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.)
John the Baptist’s ministry is outlined in Mark 1:4: “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” The response to this forthright message was remarkable: “And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins” (verse 5). “All the land” does not mean that every person in the nation went out to listen to John but that these pilgrims came from everywhere throughout Israel. The spiritual hunger of these folks was admirable. They were tired of the legalism of the elitist Pharisees and were eager to hear the truth, even if that truth required them to act differently. A simple application emerges for us: we must highly value Biblical preaching and teaching. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 1:17).