Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. Or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m. If you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, you can find us online at Madison church.
Be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast Madison Church of Christ sermons thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Last week we were talking about genealogy. I mentioned genealogy in Matthew and then I said it was in Mark. I was the one that said it, but I'm pretty sure it was still Robert's fault. The reason that got out there, I.
[00:00:51] Speaker D: Think I repeated it.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: But the point is I wanted to clear that up. That genealogy, not Mark.
[00:00:57] Speaker D: It's in Luke.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: And I wanted to also say there were several people that were looking during and then they came up to us after class. Robert and I both, if we say.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Something like that, say it.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Tell know we want a dialogue in these class, in these classes. And Craig, what verse is it that Craig told me reminded me of this verse many years ago. It talks about fear and trembling. What is it?
Yeah, work out your own salvation. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Do that by studying.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: So no matter what we say in here, I want to encourage you guys again to be studying on your own. Reading on your own. Studying on your own. That is one of our focuses for this year. And if you get nothing else out of this class, I hope that you are reading the reading assignments and I.
[00:01:50] Speaker D: Hope you are studying these things and.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Making sure that Robert and I are saying the right things. Okay, so with that, Robert's going to start us out tonight. We're going to try to get through three chapters. We're going to be moving probably pretty quickly.
[00:02:07] Speaker D: Last week for sure.
Let's see, quick review of last week we covered some territories, spent some time talking about that, those silent years that some 400 years between the testaments, trying to lay some of the groundwork set in perspective and help us to see what possibly led toward the timing of the New Testament and the Messiah coming on the scene. A lot of good comments about things that happened during that time period. And touch on some of that tonight related to the synagogue on that. So we didn't get through chapter two. We're going to just hit some high spots in chapter two and then spend a little more time talking about chapter three and four next week. Going to try to cover Sermon on the mountain, how far we'll make it through that, but that's the intent. So read ahead, start chapter five through chapter seven.
So backing up to chapter two that we didn't get through yesterday, we're not going to take the time to read all of it tonight, so we can spend more time talking about the points that we want to make. Some of the things that I wanted to highlight out of chapter two in that first section where we had the visit of the wise man, I'll back up and make a plug for the lessons we had from the pulpit last fall. A lot of this was covered in detail. So another reason for not reading it tonight, King Herod was king at that time. And there's a lot of history there, not only in history documentation, but a lot mentioned in the Bible about his family. It was quite the family and had quite a dynasty. And King Herod himself was a bit of a monster. We know from what we read in the Bible, he was an evil adjective there. He described him another interesting thing, Bethlehem has a meaning, a place of bread.
We're referencing and studying a lot of Matthew, his perspective and his use of Old Testament references, prophecies, predictions, that type of thing. I just found that interesting, that the bread of life, if you will, was born there in Bethlehem. I had never made that connection before.
The lessons we heard from Brandon and Andrew covered the wise men, or the Magi, where that terminology came from, what they were known for, educated astrology, astronomy, even into the magic realm, what they were kind of known for.
And one of the things we talked about during that silent period, the Old Testament had been translated into Greek. That was one of the things that helped everybody have a copy of scripture by the time the Messiah and Jesus came to the earth. So that was a significant factor.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: I want to jump in there because this bullet to me was interesting because I know I have read the first couple of verses of Matthew there, first couple of chapters of Matthew, probably hundreds of times. And something jumped out to me that I'd seen it before, but it never registered with me what it meant. And it's in Matthew, chapter two, verse three. If you want to turn over there.
And this is when the Magi have come and they told him that they've seen this star and that they were there to see this person was going to be born king. And in verse three, it says, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And the part that got me that I had never noticed before was it says, and all Jerusalem with him.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: And it goes on then to talk about, what does Herod do? Herod goes. And he gets smart guys. And he says, hey, there's this prophecy I know about. Can you tell me where that baby is going to be born? So for me, that put this event again, it made it more real.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: And if you remember what we talked about a couple of weeks ago, who was Matthew writing to? He was writing to the Jews. And so I feel like this is kind of him saying, hey, take note of this. Do you remember this happened? And Herod was upset and all of Jerusalem was upset with it, right? They were all like, who's, what is know what's happening? I had never seen that. Never before seen that. Am I the only one or is that news to anybody else?
And I think that's interesting. And this bullet is kind of what made me think of that was they knew it had been 400 years, but the Jews knew and they were watching. And we're going to see that even more if we get to prison.
[00:07:22] Speaker D: They weren't expecting it, but there's been a long lull to put yourself in that generations after generations of a lull, even though they anticipated how they all had scripture and quote back to it all, that kind of contributed to their personal faith and their situation and the way things became politicized, scrutinized, if you will, based on those sex of pharisees, sadducees that we wound up with, you know, how their personality.
It's very interesting to me, as you read through these short sections, travel, how God intervened. Intervened and actually protected.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Jesus.
[00:08:11] Speaker D: Was a bad baby and he was on a mission.
And then Micah five, two and five was one of the prophecies that I noted. The fact that something that I had not remembered.
Bethlehem of Judea, that Ephratha, there's two bethlehems, right?
And the Bible is specific. And the right one, the next section, the flight to Egypt. This is another example where God warned and protected Jesus, told Joseph to move on, that Herod's going to come with him.
This is an example in here of what I'm calling a dual fulfillment prophecy. Sometimes it's referred to as immediate and then a remote prophecy or later. Now let's back up and just notice, and it's very familiar that Israel was called out of Egypt as was later.
Jesus actually did flee to Egypt and then left Egypt.
Another interesting note in the verses, he specifically makes it clear that this is God speaking through the prophet. Didn't leave any buzz on that at all. That's very important to us. Another Old Testament reference to prophecy about of Egypt that I call my son.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: Now, you guys also remember we talked about, I think we say every week, probably say it. We'll continue to say it. Matthew has more Old Testament prophecy than all the other books combined. And I will tell you, Robert and I were talking about this as we were walking in tonight. For me, preparing for this class that has made it very difficult because you will find prophecies within prophecies. I mean, it's just absolutely incredible that this know, it's one of those. You couldn't write this if you were trying to write a fiction book. You couldn't write it because it's just so intricate and so deep. And I think this one is very indicative of that. Right little kind of little nothing town. Bethlehem, the new king is born there, flees to Egypt, and all of that is right there in scripture. One other thing I wanted to hit here is when we read this, this is all within chapter know, and I think we covered this in the lessons we had on Sunday morning. But if you read chapter two and you look at it carefully, you can see that the Magi did not get there right when Jesus was born. And then even when they're talking to Herod, whether it was two years ago that they saw the star or two years after, that's why Herod was killing the children that were two years and under. So again, we're going to talk about this later as well. I think when we just read these verses, right, and it takes us two minutes maybe, to read these verses, we think it's, this happened. This happened. This happened. And it wasn't really. That was. There was more here.
But just like we had limited time tonight, Matthew didn't have time to write everything down. So they hit the big points.
[00:12:06] Speaker D: And I truly think as we grow up and experiencing your stories of Christmas with that timeline in your mind, but scripture tells us that it doesn't flow like some of the Christmas stories.
Okay, so after that, Dave mentioned it.
He couldn't find him.
So he was thinking back to when he sent the Magi out to find him. And he just said, okay, let's kill every male under two years of age.
Jeremiah 31.
Another one of those dual prophecy fulfillments having to do with Rachel and the cries coming from her tomb that removed. As the children of Israel passed by the tomb. As they were being led, captivity.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Applied.
[00:13:08] Speaker D: The prophecy to the Greek and the tears that were caused.
Then there was a return to Nazareth. Any question or comment on any of this? We're flying through, just hitting the high spot, but if there's thoughts or comments, please pick up the chair.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: One thing that we studied last archaeology class about that and how the Bible is the only document that really records.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: That.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: And the explanation is given that Bethlehem was a town of about 400 people. And so the total number of children is estimated somewhere.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Because it said to.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Him, it's one of those things where you're looking. A lot of people look at, can it happen? Because there's no historical reference to it other than the Bible. But if you understand the scope of it, it was terrible, no doubt. But the scope of it in terms of what might be in the 42nd, just in case people online couldn't hear that Craig Beale was bringing up that the Bible is really the only source of history for the genocide of these babies, pointing out that Bethlehem was 400 ish in size. And so they estimate this was probably somewhere between 20 to 100 babies, which in the grand scheme of history is not as big a deal.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Just a little note. I've seen several sources say that all the information from the time of Cris, now, 90% of that has been lost. We don't have.
[00:15:15] Speaker D: The actual history writing.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: Of it, of what happened back then. 90% of that, whatever was written.
[00:15:30] Speaker D: Yes, we do.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: We ready to move on or we highlights on this?
[00:15:40] Speaker D: There was a reason why Joseph chose where he chose to go, and that was because of Herod's family, who was ruling. He chose the path where there was a more mild and less vicious ruler over that area. So there is a reason there.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Any questions or comments.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Please?
[00:16:10] Speaker C: Okay, so we're going to move into now chapter three. And you all going to have to forgive me here. I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull this off, but we're going to jump around a little bit.
So, struck me again, John the Baptist, starting in chapter three, John the Baptist is the focus here. And immediately what happens points out a prophecy, and that's Matthew 33, is pointing to Isaiah 43, which is the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, praise the way of the Lord.
The other thing that's always been interesting to me was why does it call out the camel's hair garment? If you flip over to second kings one eight, that is a reference back to Elijah. And it mentions that Elijah, if somebody's over there, will verify this for me. I believe what it says is Elijah wore a leather belt and it says a garment of hair. It doesn't say camel's hair, but it just says a garment of hair. So again, this is one of those situations, as I'm talking about, as we've talked about. So three verses or four verses, and we've got either a prophecy or a callback to something out of the Old Testament. And just to be the dead horse. Why did I say that? To me, that is significant that Matthew is doing that.
You can't answer Chris.
[00:17:54] Speaker D: That is.
[00:17:57] Speaker C: Yes, they were looking for another Elijah. I'm asking more. Why is it significant that Matthew would be including some of the Jews? Well, he's teaching to the Jews, but what else? There was something else. I said that, to me is interesting.
I get you're not in here. I'm not being fair, okay, they should have.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: But what was he?
[00:18:27] Speaker C: Tax collector?
He was an outcast jew.
He would not have been allowed. Like I said, he couldn't even go into the court of the gentiles, okay? And he's the guy that's telling the jews, hey, remember this?
Remember this?
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Right?
[00:18:48] Speaker C: So he's a guy that for however long he had that text, Booth, he wasn't allowed to be in there. And I'll tell you what I believe, and it fits very well with our theme this year. I believe he studied. I believe he had to have studied on his own.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:19:07] Speaker C: Now, again, I'll say, granted, he had the holy spirit to help him or to guide him, to write this, to inspire him to write this book.
But I believe he had to have known. I believe that's just my personal belief. Nothing in scripture says that, but that's my personal belief.
[00:19:25] Speaker D: We talked about another point associated with being a tax collector. The characteristics you would expect, detail, record keeping, that type of thing. So I think this reflects that.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:19:39] Speaker C: So I want to do just a little bit of biblical geography before we go on. And like I said, I think. I'm hoping I can draw this to a nice pinpoint at the end. But I wanted to show you just a couple of maps. So this is a map of what we would nowadays call the holy land. So you've got Israel over here, you've got Jerusalem and Jericho. Then you got the sea of Galilee up here on the north.
And if you'll remember, we talked about a couple of weeks ago, Capernaum was sort of Jesus'home base.
I said there were some other people there. Do we remember who else was there in Capernaum? And it's going to become important in just a couple of minutes.
Peter, James, John and Andrew.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Right?
[00:20:30] Speaker C: They were there. Capernaum. Okay, I'm going to give you guys some distances, too, from here to here in this blue line, which would be here. So from there to there is about ten to 13 miles.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:48] Speaker C: Now, scripture tells us that John the Baptist was baptizing in, I believe, Bethany beyond the Jordan.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: And for them, beyond the Jordan would mean that the east side and there wasn't Bethany over on the west side, but we know for sure he was baptizing in the Jordan river.
This is sort of one of the things when you start looking at current day geography over there, they will say, oh, this is where it happened. And it's spurious at best. And so this is somewhere that is sort of traditional. This is where John the Baptist was baptized.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: And I'm going to give you the distance from there. So up here to there is about 65 to 68 miles.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: So we're talking a nice distance to go from up here, down here to Bethany beyond the Jordan.
And I think that's everything I wanted to cover there before we get into the actual scripture here. Any questions there? Comments? Okay, let's go and look at Matthew four, chapter, verses 18 through 22. Do you have that? Robert, could you read that real quick?
[00:22:17] Speaker D: Walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting the net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: Okay, so I set the quicker down. The class is yours. Now, how do you see that event play out? Somebody tell me in your mind, how does that event play out?
What do you think of when you think of that event, of calling the first apostle, and what do you think is remarkable about that event as you think about it?
There's no wrong answer here.
[00:23:20] Speaker E: I think what was remarkable about the self is that no questions about it.
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Why do you think that was remarkable?
[00:23:33] Speaker E: A lot of times as humans, I think we rationalize decisions.
We have that, whereas they left everything behind and knew that what Jesus called them to do was way more important.
[00:23:48] Speaker D: We also have examples of other people.
[00:23:50] Speaker C: Who saw Jesus, heard what he had.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: To say, believed him, but they said, but let me go through this verse. And he said, no, we followed this chapter.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: Any other thoughts?
[00:24:08] Speaker D: Often wondered how the father felt once.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: The two sons abandoned him.
[00:24:14] Speaker D: They were parentless.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: That's pretty good.
[00:24:17] Speaker D: That was something that I thought.
Notice what all four of them are doing? They're not sitting on forks.
They're not sitting on the beach watching the serve.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: They're busy.
[00:24:32] Speaker C: They're worth all great answers.
Any other suggestions there, or thoughts, comments?
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Really?
[00:24:43] Speaker C: It was great answers. Are you going to talk about John, chapter one?
What about John, chapter one? I don't know what you're talking about.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Okay. No, what about it?
[00:24:55] Speaker C: I'm just asking a question.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: What about it?
[00:24:58] Speaker C: That they probably knew of Christ through.
[00:25:00] Speaker D: John the Baptist because they were already following.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Really?
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Interesting. Why do you say that? Because I've read John, chapter one.
I'm a simple minded man. I get simple answers. All Right.
Any other thoughts there?
Any other ideas how you think about that?
Well, I'm going to confess to you, this is another one that when I was a kid, right, and I read this, what does it make it seem like Jesus is born? Then there's this guy, John the Baptist. Jesus walks out, sees these four dudes and says, hey, y'all, come follow me. And boom, they go, right?
Did he know him?
Did they know him?
Did they know him?
I hear a whisper, come on, be bold.
You're wrong.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: No.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: We would never do that.
What were you saying? I'll just say so.
I think that one of your earlier slides was to show the business that.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: They were.
[00:26:27] Speaker C: Likely had many interactions before the calling and the fact that they dropped what they were doing and followed was a result of familiarity and understanding, not some overwhelming urge.
It was just dropped on them. You all are on the right track, okay? You're on the right track. And I'm looking at the clock here. So I think I'm going to have to move on. But I want to hit a few things. Does anybody remember how big perm was? How big I said it was?
How many?
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Close?
[00:27:06] Speaker C: I said it's about size of this congregation. We're about 1200 is what they think. Okay, so keep that in mind.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Now.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: Who else was I say there because I didn't pull it off. So right after this, we go into the baptism of Jesus. Okay, now let's go back. Where would the baptism of Jesus have been? We said at best it would have been 13 miles away, at worst, 68 miles away.
Now, who else was there when Jesus was baptized. Well, we know Andrew's there for sure. We know that because John one, verses 35 to 42 tell the story. And it mentions there are two disciples of John the Baptist. Now, what's a disciple? What would they have been doing? They're following John the Baptist. What was John the Baptist doing? And what was he saying?
He was preparing the way. Okay, let's now jump all the way back to where we started in chapter two. And it said all Jerusalem knew about this prophesied king. Okay.
Andrew was what, what race was he and what religion?
[00:28:40] Speaker D: He was jewish.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: He knew about the prophecies. Right? And he's heard that there's a guy somewhere down here talking about those prophecies. And what does he do?
He goes down to see it. He goes down to hear it. Now, all those things you guys were saying, very good. I liked yours, Jeff. And what you were saying when Jesus called them, right.
If he left to go 13 or 65 miles on foot, do you think his dad knew?
Do you think he had to put in a request for PTO?
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: Okay, so this is where I'm going. The other one, you'll notice is I put here John is the other disciple. Most people believe because John frequently would not use his own name in his writing, he would call himself the other disciple or someone else. John was very humble in that way. Usually mentions himself indirectly. You'll also notice from the context. As soon as Andrew hears, what does he do? He goes, now, it's the next day, I believe, but he goes pretty quickly, and he tells Peter, okay, 13 miles in a day, a long way. Okay, 68, not doable.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: So I believe Peter was nearby. So these guys had been there. They had been listening to John the Baptist. And I believe, at least, pardon me, Andrew was there and witnessed the baptism of Jesus.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: Do you think when they got back and they were fishing, do you think they talked about, do. I'll also blow your minds, and I don't have time to teach it tonight.
I believe that James and John were Jesus first cousins.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:30:51] Speaker C: And that's where it starts to get really weird, because then you think you've got this guy John the Baptist.
[00:30:57] Speaker D: Right?
[00:30:58] Speaker C: What was he? He was a levite. We also believe this John was a levite. Even if he wasn't Jesus'cousin, you think they would have known each other? Because what did we know about not that John, the other John. John the Baptist, his father was what, a priest?
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: So what are the chances that these levites didn't know each other. Here's where I'm going with this.
We have to be very careful as we study the scripture. And Craig and I were talking about this before y'all came in, so many know, I almost thought there was. When I was growing up, I thought there was almost something miraculous about this call.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: He just sees these guys and says, hey, come with me. And we need to be very careful that we don't attribute something to miraculous powers or supernatural events. When if we take again, as we've talked about over and over in this class, the whole concept, everything that we know, and this becomes a much more full picture.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:06] Speaker C: The full picture that these guys had to have known each other.
Their brothers, their fathers would have had to know. They would have had to. You don't go travel there and go do this, and then this is the next one. Why would they have been listening to John the Baptist? Because they knew. They were excited. They wanted to know more about this king that was coming. Okay, any questions with all that comment?
They were excited.
[00:32:41] Speaker D: I also think they were checking the scripture. They were thinking of test. Does this fit with what scripture says?
[00:32:53] Speaker C: The last ten minutes, you basically been saying that it was a deliberate choice, not a spur of the moment decision. No, it was. So that's the summary? That is the summary. That's ten second summary.
I'm not as brief as.
And it also solidifies the fact that, say, we're exercising, which is an important thing.
Absolutely. And again, to just hammer home another thing.
What does this also point out? All those men?
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:35] Speaker F: There's a similarity between the language Jesus uses and saying, follow me. That's what rabbis would do, would say when they were selecting students.
This was the jewish audience. Of course. A lot of the jewish men always were very knowledgeable of the scriptures and aspired to be students of a rabbi, but they weren't always accepted. It was a big honor for a rabbi to say, come follow me, and that's your admission ticket. You've won the scholarship. You're going to get mentored and led by the rabbi. And that's how they selected him. So that's what Jesus was doing.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:23] Speaker C: And I agree with that. And I think, again, it punctuates back to that. Matthew had to be studying. What did these guys have to be doing? They were studying on their own.
Any other comments there?
[00:34:44] Speaker D: But is the Jordan river navigable?
[00:34:47] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Honestly.
[00:34:49] Speaker C: Don't know.
Yeah. I have no clue.
Certainly. See, Galilee is. That was one of the things I thought about.
Know if we go back, know you look at know there's several times in scripture that it talks about them going back and forth on the Sea of Galilee. So if it were up here, maybe.
But even still, I think where I go with it.
It sounds silly, but I think the silliness has merit. They were going to have to miss a day of work.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Right?
[00:35:27] Speaker C: And again, if they were missing work, it's not like us today, right.
They didn't work. They didn't get paid.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:37] Speaker C: And this was a family affair for them especially. I don't know. I just believe if I had been in business with my dad and I said, I want to take off, and there's this guy with wild hair and eats locusts, and I want to go hear him talk, I think I would have had to have his permission to go do that, no matter what age I was.
[00:36:00] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:36:03] Speaker C: I just assumed it was the same way.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: There.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: They would also be looking at. This is a way for me to move up, too, because we got a new king coming.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
[00:36:15] Speaker C: We want to be next to the throne.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:36:18] Speaker C: And we're moving up the ladder here. That is a great point.
And there's scriptural evidence of that later because what were they arguing about?
Yeah, that's fantastic point.
That's what I love about these classes, and that's what I love about the back and forth. I hadn't thought of that, but that.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: Is an excellent point.
[00:36:38] Speaker C: Excellent, excellent point. David, you were sharing something before class about the time frame.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Close to a.
[00:36:50] Speaker C: Year between Jesus baptism and.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: John.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: You got several things.
Miracle and Galilee.
And he gets some out of the synagogue in Nazareth.
All those happen in between. And then even in the text for tonight, we have the temptation. 40 days in the wilderness. Yes.
This was just happening.
There was time. And back to what I was saying, these men had time to go back home to think about it, to talk about it, to research and make sure they were seeing, or what they were seeing was real.
Look at my notes here.
[00:37:49] Speaker D: That's an interesting point about kingdom.
This is where the kingdom is going to be.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:56] Speaker D: So John's teaching, preaching about that kingdom.
[00:38:02] Speaker C: So just a couple things.
A couple of things I want to hit. There's one that, honestly, I think every time I read it now, I think it's funny. Maybe that's not the right way to say it.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: But.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: You look there at the temptation of Jesus, and it says, chapter four, verse two. After he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry.
I don't have to go 40 days and 40 nights before I'm hungry.
But I did find that interesting that it says that also point out just something for you guys to look at this week. If you go back to chapter three, verse seven, kind of gives you a little glimpse into what kind of man John the Baptist was. Let me read what it says there. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, you offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And do not assume that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And the axe is already laid at the foot of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire. Now, that is not a baptism speech. I don't know what is.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: How many of you were called vipers after you were baptized or when you were going to be baptized?
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Anybody?
[00:39:46] Speaker C: That was one. That, like I said, that gives you a little hint what kind of person John the Baptist was. Maybe why one of the rulers beheaded. That was the kind of stuff he said.
We're like, two minutes. We could spend a whole night on chapter four.
I don't know if it's archived or not. I wouldn't know where to go. Tell you, Mike Winkler used to have a really good lesson on the temptation of Jesus. Some highlights I want to point out to you, and again, study this on your own notice. The temptation comes immediately after the baptism. So you've had this very wonderful moment where God has actually said, I'm pleased with Jesus, and then he immediately goes into temptation every time he is tempted. How does he counter it? Does anybody remember what? Did he counter it with scripture? Every time he's tempted, he counters it with scripture. And then how did he make Satan depart from.
Remember that one tells him to leave, says, go away, satan in verse ten.
[00:41:08] Speaker D: Satan even quoted scripture.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:11] Speaker D: In response after the first temptation.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:17] Speaker D: And Christ had a response that was very.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: The other thing that is very strange to me. And then I think Bell will catch me here.
It may be down in verse nine of the temptations, the one that is bizarre to me. Again, I think, to me, it's like, kind of tells you what. It's going to sound weird, what kind of mindset Satan has, what kind of deceiver he is when he tells Jesus.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:41:51] Speaker C: The creator. When he tells the creator. If you'll bow down and worship me. I'll give you all this stuff.
And it's like, wait a minute.
It's already his stuff. He created. Know that to me. I struggle with. I don't understand it. But again, I think that points to the whole fact that Satan is a deceiver, the father lies, that sort of thing. Enjoy the class tonight, guys. Thank you all for your attention. We're always up here afterwards. We love talking to everybody. Come on up online. Have a good evening. Bye.
