So this is the "Life of Jesus in
Chronological Order". And you've got worksheets to be able to kind of put it,
all the information that we're giving, and hopefully by the end of, by
the end of this class you'll have a file. And in that file you'll have the life of
Jesus, all the events chronological order, with all the biblical references, and
hopefully a little bit of a commentary on some of the things that are going on.
So last week we started with the first major section of Jesus' life, the period
from just before His birth to a time when He was 12 years old. In the
various periods of His life that first period is from, again, before His birth to
when He's about 12. There's a lot of speculation about the period after this
until His thirtieth day or His thirtieth year but the Bible simply states that He
returned to be with His parents. Lots of literature, lots of speculation as to
what happened during those approximately 18 years. But you have to remember, since
the Bible states that His turning water into wine was which
miracle? His first. I mean, the Bible specifically states that it was His
first miracle and then subsequent visits to teach at His hometown synagogue were
met with surprise, we can conclude a few things about that early period. And again
if you want to look at material that's outside the Bible you can come up with
all kinds of wild theories, but if you're just gonna stick with what the Gospel
writers have given to us... So here are some of the conclusions. First, He did not
perform miracles or use His divine powers during this period. How do we know
that? Well, the Bible says His first miracle was at Cana. Well, first means
there weren't any before that. So all the extra biblical stories of miraculous
powers and stuff like that are just that, they're just extra biblical but
they're not the official record. Secondly, He did not teach. He did not
proclaim His person or mission before this time but simply attended and
participated in worship just like His fellow Jews. Because the Bible says at
one point, "as was His custom He went to the synagogue", as was His custom.
So His custom from an early age like all good Jews was to go to the
synagogue and participate in the synagogue. And what did they do at the
synagogue? Well, they prayed, they read the law, the scriptures, they
sang, the rabbi would do a teaching, an exhortation. Pretty much the
same, almost the same as what we do. And so he participated in that. And we also
know from the Bible record that He moved out or He left His family's home and
headed for Jerusalem at the age of thirty. It also says in another place,
we'll talk about that, he actually lived in Capernaum.
I mean not His growing up city but the place where He lived as an adult. I
mean, He wasn't a wanderer. He didn't live in a cave. He lived in Capernaum.
So His obscure life came to an end when His ministry to the Jews began at the
river Jordan with His cousin John the Baptist. And so now we leave that first
period and we go to the next period, the beginning of His public ministry. There
are seven events in this section on the beginning of Jesus' public ministry
which followed the first fifteen events, because you see we start at
number sixteen. We've already covered fifteen events so we start at number
sixteen. Anybody who doesn't have notes from the previous things I can give them
to you and Hal has recorded the last couple of lessons. You can get the DVD. So
the sixteenth event in Jesus' life is what's going on around him, the
preaching of John the Baptist, Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1. So
all the Gospel writers talk about John the Baptist. In its discussion
of the future Messiah, the Old Testament prophets describe the
person who would appear on the scene as a forerunner to introduce or to prepare
the way for the Messiah. Isaiah for example, chapter 40 verse 3, Malachi
chapter 3 verse 1. These Old Testament prophets spoke of the forerunner, the one
who would come before Jesus. So with his appearance and preaching John fulfilled
this prophecy and John's message was twofold. First, repent of sins and be
baptized in order to symbolize the cleansing of their souls, forgiveness of
their sins. And then the second piece, if you wish, of his preaching was that his
successor would come to baptize these people not with water but with the Holy
Spirit. Alright? Exactly. I want to remind you of something here
and that is, every time this notion of a baptism with the Holy Spirit
occurs, that either John or Jesus or someone else mentions it, it's never the
baptism OF the Holy Spirit. You will not find that phrase in the New Testament.
You can go through it from beginning to end with a tooth comb, you will not find
the term baptism OF the Holy Spirit. Because baptism OF the Holy Spirit would
signify that the Holy Spirit is the one doing the baptizing. The
term is always baptism WITH the Holy Spirit. You're receiving the Holy
Spirit in an act of baptism. It's always that term. And I ask you, the baptism that
belongs to the Holy Spirit is what? A little digression here but I think it's
worth noting. Which baptism belongs to the Holy Spirit?
Wait, just... I'll pause. You just will let somebody outside the
family try to get one here. {laughing and inaudible talking} Cuz I feed him all the answers in case
it'll be quite. Which baptism belongs to the Holy Spirit? Come on. And why does
that baptism belong to the Holy Spirit? {Inaudible talking in the background} Okay. That's the baptism WITH the Holy
Spirit. But the baptism that belongs to the Holy Spirit is which one? Well, which
one does the Spirit command? No. Come on. This is... It's too easy. That's why you're
not getting it. Yeah, okay. William? The baptism with water. By what power does
Peter say repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus? By what
power does he, does Peter say that? Through the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy
Spirit speaking through Peter saying repent and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. So when you're having a discussion with the... perhaps
occurs... people who are charismatic or Pentecostals so on and so forth and they
bring up the issue of baptism OF the Holy Spirit try to show them that
the baptism OF the Holy Spirit is water baptism. It's the
baptism that the Spirit commands, baptism in the water in the name of Jesus.
Baptism WITH the Holy Spirit that's what Jesus gives you. That's what
the Apostles... that's what Billy is speaking of. Okay, a little digression
there but... So he promises the spirit. His preaching was accepted by two groups and
it was rejected by two groups. It was accepted by the by sinners,
those who recognize their sinfulness. They saw a chance to be right
with God. Even pagan soldiers were coming to John the Baptist
to receive his baptism. And of course those who were anxiously waiting the
coming of the Messiah saw in John the one who was preparing the way. They
recognized, "Oh! this is the one that Isaiah spoke of. This is the one
that Malachi spoke of." Go ahead Billy. {Inaudible talking in the background} Right, right.
Some thought he was the Messiah and he said, "No I'm not", but the people accepted.
The people who accepted his baptism understood that something was going on
here from God. And then the people who rejected his baptism, those who felt
confident in their Jewish heritage, rejected any call to change. They felt,
"Hey! Are you kidding me? We're sons of" "Abraham. My family goes all the way back.
My father was a preacher. My grandfather" "was an elder. My great-great grandfather
once wrote a book." "What do I have to do?" And those who
love their sins they also refuse to believe, especially in a Jewish Messiah.
Absolutely. So whatever the response, John got the nation's attention concerning
the coming of the Lord. So event number 16. Event number 17, the baptism of Jesus,
Matthew 3. Mark 1, Luke 3, mention it. Now baptism was a familiar religious rite
among the Jews. This was nothing new for them. Priests would wash completely
before becoming priests or before putting on their ceremonial robe from
head to toe, purification rites. New converts to Judaism needed to
be cleansed with water in addition to being circumcised and then offering
sacrifice at the temple. So if you were converted to Judaism, a male, you had to
be also washed from head to toe with water and circumcised and offer a
sacrifice. So we know John baptized with water. We know that he did it by
immersion because the Jews required a cleansing of the entire body in their
purification rites. A Jew would not get it, if you said just sprinkle on
the forehead and that's baptism, a Jew would not consider that a purification
rite. Purification was head to toe. There was no "symbolic" water. It was
water that covered you. Okay? And we know this aside from the word,
what it means, the actual word baptism in the Greek means to plunge or to
immerse. So grammatically, contextually, historically, theologically, ever which
way, baptism is always a complete immersion in water. Like circumcision,
John's baptism was an expression of faith in response to God's offer. And
there are some parallels with baptism, isn't circumcision. But there are
parallels. In circumcision, the offer was to be counted among God's people. In
John's baptism the offer was to have one's sins forgiven.
Later in Jesus' baptism it was the triple offer.
What's the triple offer? In Jesus' baptism? Number one? Forgiveness of sins.
Number two? Yes, the Holy Spirit. What's number three? It's not what he mentions
in Acts. Yeah, well, yes. Those are true. But there's a third thing that is
specifically mentioned in the book of Acts. Your right. They were
added to the church. So the triple thing that Jesus offered and of course those
other things are true. Eternal life. But what was being articulated in the
original preaching was forgiveness of sins, the reception of the Spirit, being
added to the body of Christ, and I dare say... I'll tell you that for the Jews the
the fulfillment of promise was not that their sins would be forgiven in baptism.
The fulfillment of promise, the promise, was that God would give them the Spirit
to dwell within them all the time. Because in the Old Testament the spirit
would fall on a prophet or would fall on a judge or would fall
on a king for a time to enable them to do some great thing. And David would
pray, "Please Lord, don't take your Spirit away from me." The spirit was on Saul, the
king. Right? And he did great things but then he lost his way and the
spirit was taken away. So the promise of the prophets was that when the
Messiah comes, the Spirit, that was only given a little bit to special
people, will be given to everybody, old and young men, and women, slaves, and
free. That was the promise. We emphasize the forgiveness of sins which is a
biblical idea. But for the Jews in the first century the emphasis, the WOW,
was actually the possession of the Spirit always. That was the
fulfillment of the promise. So Jesus signals the beginning of His
ministry by accepting to be baptized by John. The big question here is why? So
let's look at some of the reasons why. First, as a response of obedience. To fulfill,
He says, all righteousness in Matthew 3:15 to respond to God's command with
obedience. God commanded that all be baptized, all who were coming, all who
were preparing for the Kingdom. Jesus says, "I'm fulfilling all righteousness.
I'm doing everything that God asks to do." Secondly - and this is a tricky one, to
identify with sin. Jesus had no sin Himself but He took on the sin of others.
So with this act He acknowledges that sin exists and He identifies with sinners. He gets
into their world. Thirdly, to separate Himself from His old life.
Baptism signifies a separation, a death. Romans chapter 6 verse 3, Paul says, "that
were baptized into His death." And the word "death" actually means, in the Hebrew,
means to separate. That's what it means. It doesn't mean to rot in a grave.
Means to separate, your body separates from your soul, and if you have a
spiritual death your soul separates from God. And so the baptism also signified a
separation, a separation of the spirit and the flesh. But for Jesus, at the age
of thirty, He is also separating Himself from His old life of submission and
obscurity and taking on His new life of public ministry, Lordship, and of course,
finally His death and resurrection. So He's separating Himself. This new life,
this inauguration of His public ministry is confirmed and witnessed by God in two
ways. One, the heavens open, the Holy Spirit appears as a dove. This shows that
Jesus received the gift of the Holy Spirit at this time as it came and
rested upon him. It was symbolic but it was symbolic of something very powerful.
And in His divine nature He was equal and similar to the Father and to the
Holy Spirit, but in His human nature He receives the gift of the Holy Spirit in
order to enable Him to carry on His ministry. He identifies with men in every
aspect of their spiritual development. And secondly, God the Father speaks to
confirm that Jesus is indeed the divine Son and the one who is sent, the Messiah.
This is a very interesting scene. It's the only time in the Bible
that there is a physical manifestation of the Trinity. The Father is present
because you hear the voice, the Son is present because Jesus is there in the
flesh, and the Holy Spirit is present in the form of a dove. This is also a strong
example for those who reject the Trinity idea in the Bible. Jews, of course, Muslims,
Jehovah Witnesses, they say all no such thing as the Trinity. And I always
bring him there. So, well, how do you explain this? Who's
this? What's this all about? And then of course,
the fourth thing was to fulfill prophecy. Again, Isaiah 11 verse 1 & 2 talks about
the Dove. Isaiah 42 verse 1 talks about the voice. The prophet said that the
Messiah would have the Spirit on him and would be pleasing to God. So
some information about that particular event. Next event, Jesus is tempted
in the desert. How are we doing? Okay. We're doing good. Matthew 4, Mark 1,
Luke 4. That's why they called them the synoptic Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, because
they're synchronized. A lot of things that are in Matthew, Mark, Luke, are
not in John. A lot of things that are in John are not in Matthew, Mark, Luke.
So Satan tempts Jesus while He is fasting in the desert. And this is also a
tricky concept. The word tempt can mean various things. It can mean to
test or to examine. It can also mean to to seduce into something evil, to look at,
to find something evil in you, and to play on that evil and seduce you into
giving into your, into your evil and sinful desires. But it doesn't only mean
that. It can also mean to test. To tempt means to test, to take
this and hold it up to the light and look at the water. I'm testing the water.
You doing a... your bet... your swimming pool or your hot tub or
whatever, you test the water to see its quality and so on and so forth.
Here the word means to test or examine. Since Jesus had no sin the devil's test
was to create sin in Him in some way because there's no sin in Him. So first
of all the tests were, first of all to pride by asking him to do a miracle in
order to prove His Lordship. Making the stones, go ahead if
you're the Son of God. Prove it. Of course our human tendency
for us because we're prideful, I'll show you. You want bread? Now I'll make so much
bread it'll be coming out of your ears. He also tempts Jesus to
idolatry by offering Him something in exchange for worship, all the kingdoms of
the earth if He would worship him. And he tempts or tests Jesus to presumptious
this by asking Him to test God, to throw Himself down from the tower to see if
God will save Him. The Father had already given Jesus all of these things. I mean,
He called Him the beloved Son, so there's no need to confirm who He is with a
miracle. And the Father had already promised everything to His son, Psalm
chapter 2 verse 8. Satan was offering something that wasn't even His to give.
And the Father had promised in the Word, quoted by Satan, that He would care for
the Son. No need to test God's Word for accuracy. I mean, the Bible says, pursue
the kingdom of God, seek the kingdom of God and what will happen? Well, all these
other things that you worry about will be added to you. Do I need to
test God on that? Of course not. So, all the things that Satan was trying to
create in Him, the fact that Jesus answers with Scripture means that
He was always aware exactly of His relationship with the Father. On
Sunday night I was preaching that sermon about shepherds and I
was thinking about this passage and I said at one point,
Satan, his best trick on me is to seduce me into thinking that I'm not a
sheep, I'm a lion or I'm a tiger or I'm a stallion or I'm an eagle. He gets me to
forget for a moment that what I really, I'm just a sheep in need of a shepherd.
And he fools me and maybe fools you guys too by making you think you're something
else other than what you really are, that God promised something else then
He really did. And I think the big difference here is that Jesus knows
exactly, knew exactly what God had promised Him. He was always aware of His
relationship. So he couldn't be fooled, tricked, tested, out of that reality. So
after the event the angels ministered to the Lord. Next event, now we got to move
or falling behind, John's witness concerning Jesus. John's Gospel provides
a detailed summary of John's preaching and the reaction of the people
especially the leaders. Interesting that only John talks about this. The others
don't mention it. John 1 verse 15 shows that the Baptist was aware of and
preached that he was preparing the way for the Messiah. John testified about Him
and cried out saying, "This was He of whom" "I said, He who comes after me has a
higher rank than I, for He existed before" "me." John knew what he was doing.
Not all prophets knew what they were talking about in the Old Testament. They
were saying things but they didn't quite understand. Do you think
that Daniel understood about all the coming kingdoms? And he was
saying that, he was explaining it but he didn't quite understand all of the
ramifications of the things that he talked about, that were gonna happen in
700 years. But John knew what he was talking about, knew exactly what he was
talking about it. Also shows that he shared in the experience of the voice of
the Father and the setting of the dove. This was the way that he knew that Jesus
was indeed the one. He knew when that happened, that's the one and he had an
impact on the people because even the leaders were curious about who he was. As
someone was saying before, some thought he was the Christ or he was
Elijah, he was Moses. People believe that the great prophet Moses would resurrect,
that the coming of the Messiah, so they thought oh maybe this is John the
Baptist. So of course, John denies all of these things in response
that he is simply a voice sent to prepare the way. Next event,
Jesus' first Apostles. Again John chapter one. John has introduced Him and he also
encourages his own disciples to follow after Jesus. Now the Lord didn't select
all of His Apostles in one day. He just didn't walk around, "okay, you, you, you, you,
not you, not you, you." That's not how it worked. They came in twos and
threes over a period of months. Some like Peter began to follow Jesus while still
maintaining his fishing business. Do you think that Peter, it was the first
time Peter ever saw Jesus when Jesus said, "Hey you, come with me" and he dropped
his nets and followed Him? Well, of course not. They came from the same town. As an
adult Jesus lived in Capernaum. Where do you think Peter lived? Well, he lived in
Capernaum, fishing village. So they knew each other. He knew who this person was.
He had heard him speak, but after a while Jesus called him into full-time ministry.
And then he left all to follow the Lord. It's kind of like that in real
life. A lot of the men that I know who've gone into ministry did something
else, before they were something else, I don't know what ever, an accountant,
that lawyer, whatever. And after a time and they were busy in the church
and they taught classes and then all of a sudden they said
I'm getting so busy and I'm getting so much satisfaction out of this ministry I
think I have a calling. I ought to go into ministry. So in this event
Andrew calls his brother Simon to come and meet Jesus the one who he believes
is the Messiah. And it's during this first meeting that Jesus gives Simon a
new name Peter. Next event, more disciples in Galilee. Andrew and Peter were
probably in the region to hear John preach and that's how they met Jesus, someone
from back home. After their meeting... Because remember
He starts with them. After their meeting in Jerusalem Jesus returns up north
to the area of Galilee around where He was born and where Peter and Andrew come
from and have a business. And while He's there John says that He finds Philip and
in turn Philip finds Nathaniel. Isn't that how it works? It's
like that in the church. I mean, you've come to a church where
most of you that were born into it or you've come a little
later when there was already two, three hundred people, but if you've ever
started a church. Well Lise and I have had the experience of starting a
church from scratch in our living room. And that's exactly how it works. The
neighbor comes with his wife and then all of a sudden his alcoholic brother
decides maybe he needs saving so he comes to the meeting and
you're five, you're eight, and then and two little kids and then
somebody's sister-in-law shows up and you're... That's how it works. So at
this point their concept of what the Messiah is supposed to be is not fully
developed but Jesus through His miracles and teachings, especially His
resurrection is gonna open up their eyes, gonna open up their hearts. Next event,
the first miracle at Cana. John 2 - it's interesting that John is the one filling
in the details of this early part of Jesus' ministry since as the cousin...
because John is the cousin of Jesus. Okay? His mother Salomi was Mary's
sister and was in Jesus' inner circle. The Apostles don't emphasize their
family relationship to Jesus. You have to hunt for them. They don't brag on it. If
they refer to themselves they refer to themselves as servants of Jesus or
slaves of Jesus but never, "Why, He's my brother-in-law
or He's my cousin." They never make that reference. You have to find that reference. So he had access to the
early information within the family and was probably present at many of these
early events. His family relationship to Jesus also explains why he was given the
care of Mary and not Peter. Why didn't Jesus give Mary to Peter to take care
of? He was kind of a leader. He gave her to John. So John describes a
wedding feast taking place in Cana which is in the northern country.
It's just west of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was there with His family
including His disciples, a lot of whom were related to Jesus and were related
to each other. It was a family thing. There is a question about Mary's
attitude concerning what Jesus was to do to intervene when the wine ran out. So,
I'm thinking, well He wasn't speaking nicely to His mom. But remember He's a
grown man. He's 30 years old. So she was confident that Jesus could do something
and goes to him for help and Jesus responds that His hour has not come, in
the sense that it's not time to be fully glorified. There was a pace here. And what
He says to her is that the matter is not her concern but His concern. If He does
something it'll be directed by the Father, not the pleading of His mother.
It's not you pleading with me that's going to make me do something, it's if
the Father directs me to do something that will move me to do something. And so
we see Mary understand that He'll do something for but only because
it's given by God and not her. So Jesus transforms water into wine
and launches the miraculous portion of His ministry within the circle of His
own family, His own friends, His disciple, and His region, first miracle there. If it
was me I mean, I'd go straight down to Jerusalem on the Passover day
with the biggest crowds and okay. Watch! Everybody, watch!
But that's obviously, the Lord's not taking my advice these days. So after the
wedding feast Jesus, Mary, His brothers, and His disciples returned to
Capernaum, which is the other side of the lake. And where do they go? They go back
to Jesus' house. Where do you go after a wedding? Well, you go back to your house.
So John makes a distinction between Jesus' brothers and Jesus' disciples
because at this early time His brothers are not His disciples. So this is the
end of the first northern or Galilean ministry. In the next section, we're
going to see Jesus leave the north, head towards Jerusalem again for His first
public ministry. So we got three minutes. Let's do a couple of lessons. Lesson
number one, lesson number one, preach Jesus as the Lord. The first thing Jesus
did was demonstrate who He was by the witness of the Holy Spirit and the
Father. Today the first thing we should establish in any Bible study, debate or
teaching is that Jesus is the Divine Son of God. If this point is made all the
other points will flow from it. People always say, how come you people
don't have music? Okay? Or instruments? Okay we can explain
that but let's not take the two hours if we've only got two hours for that. Let's
answer that quickly and move back to the important stuff, that
Jesus is the Son of God. We'll get to that, those other matters, we'll answer
those other questions, but those peripheral questions are not what
builds faith. Number two, obedience is so important. The Bible is not for
discussion, it's for obeying. We study, we teach it in order to produce obedience,
Jesus in baptism, and in the desert show that His holiness was proven by His
obedience to the Father. He made no eloquent speeches. Where are the eloquent
speeches here? There are no eloquent speeches. God not only wants us to hear
the good news He wants us to obey it and when we teach others... Here's another idea,
when we're teaching others we should be teaching them to... that the important
point of the Bible is that we ought to obey what it says not just here's what
it says but that we ought to obey what it says.
That's an important dynamic sometimes missing in our teaching. We're afraid to
tell people that okay, you need to obey this whatever it is. It's okay. I mean,
they may, they'll say yes or they'll say no, but at least they know
there's a line in the sand there. And then finally, start at home.
Jesus' first followers and disciples were family members, people from His
hometown and region. Saving the world begins by saving yourself, saving the
world starts by saving your family, your neighbor, your children. If you
go through life and your children, you've managed to teach them the gospel and
they're saved you've done a good job. You've done a wonderful job. Effective
evangelism is not about programs or projects
it's about people sharing with other people that are close to them. Very
few of us get TV programs, worldwide audiences, very few people have
that opportunity, but most of us have a husband or a wife or a child or a cousin
or a next-door neighbor, that's our
mission field right there.
