We have believed that God sent Jesus to die on the Cross. No! God sent Jesus as the Messiah to be received NOT Killed. If Jesus had been received , the Kingdom of God would have been built in Israel ending evil, sin and death forever.

1. Part 2
Jesus came to fulfill Isaiah 61 (not Isaiah 53)
Waiting for the Messiah
Following the prophecies of the Old Testament, Israel was waiting for the anointed king (the Messiah) of the Davidic line who
would redeem Israel into a glorious kingdom of everlasting peace. (from Jewish Encyclopedia) (1)
Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was to become the city where God reigns (2) and where every Gentile would like to go (3).
Most Christian scholars recognize as a historical fact that at the dawn of Jesus’ advent, the Jewish people were ardently
waiting for the Messiah that would establish the kingdom of God in Israel on earth. (For example, see the work of prominent
Christian scholar Dr. John F. Walvoord) (4)
We can also see this expectation in our Lord Jesus’ disciples themselves.
Even after the Resurrection of Jesus, they were still waiting for Israel to be redeemed.
“We had hoped that he (Jesus) was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21). "Lord, are you at this time
going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)
Jesus preaching in the synagogue
Until now, we have believed that Jesus exclusively
came to fulfill Isaiah 53. Not it’s not accurate.
Jesus himself clearly said he came to fulfill Isaiah
61 and the prophecies of the triumphant Messiah.
Nobody in Israel heard anything about a suffering
Messiah, until Jesus declared it at the end of his
three years public life.

2. Most of the prophecies were announcing a triumphant Messiah but there were a few prophecies speaking of a suffering Messiah, like Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22; these were
totally unnoticed and nobody in Israel was waiting for a suffering Messiah.
When John-the-Baptist proclaimed: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2) and later when he baptized Jesus, John was proclaiming the coming of
the triumphant Messiah as announced by the prophets and the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. John never spoke of a suffering Messiah.
Fulfilling the prophecies
Our Lord Jesus himself spoke like John-the-Baptist as the Bible reports:
“From that time Jesus began to preach “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:17)
And furthermore, In Luke 4:14-20, it reads: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit, and the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding region. … He
went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the
prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor…
The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him." (Luke 4: 14-20)
Jesus was in fact reading Isaiah 61:1-2 and by reading this he was declaring himself as the Anointed One announced by the prophecies.
Jesus confirmed this by saying: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."(Luke 4:21). Jesus was boldly declaring to the people: “I am the one fulfilling the
prophecies and the Messiah you expect.”
Matthew 9:35 states that: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom … “
As Jesus had done in Nazareth, he visited all the synagogues and declared that he was the one anointed to fulfill the prophecies and build the Kingdom of God in Israel.
This is what Jesus was calling “preaching the good news of the kingdom of God”.
Our Lord Jesus further said:
"The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:14-15)
“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose." (Luke 4:43)
“He called his twelve disciples together … and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2)
In John 6: 28-29, some people came to ask Jesus “What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he
has sent."
It was God’s will for the people to believe in our Lord Jesus.

3. The kingdom of God
Let us take a moment to see what would have happened if the Jewish people had done God’s will and believed in our Lord Jesus.
If they had believed in Jesus, they would have glorified him, followed him and protected him from any harm: our Lord Jesus would not have been crucified.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus already possessed the power to forgive sins on earth,(5) and on the basis of their faith in him, he would have forgiven the sins of the
Jewish people.
Jesus said in Matthew 13:33 "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the
dough”.
The people would have emulated Jesus and be like the yeast gradually expanding the kingdom of God in Israel. Evil and sin would have gradually disappeared.
All the prophecies would have been fulfilled and an era of everlasting peace would have started.
Had the Jewish people received our Lord Jesus, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed (6) and they would not have been massacred and been obliged to
go through 2000 years of tribulations. Jerusalem would have been the “City of God” announced by many prophecies.
The kingdom of God would have been established in Israel in Jesus’ lifetime and would have expanded to all nations.
Today, we wouldn’t be waiting for our Lord Jesus to return and establish the kingdom of God on earth. We would already be living in the kingdom of God on
earth and we would all be speaking Aramaic!
Maybe it seems too good to be true, but this kingdom was truly God’s will and God’s hope. God had been waiting 4000 years to send His Son and now that he
was here, He was hoping that the Jewish people would receive him and co-operate with him.
However, God gives free will to human beings and does not force them to do His will. God couldn’t force Adam and Eve to obey Him in the Garden of Eden and
in the same way He couldn’t force the Jews to believe in our Lord Jesus.
Jesus’ answer to John
When John was in prison, he sent two disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?".
Jesus answered: "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matt. 11:5)
Jesus didn’t answer yes or no, but rather he quoted Isaiah 61:1!!

4. He was telling John: “Look John, I am fulfilling Isaiah 61:1, I am really the Messiah you have been waiting for.”
Jesus also added: “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me." To paraphrase, Jesus was saying:” John, I am sorry that you don’t get it.”
During the three year of his public ministry, our Lord Jesus worked tirelessly to convince the people that he was their expected Messiah, hoping they would get it, but
they wouldn’t believe in him.
The door of the Kingdom
One day Jesus expressed his frustration:
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that
are entering to go in.” (Matt. 23:13)
What was this kingdom of heaven they were shutting against men? This was the kingdom of heaven announced by John and Jesus. By preventing people from
accepting and following Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees were preventing Jesus from building the kingdom of God. They were closing the door of the kingdom of
God on earth.
In a similar way, in the parable of the wicked tenants (7) Jesus told the chief priests and the Pharisees that because they were rejecting him like the wicked tenants
that killed the owners’ servants (the prophets) and the owner’s son (Jesus): “ the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce
its fruit.” He was conveying that the kingdom was ready to be built in Israel if the Jewish people had received Jesus.
Unfortunately, due to the faithlessness of the Jewish people, after three years, for the first time, our Lord Jesus finally started to tell his disciples that he would be
rejected.
"The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. But they did not understand what he meant and
were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9:31-32)
The fact that the disciples did not understand, is a clear indication that Jesus never spoke of his death before.
It’s important to realize that until this moment, our Lord Jesus had never put himself in the position of the suffering Messiah mentioned in Isaiah 53, but always in the
position of the triumphant Messiah that came to establish God’s kingdom of everlasting peace.
From triumphant Messiah to suffering Messiah
Shedding many tears, our Lord Jesus was leaving behind his dream of fulfilling Isaiah 61 as the triumphant Messiah and was turning to fulfill Isaiah 53 as the
Suffering Messiah. He announced “ … Now my kingdom is not from this world” (John 18:36).
The door of the kingdom of God on earth was closed, but Jesus was opening another door, the door of a kingdom that was not of this world by offering himself on the
Cross and by the victory of the Resurrection on the third day.

5. The head of this new kingdom will be our Lord Jesus resurrected, sitting on his throne at the right side of God. The citizens of this new kingdom will be those who
believe Jesus died on the Cross for their sins and accept him as their Lord and Savior.
It was a very new gospel compared to the gospel of the “kingdom of heaven is at hand” announced by John and Jesus at the beginning.
On the Resurrection Day, our Lord Jesus comforted his disciples on the way to Emmaus by telling them that his death was according to the Scriptures; there was
nothing to worry about. We can imagine that Jesus pointed them to Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 announcing a suffering Messiah.
Jesus was trying to reassure them that everything went according to God’s plan and told them: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his
glory?” (Luke 24:26) This was the only way for Jesus to consolidate their faith.
It was of no use at this point to explain he had to die on the cross as a ransom for the unforgivable mistake of rejecting him as the Messiah and Son of God.
Instead, Jesus was now focusing on the future and he needed his disciples to have a strong faith to endure the difficult times ahead. He had only a short 40-day period
to strengthen their faith. There was no time to waste.
The notion that our Lord Jesus came strictly to die on the cross is one that has been passed down from generation to generation. This is what the writers of the New
Testament wrote including the great Paul.
And today, every Christian believes as the disciples did, that our Lord Jesus came exclusively to fulfill Isaiah 53 and die on the cross.
Isaiah 61 postponed
However, we can now realize that this view is not the full picture as it only describes the last few days of Jesus’ life around his Crucifixion.
We can also understand better why Jesus worked so hard during three years to convince the Jewish people he was the Anointed One and why God had so carefully
prepared Israel for 2000 years to receive the Messiah.
God’s intention was to end evil and sin on earth at the time of Jesus, but it didn’t happen. Sadly, through the ages, Christians, even the most faithful of us, we have
continued to give birth to children that are born in sin.
This problem was not solved by the death of Jesus. It will be solved at Jesus’ second coming.
Our Lord Jesus promised to return and establish the kingdom of God on earth. This shows us that his desire to fulfill Isaiah 61 and establish the kingdom of God
didn’t change, it has only been “postponed” until he comes back.
This study is based on the revelation that our Lord Jesus gave to Rev. Sun Myung Moon as related in the book “Exposition of the Divine Principle”.
http://dplife.info/divineprinciple/

6. The question now is how Jesus will come back.
This study teaches us that even the Messiah cannot build the kingdom of God on earth alone. God couldn’t force the Jewish people to believe in His Son
because He cannot crush His children’s free will. It had been the same in the Garden of Eden, God didn’t force Adam and Eve to obey the
Commandment.
Today, there is no reason to believe that when Jesus returns it will be different. Our Lord Jesus cannot force us to magically live in peace and harmony
with each other. He will need our cooperation. Here is Jesus’ revelation on the Second Advent:
http://dplife.info/divineprinciple/part-ii-chapter-6-the-second-advent/
Dear Reader please feel free to email me your comments and reflections at this email: remytaupier@gmail.com
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(1) The Jewish Encyclopedia http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10729-messiah
(2) Isaiah 60 :14 https://biblehub.com/isaiah/60-14.htm Scholars count up to 500 references that pertain to Jerusalem becoming the City of God.
(3) Zechariah 8 :22 https://biblehub.com/context/zechariah/8-22.htm
(4) Dr. John F. Walvoord https://bible.org/seriespage/interpreting-prophecy-today-%E2%80%94-part-2-kingdom-god-old-testament
(5) Mattew 9:6 https://biblehub.com/matthew/9-6.htm
(6) Luke 19:44 https://biblehub.com/luke/19-44.htm
(7) Matt. 21:33-45 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A33-45&version=NIV
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To study more on Jesus’ heart and mission, here are two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONuZmeLWCys&list=PLkAiMN57ry5BuIxdBDM2MPComBu5-chc0&index=4&t=1622s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDsDlV7tl9U&list=PL7XAFjojX6OddJ7ia_v-QlGqyCF1snIy9&index=6&t=1863s
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To read more about “Exposition of the Divine Principle”, the revelation that Jesus gave to Rev. Moon: www.dplife.info/divineprinciple