And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again. Matthew 20:17-19

Here we see for the third time, Jesus prophesied about his death and resurrection to his disciples. Even after he told them this, time and time again, they still didn’t get it. When Jesus finally went to the cross, as Christ predicted, they were shocked and felt defeated. The disciples felt defeated, even though this is exactly what God told them he was going to do! They just didn’t understand God’s plan, just as we still don’t understand God’s plan for our lives, however we need to keep the faith in Christ, because God knows what he is doing!

Today’s reading is only 3 scriptures, and we could have easily skipped over it, but these 3 scriptures are the entire gospel, it’s the foundation of the entire BIble. Without the gospel message there is no hope or salvation for humanity. Why is the gospel message so difficult to grasp? No matter how many times we heard the gospel, why does it seem almost impossible? 

Here’s the reason why the gospel is so radical, because first we need to acknowledge our sinful state. Most people believe they are “good” people and there sin is not that bad, but they are wrong. All wages of sin lead to death, there is a price to pay for our sinfulness, someone has to pay the penalty! But first we need to acknowledge our sins against God and repent (turn away from our sins). Many people can’t get past this first step, they love their sin more than they love God or eternal life

Next we need to understand that God became a man to pay for the penalty of our sins (John 1:14, Isaiah 53) This is almost impossible for our minds to grasp, that God can become human, fully God and fully man (Philippians 2) and die on the cross for our sins. But this is exactly what Jesus did for us!  The fact that Christ knew you before the foundations of the world, choose you, and died for you to redeem you (Ephesians 1:4) 

And then we have the Resurrection of Christ, that Jesus not only paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, but Christ also defeated sin and death by rising from the dead  to live forever! (Luke 24, Matthew 28) Because Christ is Risen , we can also be risen forevermore at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15) We can be redeemed and restored because of Jesus Christ

This is the gospel message , the only message that can bring hope to the entire world, a message that Satan doesn’t want to be heard or preached, so the world will continually have a strong resistance to the gospel message, but the gospel must be preached because it’s the living hope for our faith in Jesus Christ, Amen!