeal to their own practice, as he had been used to do upon such occasions, that he might show them how in condemning him they condemned themselves: which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, by accident, and will not pull him out on the Sabbath day, and that straightway, not deferring it till the Sabbath be over, lest it perish? Observe, It is not so much out of compassion to the poor creature that they do it as a concern for their own interest. It is their own ox, and their own ass, that is worth money, and they will dispense with the law of the Sabbath for the saving of. Now this was an evidence of their hypocrisy, and that it was not out of any real regard to the Sabbath that they found fault with Christ for healing on the Sabbath day (that was only the pretence), but really because they were angry at the miraculous good works which Christ wrought, and the proof he thereby gave of his divine mission, and the interest he thereby gained among the people. Many can easily dispense with that, for their own interest, which they cannot dispense with for God's glory and the good of their brethren. This question silenced them: They could not answer him again to these things, (Luke 14:6). Christ will be justified when he speaks, and every mouth must be stopped before him.

Blessed Is The Woman That Gave You Birth

Church History: The Woman Who Exclaimed: "Blessed Is The Woman That Gave You Birth," Luke 11:27:28
And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the woman that gave you birth, and nursed you; But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Matthew and Mark did not speak of this event, nor can we attribute it to that of Christ's mother and brothers desiring to speak with him because they couldn’t get near him because of the crowd. Luke tells us this in (Luke 8:19), where there also was an interruption much like that, and, like that, occasion, we can learn from it.
The applause which an affectionate, honest, well-meaning woman gave to our Lord Jesus, upon hearing his excellent discourses. While the scribes and Pharisees despised and blasphemed them, this good woman (and probably she was a person of some quality) admired them, and the wisdom and power with which he spoke: As he spoke these things, with a convincing force and evidence, a certain woman of the company was so pleased to hear how he had confounded the Pharisees, and conquered them, and put them to shame, and cleared himself from their vile insinuations, that she could not refrain from crying out, "Blessed is the woman that gave you birth. What an admirable, what an excellent man is this! Surely never was there a greater or better born of a woman: happy is the woman that has him for her son. I should have thought myself very happy to have been the mother of one that speaks as never a man has spoken, that has so much of the grace of heaven in him, and is so great a blessing to this earth." This was well said, as it expressed her high esteem of Christ, and that for the sake of his doctrine; and it was not wrong that it reflected honor upon the virgin Mary his mother, for it agreed with what she herself had said (Luke 1:48), All generations shall call me blessed; some even of this generation, bad as it was. To all that believe the word of Christ, the person of Christ is precious, and he is an honor, (1Peter 2:7). We must be careful to prevent ourselves from, as this good woman did, giving too much honor to his natural kindred, his mother. We must keep the focus on Christ and his message.
The occasion which Christ took from this to pronounce them more happy who are his faithful and obedient followers than she was who gave birth and nursed him. He does not deny what this woman said, nor refuse her respect to him and his mother; but leads her from this to that which was of higher consideration, and which more concerned her: Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it,"(Luke 11:28). This is intended partly as a check to her, for placing so much adoration upon his bodily presence and his human nature, partly as an encouragement to her to hope that she might be as happy as his own mother, whose happiness she was ready to envy, if she would hear the word of God and keep it. Though it is a great privilege to hear the word of God, yet those only are truly blessed, that is, blessed of the Lord, that hear it and keep it, that keep it in memory, and keep to it as their way of life.