MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MESSIAH!

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MESSIAH!

John 12:19

19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, Jesus resembled a ruler in peacetime. He raised the dead; surely he can restore the kingdom and overthrow Roman tyranny and reform social injustice. People were throwing down their outer robes as a carpet and waving palm branches. Even the Pharisees commented with indignation that the whole world had gone after this Jesus! But they were all wrong about so many things.

1. They misunderstood his PERSON!

Matt 21:10-11

10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?

11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

All this was true but their understanding was grossly incomplete. They did not recognize Him as the Son of God or the Lamb of God.

2. They misunderstood his PURPOSE!

Even after His death and resurrection the focus of His disciples was on the earthly kingdom.

Acts 1:6-8

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Matt 24:14

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

3. They misunderstood his PAIN!

Matt 27:41-43

41 Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,

42 He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.

43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.

The Jewish believed in a “prosperity gospel.” Pain meant punishment for some sin. This man on the cross surely was a sinner and a fraud. He cried out for Elias but God did not rescue. Even the thieves “cast the same in his teeth.” Yet they did not consider that his pain was sacrificial and redemptive.

1 Peter 3:18

18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

Dear Jesus, minister to my understanding today. AMEN