Dear Explorer,
Read Luke 9:21-22
This is Luke's record of what was recorded by Matthew and Mark earlier (Day 133). This is the first time that Jesus clearly told the disciples God's plan.
One of my questions that will have to wait until Heaven is, When did Jesus first know that this was the plan? I suspect that it was sometime after He was an adult and before He began His ministry – but I have no Scriptural proof of that. Some people believe He knew from birth, others that He gradually learned of God's complete plan as He spent time with God in prayer. Other's believe it was part of the 40 days of testing after His baptism. I don't know. But here we are told that He shared it with His disciples. Now let's look at the teaching to follow.
Read Matthew 16:24-28
And
Read Mark 8:34-38
And
Read Luke 9:23-27
The disciples believed that God had sent Jesus. They even believed He was the Messiah and not just a prophet, but do you think they had a proper understanding of what the Messiah would do?
Probably not.
Sometimes, okay, pretty often, the disciples seem to be clueless as to what was happening.
I believe there are two very good reasons for this.
#1 When most of us read about these events -- we already know how they will turn out – or we can simply read fast and find out. The disciples were living this out day-by- day, hour-by-hour and these things that were happening had never been heard of before. They were new never-been-had experiences. As I'm writing this, the world is dealing with a new virus that's “never-been-heard-of” serious. We don't know how long it will last, what changes will be permanent and when or if things will ever get back to normal. That's what the disciples were dealing with – something that affected everything they knew and believed and loved and cared for. This was new territory. Life was turned upside-down.
And
#2 Today, when we invite Jesus into our lives the Holy Spirit comes in and starts to give us instructions and teaches us what we need to know. But while the Holy Spirit lived inside of Jesus, He was not living inside of these early followers. Why? Because Jesus had not died for their sins. When sin is not paid for – then the Holy Spirit cannot indwell the core. So, these early followers of Jesus were trusting that Jesus would be their Messiah and take away their sins, but it had not happened yet. It will – but not until after Jesus died.
If we take a sneak peek ahead, we'll see this timeline:
Jesus died
Jesus rose from the dead
40 days later Jesus returned to Heaven
10 days after that, the Holy Spirit was sent to live inside the followers
Of course, we'll talk more about these events when they happen.
So, without the Holy Spirit inside of them, they weren't being guided by Him, they weren't being instructed or reminded of God's plan, they weren't empowered and strengthened to stand firm.
So, for now, don't be too harsh on these poor clueless disciples. They were doing a great job by following Jesus the best they could at the time.
In His service, dale
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