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22 Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up." And they were exceedingly sorrowful. ~ Matthew 17:22-23
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 17 where the Lord Jesus taught His disciples on how to be disciples. Discipleship happens when we walk through life learning to listen to Him more and more closely. Discipleship happens when we live in harmony with God's definitions of all things. Discipleship happens when having been taught by God, His influence spills out through our yielded lives into the lives of others. Essential for discipleship to happen is that we listen to the Lord and give safe haven to His truth in our souls.
In Ecclesiastes 5:1 we read, "Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know they do wrong."
In today's passage the Lord Jesus reiterated to His disciples that He was headed to Jerusalem to deal a death blow to sin and death by dying on the cross Himself. Although the cross was the means by which the Lord Jesus conquered sin and death, for the disciple the cross teaches us the concept of death to self. The reality is that dying to self is essential for discipleship and it is through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that the disciple is positioned to be most effective for God's glory in this world.
In v.22 of today's passage we read, "Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, 'The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.'"
This was the second of three times the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem to die and be raised from the dead. He reiterated this fact before He dove into the details of discipleship. He did this to show a clear difference between the believer's justification and sanctification. Christ's cross ushered in our justification while our cross ushers in His sanctification. Our justification and our sanctification must be kept separate because if we teach that our sanctification factors into our justification, then we would be guilty of heresy. We cannot earn God's favor and to teach such is false teaching. Whereas our justification makes us right in God's eyes, His sanctification is the process whereby we learn to die to our selfish desires and thus allowing Him to define us. Discipleship is one tool God uses in our lives to deliver His sanctification into the life of the yielded believer. Justification is a one-time act, never to be repeated, whereas, sanctification is an on-going process that will not end until the Lord calls us to Himself.
The word "betrayed" is the very same word used later to describe the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas. This, of course, would not be a surprise to the Lord Jesus for He knew that the eternal status of every human who has ever lived and will ever live was dependent upon Him being judged for all sin on His cross. After the Lord Jesus told the disciples about His death and resurrection, they struggled to understand it. They couldn't comprehend it because they clung to the idea that during His first coming He would set up His eternal kingdom in this world. His kingdom in this world. They ignored the teachings of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 among many others that underscore the fact that during His first coming the Lord Jesus would deal a death blow to sin and death by dying Himself on the cross of Calvary. It will be at His second coming that the Lord Jesus will usher in His eternal kingdom.
At this point, the disciples simply were not ready for a suffering Christ, especially One who would die. The disciples undoubtedly also struggled to understand the fact that He would be raised from the dead. Through this teaching, the Lord Jesus made it very clear to His disciples that there is no discipleship without the secondary teaching of the cross. It is the cross that teaches us God's ways and aids us in our growth as His disciples. In order for our faith in the Lord Jesus to grow, we must be trained by the Lord to say "no" to the evil desires that are still in us and which beckon us daily.
According to Mark's account the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Listen carefully" before He taught them that He was "going to be delivered into the hands of men." Once again, listening to the Lord Jesus is the main idea in this chapter. Listening is one of the easiest things we will ever do, and yet, one of the hardest. In Romans 10:17 we read, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." This type of hearing is not easy because as disciples we are being trained in a culture that is not normal for us. Our default mode, even though we have been born again, is the flesh. The answer is hearing Him with faith which accentuates the achievements and the life of the Lord Jesus. It is through His grace that the disciple is sustained in the faith.
In v.23 of today's passage we read, "and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up." And they were exceedingly sorrowful."
Here, the Lord Jesus reiterated a second time that He would be killed in Jerusalem. The disciples did not understand that His atoning death had been highlighted throughout the Old Testament sacrificial system. For some reason they did not connect the dots. As we read in Hebrews 9:22, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin." The death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary was designed of God from eternity past to provide for undeserving and sinful man a personal relationship with God. It was through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead that the deal was sealed. His death happened because in His body God judged sin and rendered it nullified. His life overcame death on the behalf of all who would confess Him as our Savior and Lord.
Interestingly, the response of the disciples to this teaching this time was entirely different than it was the first time. In Matthew 16:26 all of the disciples responded indignantly at the words of the Lord Jesus vowing to not allow it to happen. But, this time the disciples were "exceedingly sorrowful." The disciples were now learning to listen to the Lord who speaks to us through His Word, through our conscience, and through His creation. The disciples were yet to learn that the hardest and most difficult messages that God gives us come through the most unwanted moments of life. They would soon learn that His most profound message would come on the heels of being plunged into their greatest grief over His violent death on the cross of Calvary.
