Welcome to this 4-part series on Jesus Christ: yesterday, today, and forever.
Our focus will first be to show why God had four gospels written. They are all the same good-news story of salvation, but each gospel [Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John] shows a different aspect of Jesus Christ and what he accomplished in his earthly ministry. That’s the “yesterday” aspect of Jesus’ ministry.
Many Christians are concerned about what they do in life. That is reasonable. But I’m learning how important it is to “not do” things. Some people like to talk about sins—of commission and omission. In other words, the mistakes we make from what we do or don’t do. Our actions proceed from our hearts. What did Jesus say about this?
Many people believe that John, the son of Zebedee, refers to himself in his gospel as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” Yet the scriptures indicate that this phrase probably refers to Lazarus of Bethany.
Some of our most interesting conversations have been at wedding receptions. Lots of food, fun, and people in the mood to enjoy life together. Well, leaving the land beyond Jordan, Jesus moved on with some of his disciples to the town of Cana, Nathanael’s hometown in the province of Galilee. They had been invited to attend a marriage ceremony there! Let’s go!
After his baptism by his cousin John, Jesus went immediately into the wilderness. Before seeing Jesus again, John moved over to Bethabara beyond, or east of, the Jordan River to continue baptizing. We track him down there where the Pharisees had sent the priests and Levites to grill him on the rumored appearance of the Christ.
Immediately after the exhilarating experience of baptism, the heavenly anointing with holy spirit, and a sacred affirmation from the Father in the words, “this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the wilderness. On our trek, we seek him there.
Continuing to travel along with John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea, we’ve observed that his simple, bold, heart-convicting message started a revival of hope for the coming of God’s Messiah. Multitudes of needy folk had come out to partake in the baptism of repentance that he offered.
Time for a wilderness walk! Yes, a walk into the wilderness of Judea to find John the Baptist. And we find him there preaching to all who had come out to hear him. But first, we’ll track back to find out more about John, the son of Zacharias.
When Sherry and I visited Israel, we stood by the Jordan River perhaps near the place where Jesus was baptized by his cousin John. Just as Jesus was a prophet “like unto” the Prophet Moses (Acts 3:22; 7:37), John was a prophet like the Prophet Elijah. John’s coming was predicted by another prophet, Malachi.
On the road again! We’ll be taking a shortcut from the time of Jesus’ birth directly to his family’s trip to Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. If you’d like to see what happened from just before his birth to his move to Nazareth as a young child, you can read Moving to a New Home.