JESUS PREDICTS HIS DEATH
By Evangelist Diana Gray
Copyrighted (c) 2001, All Rights Reserved

 Jesus Christ predics his death.   How was the 
Disciples predicament similar to our experiences today?

     In Matthew 17:22-23 And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised up again.  And they were exceeding sorry.

     This was a hard saying for the disciples to hear much less understand.  We today can understand it because it has happened already and  history makes it easier for those of us who are believers, but the disciples didn’t have this advantage.  How hard it must have been to be with Jesus day and night for 3 years, loving him the way that they did to suddenly be told for the second time that Jesus would suffer at the hands of sinful men and be horribly killed.  What a terrible situation to be in and yet Jesus was striving to prepare their hearts for the soon coming events.
     Jesus knew that these very men would one day lead the world into the Salvation message and it was imperative that they have an understanding of what was about to take place in the months ahead.  Events that would change their lives forever and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was and is the Messiah!
     Jesus was predicting his soon coming death upon the cross at the hands of religious leaders as well as cruel Roman soldiers.  People who loved nothing better than to torment and cruelly torture innocent victims weaker than themselves.   Sad days were coming for Jesus as He steadily moved closer to fulfilling the call upon His precious life; to save people from their sins by being the sacrificial lamb upon the alter.  Our sins had a price and Jesus was to pay the awesome price of laying down His life for our sin.
     The disciples were so confused and torn with inner turmoil over these prophetic words.  On one hand they knew from His teachings that He must suffer and on the other hand He would be this mighty ruler.  How confused and torn into two directions they must have felt.  The awaking to full faith was verging upon them but still their fleshly eye sight kept getting in the way of their growing spiritual ones.  
    Jesus predicted His death but at the same time He predicted his resurrection.  This meant a step out in faith that the disciples simply were not ready to give yet.  How often all of us will only see through our fleshly eye sight and forget to look deeper at the Spiritual nature of things.  People can only spiritually grow just so fast and need time to fully comprehend what they are told.  Too bad we as adults can’t look at all of the teachings of Jesus through the eyes of a little child full of innocents and purity of heart.  How much more trusting we would all be if out faith was that of a child.  The disciples had this problem too.
    Jesus death would shatter all of their dreams of a Saving Messiah who would save them from the Roman dictators.  Little did they realize that Jesus death would mean eternal life for all of us who would believe upon the name of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven was closer at hand than they realized.  How much greater is our responsibility to tell the Good News because we have the blessed Bible.
KJV Bible

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