THE CHARACTERS THAT BETRAYED AND CRUCIFIED JESUS CHRIST.

The message of Easter was a simple one. God reconciled men to himself. He restored lost fellowship with the blood of his beloved son Jesus Christ. There is no season most important to God than such moments when each man living in the world experience his own Easter. Everyday a soul is celebrated in heaven for knowing Jesus and acknowledging his sacrifices for sin. It is a day of Easter celebration in heaven. Beloved, we have divine role to create Easter joy and celebration in heaven everyday by winning souls. May we find grace to faithfully carried out our divine callings in the world.

Let us quickly examine the above topic on two focal points.
1. The Men(characters) that betrayed and crucified Jesus.
2. The behaviours, attitudes (characters) that betrayed and crucified Jesus.

Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.  If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.  And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,  Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.  And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;  And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. John 11:47‭-‬52 KJV

Top on the list of men that betrayed and crucified Jesus Christ is the High Priest, the Chief Priests, the Pharisees, a close disciple (Judas Iscariot), all children of God and all mankind.

My focus is for us to examine why the above list was made up of many people who are supposed mouthpiece to God.
Why High Priest, Chief Priests? Why the Pharisees and the custodians of the law of Moses? Why Judas Iscariot with more than 3yrs experience listening to and following Jesus? Why are same set of believers who cried hosanna on sunday, vigorously cried Crucify him! Crucify him! on Friday same week? Why Sir/Ma do we betrayed his power and miracle and crucify him at every opportunity to fulfill the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

High Priest reason according to the scripture above is of two folds.
--His selfish reason to retain his authority and relevance as most important priest in accordance with mosaic law.
--He was prophetically fulfilling his purpose as high priest who have sole responsibility of presenting the sin offering, slain lamb before God on behalf of his people. Unfortunately the High Priests both then and now still don't understand the concept of once and for all sacrifice of Christ Jesus.
Most Priests/Pastors still believe they are responsible for continuous sin offering for their members.

The Pharisees are so learned in the law of God as delivered by Moses. Their rigidity and unteachable spirit made them fight the message of hope and grace by Jesus Christ who himself was the fulfillment of the Law. Many have turned legal and doctrinal today that everywhere they hear the message of grace and hope. They put on messages of the law to oppose the Truth. Many don't even learn again because they have attained peak experience in mosaic teaching just like Pharisees.
Their major purpose on the altar is to point others to sins and not to saviours Cross.
Their area of focus is to provoke the full wrath of the law on the saints by propagating message of condemnation.

Priests crucified him for pride and position. Pharisees crucified him for preaching Grace and not Law.
Judas Iscariot a partaker of the ministry of grace, set apart for a higher calling and a first hand witness of the power of Christ. He missed it just because he wanted to be rich. 😭
How are many Christians falling out of Christ like Judas today for same reason. He simply hope to play tricks on the High Priest and Pharisees thinking Jesus will use divine power to escape as He had done when they wanted to stone Him. He must have thought of making money while Jesus prove himself as almighty. But to his disappointment Jesus Christ almightiness is in his death and resurrection.
Many like Judas are selling Jesus for money and fame today. They sell his healing power, His anointing and His words.

Sir/Ma, there was a time in your life when Hosanna! Hosanna!! to the Lord was your song. You've once testify to his salvation, goodness, mercy and love. Why do we daily crucify Jesus over and over again instead of pointing sinners to the Cross. We cry Hosanna in the temples but crucify him outside the temple. We have mixed with the world that we've lost our savior.

The last group are those who never partake of the law or grace. The Gentiles nations.
He was condemn for the sins of all mankind. Even though these group are wicked, never learn about God and His Christ. The promise of salvation was extended to all. These are the people that keep God waiting from sending his Son again for harvest of Saints. Gospel must reach them. It must go round the world. For this is the only assignment Christ gave all that believed in Him. To go and evangelize the world. To go and bear fruit, to nurture the fruits unto maturity. No matter the level any man acclaimed spiritually, we all have same assignment of expanding gospel in every corner of the world.

Failure to do this brethren. Failure to evangelize is the second focal point of this message. And that is simply the character, attitude or behavior that betrayed and crucified Jesus Christ in our generation.
How can we stay in the temple as High Priests(GOs, Papa, Bishops, Prophets) and Chief Priests(Pastors, Deacons) and Pharisees (Teachers, Evangelists, Workers) enjoying our fellowship together without purposeful, genuine plans for evangelism and soul winning?
Many go to church services weekly, sing in choir, stand as usher, do sanitary work, finance church building projects. But never take time to check how many of those activities were targeted at unbelievers.
Our fellowship together is precious but more importantly our fellowship centres should be a planning room for evangelism and for sharing of testimonies related to soul winning.

Sir/Ma, I submit to you today that much more than human characters that crucified Jesus Christ more than 2000yrs ago. Our character (attitude, approach) toward evangelism, the way we handle our divine mandate to reach the whole world with Gospel of Christ. It betrayed and crucified Jesus Christ much more than any generation ever done.