The Messiah, God's Anointed One. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, however, Jesus never directly referred to Himself as the Messiah except privately to His disciples, until the crucifixion.

And the high priest said to him, 'I put to you on oath by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God'. The words are your own answered Jesus. Moreover, I tell you that from this time onward you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. - Matt. 26:62-64; Mark 14:61-62; Luke 22:67-70 -

He did accept the title and function of messiahship privately.

'But you,' he said 'who do you say I am?' Then Simon Peter spoke up, 'You are the Christ,' he said 'the Son of the living God'. Jesus replied, Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. - Matt. 16:16-17 -

Yet, Jesus constantly avoided being called "Messiah" in public. This is known as Jesus ' "messianic secret" He was the Messiah, but he did not want it known publicly.The reason for this is that Jesus' kingdom was not political but spiritual. If Jesus had used the title "Messiah," people would have thought he was a political king.

Jesus replied, 'Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.' - John 18:36 -

But Jesus understood that the Messiah, God's Anointed One, was to be the Suffering Servant. - Is. 53:12 - The fact that Jesus was a suffering Messiah - a crucified deliverer - was a "stumbling block" to many of the Jews. They saw the cross as a sign of Jesus' weakness, powerlessness and failure. They rejected the concept of a crucified Messiah.

And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called , whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the Power and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. - 1Cor. 1:23-25 -

But the early Christians centered around the fact that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Christ. - Acts 5:42, 17:3, 18:5 -

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -