Jesus continued to teach parables to help his disciples understand how the Kingdom of God would work in the world as true believers waited for Him to return.
Read MoreJesus spent another remarkable day teaching and healing the broken. By the time evening had come, the Lord was tired. That might seem surprising since Jesus was God. Can God get tired? Well, the truth is that Jesus was and is fully God, but during His time on earth, He willingly laid aside the privileges of His divine powers. He took on the form of a man when He came to save humanity (Phil. 2:5-11). That included taking on our human frailties.
Read MoreThe Lord Jesus calmed the mighty storm. Imagine it. All the winds and waves raging, creating a terrifying howl, filling your boat with water…and then up He rises… commands…and everything slows to calm.Jesus and His bewildered disciples sailed their boats to the other side of the Sea to the region of the Garasenes. Many Gentiles lived there.
Read MoreImagine what it was like to be a disciple of Jesus. They saw Him heal with a power nobody had ever seen before. They stood by Him as He confronted the most influential men of His day. They watched Him silence the storm with a word.
Read MoreIn this story, Jesus was continuing to give His faithful witness of the Gospel in the region Galilee in spite of the hard-heartedness of the people. Where was the repentance that should have marked the children of God when their Savior came?
Read MoreAfter healing the blind men and the mute in Capernaum, Jesus made His way back to His hometown of Nazareth. That was a pretty bold thing to do. The last time we read about Christ visiting there, the townspeople tried to throw Him off a cliff!
Read MoreYou may have noticed on these blogs about the life of Jesus that the stories from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John get a little mixed up. For example, when in the book of Matthew we read from chapter eight before we read chapters 5 through 7, which are the Sermon on the Mount.
Read MoreThe time had come for the Lord to prepare His disciples for when it would be their job to tell the world what God had done through the work of His Son. Jesus was going to offer His life to pay for the sins of humanity. Through His sacrifice He was going to utterly defeat sin and death.
Read MoreJesus continued to prepare His disciples for the task ahead.They had been given the breathtaking honor of being the messengers of God to a dying world, but it wasn’t going to be easy. In a world full of toxic sin and rebellion, God’s holy truth brings anger, rejection, even violence.
Read MoreIt was at about that time when Herod the Tetrach heard about all the things that were happening with Jesus. As the Lord and His disciples journeyed around the countryside, new stories emerged about people being freed from illnesses and disabilities and demonic oppression.
Read MoreJesus broke five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed fifteen thousand people. They all went home full that day. They fed on the richness of His teaching as much as they had on the goodness of the food.
Read MoreJesus had fed 5,000 people using five loaves of bread and two fish. He had poured out His energy for them with healing and teaching like the world had never seen before.
Read MoreJesus left the area of Galilee and journeyed out to the region of Tyre. Tyre was a large city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This was Gentile land. The Lord was putting distance between Himself and His Jewish enemies.
Read MoreJesus left Tyre and the Mediterranean coastline to travel back towards the Sea of Galilee. He took a long, winding route through the region of Sidon. It took Him twenty-five miles north and then southeast through Gentile territory, and then through the region ruled by Philip, Herod’s brother.
Read MoreThe disciples continued on their journey with Jesus around Galilee to the town of Bethsaida. A blind man was brought to the Lord, and he begged Jesus to touch him. Can you imagine that moment for the man?
Read Moreesus and His disciples journeyed from Bethsaida to Caesarea Philippi. It was on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. It was Gentile territory, complete with a shrine to a pagan god. It was also outside the territory of King Herod.
Read MorePeter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It was a bold, unqualified statement, and he meant it. Only a fool would say something so outrageous if he didn't really believe it was true. It was not only a declaration of facts, it was a declaration of allegiance.
Read MoreBy this time in our story, the disciples had spent several years with Jesus. They had journeyed across the countryside with Him through the towns and villages of Israel, watching His breathtaking miracles and taking part in the proclamation of the Good News of God's salvation plan for the world.
Read MoreThe disciples knew that something epic was coming. Jesus had performed incredible miracles right in front of their eyes. The lame walked, the blind could see, and the dead rose at His command. When He told the sea to be still, it obeyed.
Read MoreAs Jesus and disciples journeyed across the Galilean countryside towards Jerusalem, there was much time for thinking and discussion. In the last story (110), we learned that the disciples had started a discussion about which one of them would be greatest in God’s Kingdom.
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