Prophecy of His Death and Resurrection (1)

[Matthew 16:21-23]

Matthew 16:21 says:
“From that time on Jesus Christ began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

This passage is Jesus’ prophecy that He would die and rise again on the third day. In last week’s Wednesday prayer meeting, focusing on Matthew 2:13-18, we learned that Jesus, who came to this earth to die at the time God had appointed (Galatians 4:4), fled to Egypt because the appointed time for His death had not yet come. During His 33 years of life on earth, Jesus often avoided and hid Himself because the time God had set for His death had not yet arrived. Eventually, Jesus died at the appointed time (Romans 5:6).

Jesus came to earth at the appointed time (Galatians 4:4), died at the appointed time (Romans 5:6), and will come again to earth at the appointed time (1 Timothy 6:14-15). Jesus, who came to fulfill God’s will, accomplished that will at God’s appointed time. We too should follow Jesus’ example and fulfill God’s will at the right time.

Jesus, who fulfilled God’s will at the appointed time, also spoke about the place where He would die. That place is “Jerusalem” (Matthew 16:21).

In today’s passage, Matthew 16:21 says, “From that time on… He began to show,” and here “from that time on” refers to the moment after Jesus arrived in the region of Caesarea Philippi and asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (v. 13), then asked them, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (v. 15). Simon Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Therefore, Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (vv. 17-19). After this, Jesus warned His disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Christ (v. 20).

Immediately after saying this, “from that time on,” Jesus began to tell them that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed (v. 21). In other words, “from that time on” means that after Jesus told His disciples He would build His church on this rock (v. 18), He then began to prophesy His death in Jerusalem (v. 21).

Jesus had spoken about His death and resurrection before, but not so clearly. Regarding His death, He said, “The bridegroom will be taken from them” (Matthew 9:15), and regarding His resurrection, He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). However, “from that time on” (Matthew 16:21), Jesus spoke openly about His death and resurrection.

Moreover, in Matthew 16:21, Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection together. When He openly spoke about His death “from that time on,” He also revealed that the place where He would die was “Jerusalem” (v. 21). The reason is that Jerusalem was the place God had appointed for Jesus’ death.

Then, I would like to reflect on three aspects of “Jerusalem,” the place determined by God.

(1) In Genesis 22, when “God tested Abraham” (v. 1), the place that God appointed for him to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering was the “land of Moriah” (v. 2), specifically the mountain of Moriah that God showed him (vv. 3, 9). And this mountain of Moriah is Jerusalem [(2 Chronicles 3:1) “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah…”].

Obeying God’s command, Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two servants and his son Isaac, and cut the wood for the burnt offering (v. 3). After three days (v. 4, New Modern Translation), he arrived at the land of Moriah, looked at the mountain of Moriah from afar (v. 4), and said to his two servants, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there and worship, and we will return to you” (v. 5). Then, he placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s back, took the fire and the knife in his own hands, and the two of them walked on together (v. 6). Isaac asked Abraham, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (v. 7), and Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (v. 8). And indeed, God Himself provided a ram (v. 13), which Abraham offered as a burnt offering in place of his beloved son Isaac (v. 13). Therefore, the name of the place was called “Jehovah-Jireh” (“The Lord Will Provide”) (v. 14).

However, when God the Father allowed His beloved and only Son Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:7) to be crucified in Jerusalem, and as Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, according to the prophecy), the Father did not prepare a lamb to offer for His Son (Genesis 22:8). In other words, for Father Abraham, Mount Moriah (Jerusalem) was “Jehovah-Jireh,” but for God the Father, the Jerusalem where His only Son died was not “Jehovah-Jireh.” The reason is that the “lamb” that God provided (v. 8) was none other than Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

(2) In 2 Samuel 24, when King David conducted a census of Israel, which was wrong in the sight of God (vv. 1-4), as a result, a dreadful plague killed 70,000 people across Israel in three days (v. 15, New Modern Translation). To stop the plague (v. 21), David, following the command of the Lord through the prophet Gad, went to the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan) the Jebusite, where he built an altar (vv. 18-25). This threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan) was Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 3:1 says: “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” David did not want to offer a burnt offering to God without paying for it, so he purchased Araunah’s threshing floor at a fair price (1 Chronicles 21:24). There, he built an altar to the Lord, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and prayed to the Lord. The Lord responded by sending fire from heaven upon the altar, and when the Lord commanded the angel, he sheathed his sword (vv. 26-27). Eventually, when the angel lifted his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented from the disaster and said to the angel, “Enough; now stay your hand” (v. 16). The place where the angel stood was the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (Mount Moriah, Jerusalem) (2 Samuel 24:16).

But God the Father poured His holy wrath upon His beloved Son Jesus Christ, who died in Jerusalem, and He did not stop but fully poured out His wrath. The reason was that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth as a propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).

(3) In 2 Chronicles 3:1, it says, "Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite." From this passage, we can see that the “Mount Moriah,” where God commanded Abraham to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering, and the place where God commanded David to offer burnt and peace offerings through the prophet Gad, the “threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite,” were both locations in Jerusalem, the place that God had determined.

In this Jerusalem, King Solomon began to build the Temple of Jerusalem, and Jesus told the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The temple that Jesus referred to here was His own body [“His own body” (Modern Bible)] (v. 21). That is, the Jerusalem temple referred to the body of Jesus, and in today’s passage, Matthew 16:21, Jesus prophesied that He would be crucified in Jerusalem.

Jesus not only died at the time God had appointed, but also at the place God had appointed ("Jerusalem"). We, too, must follow the example of Jesus, the Firstborn, and die at the time and place God has appointed. In other words, we must live according to God’s will and die according to God’s will. Such a death for the saints is precious in the eyes of God (Psalm 116:15). Although it may appear to people as a cursed and miserable death, what is most important is that living according to God’s will and dying according to God’s will is the most precious life and the most valuable death in the eyes of God. Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" [(Modern Bible) "The Lord values the death of His saints"].