A Call to Discern, Contend for & be Sanctified by Truth

I have been reading through the Gospels and seeing how Jesus proclaimed Himself to be God and proved it through His miracles and teaching. How He rebuked the man-centred religious system, and pointed to Himself throughout the scriptures (during His ministry and again after the resurrection) - He quoted the Old Testament, and spoke clearly of His coming death and resurrection, yet, even the 12 disciples didn’t understand until after the resurrection, what He had meant. BUT, one of the men who hung for their crimes, on a cross at Jesus’ side DID understand! He knew that Jesus was innocent and was not dying for His own sins, he knew and recognized his own guilt and sin deserving of death, AND he even recognized that Jesus was not going to remain dead, but would come into His Kingdom. He knew that the Kingdom was not of this world, and was not about setting up a throne to demolish the rule of Rome. Jesus came as fully God and fully man, to fulfil the numerous prophesies that fill the

Psalm 139:23, 24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” 2 Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?  Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by a crowd full of people singing and rejoicing over miracles. When Nicodemus came to Jesus and said that they (the Jewish leaders) knew that He must be from God because of the signs/miracles, Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)  The Jewish people had been waiting for the Messiah, and the entire Old Testament is full of messianic prophesies - on the road to Emmeaus, after His resurrection, Jesus went through the entire scripture to teach that it was all about Himself. The messianic pr