The time was approaching for Jesus to experience the suffering necessary to redeem humanity from sin. Only One could fulfill this purpose - One without sin; One sent by God from eternity past to eternity future. Jesus knew what was to come and He prepared those who would be His first messengers by warning them of a future they could not yet possibly comprehend.
Jesus not only knew what would happen to Himself, He knew what would happen to each of them. What would happen to Jesus would change their lives forever - but they weren't able to understand it - yet.
Would you like to know your future? Could you bear it? If your life purpose - your mission - was set before you, would that make life any easier? Could you then prepare for it? If you didn't like it, would you attempt to change it?
Jesus knew His future and He knew the consequences of failure: humanity lost in sin for all eternity. So He led the death march to Jerusalem where He would be betrayed to those who unjustly sought to kill Him; where he would be condemned to death by a mock trial which violated all standards of justice at that time; He would be mocked and spit upon and flogged by the foreign rulers of His own people in a traitorous act of collusion. This would all culminate in His humiliating death on a cross, pierced and hanging naked above his mother and a few remaining faithful followers - the rest having left Him.
No matter what our own future holds, of one thing we must be assured: that it's not the end. Jesus knew that it was not the end. "Three days later He will rise." (Mark 10:34). We don't know if our next drive to the grocery store, or the next time we turn out the lights to go to bed, will be our own death march. But because Jesus has completed His, it is entirely possible for you to know your own future.
Do you believe Jesus came from God, suffered these things and rose on the third day? Do you believe He was the only One who could fulfill this purpose? Do you hunger to know your Redeemer more intimately?
Then you know your future.