Jesus' mission

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew 16:21
There are a few major turning points in Jesus’ ministry, and this is one of them. In Matt. 13:3 we saw how after the Pharisees accused Jesus of acting in the power of Satan, He no longer talked to the crowds plainly, but in parables, so that the truth would be hidden from those who did not believe, but revealed to those who did believe. Similarly here, catalysed by Peter’s confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 17:16), Jesus starts to tell the disciples about the real reason why He came to planet earth.
Jesus’ mission at His first coming, was not to establish the Kingdom, as the disciples were expecting (Luke 19:11, Acts 1:6). Rather, it was to die for the sins of the world. But Jesus’ death was not the end, for He was raised from the dead. When Jesus spoke to the disciples about His death, it was always in the context of the resurrection (Matt. 16:21, Matt. 17:23, Luke 9:22). The disciples didn’t understand that Jesus would be resurrected, until after the event (John 20:9). Even the Pharisees remembered this before the disciples did! (Matt. 27:62-64).
Jesus’ death and resurrection is central to the Christian faith. It is the means by which we are saved – which is the reason that He came.