Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Mark 1:1 says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Somewhat surprisingly, at least to the modern mind, the following verses immediately speak of John the Baptist. We see, first, that such historical detail is a compelling reason to believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Real people, often named, are presented to us just as they lived. Family trees are given, for such records were extremely important to the Jewish people. For example, only descendants of Levi could be priests, and only a descendant of Judah and of David could be the Messiah. Thus, genealogies like those in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are crucial to Jesus’ absolute claim to be the Messiah. Similarly, the precise background of John the Baptist (found in Luke 1) shows that he was of priestly lineage, an important credential in his ministry. Second, as we will consider tomorrow, John’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy explains in part why Mark so quickly introduces John in this “gospel of Jesus Christ.” To the Jewish people of that time, this precise fulfillment was an overwhelming reason to be interested in John the Baptist and thus in Jesus Christ.