“When the days were coming to a close for Him to be taken up, He determined to journey to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51 HCSB
“When it was time for Jesus to die, He made His way to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51 BRIAN
Why did He have to journey to Jerusalem?
“Yet I must travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem!”
Luke 13:33 HCSB
What a sad statement. The prophets were sent from God to Israel or Judah, but yet Jerusalem would be responsible for their death. Jesus was no exception. He was first sent to Isreal to free them from the team of Satin (https://bharper504.blogspot.com/2020/05/dont-stop-him-jesus-told-him-because.html). But they rejected Him and killed Him in Jerusalem.
Because He was rejected by the nation of Israel. He was preached among the Gentiles, non-Jews, first, by Philip, then, Peter, and finally by Paul and Barnabas.
“An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem”
Acts 8:26-27 HCSB
“Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner. But God has shown me that I must not call any person common or unclean.”
Acts 10:28 HCSB
“There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias! ”
“Here I am, Lord! ” he said.
“Get up and go to the street called Straight,” the Lord said to him, “to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there. In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him so he can regain his sight.”
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name! ”
Acts 9:10-16 HCSB
“Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. In view of the fact that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if I can somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them. For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Now if the firstfruits offered up are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, do not brag that you are better than those branches. But if you do brag — you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” True enough; they were broken off by unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either.”
Romans 11:13-21 HCSB
Without this rejection, we all would be considered a Jew in religion. Some might go as far as to say we would not have heard of Jesus outside of Israel, but it is in God’s heart that all people must be saved. He would not have held Jesus for only the jews but they would have begun to move out to the gentiles.
“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, after being put to death in the fleshly realm but made alive in the spiritual realm.”
1 Peter 3:18 HCSB
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
John 3:16-17 HCSB
Now since we have learned about Jesus and recurved his message to repent and follow Him we must tell those who we come in contact with about Him.
The early Church - Philip, Peter, and Paul would preach to the Jews first but them slowly they would preach to us gentiles and last of all Paul exclusivity preached to the gentiles.
We must first preach to those who are around us and then spread out as God urges us out.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 HCSB
“Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 HCSB
If this included Jews for you let them know what Jesus has done for you and they can too accept Jesus as their messiah. The Jew's rejection is not final but God still desires to graft them back into His vine through Jesus.
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