ACT 4: JESUS PART II.

But Jesus' message receives mixed responses. Some people believe, and out of these Jesus chooses twelve disciples or followers. But most people simply watch him with amazement, never

knowing quite what to make of him.

The established religious leaders quickly become hostile toward him. Eventually this conflict escalates to the breaking point and the religious leaders conspire to have Jesus arrested and killed on a cross.



But this defeat is actually God's greatest victory. Jesus' death turns the tables on God's enemy

and the world upside down. By willingly giving up his life as a sacrifice, Jesus takes onto himself God's judgment for our wrongdoing. As the the early Christian leader Paul later wrote:

God made you alive with Christ, He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code,

with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross ( colossians 2:13-15 ).

Jesus speaks the message of God as Israel's true prophet. He defeats the very power behind all

evil as Israel true King , the son of David. He gives us his own life as a sacrifice for his people to a new Exodus through death to a new life. In all of this Jesus shows himself to be the promised child of Abraham who reconciles humanity with God.

It is through Jesus that Israel can finally fulfill its role, the purpose for which God called Abraham.

This account of Jesus is the focal point of the Bible's entire story. The key struggle with god's enemy the desperate attempts to correct what has gone wrong at the very heart of things, comes to a head in the life of jesus. He is the one and only hero of the story.