john-the-baptist

May 11-18, 27 A.D.    – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #30

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Week 13   Jesus has the Spirit without measure.
John 3:25-30

Last time, we talked about John the Baptist’s attitude. His disciples came to him worried because Jesus’ disciples were baptizing more. John said that is the way it is supposed to be. I am not worthy to untie his sandals. It is not about us. We are here to introduce Jesus. “He must increase, and I must decrease.”  We continue today with John’s discussion with his disciples as he tells them why it is all about Jesus.  There is a lot here to unpack.  What is so special about Jesus?

John 3:31-36   He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way.  He who comes from heaven is above all.  He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John says Jesus is above all.  He says it twice for emphasis.  And John is not even aware of all of Jesus’ story.  He knows that Jesus is the expected Messiah, but there is much there that John does not know at this time.   He did not have the advantage Paul had to look back on the whole ministry of Jesus.  Paul expressed these thoughts on the supremacy of Jesus:

Col. 1:15-20   He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.   And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.   And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.   For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

John simply said that Jesus is ‘above all’. John contrasts with himself, being ‘of earth’ who can only speak in an ‘earthly way’, while Jesus, who comes from ‘above’, can talk about what he has seen and experienced in the presence of the Father. Sadly, John says that few receive the eyewitness testimony that Jesus brings.  

“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.”

Some versions make the pronouns challenging to resolve, but “he whom God has sent” is Jesus.  And Jesus “utters the words of God” because God gives Jesus the “Spirit without measure.”  Why does John say Jesus is given the Spirit with no limit?  To understand this, we must understand what John and the other disciples of Jesus knew about the Holy Spirit.  

But first a Bible trivia question:
When is the first time we see the Holy Spirit in the Bible?   (No peeking.)

The Spirit appears in the third sentence of the Bible.  

“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  

That Hebrew word for “hovering” is used in the Old Testament to describe how a bird hovers or flutters.  You have seen a bird ‘hovering’ over their nest as they land there to care for their young.  The Holy Spirit is pictured this way in creation.  The Hebrew word for the Spirit is ‘ruach.’  Ruach can be translated as “Spirit,” “wind,” or “breath.”  Why did the Hebrews devise these multiple uses for the word thousands of years ago?

If you look outside when a storm is coming, you will see the trees moving.  But you know trees are inanimate objects.  They don’t move by themselves.  So then, Hebrew person 4000 years ago, what moves them? It is something you can not see.  There is an invisible energy that animates them. They called it the Ruach.  It is the force of creation.  It animates the trees, and it animates us. 

We are described in Genesis 3:19 as dust.  I remember reading long ago that if our bodies were broken down into their basic chemicals, we were only worth about $1.98.  You’ll be glad to know inflation has made our bodies worth more.   Wired magazine noted in 2003 that your body contains $7.12 worth of phosphorous, $5.95 worth of potassium, and about four dollars worth of other substances for a total of $17.18.1 And now, 21 years later, we could top out over $25.  (If you plan on selling out, note that this does not include the cost of extracting these chemicals.)

But the Bible tells us we are more than dust — we are dust and spirit.

Then Yehovah God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the ruach of life, and the man became a living creature.   Genesis 2:7

God took dust and gave it ruach, His breath, his Spirit on loan to us giving us life.  Have you witnessed the birth of a baby?  When a baby emerges from the womb, it is quiet and motionless.  As a pediatrician, I have seen this moment of anxiety many times.  Then, the baby takes that first breath. Lungs that have been filled with fluid for nine months are suddenly filled with air, and there is a cry, and the baby begins to move, arching its back and stretching its arms and legs. To someone thousands of years ago, not versed in modern science, breath is seen as animating.  Have you ever witnessed death?  When someone dies, the final act is that last exhalation of breath.  The breath leaves their body and, with it, life. 

This is how the ancient Hebrews came to use the word, ruach, for wind, spirit, and breath.  Yehovah’s Holy Spirit is the source of all life and is instrumental in all creation.  The second thing we see the Holy Spirit do is enter people to empower them with abilities to perform a specific task.

So here is another Bible trivia question:  Who is the first person filled with the Spirit in the Bible? 

The answer is Joseph, and oddly, the first person to recognize the filling of the Spirit is the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Genesis 41:38  And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?

We see an important concept here: the world notices the difference when God’s Spirit is present.  When God’s Holy Spirit comes on a person in power, the world can’t help but notice.

Joseph is given insight that he could not have known by himself.  He is given inspiration from the Holy Spirit.  Divine inspiration.  Don’t you find it interesting that inspiration is a word for breathing?  To inspire is to take in a breath.  The ruach of God is breathed into Joseph, and he is given supernatural insight to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, predicting the years of plenty and the years of famine.

Bezalel is another example of an Old Testament character given the Holy Spirit as a special gifting for a particular purpose.

Exodus 31:1-3   Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship…

Bezalel is empowered by the Holy Spirit with the creative ability to produce the elaborate craftsmanship in the Tabernacle, including the ark of the covenant, lamp stands, and other furnishings.

The Spirit also filled the prophets in the Old Testament.

Micah  3:8  But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yehovah, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

This is the same language John the Baptist used to describe Jesus.  Jesus can speak the very words of God because he is given the Holy Spirit without measure.  The prophets had foretold this time when one would come with a different filling of the spirit. 

Isaiah 11:1-2 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of Yehovah shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yehovah.

In this Messianic prophecy, Isaiah saw that God was going to do something different. When we see the Holy Spirit come on people in the Old Testament, it typically comes on for a season, for a specific task. But this Messiah that Isaiah is predicting will have the Spirit rest on him.  He will be not just ‘clothed’ with the Spirit for a specific time or function but filled with the Spirit that would remain on him.  

And Joel saw a time  when the spirit would be poured out on not just a very few, but on everyone,

Joel 2:28-29  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

Joel is saying, listen, isn’t it amazing when God gives his Spirit to a prophet?  It happens once or twice in a hundred years.  Can you imagine what will happen when God pours out his Spirit on everyone?  What a difference that will make in the world.

So we move into the New Testament, where we see the Greek word pneuma. Interestingly, pneuma can also be used for wind, spirit, or breath. (You can see the root of our words pneumatic, pneumonia, pneumothorax, etc.) The Spirit performs the task of creation and empowers people with supernatural abilities, and you also see the Spirit in the word of re-creation.

After hundreds of years of waiting, the Messiah comes, and the Bible makes it clear that the incarnation of Jesus is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:20   “…do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Several weeks ago, we discussed the Spirit descending on Jesus after his baptism.  Isaiah had pleaded with God to tear open the heavens and come down. 

Isaiah 64:1  Oh, that You would tear open the heavens and come down.

And that is how Mark described the scene: “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open” (Mark 1:10).  The spirit is described as descending “like a dove” reminiscent of the Holy Spirit ‘hovering” like a bird over creation.  And it comes “to rest on him” just as Isaiah had predicted.  God is doing something new.  The Messiah is given the Holy Spirit without measure. Jesus is being empowered for a mission.  The gospel writers (especially Luke) carefully note the Spirit’s presence with Jesus throughout his ministry.  

Next, we see the Holy Spirit in the work of re-creation, raising Jesus from death to life.  

Romans 1:4  [Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.

And then on the day of his resurrection we have this story:

John 20:19-22   On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus is setting the disciples aside for a mission to lead the church and breathes on them.  Now, that would seem odd for Jesus to do if you don’t understand the concept of the ruach of God.  The breath of God, breathed into man in Genesis, is now breathed into these men as the Holy Spirit empowers them for their mission.  But we are not done. The prophet Joel saw that God was going to give the Holy Spirit to everyone, not just to a few. So we turn to Acts 2, where 120 are gathered.

Acts 2:1-4   When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

They spoke the words of God because they were filled with the Spirit.  God’s Spirit makes a difference that the world can not ignore.  This is what Joel predicted.  The spirit is poured out on all who believe.  In the Book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, we see that people believe in God and receive the spirit of God—everyone who believes.  And the Spirit makes a difference in their lives.

In Galatians 5, Paul discusses the work of the Spirit in believers’ lives.

Gal. 5:22-25   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.   And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

The spirit can make a difference in our lives if we allow it. We must follow and stay in step.  We all get out of step with the Spirit. I do. That old man rises up, and I say something stupid.  We have to follow the Spirit within us, not ignore it.  We can’t afford to ignore the spirit.  We can’t just continue trying to do what God wants us to do in our own power.  We can not be who God wants us to be if we are not in step with God’s spirit.

Francis Chan calls the Holy Spirit “The Forgotten God”.

“You might think that calling the Holy Spirit the “forgotten God” is a bit extreme. Maybe you agree that the church has focused too much attention elsewhere but feel it is an exaggeration to say we have forgotten about the Spirit. I don’t think so. From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten. While no evangelical would deny His existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can. The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit. The “entertainment” model of church was largely adopted in the 1980s and ’90s, and while it alleviated some of our boredom for a couple of hours a week, it filled our churches with self-focused consumers rather than self-sacrificing servants attuned to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we’re too familiar and comfortable with the current state of the church to feel the weight of the problem. But what if you grew up on a desert island with nothing but the Bible to read? Imagine being rescued after twenty years and then attending a typical evangelical church. Chances are you’d be shocked (for a whole lot of reasons, but that is another story). Having read the Scriptures outside the context of contemporary church culture, you would be convinced that the Holy Spirit is as essential to a believer’s existence as air is to staying alive. You would know that the Spirit led the first Christians to do unexplainable things, to live lives that didn’t make sense to the culture around them, and ultimately to spread the story of God’s grace around the world. There is a big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today. In many modern churches, you would be stunned by the apparent absence of the Spirit in any manifest way. And this, I believe, is the crux of the problem. If I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God’s kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit. The degree to which this has happened (and I would argue that it is a prolific disease in the body of Christ) is directly connected to the dissatisfaction most of us feel with and in the church. We understand something very important is missing. The feeling is so strong that some have run away from the church and God’s Word completely. I believe that this missing something is actually a missing Someone-namely, the Holy Spirit. Without Him, people operate in their own strength and only accomplish human-size results. The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.”2

I was talking with a worship leader in a large church and asked him why the music had to be so loud. (As a pediatrician, I was concerned when the decibel level of our service was consistently over the level that can cause permanent hearing damage, especially to children.)  Why does it have to be jackhammer-level?  He said it gives a lot of energy to the service and gets people excited and involved in the worship.  And I am thinking…isn’t that what the Holy Spirit does?  So, is our entertainment-style worship with rock concert-level music and flashing lights necessary because we no longer involve the Holy Spirit?  

We can create a church service that people can enjoy. We can have professional-quality musicians, lighting, sound systems, great preaching, and wonderful programs. When people leave the service, they may talk about how good the musicians were, how good the preacher was, or how nice the people were, but they won’t leave talking about how good God is. They won’t leave inspired to worship God throughout the week or leave in awe of God. And isn’t that the reason we are here?  

We are living in difficult times.  We need the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives and churches.  We have people around us facing terrible diseases with difficult prognoses.  We have people in our communities dying without Jesus.  We can not afford to be who we were yesterday when God has so much more for us.  We need to be in step with the Spirit.  Will you join me in praying for God to move among us?

  1. Di Justo, Patrick.  Wired Magazine 2003.
  2. Chan, Francis.  Forgotten God (2009). Kindle location 44.

April 28-May 4, 27 A.D.  The Attitude of John the Baptist- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #29

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

Week 11 ———  The Attitude of John the Baptist
John 3:25-30

We continue to follow Jesus’ 70-week ministry. He was baptized on February 16, went into the wilderness for 40 days, returned to be with John the Baptist, and then headed into the Galilee. He went to a wedding in Cana, performed miracles, and then headed down to Jerusalem for Passover. He had a conversation with Nicodemus. He celebrated Firstfruits and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

John 3:25   Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jewish leader over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

There arose a discussion, more literally a debate, between John’s disciples and a Pharisee.  They were debating about purification, a topic often discussed among religious leaders at the time.  Remember that debate was the usual form of discussion and teaching of the day.  We have no reason to believe this was a heated argument.  But at some point, the idea that the number of people coming to hear their rabbi, John the Baptist, was dwindling.  John had been seeing huge crowds come to him.  By any standards used by preachers today, John was incredibly successful.  But something had changed.  John’s attendance was down.  Something was going wrong.

So his disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, that guy you called the “Lamb of God,” he is copying your ministry and baptizing like you are. He even uses your sermon line, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  And he is attracting our crowd.  We are down 30% in baptisms over the past month.  We’ve got to do something!

How does John respond? 

He could have been very jealous.  His life was hard.  He was an aesthetic.  Jesus went to marriage celebrations, feasts, and parties.  Meanwhile, John ate locusts and wild honey in the desert and only had water.  He lived in the wilderness.  He wore simple clothes.  He ends up in prison and is beheaded around 30 years old.  It was not easy being John the Baptist.

I imagine John’s response shocked his disciples.  They had given up their life to follow John.  They believed in his message of repentance.   And they had seen people flock to him and commit to the cause by being baptized.  Then, his disciples saw Jesus preaching the same sermon that John was preaching, and his disciples were baptized just as they were.  Jesus and his followers were stealing their show.

And John says, “This is exactly how it is supposed to be.”  John knew his place and he stayed in his lane.  

John tells them:
Listen, guys, you’ve heard me say it several times.  This Jesus is the Messiah we have been praying for and looking for for hundreds of years.   People kept asking me if I was the Messiah.  You know I never claimed to be.  From the beginning, I told you my job was to prepare the people for the coming Messiah by acknowledging their sins and repenting.  And then it was my place to point out the Messiah when he arrived.  And you saw him yourself.  You know that the bridegroom and the bride are the stars of the wedding day.  It is not the best man’s place to upstage the groom.  The attendants don’t upstage the bride. The best man is the supporting actor, not the star.  A good friend of the groom will only be happy to see the groom come and take his bride. 

My ministry was to prepare the way and point towards Jesus.  So when Jesus came, it was the happiest day of my life.  My joy was complete when I saw Jesus.  That is the task God gave me.  It is not all about me. —-It is all about Jesus and the kingdom he is building.

Get your attitudes right.

John knows Jesus is the messiah.  He knows that Jesus will do amazing miracles and be the great teacher of Israel.  But he doesn’t get to follow Jesus.  Did you ever wonder why John the Baptist didn’t get to be one of Jesus’ disciples?  If I were Jesus, I would have picked John first.  He was the most qualified.  He understood Jesus’ message.  In fact, Jesus picks up John’s message and preaches it verbatim.  And John was willing.  He had proved he was willing to do whatever God called him to do.  However, Jesus did not choose John to be his disciple.

He didn’t get to follow Jesus; he didn’t hear Jesus’ sermons, see his miracles, and perform miracles like Jesus’ disciples.  Instead, his path was to preach a bit longer in the wilderness and then be arrested,  languish in prison, and be beheaded by an evil king.  

This would make most people bitter.  It would make most people question God.  But how John answers his disciples reveals the attitude of John that we all need to understand and adopt.  

“A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.”

Do you think we earned anything we have in life?  Did you earn the right to live today?  Does God owe you another day of life?  Did you do something before birth to deserve to be born in this place?  Who gave you this land?  Who gave you the smarts to achieve what you have achieved?  

Some people consider themselves ‘self-made men.’ They came from modest income or poor families and have become very successful in the business world.  They are reluctant to support programs for people in need because they feel that everyone else should pick up themselves by their bootstraps as they did.  They have forgotten how God gifted them personally to become successful. They don’t understand that some have limited IQ, mental illness, chronic medical problems, or haven’t gotten the “lucky breaks” they got.  They think they have done it all themselves. They have forgotten the grace God gave them.

This attitude of John the Baptist is critical to understand.  He knew his place.  He said he wasn’t even worthy to be a slave to Jesus; he wasn’t even worthy to do the lowest job of a slave – to untie his sandals.  But despite his unworthiness, Jesus gave him a place, a job to do.  And that gave him joy.  Joy came from serving where God placed him.

So he says, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Look, disciples of John. This has been the plan from the beginning. Our job was to point out the Messiah so he could assume his role. It is not all about us, but it is natural to see the world as if it is all about us.

Francis Chan, in his book Crazy Love, says it so well:
“Even though I glimpse God’s holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all. It goes sort of like this…. Suppose you are an extra in an upcoming movie. You will probably scrutinize that one scene where hundreds of people are milling around, just waiting for that two-fifths of a second when you can see the back of your head. Maybe your mom and your closest friend get excited about that two-fifths of a second with you … maybe. But no one else will realize it is you. Even if you tell them, they won’t care. Let’s take it a step further. What if you rent out the theater on opening night and invite all your friends and family to come see the new movie about you? People will say, “You’re an idiot! How could you think this movie is about you?” Many Christians are even more delusional than the person I’ve been describing. So many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us. Now consider the movie of life…. God creates the world. (Were you alive then? Was God talking to you when He proclaimed “It is good” about all He had just made?) Then people rebel against God (who, if you haven’t realized it yet, is the main character in this movie), and God floods the earth to rid it of the mess people made of it. Several generations later, God singles out a ninety-nine-year-old man called Abram and makes him the father of a nation (did you have anything thing to do with this?). Later, along come Joseph and Moses and many other ordinary and inadequate people that the movie is also not about. God is the one who picks them and directs them and works miracles through them. In the next scene, God sends judges and prophets to His nation because the people can’t seem to give Him the one thing He asks of them (obedience). And then, the climax: The Son of God is born among the people whom God still somehow loves. While in this world, the Son teaches His followers what true love looks like. Then the Son of God dies and is resurrected and goes back up to be with God. And even though the movie isn’t quite finished yet, we know what the last scene holds. It’s the scene I already described in chapter 1: the throne room of God. Here every being worships God who sits on the throne, for He alone is worthy to be praised. From start to finish, this movie is obviously about God. He is the main character. How is it possible that we live as though it is about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the time Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts) and when we will all worship God on His throne in heaven (Revelation). We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That is what each of our two-fifths of a second is about. So what does that mean for you? Frankly, you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that’s seriously what it means. Maybe life’s pretty good for you right now. God has given you this good stuff so that you can show the world a person who enjoys blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God. Or maybe life is tough right now, and everything feels like a struggle. God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard. Like the psalmist who wrote, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked…. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure…. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God” (Ps. 73:3, 13, 16-17). It is easy to become disillusioned with the circumstances of our lives compared to others’. But in the presence of God, He gives us a deeper peace and joy that transcends it all. To be brutally honest, it doesn’t really matter what place you find yourself in right now. Your part is to bring Him glory-whether eating a sandwich on a lunch break, drinking coffee at 12:04 a.m. so you can stay awake to study, or watching your four-month-old take a nap. The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His. It is His movie, His world, His gift.”1

But we tend to make it all about us. We do that even in church. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I really enjoyed worship today” or “I just don’t get much out of the worship there”? That is worship all about us. You aren’t supposed to get something out of worship; you’re supposed to put something in.

Matt Redman tells the story about his song, “The Heart of Worship.” He says that their church was going through some difficult times. There have been all these discussions about the style of worship: some said it was too fast, too slow, too loud, or too soft. “I like that song,” or “I don’t like that song.” “I like the way this worship leader does it.”  “The drums are too loud.” “The lights are too bright.”  “The preaching lasts too long.” “The songs are old.

People were becoming consumers, judging worship like a product you buy at a store. It was all about them and what they enjoyed.  He said we aren’t worshipping to “get something out of it,” but we are supposed to be bringing something to worship.

So this big contemporary church with a professional-level worship band removed the sound system and all the instruments off the stage.  They did away with the sermon; they did away with all of it. They told people, “Ask God what you can bring as an offering today in worship.”  So, people showed up with their Bibles and nothing else.  He said it was very awkward at first.  But then people started singing hymns with just voices; someone would read a scripture and testify what God was doing in their life.  They discovered true worship.  No show.  There was no performance on stage.  It was all about God.  And he said it was good.2

After this experience in their church, Redman wrote the song “Heart of Worship,” which expresses what I feel is the attitude of John the Baptist.  Here is the second verse and chorus:

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus3

True worship is all about God. If we make it about us and what we like, then who is being worshipped? Is it about you or God? Revelation 4 and 5 describe the worship in heaven, with the throne in the center, all the elders, spirits, and creatures, and a rainbow of light around the throne. And who is on the throne? He who is worthy.

Worship is not something you come to church to do.  Every moment of your life should be a time of worship because worship is the unworthy recognizing the worthy.  We come to church to join together and point out that God alone is worthy.  We recognize him as our creator and sustainer, as the one who is love, who is peace, who is grace, who is comfort, who is healing, who is good.  He alone is worthy of worship.  

The other day, our grandson was at the house and wanted his mother to see what he had done.  She was busy talking, and he kept saying Mama, mama, mama, louder and louder until she acknowledged him.  With our daughter it was “Look at me! Look at me!” whenever she did something and wanted our attention.  That is natural for a child.  Apparently, it is also natural for anyone on social media..  Look at me! I got a new car! Look at me! My son got an award!  Look at me!  My daughter’s going to the prom! Look at me!  I went on a trip!  I guess it is natural for all of us.   Now, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy keeping up with what is going on with my friends and past acquaintances.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But our job on this earth is not to point to ourselves but, like John the Baptist, to point to Jesus.  So keep posting all of that.  But perhaps, sometimes, you could say, ‘Look at Jesus!  Look what he did today!’  That might make Facebook a little more worth looking at.

You have a place in the kingdom.  You matter.  Yeah, it is not all about you. You are not the star.  But you are more than an extra in this movie of life.  You are more than a background actor.  There are no small parts in God’s world.  You have a speaking role.  You can contribute to the kingdom if you understand your place like John the Baptist and fulfill the role God has given you.  Everyone take your hand and point.  You can point at yourself or some other person… but point up.  This is what we are to do.  

Like John, our job is to stand and point out Jesus.  He must increase.  I must decrease.

Every church has a place in the kingdom. Some churches will never be a huge mega-church.  Many will never be a Saddleback or a Northpoint or as numerically successful as other churches in their area.  But every church has a place in the kingdom.  Our job is to seek God’s plan, seek His will, know our place, and fulfill our role to point to Jesus. Churches fail when they advertise themselves.  ‘Look at how great our church is! We have great music, a good preacher, great facilities, and wonderful programs.’  Slow down the self-promotion bus!   All churches should exist to point not to themselves but to point to Jesus.  If we spend a lot of time promoting ourselves or our church, we are failing in our mission to make everything about Jesus.  And our job at church in this community is to help others learn to point to Jesus.

Let me tell you about Tommy. Someone I met who taught me about all about pointing to Jesus.  One of my life’s most meaningful worship experiences happened with him in an unusual place. It was in the middle of nowhere, in Northern Ghana, Africa.  There was not a village for miles.  I rode out with the pastor.  Tommy had no training as a pastor.  He was a diesel mechanic.  He retired from his diesel business in Alabama and would come with his wife 3-4 times a year to service the diesel generators for the Baptist Hospital there.  There was initially no other electricity. They depended on the generator.  When his wife passed away, Tommy left Alabama and moved to Ghana to do maintenance at the hospital. Tommy had an important job.  But God had more for Tommy.

Tommy loved people, but he loved Jesus even more.  He started off plowing fields for people living in a remote area near the hospital.  He had the only tractor anywhere around.  He kept little spiral notebooks in his pocket and wrote down words he didn’t know. He taught himself the Manpruli language.  And he started three preaching points.   I was there on a medical mission trip, and he invited me on a Sunday morning to go with him.  He picked me up in his truck, and soon, it was filled with people we had met on the dusty roads.  Everyone knew Tommy.  Everyone.  On the way to the church, we must have picked up and dropped off 30 or more people here and there.  Then we left the area of villages and went 4-5 miles out further.  We stopped by a solitary mango tree in an empty field. As far as I could see, there was nothing in all directions.  But in a few minutes, I could see people walking miles away from every direction.  They had seen the dust his truck kicked up and knew it was time for church.  We waited about an hour and a half for everyone to have time to walk the 3-4 miles to where we were.  While we waited, Tommy told me what he would preach about because I didn’t speak the language.  

Then it started.  And people spontaneously started praising God.  They clapped, beat the drums they brought, and they danced.  And it was beautiful.  Tommy would tell me what the song was about now and then, but I didn’t need the explanation.  It was worship.  It was recognizing a God who had been so good to them.  There was a good mango crop that year, and they were thanking God.  After about an hour or so of praising God, they all sat on the ground and listened to Tommy tell them how God was the creator and how the idols often worshiped in the area were just wood made by man.  And they listened.  And they responded.  And several stood and bore witness.  And I was blessed beyond measure to see people I couldn’t understand point to Jesus.4

The attitude of John the Baptist.  

John’s role was to speak the truth and die for it. He had known the crowds at one time. He was ‘the next best thing,’ people flocked from the cities to hear him preach. But then the crowds were gone, and he saw his flock dwindle. Then he was arrested and beheaded.  His life had been hard, but the last years were miserable in Herod’s prison in Machaerus. Most people who spoke of John would say he was a 30-year-old failure, a has-been who didn’t live up to his potential. He had few followers and few friends.

But there was one who gave him praise.

Matt. 11:11   Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. 

It does not matter what the world thinks of you or if you are successful in the eyes of this world. What matters is what Jesus thinks of you.  There is only one affirmation we should seek, and only one matters. I care not what the world thinks of me. There is one voice I want to hear. I have wasted too much of my life seeking praise from others.  I want to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

What about you?  Let’s all seek to live lives that point to Jesus.  Let our worship be all about Him, not about us.  Let our very attitude be that He must increase, and I must decrease.

  1. Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.  (2013) Kindle location 231.
  2. Interview with Matt Redman, BBC Radio 2013.
  3. “Heart of Worship” by Matt Rodman, 1999.
  4. I pray for God’s richest blessings on Tommy Harrison. In a single Sunday morning, he taught me more about living for Jesus throughout your life, humility, and true worship than I could have ever learned anywhere else.  He had an immeasurable impact on so many people during his time in Ghana.

February 16, 27 A.D. Sabbath (Saturday) In the Jordan River -The Year of the Lord’s Favor #11

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

February 16, 27 A.D. Sabbath (Saturday) In the Jordan River -The Year of the Lord’s Favor #11

Week 1 The Baptism of Jesus, part 2 –

Matthew 3: 13-17—Mark 1: 9-11—Luke 3: 21-22

In our first discussion (If you missed it: The Year of the Lord’s Favor #1), we discussed how all the prophets, after the exile in Babylon, looked forward to a time when God would come as he promised. Remember this scripture we discussed?

Mal. 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 

We have seen the messenger come as John the Baptist. He has prepared the way by preaching on the coming Kingdom of Heaven and the need to repent and bring fruit. Then, Jesus showed up and requested baptism by John. Last time, we looked at the why of Jesus’ baptism. Now, we will look at what happened at the time of his baptism.

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As Jesus emerges from the water, “behold, the heavens were opened to him.” We need to understand what this moment meant to John. At this point, John is sure  400+ years of prayer are being answered because he knows the words of the prophets. Isaiah 64:1 is another of the passages, like Malachi 3:1 above, that looked forward to the time when the Lord would return.  

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”  Isaiah 64:1

Isaiah is looking backward to the time when God descended at Sinai, and the mountains quaked, “when you did awesome things” (Isaiah 64:3). He is looking forward to the time when God would come and do extraordinary things again. At this revelation to John, he sees the wish of the people voiced by Isaiah come to pass. He sees the heavens open, and God’s Spirit descends. And Jesus will certainly do awesome things, but the earthquake will only come when his sacrifice for us is complete (Matthew 27:51).

Then John “saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him [Jesus].”1 Have you ever watched as a bird lands or feeds their young, that for a moment they hover? The second verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:2, says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” That Hebrew word for ‘hovering’ is “merachafet,” which means ‘fluttering’ or, as the rabbis describe it, “even as a dove hovers over its nest,” linking it to the dove that heralds the re-creation of the world after the flood in Genesis 6 (a de-creation and re-creation event). So it is appropriate for John to describe the Spirit of God descending like a dove on Jesus, for his baptism heralds that God is about to do something new again. At this point, John is sure that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, as he later relates:

John 1:33   I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Then, a voice with a message hyperlinks to three Old Testament scriptures.

1. “This is my son” – This phrase is a reference to the third stanza of Psalm 2. The end of the second stanza of Psalm 2 introduces the Davidic king, the Messiah, who speaks in verse 7:

 “I will tell of the decree: The LORD [Yehovah] said to me [the messiah], “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Psalm 2:7

2. “with whom I am well pleased” – This is from another known messianic passage in Isaiah.

 Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

3. “my beloved son” – Though in the days of Jesus, this was not recognized as a messianic illusion,  looking back, we now readily connect this story to the crucifixion of Jesus. God asked Abraham to be willing to “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love” and sacrifice him. Arriving at the site of the sacrifice, Isaac asks his father. “Where is the lamb? and Abraham answers, “God will provide the lamb.” The willingness of Abraham to give up his beloved son, Issac’s desire to be obedient to his father and lie down on the altar to be bound2, and the divine provision of a lamb to be a substitute sacrifice for Isaac — these three things shout to us a foreshadowing of God providing his beloved son as a substitutionary sacrifice for us. John sees Jesus as that sacrificial lamb as he later says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)  

God had already fulfilled the sign of the Messiah that he had given John at his calling. Then to confirm it, God speaks the words known to refer to the Messiah. There can be no doubt in John’s mind that before him is the long-awaited one.3  

Luke sees this baptism as his anointing to begin his ministry, and Jesus says as much, reading from the Isaiah scroll in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me…” Remember that ‘Messiah’ (which the Greek translates as ‘Christos’ or Christ) means ‘the anointed one’. Jesus, as the anointed one, must have a time of anointing, and many see his baptism as his anointing for service. Near the end of his ministry, we will speak of another anointing (April 23 of next year).4 

From this point on, readers of the Gospels must be sure of Jesus’ position as the Messiah. John the Baptist is also sure, though he will ask his disciples to seek further evidence when he is imprisoned. Other people in the first century will come to this conclusion slowly over the next year, and sadly, many will reject Jesus as the Messiah.

Today is a good day to remember your baptism. I pray you have entered the waters of repentance with Jesus and have risen as a new creation. This morning, I pray for you. I look over the list of 50 subscribers to this blog and pray that God will open the heavens for you and show you His glory as he did at Sinai, as he did for John on this day, 1997 years ago. I read Isaiah 64:1 and hear the people begging God to “rend the heavens and come down.” God promises he will open the windows of heaven for us if we are his obedient children (See the rest of Malachi chapter 3 that we quoted the first verse of above. And don’t think it is all about tithing — read all of Malachi— you can’t buy God’s favor —it is about obedience.) And if you don’t know Vertical Worship’s song from 2012, “Open Up the Heavens,” then pull it up and let that be your prayer and worship this morning (link below).5 Jesus is still on the mission that he began 1997 years ago on a Sabbath in the river Jordan — a mission to fulfill our righteousness and reconcile us to the Father. “Show us your glory, Lord.”

David

1.    Who saw the heavens open and Spirit descend, and who heard the voice from heaven? John bears witness that he saw it in John 1:32. Other than that, we do not know. Luke tells us that others were baptized before Jesus but did not specify who saw the heavens open and heard the voice. Matthew is not specific.

2.    Despite the Sunday School pictures of Isaac as a young child at the time of this story, he was already a grown man and could have easily overpowered his over 100-year-old father if he wanted to. But Isaac allowed himself to be bound and placed on the altar. The rabbis have emphasized Isaac’s obedience, and this section is often titled “The Binding of Isaac.”

3.    Though John is convinced of Jesus as the Messiah here, we will see him have some questions (doubts?) when Jesus’ ministry does not align with exactly what everyone in that day pictured the Messiah would be.

4.    There is much precedence for multiple anointings in the Old Testament. David was anointed on three occasions (1 Samuel 16:13, 2 Samuel 2:4, and 2 Samuel 5:3).

5.    “Open Up the Heavens” https://www.youtube.com/

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD  The Year of the Lord’s Favor #8

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

John’s Baptism

As we approach the baptism of Jesus, it is important to think about how John’s baptism was viewed by his disciples and those who came to hear him.  

There had been 400 years without a prophet giving a word from God.  A messenger had been promised.  And John the Baptist arrives on the scene.  He can’t be easily ignored, wearing camel hair and preaching in the wilderness.  But John is called “the baptist” or “the baptizer”, and it is this activity that makes him stand out the most.  This baptism is something new and different, and many are coming a long way to see what is going on.

Now we don’t think baptism is odd or unusual.  We see it as a normal part of our religion that some do as an infant, some after the time of confirmation, or some at the time of making a personal decision.  But our understanding of baptism is based on the baptism as done in the book of Acts and following.  We are looking backward with our preconceptions of what baptism means in our time.  The people in John’s time had their own preconceptions about baptizing.   How did the people of his day understand John?  What did it mean to them? 

The idea of ritual bathing or immersion goes back to the time when Israel was about to leave Egypt.  They are told to “consecrate” the firstborn before Passover.  According to the Jewish Torah Commentary, the instruction to consecrate people “involves a purificatory rite …[that] requires bathing, laundering of clothes, and abstention from ritual defilement on the part of the initiate.”1 Later, all of Israel is to consecrate themselves before their encounter with God on Sinai, and again before crossing the Jordan.  Priests also are consecrated before any service and washed in the bronze laver in the Tabernacle.

Up on Sinai, God gives Moses instructions for a tabernacle, and God tells him the purpose of the tabernacle is not for God to dwell in it, but for it to be a place God can dwell with man.  Again, this is God’s purpose for man from the beginning.  God has always sought to live in community with us.

God tells Moses that if we are going to dwell together, you have to keep yourselves pure.  He gives rules for two kinds of purity: Moral Purity and Ritual Purity.  Now we understand moral purity pretty well, including the 10 commandments given at Sinai. But ritual purity is more of a mystery for us 21st-century people.  (It is not that hard.)  Every modern culture has standards of purity and defilement.   For example, even though discrimination on the grounds of caste has been outlawed, many Hindus will not touch people of lower caste, and if they do, they must wash to remove the defilement.  Certain sicknesses are taboo to touch in many societies.  And I have witnessed it many times watching people interact with homeless people, refusing to shake hands, touch, hug, etc.  

You wouldn’t want one of my surgeon friends who just pulled a dead dog off the road, gathered up the pieces and buried it, to just walk into the operating room to do surgery without going through a process to become clean again. That would seem crazy to you.  Yet in the mid-1800s, before the idea of germ theory existed, medical residents in a hospital in Vienna would practice surgery on cadavers and then go upstairs and deliver babies without washing their hands.  It was Ignaz Semmelweis who discovered why this hospital had 3 times the maternal death rate of their sister hospital, and he saved countless lives simply by instituting handwashing there.2  Despite the decrease in maternal deaths, there was tremendous resistance to handwashing by the medical community and Semmelweis was ridiculed and eventually fired.  They had no basis to understand it in their culture.  Similarly, our modern culture has no basis to understand ritual washing (unless you read the Bible).  

Becoming ritually unclean was not a sin. It was a normal part of life to encounter bodily fluids and death.  There are just some things you don’t bring into God’s presence. If you followed the rules for cleansing before entering God’s presence, then there was no problem.  Ritual purity is totally separate from breaking moral laws.  And the Jews never believed that the water had any effect of actually washing impurity away, it was an act of obedience. It was a symbolic representation of the cleansing that God did because they were obedient.3

So God established a means for dealing with ritual impurity and with moral impurity (sin).  Dealing with ritual impurity usually involved washing.  Dealing with sin required a sacrifice.  When Israel went into exile in Babylon, they had no temple or altar and could not perform sacrifices.  So washing for ritual impurity became more important.  Philip Birnbaum in “An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts” noted that because it had become common to perform tevilah (immersion in a mikvah) before entering the temple, “some religious Jews began to see a greater spiritual significance to ritual purity as it embodied a state of nearness to God, as if one were truly present in the Temple.”4  Over 1000 mikveh (ceremonial bathing sites) have been excavated in Israel, some dating before 100 B.C.E. including many at the entrances to the temple where all Jews (including Jesus) would immerse (tevilah) before entering the temple area, just in case you carried some ritual impurity.

The Jews coming to John’s Baptism had this background of ceremonial bathing in preparation for coming into God’s presence to remove ritual impurity.  Immersion in the mikvah would represent a change of status – from ritually impure to pure.  John is taking this idea of a change of status and applying it to moral impurity. His baptism was “with water for repentance”, a symbol of repentance of a moral wrong.  Again, no one believed the water accomplished cleansing from sin.  It was a physical act demonstrating their inward repentance.  

The place where John was baptizing was very significant.  This is the same place where Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the land of promise.  They were to establish a community in this land where they would have no other gods, where they would love God completely and love their neighbor.  But the Scriptures note over and over again how they failed.  Tim Mackie said, “so John is calling Israel to start over, to go back through the river and come out rededicated to their God, ready for the new thing that God’s about to do.”5

With this understanding of how the Jews viewed John’s baptism, now you can consider how you view your baptism.  How is it the same?  How is it different?  We will consider this as we move along Jesus’ ministry this year.  We will also revisit the idea of ritual purity several times.  Jesus has a lot to say about ritual purity, and his actions regarding ritual purity rules shock his followers over and over.  

1. The Jewish Torah Commentary, Exodus, on Exodus 13:1.

2. The story of Ignaz Semmelweis is a fascinating read.  Probably the best book on this is 

Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis, 

by Theodore G. Obenchain (2021).

3. Though the practical benefits of washing after contact with bodily fluid are well known

  to us now, they were certainly not before Louis Pasteur and modern germ theory 

and had no impact on the understanding of people before 1850.

4. Birnbaum, Philip, An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts, p. 240, (1979).

5. Tim Mackie, from the Bible Project video, “The Baptism of Jesus”. 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #7

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Hey John, is this good news or bad news?   

We have been talking about the message of John the Baptist, which is also the message of Jesus.  “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Jesus said his purpose was to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43).  But as we saw last time when the religious leaders came to John, the news was not all good.  John challenged their belief that their physical relationship to Abraham guaranteed their standing with God.  He called them ‘sons of a serpent’.1  John continues in Matthew 3:10

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The removal of trees is a common Old Testament metaphor for God’s judgment on other nations (See Isaiah 10:33-34, and Ezekiel 31).  Jesus will use this same metaphor along with John’s idea of fruit-bearing in Matthew 7:19

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

John will next describe Jesus as one who is separating people, using another common Old Testament metaphor of separating the wheat from the chaff (See Isaiah 41:15-16, Psalm 1:4, Psalm 35:5).  The wheat is taken into the barn, the chaff is burned with “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). We have moved beyond a regular farmers fire to the eternal fire, or punishment of the wicked that Jesus mentions three times in Matthew (18:8, 25:41, and 25:46).

What is all of the wrath talk?  Didn’t someone tell John and Jesus that they were in the New Testament?  I was always told that the Old Testament is full of wrath and judgment and the New Testament is full of mercy and grace.  But John speaks wrath much like the prophets of old.  And Jesus, as we have just seen, also does not ignore the wrath of God.  And if you don’t like that ‘wrath-talk’ don’t read the last book in the New Testament.

But in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he does focus more on the mercy, love, and grace of God.  For example, when he reads from the Isaiah scroll in his hometown, Nazareth, he intentionally stops in the middle of a verse to leave out the section on wrath.  He reads from the Isaiah scroll (61:1-2) as this is recorded in Luke 4:18-19.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

But in the scroll that Jesus is reading, in Isaiah 61, verse 2 says:

to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;

Jesus stops reading in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a passage that everyone in the synagogue is familiar with, and just sits down. Everyone is surprised by his faux pas.  Jesus then really shocks them as he tells them:

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

I think this is very significant.  Jesus is announcing this messianic prophecy is coming true…to a point.  Remember that the first-century Jews expected the Messiah to come in with righteousness and vengeance, to overthrow the oppressive government and restore the kingdom to Israel.  Jesus is claiming that the days of the Messiah are here.  This is the “year of the Lord’s favor.”2  This year of the Messiah is all about God’s favor.  Jesus leaves the vengeance out because it is not the time for the wrath of God to be manifest.  That time will come with the Messiah, but not with this coming of the Messiah.

Nevertheless, Jesus does not ignore the wrath of God.  We see it again in the Sermon on the Mount with the house built on the sand. We see it in the woes on Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11:21-24.  In Luke 19:41-44 he weeps over Jerusalem, knowing that the wrath of God is coming on them in the classic Old Testament method — destruction by a foreign pagan army.  (And Rome did destroy Jerusalem and the temple 40 years later.)

John gives wrath as a warning.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  You could repent.  But if you do not, God’s wrath will come.  So is that bad news?

If you are in a building and someone shouts out a warning to you because the building is on fire, is that bad news?  If you plan on listening to them and leaving the building, then you would gladly thank them for delivering the news.  It is bad news only if you don’t heed the warning and run to the exit.

The Gospel is the good news of the Kingdom of God (unless you decide to ignore it.)

David

  1. This leans heavily on information I learned from Tim Mackie in a Bible Project podcast, “God’s Wrath in the Teaching of Jesus”
  2. The year of the Lord’s favor, the time of the Messiah, I believe to be the year of Jesus’ ministry that we will follow this year in this 70-week study.  Feel free to disagree with me.  If you do, you will be in agreement with almost everyone who went to seminary and was taught his ministry lasted 3 1/2 years.  This is a not new concept, however, as all the church leaders prior to 300 A.D. said his ministry was about a year.  Whether it was a year or three years of ministry, it will be good to go through the time in order, putting the gospels together.  So stay with me and please voice your opinion, especially if it is different.  That is how we learn.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD —The Year of the Lords’ Favor #6

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

We have discussed the message of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  But we are not finished with the message.  There is more.  Before Jesus comes to be baptized by John in a few days (Feb 16), first he has some other visitors.

John was at the Jordan for months in the winter of 27 AD.  And he was attracting crowds.  So some of the religious leaders in the area came to see what was going on.  They felt a responsibility to make sure he was not someone just misleading the people.  So they traveled the 20 miles to where John was baptizing.  They did not exactly get a warm welcome from John.  

Matt. 3:7-10   But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“You brood of vipers”  Why this greeting?  A brood is the young of a species, and vipers are poisonous snakes.  So ‘You snake babies!’, or ‘You son of a snake!’.  As you read on, you discover that John is saying that they are not ‘sons of Abraham’, but instead ‘sons of a serpent’.  They had the idea that God’s promise to the heirs of Abraham guaranteed their relationship with God.  Today, we look at someone who is acting just like their father and say, “That apple didn’t fall far from the tree”.  John is telling them that their ancestry does not make them a ‘son of Abraham’.   

Romans 9:6-7 For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring 

 Not every physical descendant of Abraham is a ‘son of Abraham’.  Abraham’s first two sons were Ishmael and Isaac.  Isaac was a son of the promise, but Ishmael was not. Isaac had twin boys, Jacob and Esau.  Jacob was the son to carry the promise of God, not Esau.  

Galatians 3:7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.  

Now according to my genetic analysis from Ancestry.com, I have no Jewish roots.  But Biblically speaking, I am a son of Abraham adopted in, or as Paul says in Romans 11 grafted in.  So John tells these religious leaders that they are not sons of Abraham, but instead sons of a serpent.  It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out which serpent he was referring to.  Anytime you see snakes or serpents in the Bible you must ask yourself if there is a reference to the serpent in Genesis 3.1  

Jesus has a similar encounter with religious authorities in John 8:39 and challenges them in the same way John the Baptist did: “They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,”.  Jesus then tells them who he thinks their father is in John 8:44 “ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.”   To Jesus, like John, they are sons of the devil (the Genesis 3 serpent).  

Don’t you find it interesting that the Bible is chiming in on the nature vs nurture debate?  Are we more a product of our nature (our genetics), or are we more a product of our environment (how we were raised)?  I will let you draw your own conclusions, but I think the Bible is clear, when we become adults, we are not a product of where we come from genetically, nor of where we come from environmentally.  We are not a product of where we come from at all, but of where we are going.  We are a product of our actions — We are a product of the path we choose.  In other words, your actions speak louder than your chromosomes.

But John is not done with the religious leaders.  He felt they needed further explanation of his message.  They shouldn’t have.  They spoke Hebrew and understood the full concept of ‘shuv’ — that repentance involved a change of mind and a change of action.  But John felt their actions were lacking, and so he adds, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  ‘In keeping with’ from the Greek ‘axios’. ‘Axios’ means ‘bringing into balance’ from the Greek root ‘ago’ (to weigh).  Think of a balance scale.  On one side of the scale is repentance. On the other side is a person’s actions, the fruit of their life.  It should balance.2  

This is not works-based righteousness.  This is a life changed by the grace of God that produces fruit.  Jesus tried to explain this to Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7.  Remember the story?  Jesus had been invited to Simon’s home and the meal was interrupted by a woman “who was a sinner” who anointed him with ointment and her tears.  Jesus tells Simon the story of two people who had debts canceled by a lender.  Simon agreed that the one who had the greatest debt canceled would love the lender more.  Jesus explains that because this woman had been forgiven much, she loved much.  (Jesus knows that “love” as a Hebrew verb is emotion and action.)  Lest anyone think this concept of your actions being in measure with your repentance is outdated after the cross, let’s look at Paul describing his message to Agrippa in Acts 26:19-20

“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

“So how do you practically live so that your deeds are in balance with your repentance?”  I’m so glad you asked.  The people listening to this in John’s day wanted to know also.

Luke 3:10-14      And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”  Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

There is a lot to unpack here, but notice there are three very different groups of people asking him the same question.  But his suggestions of how to respond to each of them deal with money and possessions.  For you see, people in the first century were very different than us.  Back then, in Jesus’ day, people had a problem that we may not understand. They loved money and possessions.  They were a very materialistic culture.  They had to have the latest name-brand tunics, shoes, and insulated drinking mugs.  Okay, maybe they weren’t so different.

If you need further explanation, Jesus will go on a mountain and preach a whole sermon on this (see Matthew 5-7).  Here is an excerpt:

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.  Mt 7:16-18

Let me challenge you today to ask God, what one thing can I do this week to help balance my repentance?  Maybe it’s sharing clothing, food, or money.  Maybe it’s being a friend to someone, maybe it’s sharing the good news of the kingdom with someone.   Do not let this week go by without your repentance being an action. Be a son of Abraham.

1. An exception to this is the sea serpent/dragon (Hebrew ‘tannin’) which is a special case with its own symbolism.  The Bible Project has a 22-episode podcast series on the symbolism of the sea dragon in the Bible.  (And you had no idea there was that much about sea/land serpents/dragons/monsters in the Bible. Now say it in your best “pirate” voice, “There be dragons!”)

2. Balance scales were very common in Jesus’ day.  Every vendor in the market had them to weigh out whatever you bought and to weigh out your payment.  Before coins were used,  you weighed out your silver or gold on a scale to balance the known weight. A ‘shekel’ was initially a measure of weight, and then later a coin. 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #5

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

John’s message:  “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 3:2

So we have discussed the idea of repentance from John’s perspective.  So what does he mean by “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”?1

The idea of the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is central to the gospel.  You could say the coming of the kingdom is the gospel (good news).  Indeed, that is what Jesus said in Luke 4:43  “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Do we understand the idea of the kingdom?  Do we emphasize it as we should?

Krister Stendahl, in Meanings: The Bible as Document and as Guide, states “But it remains a fact worth pondering that Jesus had preached the kingdom, while the church preached Jesus.  And thus we are faced with a danger: we may so preach Jesus that we lose the vision of the kingdom, the mended creation.”  I fear we have done just that.  As Tim Mackie says, “The church has done a pretty good job of teaching about Jesus, but an incredibly poor job of teaching what Jesus taught.”2

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Part of the problem is that the idea of a ‘kingdom’ itself is not a common concept today.  In the time when the Bible was written, kingdoms were the usual method of governing a nation.  But kingdoms are a rarity today.   Most people immediately think of the United Kingdom,  though the power of the king there is very limited as it is a ‘constitutional monarchy’.  The only absolute monarchies today are in some Muslim countries (Brunei, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates).  Though these do have a representative body of some kind, the king retains most of the power.  

The monarchies of the Bible times were mostly absolute.  The king holds all the power and can not be questioned.  If you think Jesus came to establish a democracy where we all vote on what is right and what is wrong then you have bought the serpent’s lie in Genesis 3.  But there are some other differences between the idea of ‘kingdom’ that we hold and the idea in the Bible.

The English word, ‘kingdom’, is defined as ‘a territory ruled by a king or queen.’3  So we define the geographic limits of a Kingdom by setting land boundaries.  If you cross the English Channel and step on land then you are in the Kingdom of Great Britain. If you cross the Jordan River today from Jericho you will enter the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The extent of the kingdom is defined by lines on a map. If you use that definition with ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ in Matthew you miss the meaning.  And many people do.  They think of the Kingdom of Heaven as a place outside of time and space where God lives “up there” and their goal is to get to the Kingdom of Heaven someday in the ‘sweet by and by.’  And, for them, John the Baptist’s message and Jesus’ message is all about how to get to heaven.  This is not exactly what Jesus was preaching.  The Greek and Hebrew views of ‘kingdom’ define the geographic limits of a kingdom by the area where the king reigns.4  If a group of people places themselves under the rule of a king, they are part of his kingdom.  If they refuse to follow the edicts of a king, then the king does not reign over them so they are not part of the kingdom.  Dallas Willard, in The Divine Conspiracy, said, “Now God’s own ‘kingdom,’ or ‘rule,’ is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature of by choice is within his kingdom.”  We only are part of the kingdom if we submit ourselves to the rule of the king.

God’s kingdom is wherever God’s will is done.

This is why Jesus can say the kingdom is already here.

Luke 17:20-21   Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  “In the midst” could also be translated as “within you” or “inside you”.  The kingdom is where Jesus is because Jesus always obeys the will of the king.  Are you part of the kingdom?  Do you follow the will of the king without question?

Understanding this concept of the kingdom makes it easier to understand what Jesus was praying for in the Lord’s prayer.  

“Thy Kingdom come,”

Jesus wants us to pray for the kingdom to come.  Do you know what that means?  Jesus defines it in the next part of the prayer —“thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”  In God’s space, God’s will is followed perfectly.  There is no rebellion.  Jesus wants us to pray for the complete coming of God’s kingdom when all evil will be destroyed, all rebellion quashed, and everyone will follow the will of the king always.  That day is coming and Jesus wants us to pray for that day to come.

If you have 5 minutes this week, I highly recommend watching this wonderful Bible Project video, “The Gospel of the Kingdom”.  https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/gospel-kingdom/#fn-13

David

  1. Matthew says “Kingdom of Heaven” while John says “Kingdom of God”.  What is the difference?  Metonymy, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated.” We use this also.  It is understood to be the same thing when we say, “The Federal Government has issued a mask update.” or “Washington has issued a mask update.”  Some scholars.
  2. Tim Mackie, Bible Project Podcast,  “The Kingdom”
  3. The Oxford Dictionary
  4. Mounce Greek Dictionary 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #4

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Further notes on repentance— through Peter’s eyes.

God is not surprised when we sin.  He knows we are prone to sin.  The Bible specifically tells us that, and many of you have memorized Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. (But have you memorized Romans 3:24? – more on that later).  

Imagine you are sitting around a table eating dinner with some friends and Jesus.  And Jesus leans over and says to you, “Hey, [your name],  Satan demanded to put you through a trial,  but I prayed for you.  And you say, “Thank you, Jesus.  Thanks for blocking that old devil for me.  Trials are no fun.  I appreciate your prayers.”  But wait a minute, this actually happened in the Bible.  Jesus is having dinner with his friends, his disciples.  It is the last supper he will have with them.  And he leans over to Simon Peter and says, 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,that he might sift you like wheat,  but I have prayed for you” Luke 22:31-2   

But Jesus is not praying for Simon to avoid the trial, and surprisingly, Jesus is not praying that he would pass the trial.  What is Jesus praying for? 

“that your faith may not fail” Luke 22:32a

Jesus is not praying for Simon to pass the trial, because he is already sure that Simon Peter will fail the trial, and will tell him that specifically.  Jesus is praying that he will survive the failed trial with his faith intact. What does Jesus say next?

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Luke 22:32b

“Turned again” there is our Greek word for repent, ‘strepho’.  “When you have repented for failing the test, Simon, then strengthen your brothers.”1   Jesus then tells him specifically what will happen.  Peter will deny him three times before the rooster crows.  You see, Jesus expects failure. And whether you pass or fail is not the most important thing about a trial.  The most important thing is whether you will repent of your failures. 

So let’s follow Peter a little further.  Jesus is arrested that night and all the disciples run and hide.  Peter and John follow Jesus (at a distance) into the courtyard of the high priest.

Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. … The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.  Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and pat once a rooster crowed.  John 18:15,17-18, 25-27.

Now it is April 28 of 28 AD, it is early spring in Jerusalem and it can get very chilly at night.

And John throws a few interesting details that they were warming themselves by the fire.

He doesn’t want you to miss this… he says it 3 times!  He even tells you what kind of fire this was, a charcoal fire (always pay attention when the Bible gives you little details.)  Then Peter denies Jesus 3 times and then the rooster crows, just as Jesus predicted.

 I once heard a preacher say, “Every time Peter heard the rooster he remembered his failure. And this is important. Don’t forget your failures.” And I get that. It is only when we remember our failures that we can appreciate what God has done to forgive us.

Remember the story when Jesus had been invited to Simon the Pharisee’s home, and the meal was interrupted by a woman “who was a sinner” who anointed him with ointment and her tears.  Jesus tells Simon the story of two people who had debts canceled by a lender.  Simon agreed that the one who had the greatest debt canceled would love the lender more.  Jesus explains that because this woman had been forgiven much, she loved much.  

Only when we consider the depth of our failures can we understand the depth of his mercy.

(I think Ignatius said this first.)  I can agree with that preacher up to a point about the importance of remembering your failures.  But we are not finished with Peter.

Now we skip forward to after Jesus has been resurrected; he is to meet the disciples in the Galilee, up north.  They went fishing all night and caught nothing. 

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  John 21:4

You know the story:  They are about to quit when they see a guy on the shore. Jesus asks, “Catch anything?”  “No,” they answer.  Jesus then tells them to fish on the right side of the boat and the net is full of fish, and they realize it’s Jesus.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”  John 21:9-12

Nice, fish tacos for breakfast.  Then Jesus has a conversation with Peter.  He asks him 3 times Peter, do you love me?  And Peter affirms his love. Why 3 times?  3 times he denied Jesus, so Jesus makes sure to give him 3 times to affirm him.  Then Jesus tells Peter “Follow me.”   Jesus is rebooting their relationship.  Yes, I know you failed the test, Peter, but I still love you, it doesn’t change our relationship, I am asking you to do exactly what I asked you to do before, follow me.

But notice the details….What kind of fire was Jesus cooking on?  A charcoal fire (that detail is only given these 2 times in the New Testament.)  What time of day was it? John says “Just as day was breaking”.  He doesn’t specifically mention it, but what happens at dawn? The rooster crows.  Peter, standing by a charcoal fire, denies Jesus 3 times and the rooster crows. That was the lowest moment of his life. So Jesus gives Peter a chance to say he loves him 3 times, and Jesus doesn’t want Peter to forget this, so he recreates the scene. The same sound of the rooster, the same feeling and smell of the charcoal fire.  

Yes, it is important to remember your failures, but it is more important to see how your failures make you stronger through repentance and the resultant actions of repentance. For the rest of his life, every time Peter heard the rooster crow or smelled a charcoal fire, his mind went right back to what could have been a moment of great sorrow that Jesus turned into a moment of great redemption.  So yes, preacher from my past, we need to embrace our failures —-and then fall into the embrace of the God who loves us enough to forgive us when we repent.

1997 years ago, on this day we call January 23.  John the Baptist was preaching a message of repentance.  It is a message we need to hear today We all fail.  All of us. But who did the Bible call “a man after God’s own heart”?  David.  And he spectacularly had failures, breaking 5 of the 10 commandments in a few days (including those about adultery and murder). How could the Bible call him a man after God’s own heart?   Because it isn’t the failure that matters, it is the repentance  — he failed but he didn’t fall.

Have you failed?  God isn’t angry with you; he knew you were going to fail that test. He was not surprised when you chose the wrong path,  He is just standing there with open arms waiting for you to turn around.  Repentance is a story of good news, not bad news.  Maybe it’s time to memorize Romans 3:24 to go with 3:23.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Rom 3:24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

We all need to repent.  We all have friends who live in opposition to God, and Paul in 2 Timothy 2 tells us we need to pray for them that God might “grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and that they may come to their senses.”  Paul had lived this himself.  We all have friends who may be facing trials.  Jesus is praying for them.  Should we not also?  Finally, we may be about to face a trial that we would never have considered.   Peter had no idea and didn’t understand even after Jesus told him.  Be alert and “be careful when you stand lest you fall” (1 Cor. 10:12)  

Happy repenting!

1. There is one more important thing that is hard for us to see in these verses — because in English “you” looks the same in singular or plural.  But all of these ‘you’s in verses 31 and 32 are plural.  So if Jesus was speaking very Southern English, he would have said, “Satan demanded to have you all, so that he might sift y’all like wheat, but I have prayed for y’all that you alls faith may not fail. And when y’all have turned again, strengthen y’alls brothers.” There is no doubt in Jesus’ mind that they all (and we all) would fail.

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #3

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

John’s message:  “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 3:2

Two words get translated as repent in our English translations: metanoeo and strepho.  Metanoeo means to think differently or to reconsider (a mental process).  Strepho means to make a change in direction or to turn back (a physical process).  But John spoke Hebrew, not Greek so he would not have used either word.  Instead, he would have used the Hebrew word ‘shuv’.  Shuv carries the idea of both a change in the way you think and a change in behavior or direction.  

Let me expand on this lesson on Hebrew verb usage.  Hebrew does not use ‘thinking only’ verbs.  All verbs imply action. For example ‘shema’ means to hear, but it carries the idea of obedience to the hearer.  There is no concept of hearing what your rabbi says and then not being obedient to it. If you hear (pay attention and consider and understand) then you will of course act on what you have heard.1  Another example is the Hebrew word for ‘remember’.  ‘Zakhar’ is the word translated ‘remember’ in Genesis 8:1.  “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.”  If you use our English definition of remember (a thought process), then you can imagine God sitting up in heaven playing dominos with the angels and suddenly he jumps up and says, “Oh no, I forgot about Noah and the critters in that boat. I turned off the rain…let’s see… oh, about 150 days ago.”  Then an angel replies, “150 days!  Well I am glad you remembered them today!”  Of course that is not what happened.  Zakhar is translated as ‘remember’ for us, but it is not simply a verb about thinking.  When the Bible says “God remembered” it means God knew about something and then acted on it.  When the psalmist asks God to “remember your mercy” (Psalm 25:6), he is not asking God to recall a list of his attributes but to act mercifully.  

The oldest copies of the New Testament we currently have are in Greek, though we know many times people spoke Hebrew and it was translated to Greek.  Now that you know the difference between the two Greek words for repentance and the single Hebrew word, you will be able to tell me what language Peter was speaking in Acts 3:19

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out”  Our Greek New Testaments have Peter saying, “Metanoeo, therefore and strepho, that your sins may be blotted out.  Peter has to be speaking Greek to this crowd that had gathered from all over, because to describe the full process of repentance, he has to use both words.  Contrast this with John the Baptist who, like Jesus, uses the single word for repentance which must be the Hebrew word ‘shuv’ that incorporates both thought and action.

 John the Baptist was asking people to change their minds and then change their behavior.  Repentance is not merely regret.  Repentance is not complete if you only have a change “in heart”.  A famous 12th-century Rabbi, Maimonides, said “Complete repentance is when you have the opportunity to do the same hurtful thing, harmful thing again, and you make a different choice.”2

Matthew summarizes Jesus teaching in Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

And as we saw above, it is the same idea Peter preaches in Acts.  But repentance is not a new message but is seen throughout the Old Testament, as seen in the repentance of the entire city of Nineveh or the repentance of King David.3  It is a message for all time because God is well aware of our tendency to wander off of his path (to sin), and we will hear more about that on Friday.

After more than 400 years, in 26 AD, the long-awaited messenger has arrived.  His message is to prepare for the coming Kingdom of Heaven.  Get ready because it is at hand.   The anticipation for the return of God to his temple is building every day. 

Get excited! Jesus will appear on the scene with John on Feb 16th!

David

1. In Biblical Hebrew there is no specific word for someone who thinks one way but acts another.  But we see that concept in Isaiah 29:13 ““These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” In the Old Testament the only word for this type of person is “godless”. The KJV actually translates the Hebrew word ‘godless’ as ‘hypocrite’ in Job 8:13.)   There is a word in Greek that describes someone whose actions are not equal to their thinking.  The Greek word is ‘hypokrites’ which is the Greek word for an actor in a play.  (The Greek is 2 words that mean ‘an interpreter from underneath’ because Greek actors interpreted the story from beneath the masks they wore on stage.)  We have imported this word into English as someone who puts on the appearance of being something they are not.  The Greek word ‘hypokrites’ is seen 17 times in the Gospels.

2. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah 2:1

3. See Psalm 6, Psalm 51

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD #2

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

A Geographic note.

John, Matthew 3 tells us, was preaching in the wilderness of Judea.  The Gospel of John gives us a more accurate description. 

John 1:28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John calls it “Bethany beyond the Jordan” to differentiate it from Bethany, the hometown of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, where Jesus will spend time later this year.  ‘Beyond the Jordan’ would mean ‘on the other side of the Jordan River’ and to any Jewish person, it would mean on the other side from Jerusalem, that is the east bank of the River.

We can’t pinpoint exactly where this Bethany is, but most scholars (and Google Maps) place it about 5 miles north of the Dead Sea across the Jordan from Jericho.1

Now if you are John the Baptist in 27 AD and are thinking about planting a church, the wilderness may not be your first choice of location.  But John is not planting a church.  The Judean Wilderness is a very desolate place, as we shall see in a month when Jesus spends 40 days there.  But John’s location would have been a well-traveled route.  Anyone headed to Jerusalem from Galilee would (to avoid Samaria) head east and cross the Jordan River and then travel on the ancient paths parallel to the river and then cross back over the river to the west here, near Jericho.  They would then take the ‘Jericho Road’ that runs between Jericho and Jerusalem (which you know as the setting of the story of the Good Samaritan.)

This area has great Biblical significance also.  It was in this area that Elijah and Elisha crossed the Jordan on dry land, where Elijah was taken up to heaven, and where Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.  

I find it very helpful to be able to draw a very simple map of Israel to be able to place events in the Bible in their location.  Knowing the location of the Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea is enough.  Then you can learn the placement for a few cities and mountains.  Alternatively, you can consult the maps which many Bibles have, or even Google Maps, but I think being able to construct a rough map helps make the land come alive to you.

Here is one I frequently use.  

The “C” is Capernaum (located at the ‘cap’ of the Sea of Galilee.

“N” Nazareth is west of the lower end of that sea.

the Star marks Jerusalem which is close in line horizontally with the top of the Dead Sea.

Just below Jerusalem is “B” for Bethlehem, and you see Jericho near the river.

So John would be east of Jericho, on the other side of the river

If you are planning on following Jesus with your feet, we will begin on Feb 16th.  If you want to get a jump on it, then you had better get busy.  Jesus traveled from Galilee, likely his hometown, Nazareth, to the area where John was baptizing.  He most likely (this time) took the usual route, which would be about 90 miles.  In Jesus’ day, this would be a 5-6 day journey.  That won’t be doable for me on a workday, but I plan to take the next 6 weeks to make that 90 miles.  But again, we don’t ‘officially’ begin until mid-February, so no rush.  

1. “The section closes with a note of place. These things happened at John’s normal spot for baptizing on the other side of the Jordan (i.e., from Jerusalem). The name of the place varies in the MSS. Some read “Bethabarah” and some “Betharabah,” but both seem due to Origen, who early in the third century visited the land and reported that he could find no town called “Bethany” on the other side of the Jordan. He says that the ancient manuscripts read “Bethany.” But because he thought the place must be Bethabarah he adopted that reading. Origen was a great scholar, but for once it appears that he is not to be relied on. Close attention to his words shows that he did not actually go to Jordan; he says only, “they say that Bethabara is pointed out.” He appears to have been misinformed. It seems that “Bethany” is the right reading. But quite early the location was lost sight of. The Evangelist adds “on the other side of the Jordan” to distinguish this locality from the better-known Bethany, which was near Jerusalem.”  From New International Commentary on the New Testament, Matthew, Leon Morris.