The first-century Jew was one who was completely aware of the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. The “Law and the Prophets” were constantly being read in public places. He would have undoubtedly been longing for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. With this in mind, it seems paradoxical that when Jesus came to fulfill all prophecies concerning the Messiah, many Jewish people missed it or refused to accept Him. Why is that?<\/p>\n
One of the reasons that he stands out is that Jesus did not fit the “mental picture” they had of the Messiah. They had certain ideas and wishes of the Messiah that were not scriptural. For instance, the apostles were constantly looking for an earthly kingdom. This is evident at times such as when they had scruples over who would be the greatest in His kingdom (Mark 8:35-45). Some may have been looking for the Messiah to make some “spectacular entrance,” be more concerned with worldly things, or overthrow their current rulers. Whatever the case was, He did not fit their preconceived mental images, so they would not accept Him.<\/p>\n
Many have the same problem today with His church that the Jews had with Jesus 2000 years ago. In spite of the Bible’s descriptions of and instruction for the church, they have other preconceived desires for its organization, worship practices, and work. They seem to want its organization to be more complicated, fulfilling man’s desire for offices within it. They want worship services to come across more spectacular, entertaining man’s desires. They also want the church’s work to go beyond the bounds that the Lord established so that it would appear that they are doing much more “good.” Men go against the Lord’s Will when, through their pride, they insist on these “improvements.”<\/p>\n
Paul writes to Timothy and says, “…for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables…<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3,4). It does not matter how efficient it seems to make the church run, how entertaining it makes the services, or how much work seems to get done; if it is not done according to the Word of God, it is not scriptural and must be stopped. One cannot perform certain “religious” practices because they sound good or satisfy any desire one might have.<\/p>\n There has been a great flow of people into the “Modern Mega Church Movement,” as some have deemed it. These are churches that teach only what people want to hear. They build great structures that focus on entertaining men and feeding their stomachs. Their organization is complex, with many offices and names that are not found in the Bible. People flock to these churches because they find them to be “fun and exciting.” One does not have to ponder the situations very long to figure out why they are so large.<\/p>\n This is the picture that many people paint in their minds of the church, even though the one the Bible paints is nothing like it. The church that Jesus built was not designed to entertain or feed, in fact, it was condemned at one point for this (I Corinthians 11:17-22). The church that Jesus built preached Jesus and drew in people with His gospel. Those who obeyed His Will were added by the Lord to the church, not to some complex organization. Those people, in turn, went out and preached Jesus (Acts 11:19-26). The “power of God unto salvation” has never been such things that much of the modern religious practices endorse, but it is rather the “gospel of Christ” (Romans 1:16). What a blessing it is when people put their pride and desires aside and are satisfied with enjoying serving God the way He has established.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Aaron Beard via Gospel Power, Vol. 14, No. 12, March 25, 2007 The first-century Jew was one who was completely aware of the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. The “Law and the Prophets” were constantly being read in public places. He would have undoubtedly been longing for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-56865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37337,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/christ-in-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":0},"title":"Christ in Prophecy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by C.G. \"Colly\" Caldwell via The Preceptor, September 1988 One of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting the Bible is the fulfillment of prophecy by Jesus Christ. The Old Testament was completed in the fifth century B.C. Malachi is usually dated between 444 and 432 B.C., and it is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66778,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/genealogy-as-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":1},"title":"Genealogy as Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton One thing about all the lists of names in the Bible (forget about the difficulty of pronunciation) is that they were kept meticulously to keep the record accurate and verifiable. When Genesis gave a genealogy, it was to show that the writer was being historical and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-matthew-fabricate-a-prophecy-to-support-his-claim-that-jesus-was-the-messiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":2},"title":"Did Matthew fabricate a prophecy to support his claim that Jesus was the Messiah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question.\u00a0 It may seem like I am attacking Christianity with this one, but I'm not.\u00a0 I'm just very interested in studying the Bible and every now and then I come across an objection I need help answering.\u00a0 So here is the objection I found on another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69147,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-the-bible-was-human-in-origin\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":3},"title":"If the Bible Was Human in Origin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If God was just made up, and the records of the Israelites that gave us the Old Testament were totally made up by them, then they were not very smart. They predicted their own demise and their rejection of their Messiah, making themselves look ridiculous. Who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40646,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-messiah-and-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":4},"title":"The Messiah and Prophecy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant God has not left himself without witnesses. In every age and in many ways, God has revealed his existence to man. Paul declares this in the words that followed the healing of the lame man in Acts 14:16-17: \"In the generations gone by He permitted all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10540,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-jesus-said-to-be-of-nazareth-if-he-was-born-in-bethlehem-and-who-was-the-serpent-in-the-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":56865,"position":5},"title":"Why is Jesus said to be of Nazareth if he was born in Bethlehem and who was the serpent in the Garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! My brother-in-law asked me, \"Why was Jesus called Jesus of Nazareth if he was born in Bethlehem?\" My answer was because he was only born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. Was I correct? He also feels that Jesus, in the form of a snake, tempted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}