3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.” Matthew 26
The chief priests and elders saw the people hail Jesus as Messiah and give Him a royal welcome into Jerusalem. They couldn’t have that. It threatened their place and power. They reacted like all cowardly leaders: they schemed in secret.
We need to be aware of how the world will react when followers begin to truly believe and faithfully follow. They will react like threatened animals. They will become dangerous. While His enemies schemed, Jesus continued on His mission: He taught in the temple.
Believe Followers the scheming in secret is going on. Our natural tendency to try to smoke out the schemers needs to be resisted. They are a distraction. We need to act as Jesus did. We need to stay on mission. Increase in scheming and raging among the “heathen” are signs that the mission is on target and the return of Christ is near.
When persecution increases, when it becomes uncomfortable or even dangerous to identify as “Christian, when following gets tough, rejoice. When the way seems easy, that’s the time to worry. It means we are posing no threat to the enemy. We are nothing to worry about.
Work in the light to cause worry, and scheming by those in the dark. It’s a real measure of mission success.
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