Prophesized death and resurrection (1)
[Matthew 16:21-23]
Matthew 16:21 says: “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” This is the word that Jesus prophesied that He would die and that He would be resurrected on the third day.
During the Wednesday prayer meeting last week, centering on the words of Matthew 2:13-18, we learned that Jesus, who came to this earth to die at the time appointed by God (Gal. 4:4), fled to Egypt because the time appointed by God was not yet the time to die. During his 33-year life on this earth, Jesus often fled and hid Himself, but the reason was that the time of death set by God had not yet come. Then Jesus died at God's appointed time (Rom. 5:6). In this way, Jesus, who came to this earth at God's appointed time (Gal. 4:4) and who died at God's appointed time (Rom. 5:6), will return to this earth at God's appointed time (1 Tim. 6:14-15). Jesus, who came to this earth to fulfill God's will, fulfilled God's will at God's time. We must imitate Jesus and do God's will in God's time. In this way, Jesus, who fulfilled God's will at the time God had appointed, said that He would die in the place God had appointed. That place was “Jerusalem” (Mt. 16:21).
If we look at today's text Matthew 16:21, “From that time…” in “From that time Jesus began to show” means, when Jesus came to the Philippi region of Caesarea, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (v. 13), and then asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (v. 15). At that time Simon Peter confessed his faith, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). So, Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys to 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 saying this, Jesus warned His disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ (v. 20). Right after saying this, “From this time on” Jesus foretold that He would go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed (v. 21). Jesus had spoken about His death and resurrection before, but He did not say it clearly and said like this. Regarding His death, Jesus said, “The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away” (Mt. 9:15), and regarding His resurrection, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19). However, “From that time” (Mt. 16:21) Jesus clearly spoke of His death and resurrection. In addition, in Matthew 16:21, Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection at the same time. Jesus spoke clearly about His death “From that time” and said that the place where He would die was “Jerusalem” (v. 21). The reason is because “Jerusalem” was the place where Jesus had been appointed by God to die.
Then, I would like to think about “Jerusalem” that God has appointed in three ways:
- In Genesis 22, when “God tested Abraham” (v. 1), the place God had appointed for him to offer his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, as a burnt offering was Mount Moriah in “the land of Moriah” (v. 2), which God told him (vv. 3, 9). And this Mount Moriah was Jerusalem [(2 Chron. 3:1) “Then Solomon began to build the house of th e Lord in Jerusalem on Mouth Moriah …”].
Obeying God's command, Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two young men and his son Isaac, and split wood for the burnt offering (v. 3). “On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance” (v. 4). “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you’” (v. 5). After that, he put the burnt offering on Isaac, and he had a conversation with his son Isaac, holding a fire and a knife in his hand (v. 6). Isaac asked his father Abraham where he had the fire and wood, but where was the lamb for the burnt offering (v. 7). Abraham's answer was, "My son, God himself will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering" (v. 8). And in fact, since God himself prepared a ram (v. 13), Abraham offered the ram as a burnt offering in place of his beloved son Isaac (v. 13). So, the name of the land was called “The Lord Will Provide” (“In the mount of the Lord it will be provided”) (v. 14). However, when Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son whom Heavenly Father loves and delights in (Mt. 13:7), was killed in Jerusalem (as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 23:21) and said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When He cried out loudly (27:46), God did not prepare for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering for His son (Gen. 22:8). In other words, to Father Abraham, Mount Moriah (Jerusalem) was “The Lord Will Provide,” but to God the Father, Jerusalem, where Jesus, the only begotten Son, died, was not “The Lord Will Provide.” The reason is because “the Lamb” prepared by God (v. 8) is Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn. 1:29).
- In 2 Samuel 24, King David made a census of Israel, which was not right in the sight of God (vv. 1-4), and as a result, 70,000 people died throughout Israel due to a terrible plague over 3 days (v. 15). To stop the disaster (v. 21), David went to the threshing floor of Araunah (Ornan) the Jebusite and built an altar (vv. 18-25), according to the word of the prophet Gad, which the Lord had commanded (vv. 18-25). This Araunah (Ornan) threshing floor was Jerusalem.
Look at 2 Chronicles 3:1 – “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in 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.” David, desiring not to offer burnt offerings to God from Araunah (Ornan) without cost, bought his threshing floor with a fair price (1 Chron. 21:24), built an altar to the Lord there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. God responded by sending down fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering, and the Lord commanded the angel, and he put his sword in the sheath (vv. 26-27). In the end, when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented of the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, ‘It is enough; now withdraw your hand.’ It was the threshing floor of the man Araunah” (Mount Moriah, Jerusalem) (2 Sam. 24:16). However, Heavenly Father poured out his holy wrath on Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son whom he loved and delighted in dying in Jerusalem, so He did not stop and poured out His wrath sufficiently. The reason is because God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to this earth as a sacrifice to atone for our sins (1 Jn. 4:10).
- In 2 Chronicles 3:1, the Bible says “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in 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.” According to these words, “Mount Moriah,” where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, and “the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite,” the place God commanded David through the prophet Gad to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, are the same places. We can know that it was “Jerusalem” that God had chosen.
In Jerusalem, King Solomon built the Jerusalem Temple, and Jesus said to the Jews, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19). Here, the temple in Jerusalem that Jesus was talking about was referring to his flesh (his own body] (v. 21). In other words, the temple in Jerusalem refers to the body of Jesus, and Jesus prophesied (spoken) in Matthew 16:21, that he would go up to Jerusalem and be killed.
Not only did Jesus die at God's appointed time, He died in God's appointed place ("Jerusalem"). We too must imitate Jesus, the eldest brother, and die at the time and place appointed by God. In other words, we must live according to God's will and die according to God's will. The deaths of these saints are precious in the sight of God (Ps. 116:15). Although it may be a cursed death in the eyes of people, the most important thing is to live according to God's will and then die according to God's will, which is the most precious life and the most precious death. Psalms 116:15 says: “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.”