OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS BELOVED SON TO DIE ON OUR BEHALF

Matthew chapter 20  verses 17 - 19 captures a moment where the Lord Jesus paused privately with His disciples and told them plainly that there was going to be a sequence of events that would take place when they got to Jerusalem that would result in His trial, scourging and crucifixion. 

17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

This revelation was given to the disciples as they travelled to Jerusalem to prepare them for the imminent culmination of Jesus ministry as a servant on the earth.

The events that Jesus mentioned would happen to him are in this order;

• Arrival at Jerusalem
• Betrayal to the chief priests
• Betrayal to the scribes
• Condemned to death
• Delivered to the Gentiles to mock
• Delivered to the Gentile to scourge
• Delivered to the Gentiles to Crucify
• Rise again on the third day

The disciples, having been given a concise agenda, did not fully understand that it was going to actually happen and that they were headed towards the end of life as they knew it.

Even though the disciples understood that going to Jerusalem was dangerous for them for example in John 11 verse 8 which says “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”, they could not imagine that the Lord would let Himself be entrapped and killed.

They also did not understand the last event on the list which was the ressurection, would also be happening and this would change the history and open eternity of mankind.

The kingdom of heaven that Jesus had painstakingly been teaching His disciples about was going to become accessible to them and the rest of the world when they believed that Jesus, having died on a cross to pay the debt of their sins, rose from the dead.

The ressurection of Jesus was the certificate of the success of the transaction and innaugurated the kingdom of heaven being available to us.

Amen and thank you Lord Jesus.

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