Patricia continues:
Matthew: So 30 years has passed in the reading but you actually have to think more like it has been over 400 years. Over 400 years since a prophet has spoken, and now here comes John the Baptist. It says in verse 4 he had a garment of hair and a leather belt on his waist. (Was was to look like Elijah so the Jews would recognize him to usher in the Messiah…Look at 2 Kings 1:8!!) John is Baptizing as a sign of repentance (this was done before the Messiah came, so we know this has no saving quality to is, just symbolism) It states in verse 11, man baptizes with water for repentance, God’s Baptism is of the Holy Spirit (internal).
John the Baptist has a following of disciples and it is now the proper time that Jesus gets baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Saying it is now time to follow Him. And at that time, we see the Trinity in all it’s Glory show itself, for it is now time for Jesus to start his Ministry. We also have the introduction of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (2 political/religious parties legalism, pompous and corrupt). Normally they oppose each other but now that the Messiah is coming for ALL people (not just the Jews) they will be allies. Both Religious parties grew after the Maccabean period (I am sure your Bible talks about this between the OT and NT, take a peek…)
- Pharisees: Strict group of Jews who preach strict obedience, laws, and traditions (many man created) . They applied all the books of the Bible to the times at hand.
- Sadducees: Wealthy upper class priests who ONLY subscribed to the first 5 books of the Bible (Torah) as the Word of God. The do not belive in angels, demons, or the Resurrection.
Mark: New book today. Wow, very different style. Mark is speaking to Christians on Rome. Rome is worshipping MANY gods so he is going to stress that Jesus in the son of one true God! In this book of Mark we start to be introduced to the Followers of Jesus. Exciting isn’t it. There will be 12 that are Chosen as Disciples, and then others will follow. We meet brothers Simon and Andrew, fishing with nets to catch fish. They will now learn how to fish with the Gospel for Men. Then we meet James son of Zebedee and his brother John (fishing with their Dad and their hired help) You know I could write a page on all this don’t you! I won’t.
SO they go to Capernaum. We already know that he is in Galilee (mostly Gentile) Capernaum is a was the headquarters to the Roman army, a Very wealthy town, a great way (tough way) to start his ministry. SO Jesus goes to the Synagogue.
- When the Jews were in captivity in the O.T. the Jewish people didn’t have a temple (it was destroyed at the time) to attend so they created centers of learning and teaching. Because it was not the Holy Temple, anyone could speak at them. Each Sabbath, the Synagogue would be packed with men to hear the Scriptures read. Most often visiting teacher were the speakers and often quoted other great teachers to show authority. Note Jesus didn’t do that, prove authority, He spoke as the one who had the authority (of course He did). SUch authority that again the demons recognize him as the Holy One of God!
A lot of great stuff happens in Mark, I needed a commentary for some of it so PLEASE ask if you have questions (I did). The one that interested me was the man with Leprosy, after he was healed why did he have to go to the priests instead of the people? The Laws in Leviticus 13 and 14 were very specific on procedure and Jesus always followed the Word of God. This is how we know He didn’t just come onto the scene like a renegade challenging everything God put into practice, the mere OPPOSITE…he followed it all. Important to note.
Luke: (I like his style) Did you print the Herod Family Tree from Yesterday’s reading? You should, it will help make sense of who these people are.
SOme name introductions:
- Tiberius Caesar: Emperor in Rome (14 A.D. to 37 A.D.)
- Pontius Pilot: The appointed roman Governor placed in Judea (where Jerusalem is) (South)
- Herod, (Antipas) (1 of 4 that governed the area of Galilee (North)
- Annas and Caiaphas the high priests. Annas was the high priest, but the priesthood by this time is so corrupt, the roman’s had then placed Caiaphas in the position too for political control.
So to make this easy for you, Caesar is in Rome while Rome used Pilot, Herod and Caiaphas to control the Palestine area. Does that make sense, I want you to get all this.
And again we see this repeat phrase from the Jews “We have Abraham as our Father”, and John, in Spirit tells them that being born of Jewish Descent is not the way of salvation (as it was being taught). Then we see John the Baptist goes to prison for rebuking Herod for being with his brother in laws wife (and other stuff he was doing) and finally a Genealogy. Luke you will notice reiterates All Mankind will see God’s salvation! Matthews Genealogy proved Jesus to me related to all Jews (Abraham) but Luke here will prove that Jesus is related to ALL mankind, taking it back to Adam.
I am sorry again for making this long. After this foundation they will be super short blogs.
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I know it’s not required for salvation (the thief on the cross was not baptised, but was with Jesus in paradise);
But in my own life, I can only say that something changed in me when I already believed, and then was baptized (in that order)