By the time Jesus was born, the Jews had been looking forward to the coming of the Messiah for a very long time. They were hoping that Jesus would establish an earthly kingdom, liberating them from the rule of the Roman empire. But the Kingdom that Jesus came to establish is not of this world.<\/p>\n
\nLuke 17:20-21 (WEBBE): 20<\/sup>Being asked by the Pharisees when God\u2019s Kingdom would come, he answered them, \u201cGod\u2019s Kingdom doesn\u2019t come with observation; 21<\/sup>neither will they say, \u2018Look, here!\u2019 or, \u2018Look, there!\u2019 for behold, God\u2019s Kingdom is within you.\u201d<\/font>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At that time, nobody could really understand the meaning of the crucifixion yet. It was still hidden, even to the Jesus’ disciples. Just look at how Peter reacted when Jesus announced that He will die.<\/p>\n
\nMatthew 16:21-22 (WEBBE): 21<\/sup>From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.<\/p>\n
22<\/sup>Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, \u201cFar be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The community leaders also didn’t understand how Jesus would bring salvation. They perceived Jesus as a trouble maker, and they wanted to get rid of Him. They thought if they killed Him, that would be the last they hear of Him.<\/p>\n
\nMatthew 26:3-4 (WEBBE): 3<\/sup>Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. 4<\/sup>They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians that the rulers that crucified Jesus didn’t know what the outcome of it would be. If they had known that Jesus was meant to die for us, they would not have done it!<\/p>\n
\n1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (WEBBE): 7<\/sup>But we speak God\u2019s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8<\/sup>which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn\u2019t have crucified the Lord of glory.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nColossians 1:26-27 (WEBBE): 26<\/sup>the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, 27<\/sup>to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery amongst the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n1 Peter 1:17-21 (WEBBE): 17<\/sup>If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man\u2019s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, 18<\/sup>knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 19<\/sup>but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ, 20<\/sup>who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake, 21<\/sup>who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It was God’s plan all along, even from before creation, that Jesus would die to save us and defeat death itself. He had hidden it for our sake until the right time. And now it has been revealed. God lives in us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By the time Jesus was born, the Jews had been looking forward to the coming of the Messiah for a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[19,8,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/IMG_6754-Copy.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7I1MG-kW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1326,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pellissier.co.za\/faith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}