JOURNING WITH JESUS: THE LIFE OF CHRIST JESUS

JESUS THE CHRIST BEGINS HIS MINISTRY

1. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus allowed Himself to be baptized by John the Baptist. John the Baptist bearing witness saying "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", and again he said "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remained upon Him."

FOOTNOTE: God ordains not man, man confirms by witnessing what God has already done

2. Immediately Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After 40days and no food the humanity in Jesus was tired and weak, here is when the devil began to tempt Him, yet with each temptation Jesus responded with the word of God. Jesus was tempted in three ways: a. In His hunger, He was hungry had been fasting so a "if" question was asked "if You are the Son of God", b. Again in His identity, "If You be the Son of God throw Yourself down" then the devil quoted scripture, c. Then His position, the devil said "All these things I will give You if You fall down and worship me". Silly devil all the kingdoms of the world already belonged to the Creator of all things, Yeshua, see Colossians 1:16. After this the angels literally came and fed Him.

FOOTNOTE: If Jesus at had at any time given into the temptation of the devil, then there would have been no salvation for anyone. But read Hebrews 2:17-18 & Hebrews 4:15. Because He was tempted He became our Kinsman Redeemer, and He can understand us when we fall into temptation.

3. Began His ministry by calling His ministry team to "Come follow Him".

4. He taught in the synagogues, on the mountain top, and by the sea.

FOOTNOTE: It is written that the people were astonished at His teaching because He did not teach as the scribes, but He taught with authority.

5. He fed the multitudes, the blind received their sight, the deaf could hear, the mute could speak, the lame could walk, the dead were raised, demons were cast out and infirmities were healed. And He was worshipped by those He healed and by the witnesses who saw and believed.

Matthew 15:31 so the multitude marveled marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel.

6. Two things, a. The Pharisees were unbelieving, they were always questioning Jesus, they were jealous of Him and they were continually plotting against Him. b. The only place He did very little healing was in His hometown and He said "because of their unbelief".

FOOTNOTE: The religious will always question all God is or does, but those of faith will follow Him. Faith is the opposite of unbelief, though in faith we believe and we keep praying for our loved ones healing here on this side of heaven and as hard as it might be to us, God is still sovereign and it is written "there is a time to be born and a time to die". That is the hardest thing to know when we watch our loved one breath their last breath. Yet, I believe miracles of life happen everyday. When my daughter was dying I held on to this word God gave me, "this is not unto death", when she died I asked God about that word I held onto, He in His mercy replied "She can never die, she just came home"!

Again these are only highlights of His life.