The Story Ch 23 Jesus' Ministry Begins

Cold Open

The moment that Israel has been waiting for for hundreds of years has come! The Messiah was born! But as of yet, very few know who the Messiah is. In fact, just about the most that was known about him was the rumor that King Herod had heard that the Messiah, the one born King of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem and ordered all babies under 2 years old in the area to be killed, in order to protect his throne. But Herod, and just about every other Jew, had no idea what Jesus was actually going to be like, but they’d find out soon enough. Today is Sunday, September 20, let’s get into it.

Intro Videos

Intro

So the image that the Jews have of the coming Messiah is this powerful king from David’s line who will come and deliver them as their king’s had in the past, by leading the armies of Israel against their enemies with God on their side, putting all of their enemies to shame!

But Jesus never intended to deliver Israel from Rome by military might, he intended to defeat a much more prolific enemy.

John the Baptist

The first recorded recognition of Jesus as the Son of God is at his baptism. Jesus went to see his cousin, John the Baptist, who was preaching in the wilderness and his appearance is described very similarly to Elijah’s in the Old Testament, both were wild men, who wore ragtag clothing, and both were sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

John was preaching a message of repentance saying “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

That coming kingdom was brought by Jesus, who came down to John to be baptized, and if you remember from our study of Mark, as soon as Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended to him and the voice of God declared

Matthew 3:17 NIV

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

It was right after His baptism and receiving the Spirit that Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and unlike any human before Him, Jesus was did not give in to temptation.

Calling the Disciples

As He begins His ministry, it is important now that He gathers His disciples.

Matthew 10:2–4 NIV

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Jesus called each of His disciples with the simplest of calls, “Follow me”. That is the same call that Jesus has for each of us today, to follow Him.

Nicodemus

Follow me, is such a simple call. There’s so much beauty in that simplicity! There’s a great juxtaposition in the Bible because on one hand, there is so much rich knowledge, truth, and revelation in the Bible that explores the entire relationship between humanity and an all-powerful creator God! There’s just so much to learn! And if you’re a nerd like me I just want to understand it all and talk about it and sort it into categories and then challenge that categories and see the relationships between all the information!

But… at the same time, when Jesus called His disciples, He didn’t read the law and the prophets over them and ask them to commit to the a set of doctrines, it was simply “Follow me”.

In fact, it’s possible to get so caught up in doctrine that we forget the simplicity of Jesus’ call. One such person who got caught in this contradiction was a Jewish leader named Nicodemus.

He came to Jesus knowing that by his signs and miracles he was sent by God! However, instead of following him, Nicodemus asked complicated questions about being born again and how exactly it would work and what it would look like.

Now, all of these are good questions for a Christian to ask, but to ask these things instead of first following Christ can be a stumbling block to our faith!

Thankfully, Nicodemus eventually came around, became a follower of Christ, and helped Joseph or Arimathea secure Jesus’ body for burial.

There are so many amazing things to learn and understand through God’s word, through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and from the preaching of God’s word. However, one of the easiest mistakes we can make is to get so caught up in understanding the mysteries that Scripture may or may not be trying to answer and forgetting to get up, start walking, and follow Christ.

This means spending every day doing what is right in God’s eyes, loving Him with all of our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Which, yes, includes our sinful neighbor, our hateful neighbor, our neighbor who would rather we didn’t exist, and even our neighbor who smells bad.

Wisdom and understanding will be given to those who follow Jesus, but the first step is, follow Him.

Altar call?

Prayer

Call us, let us follow you