We wrap up our Making a Messiah series with God’s verdict on Jesus. The earliest Jesus followers were just as skeptical as anyone today after Jesus’ crucifixion, and none of them expected a resurrection. It was the resurrection that turned them around and launched the church.

Baptism is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus When we identify with Jesus in baptism, we come to grips with who we are, who He is and what stands in our way.

We walk through the trials of Jesus and see him rejected six times over the course of just a few hours. Their reasons for rejecting him are templates for some of our own. And in the end, our verdict on Jesus will determine God’s verdict on us.

Jesus didn’t come to add to the Old Covenant, he came to replace it. And the was to do life with God, for God, God’s way under this new covenant is encompassed by this one new “law”: Love one another, as I have loved you.

The temple was the center of Judaism, the path to doing life with God, for God, God’s way. When Jesus entered the temple and disrupted the buying and selling of Passover lambs, he was throwing down a gauntlet: “You can crown me or kill me - but you can’t ignore me.”

Until now, Jesus has been quelling public speculation that he was the Messiah. Now he goes public, in a remarkable fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecies. Now he forces our hand: crown me or kill me.

After blowing their minds by telling the disciples that as Messiah he had to suffer and die, and that following him might make their lives much harder, he confirms that he really is their Messiah by giving them a peek at who he really is. And God the Father shows us, and tells us to listen, and follow him. We probe the historical evidences that it really happened.

Jesus asks the biggest question anyone will have to answer - who do you think he is? And then he redefines what it means to be the Messiah of God, and what it means to follow him.

40 years before it happened, Jesus predicts with great detail the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. If he could speak with authority about the future, he deserves to be followed.

They thought he might be the Messiah, but they thought he was doing it wrong. Jesus tells these parables to teach them: God’s Kingdom is not what you think it is; but it’s going to win; and you need to do whatever it takes to be part of it.