6-Life of Christ: The Beginning of Christ's Mininistry, pt2

We've shown already in our study of "The Life of Christ" that Jesus' ministry and His cousin John the Baptist's ministry were vitally connected. As first-class scholar, F.F. Bruce says in JESUS: LORD & SAVIOR, "All four evangelists place Jesus' first public appearance in the context of the ministry of John the Baptist. John was a preacher of repentance whose short-lived but memorable activity began in the Wilderness of Judea about AD 27. Many of his hearers believed that in him the voice of prophecy, unheard in Israel for generations, had once again sounded forth: the common people 'all held that John was a real prophet' (Mk 11:32). It was no general call for repentance that he uttered: divine judgement was about to be exercised, he proclaimed, and the one to whom the judgment was entrusted was shortly to be manifested. 'His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire' (Lk 3:17). During the later phase of John's ministry Jesus pursued a concurrent ministry in Judea, but the news of John's imprisonment sent him north to Galilee; and there, in the towns and villages west of the lake, he embarked on a new and systematic ministry--the preaching of the kingdom of God. The background to his use of this term is found in the book of Daniel, where it is announced that the time will come when 'the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed' (Dan 2:44)--a kingdom which is to supercede all earthly kingdoms. Without further explanation, such a proclamation would certainly have been taken to mean that the day of Israel's liberation was at hand, when the Roman Empire and minor Gentile powers would disappear. This was not what Jesus meant when he affirmed that the kingdom of God had drawn near; what he did mean was made clear in his teaching and in his actions." So join us for midweek Bible study as we take a continued look at "The Beginning of Christ's Ministry, pt2". Having already read afresh of His baptism and temptation, we'll see John's identification of himself and Jesus, Jesus' 1st followers, and His 1st miracle!