Going Up To Jerusalem

I have heard froAnd Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall rise again.”
Matthew 20:17-19
m Bible scholars, and teachers, many of whom have been to Jerusalem; that no matter from which we you are coming to Jerusalem, you are always going up to Jerusalem.

The Lord Jesus had His eyes set on the one day that He would go to the city one final time, and He would give His life that the world might be saved.

Hear what Jesus says,

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him: and the third day He shall rise again.”
Matthew 20:17-19

Though, it is not written as the words of Jesus chapter 16:21 tells us that Jesus told them that He was going to Jerusalem, suffer and die, and that He would rise again. It never seemed to sink into their understanding. Then He tells them once again in chapter 17:22-23 and they still do not get it. They believed that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:13-19).

The twelve disciples were blinded by their own understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to do. They were possibly come to understand, and believe that the Messiah was only a Savior for the Jew, and not the Gentile. They did not understand the meanings of the prophecies of His first coming, they were thinking the Christ was coming to conquer Rome and deliver Israel and set up His kingdom on earth. They were wrong, and soon found that out.

Every prophecy concerning the Messiah was fulfilled in the coming of Christ as a suffering Servant, and He was faithful, even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8).

As we are getting near the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, we know that what Jesus spoke was true, and is still true; Christ Jesus died for our sins. It is not the best way of salvation; it is the only way of salvation. No one will be saved by keeping the law, or by living by the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection is the only way.

Delivered To Die

And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying,
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles: and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again.”
Mark 10:32-34

God or Man?

And He began to teach them, that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And He spake that saying openly. And Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him.  But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying,
“Get thee behind Me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”
Mark 8:31-33

…He shall rise again

And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him,
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles: and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him: and the third day He shall rise again.”
Mark 10:32-34

He did Rise from the Dead

Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.  For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.   John 20:6-10

A Set Mind On His Destination

“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
‘Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify, and the third day He shall rise again.’ ”   Matthew 20:17-19

Many of us when we are going on a trip in our cars or trucks have a destination; a certain place we are going. There are times on vacation traveling especially when we set out for that destination and do not want to stop until we get there. It is, however, a good thing for us to take in some of the sights, and visit other things as we go.

Jesus came into the world; He came unto us with one set destination in His heart and mind. What was that destination? It was to glorify the Father by fulfilling all the things concerning Himself in Scripture. To begin with that was to go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world, upon  a cruel, old rugged cross; taking the sins of the world upon Himself, becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and taking the judgment from Holy God that should have been our own.

Before the cross He shares at least three times with His disciples that He must die, and that He will rise again. He did. He is alive forever more.

Call on the One and the only One who can redeem you from your sins. Call on the name of the Lord, confessing Him believing that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). Make this your destination – eternal life.

Scripture and the Resurrection

“For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” John 20:9  (KJB)

How well do I know Scripture?  How well do I think I know Scripture?  Those are two very different questions.  I am pretty confident that I do not know Scripture as well as I ought to know them.  I think sometimes that I am pretty intelligent concerning the Bible.

It is not, however, until a trial of faith or a real life situation comes along that I understand the value of things I have learned from God and His word.

The events leading to the verse above was the death, burial, and then the bodily resurrection of Jesus.  These were not ignorant of the Scriptures teaching of the resurrection, but now all those times Jesus had spoken of His death and resurrection they had that “OH YEAH!” moment.  Peter and John entered the empty tomb, and saw it was empty – the body of Jesus was gone.

At the crucifixion Scripture was fulfilled.  In the burial Scripture was fulfilled.  In the resurrection of Jesus Scripture was fulfilled.

Read the Scriptures.  Hear them, know them, and understand.

He Shall Rise Again

In a great mountain top experience Jesus and three of His disciples had on the Mount, came down, and found a man with a demon possessed son had asked the other disciples of Jesus to deliver the child.  They could not.  Jesus did.

Now they are going through Galilee, and Jesus is teaching them, reminding them of a perilous time ahead.  It was in motion.  It was going to happen.  Nothing could stop it.

“And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and He would not that any man should know it. For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, ‘The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day.’ But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him. Mark 9:30-32  (KJB)

We can see what Jesus means.  We have twenty twenty vision; because it has happened just as He said.  Let us not judge the disciples too harshly.  They loved Jesus and could not stand the thought of His death, because they did not understand that that is why He came.  They were still of the mindset that He was going to overthrow the Romans, and be King of the Jews at that time.  Jesus was reminding them otherwise.

As Christians in 2019 we need to remember that this same Jesus who died on the cross, was buried, and rose again just as He said; that He will come again, take those who are His unto Himself, and will, after much tribulation set up His kingdom on earth.

Believe Him.  Call on His name.

Up To Jerusalem

The way to Jerusalem is always up.  You never hear of going over to Jerusalem, down to Jerusalem; but always up.  For Jesus this trek to the city would be His final one before He is crucified.  Now He; one more time; tell His disciples what is about to happen…

“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, ‘Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify: and the third day He shall rise again.’” Matthew 20:17-19  (KJB)

He is willingly going to face the accusers, and the Roman governor, and giving His life for the world (John 3:16).  The following is the commentary of John Gill on verse 19 of the above text…

And shall deliver him to the Gentiles,…. To Pilate, an Heathen governor, and to the Roman officers and soldiers under him; see Joh_18:35.

To mock him, as they did, by putting on him a scarlet robe, platting a crown of thorns, and placing it on his head, and a reed in his hand; and then bowed the knee to him, and cried, hail, king of the Jews!

and to scourge him: as he was by Pilate, at least by his orders: Mark adds, “and spit upon him”; as not only did the Jews in the palace of the high priest, but also the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, after they had mocked him in the manner before described:

and to crucify him: which, as it was a cruel and shameful death, such as slaves and the worst of malefactors were put to, so it was a Roman one; for which reason, the Jews choose to deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. The Persic version here adds, “and put him into the grave”: which though it followed his crucifixion, was not done by the Gentiles, but by Joseph of Arimathea, a Jew, and a disciple of Jesus; and that not in a contemptuous, but honourable manner

and the third day he shall rise again: this he said for the comfort of his disciples; but now, though these things were so clearly and distinctly expressed by Christ, and which show his omniscience, and give proof both of his deity and Messiahship, yet Luke observes of the disciples, “that they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken”: the words were plain, the grammatical sense of them was easy, but they could not imagine that they were to be taken literally; which was such a glaring contradiction to their received and rooted principles of the temporal kingdom of the Messiah, and the grandeur of it, that they fancied these expressions carried a mystical, secret meaning in them, which they were not masters of: and certain it is, that what our Lord now said, was so far from destroying, or weakening these prejudices of theirs, that it rather confirmed them in them; particularly, what he said about rising again, which seemed to have put them afresh in mind, and to excite their hopes of this external felicity, as appears from the following case.” John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

Jesus went up to Jerusalem to die for you and me, so that we might be redeemed unto the Creator of all that is; and have fellowship with Him.  Will you take up your cross and follow Him?