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(The life of our Savior) John the Baptist starts his ministry. Chapter 3.1
(Matt. 3:1-6, Mark 1:1-6, Luke 3:1-6)
note: John 1:6-13 covers John the Baptist but we used that earlier in “Embarking on total Truth”
Click here for outline of our study
Recall in our last study when Jesus and his family went Jerusalem for the Passover festival, on their way home Jesus stayed behind for three days to talk to the religious teachers and scribes at the age of twelve. We don’t hear any more about Jesus until He is older (around 30 years old), Jesus and His earthly parents go live a quiet life in Nazareth. Jesus grow up learn the skills of a carpenter. Understand this is all God’s plan and it went the way it was supposed to.
Now we haven’t talked about John the Baptist for a while, so there has been some time that has went on since he was born and we can look back and see the study where Zacharias the priest was in the temple and heard the news about his wife Elizabeth was going to bear a child, a very special child. This was a short time before the Virgin Mary was made pregnant by the Holy Spirit with Jesus. So John the Baptist is around 27-30 years old when he shows up on the scene.
It’s important to know that while we don’t hear anything about John the Baptist for years and he just shows up preaching he was no doubt being filled with the Holy Spirit and being blessed by God with wisdom, knowledge and understand about the coming Messiah with His Ministry and Gospel.
Also John and Jesus never meet in this time; John was off all by himself in the wilderness basically getting close to God along with gearing up to take the region and religious leaders by storm.
This is the first time we are looking at the Gospel of Mark. He wrote his letter to the Gentile reader and the way he starts his Gospel is he starts it by saying the start of the Good News is John the Baptist.
Mark 1:1 This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. 2 It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written:“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.
3 He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’
Mark uses two passages from the prophets, the first part is from Malachi 3:1 and the second part is from Isaiah 40:3. Understanding the ministry of Jesus comes from the Old Testament.
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.
John’s practice of baptizing those who came to him for repentance was such a characteristic of his that he became called “the Baptist”. What’s interesting is this was before the Lord came on the scene and people were fully recognizing that they needed to repent. Recall repent means “change your mind”. Turn back to God.
I recall where I worked a guy walked in with a black shirt on with red writing “I feel a sin coming on”. I think back to the way I use to think and really if we haven’t come to know Jesus we just think sinning is a thing that just doesn’t exist. It’s just life, the word sin is almost fairy tale, and it doesn’t mean anything.
That’s just what Satan wants us to keep believing, but someone or something in our life will nudge or move us towards the Truth and when we get a taste of it slowly but surely in time we will understand the damage sin does to our life.
5 All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John.
We know how social media can spread news fast about something or someone but I can only imagine how word of mouth was spreading like wildfire about this man that looked wild, telling people to repent and be baptized for their sins. The people and the leaders wanted to see for themselves.
And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.
John’s preaching touched people’s heart because it wasn’t like the Pharisees and Sadducees teachings at all in Jerusalem. It was different and it was from God! A person getting baptized in the Jordan River was an awesome event and songs through time have been sung with this river’s name in it. People to this day that travel over there take a small rock from this very river.
The Jordan River has been a land mark and has separated enemies, cities and people since the beginning of time. It flows from the mount of Hermon snow pack to the Dead Sea.
Matthew’s writing on this…
Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was, 2 “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” 3 The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said,
“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’
4 John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. 5 People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John. 6 And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
Here is Luke’s writing on this scene…
Again recall and we see were Luke was a doctor and wanted to be perfect in his writings about the Good news, so Luke added stuff that the others didn’t and Luke wanted to nail down a concrete person/event that people could relate to and it was history of the time and the world that they could find if that person didn’t believe the message or things that were being spread about the Good News.
I underlined the difference were Luke went into major details about the time; this is the stuff that through time has again and again proven the fact that all believers know.
Luke 3:1 It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. 2 Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. 3 Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. 4 Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,
“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!
5 The valleys will be filled,
and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
and the rough places made smooth.
6 And then all people will see
the salvation sent from God.’”
(The life of our Savior) From Egypt to Nazareth Chapter 2.4
Matthew 2:19-23, Luke 2:39
Our last study we went over Joseph and Mary getting out of town and fleeing for Egypt by the voice of God telling Joseph to leave, because Herod was going to be looking to kill the baby Messiah. Furthermore, Herod the Great killed all the male babies in that region where he thought the baby boy would be, being that the wise men didn’t return as he wanted to tell him exactly where Jesus was.
Sometime has went by, we aren’t sure how long exactly but we do know it’s before Jesus turning 12 years old, but in Matthew chapter 2:19 the Bible reads, But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said. 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Childs life are dead.”
21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard (Joseph) that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee,
The region of Galilee is about 65 miles north of Jerusalem.
23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Nazareth was a rather obscure town, not one that was considered a great town by any means. It was a small town way north of the big city Jerusalem.
Nazareth is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament writings, Matthew wrote in verse 23 that he lived in Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets. Not singular but plural. But there are several places in the Old Testament where it refers to the Messiah being despised. Not by one prophet but by many, just as Matthew has said by the “prophets”.
Something to take note of, Jesus was a fairly common name in these days, so by placing Jesus name “the Messiah” with a place, Nazareth an actually town, where He grown up helped people to know truly who they were talking about as well as all the things we are going to look at below.
David wrote a Psalm with the same parallels to the suffering Savior.
Psalm 22:6 David wrote “a reproach of men and despised by the people.”
Psalm 69:10, when I wept in my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.
This chapter in Isaiah is subtitled “the suffering servant”
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and forsaken by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isaiah 49:7 thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, to the despised One
Micah 5:1 now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops; They have laid siege against us; With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
Nazareth held Roman garrison for the northern areas of Galilee. Therefore the Jews would have little to do with Nazareth and largely despised it.
It was like Matthew was referencing this town and the Messiah because they were looked at in the same way by almost everyone, as nothing good.
Jumping a little into the Bible a few studies ahead in John 1:46 Nathanael says when he hears of the Messiah, the One talked about by the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth.
Nathanael reply is priceless in a way…..
John 1:46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said come and see.
Just thinking about how I think as a human and how off I am in my silly short minded ways just as Nathanael was here. But the greatness that comes from reading this verse and saying to yourself as you read it, oh yes, something great can come from Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth is one of many names used in reference to Jesus of the New Testament. It is packed with meaning that held much relevance in His day and in ours. Jesus of Nazareth highlights both Has prophetic fulfillment as the divine Messiah and His human nature as One who lived among humanity.
Luke adds one verse about Jesus and His parents returning to Nazareth. Luke 2:39 when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to their own city of Nazareth.
Recall Luke had read all the other letters (Gospels) and wanted to cover different stuff than the other three writers.
(The life of our Savior) Flight down to Egypt. Chapter 2.3
Matthew 2:13-18
Click here for outline of study
So our last study we had the wise men told in a dream from God not to go back to Herod the Great as he had asked because he wanted to truly know where the baby Messiah was to do Him harm, even though he told the wise men he wanted to worship Him.
The very next verse (2:13) says when they had gone (the wise men); behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up!” Take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
It’s interesting to me that as little as we know about Joseph and all the things he did in his whole role, we know he was faithful because the angel of the Lord went to him and Joseph in return listened. This was not the first time he listens to the angel of the Lord.
How many times do we hear that voice from the Lord, and how do we respond? What is our conscience telling us?
Joseph already had seen what God was doing and there was no hesitation.
Verse 14 of Matthew chapter 2 says that Joseph took the Child and His mother and left while it was still night. Joseph got the dream and left that same night. Must have been some message to get out!
We don’t hear about much details of the baby Messiah and His parents in Egypt other than they stayed there with the instructions from God until they were told, which was after Herod had passed away.
This was to fulfill what the prophet Hosea said in Hosea 11:1, which Matthew also records in verse 15, “Out of Egypt I called my Son.”
This was written by the prophet Hosea in regards to Israel being called out of the Land of Egypt in the time of Moses but Matthew writes it down here thinking about the old testament scripture in regards to the baby Messiah coming out of Egypt as well.
I want to back up just a little, recall how poor Joseph and Mary were. How could they travel from Bethlehem to Egypt? That is a distance of 429 miles. Just something to make note of, they didn’t have a car. On that note remember last study how I said we will see how much God was involved in this situation, this was a poor couple that need to get out of town, travel 400 plus miles with a child that had no money.
Recall the wise men giving those gifts/treasures to them, well there is no doubt that Joseph and Mary used these things to sell along the way to make it to Egypt, along with God making other things happen for His divine plan.
It is so important for us to see how much God is involved in situations like this, it might be easy for us to see Him in things that have to do with the life of Jesus but friends He is working and doing the same things in our lives as well. You can put that in the bank!!
Matthew 2:16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
First thing to make note of it wasn’t the wise men really, it was Almighty God that warned them not to go back to him. We see here that Herod’s wickedness which we looked at in our last study was in full force now. Hundreds if not thousands of baby boys were killed. What a sad scene, all these innocence baby boys killed by an evil man trying to kill the baby Messiah, all because he wanted all the power and control. The hearts of men are evil, only God can truly change a man’s heart.
Another thing to make note of the name of Jesus and the Christian faith has been tried to be destroyed by empires, nations and kings/rulers many times, but as God’s Word says, it will stand forever.
Matthew 2:18 “A cry was heard in Ramah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”
This was a passage Matthew writes from the prophet Jeremiah 31:15 (recall, Matthew is wanted the Jewish reader to believe, so he is getting deep rooted stuff down for them to know about), Ramah was located about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, it was one of the towns that the Jerusalem people passed through in their way to Babylonian exile. Rachel was Jacob’s favorite wife and grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two and most powerful tribes in the northern kingdom. If this is strange talk to you at this time just know that Rachel was a great mother of many great people and bloodline.
(The life of our Savior) The birth of Jesus, Matthew’s take. Chapter 1.8
Joseph’s faith and trust (Matt. 1:18-25)
Part 2: The birth of Jesus, Matthew’s take
Click here for outline of our study
In our last post of this study we looked at how Luke chose to put a date and time in history and went on to go into the story of the shepherds in his details of the birth of Jesus. Matthew however went a little different route, as we recall Matthew is a Jew and is writing his Gospel to the Jewish reader, so it’s not surprising that he went the way he did, he wanted the reader to know fully that Jesus was born from a virgin and Joseph showed a lot of faith in God in staying with Mary and not doing what most of us would do.
Matthew 1:18 this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
I love how Matthew opens this section, he proclaims again to Jews, “this is how the Messiah was born”. Let them know who Jesus really is.
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
In this time engagement was a lot more serious than today and there was to be no sexual relations to be had. It was not a fully marriage yet but the only way the engagement could be broken was by divorce. Deut. 22:24.
But the angel of the Lord can and spoke with Joseph and told him the purpose of this baby and that it from the Holy Spirit and not that Mary had actions with another man. Matthew really wanted to make sure to hit home to the Jewish reader all these points, of course all with God’s purpose and plan.
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
In verse 22 Matthew wrote to fulfill what the prophet spoke of, this was talking about Isaiah 7:14. The name Immanuel which means “God with us” is used as a title for Jesus’ divinity. Matthew and Luke are the two Gospels which touch on the virgin birth which are a he part of our evangelical faith.
I want to finish this part on this note, there is not much written about Joseph and Mary, but make no mistake about this two wonderful people of God were humble servants and the way that Joseph acting in this situation should his faith and trust in God and His wonderful plan for his life.
We as believers must do the same thing trust and have faith in God, He cares and loves was so much He did all this for us, His awesome plan for salvation.
(The life of our Savior) Embarking on total Truth. Chapter 1.3
The life of our Savior, with my reflections
The preparation years (click for outline of study)
The way it is!
There is something that can never change, ever. That thing is truth; truth will always be truth forever and false will all always be false.
We as humans in our everyday actions and words project and think what we want about truth. Our opinions are truth. Our statements about someone else is truth, our comments about someone else is truth. This false hood of truth is dangerous and truly destroys people, families and lives.
It’s amazing to me seeing people’s lives and my own and how people accept Truth or don’t, furthermore either care about it or don’t. Let’s relate it to a big issue right now in America, the Law, Police, you have to obey them, if a cop tells you get out of your car and sit on the sidewalk and you think in your mind, this cop pulled me over for nothing, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, this police officer just hates me because of whom I am. In reality you were speeding and have a tail light out and by the way your car smells like booze and or weed. The truth is you broke the Law, but we see things how we want to see it.
Ground breaking statement here, (this shocked me and still does daily when I get angry); our anger in any situation is 100% because something didn’t go our way! Period! (This is a spiritual preview, a free sneak peek)
Everything for us is physical, and this is very very dangerous!!
This is the way it is!
Time (physical) is something that we as humans have wrapped up into seconds and minutes that we can see. Our whole life in the 21st Century is wrapped up in what we can see and touch.
Since I was young boy I was into competing and playing sports, there had to be a winner. I had to find out who was the best, sports was big in my life, as I still enjoy sports today, some might say still too much. But it’s all put into perceptive for me now.
The truth is all that matters (so I thought I knew what truth was), and the truth is, who is the best?
I’m right and you’re wrong!
You do stupid things, I do everything the right way.
That is truth, are you better than me or is it I’m better than you?
I really have always cared about the truth (again we know the truth makes us feel good, but what we will see is that we are not clear on what True Truth is, yet!). So looking back and seeing the stuff that never stuck with me is very interesting, it’s like even in a foggy world of media there was something keeping the real truth deep down inside. Things that destroy our lives are not true but they feel like it at times, arguing, bitterness, hate, greed, jealousy, they are false. Along with Drugs, etc. are a lie; they don’t make you feel better. Satan wants us believing the lie, not the Truth.
Truth!
My sports teams are better than yours, which is the truth!
I can do, think and say what I want!
I don’t care!
It’s my life, this is very true but in the end we will be a disaster, and it’s a lie because of what happens to you and your life when you do and act like this.
I can think like this but in reality is it actually truth?
So I thought this was all truth and life was mine to grab and take ahold of and it would be truth!
So I would truly have a good and happy life.
Wouldn’t I?
Fell on my face fast, after hearing this!
I recall talking with a dear friend and coworker after I had watched the Passion of Christ and he told me to read the book of John in the Bible first. Recall I had went and bought a Bible after watching that movie because I had to see what this stirring and burning feeling in my soul was all about.
Little did I know, but I was about to embark on total Truth.
The apostle John starts his Gospel off with “In the beginning was the Word.”
What does this mean, in the beginning was the Word? Furthermore when was the beginning?
God is Spirit and Truth period; everything we know about in this world starts and ends with God. He is a supernatural being that we can’t even comprehend. When people hear this type of stuff that don’t believe in God they roll their eyes and say please, give me a break. But at some point in our lives we have to find out for ourselves, not listening to others and surely not judging God based on what we think we see Christianity as.
Let’s ponder John’s opening to his letter, a man who walked with Jesus, God in the flesh. We are talking about a life with meaning and a life that has purpose, one that relies on something bigger than humans. A life that lives in light, one of pure Joy, not one that lives in the dark under belly of this crooked world.
The world is false in regards to what the world promises us.
So as we look at the first 5 verses of John’s letter what is the point.
God is so much Truth just as the Bible itself. God, Jesus, the Word and the Holy Spirit are one. The Good News of the Gospel and everything in the Bible holds all we need to know about to have a great life and purpose (it’s not a rule book, period, it’s bigger than that, if you stay along you will see). It tells us what the Creator has done for us and what He still wants to do for us.
So the Bible is so much about love and truth that Jesus walked this earth in the flesh to show us God is the Word and who He really is.
The Word and Truth are like your name and your social security number.
A preview of who Jesus really is:
John 1:1-5
In the beginning the Word already existed The Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.
John is telling us in his prologue, Jesus Christ, the preexistent Word incarnate. Recall that John put a lot of stuff in his letter about Jesus that the others didn’t have, this was a ground breaking statement to show us more and deeper about the Truth.
God is and has always been, Light is life and darkness is not. Furthermore the Word has been since the beginning.
We see Luke open his letter which can give us the understanding that he took his letter very serious, he just didn’t write his letter about Jesus in a weekend. Remember Luke was a Doctor.
Luke 1:1-4
Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.
Luke was talking about everything from the beginning of John the Baptist and Jesus walking this earth and laying down His life. Recall he wrote this letter about 30 years after Jesus life.
Luke also understood how big it was to gets down the blood line of Jesus after examining God’s promises of the coming Messiah with specific prophecy. Now Luke said in the opening to his letter that he read the others writings and looked into everything, so he knew that Matthews writings were geared towards the Jews and showed Jesus coming through Solomon’s blood line (which we will cover next), so Luke got down in his letter the whole genealogy from Jesus other side which was Mary and through Nathan’s blood line. This can be found in Luke 3:23-38.
Matthew opens his letter to the Jewish reader (right of the bat, showing this Jesus is the person foretold), in chapter 1 verse 1 Matthew says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matthew goes all the way to verse 17 of chapter 1 giving the blood line through Solomon which was King David’s son. Again to show the Jews his blood line through their historic past.
A preview of who John the Baptist is:
So before we go into more detail about Jesus, there is a big turn for a little bit that God had foretold and that was written in Malachi the last letter in the Old Testament. This last letter in the Old Testament was written 430 years before John the Baptist was born.
Malachi 4:5-6
5 “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers.
The apostle John again much different than the other writers goes deep spiritually about this person that was going to come before Jesus, that was going to be a messenger about repentance. This is a very important word, and this was John’s main message. This word is a big word even for us today. We will find out as we go along.
Repentance= changing one’s mind. Turning around, going away from ourselves/own actions and going towards God.
The apostles John’s first 18 verses talk about spiritual substance in referring to Light and darkness and God being the Word, Truth.
We are talking a look at John’s letter first in regards to John the Baptist because he goes deep in regards to understanding that the world was full of darkness at this time (just like now), and John is trying to show his reader that the world we live in is spiritual, our very souls, are very being is a soul. You either do good things or bad things; Light or darkness is consumed and/or produced.
The other 3 letters will all have something on John the Baptist’s life in more physical detail of his life.
John 1:6-18 (Apostle John’s letter)
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. 15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’” 16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
Luke Five and 32 