><>...When John the Baptist began preaching...><>
and drawing great crowds in Judea, Jesus went back to the district of Galilee. There He performed many miracles and was surrounded by large crowds. Unfortunately, the crowds were more interested in the miracles than Jesus' teachings.
Yet Jesus kept on teaching. He entered private homes, sat at public feasts, and worshiped with other Jews at their synagogues. He denounced the religious leaders of His day because their faith was a sham. He didn't reject their formal religion; on the contrary, Jesus respected the temple and temple worship (cf. Matt. 5:17–18). But the Pharisees and other leaders failed to see that He was the Messiah, and they didn't care about being saved from sin. Furthermore, they were not satisfied with what God had revealed to them in the Old Testament, but kept adding to it and revising it.
They believed their worked-over version of the Scriptures gave them the only true religion. Jesus called them back to God's original words. He was very careful about the way He quoted Scripture, and He prodded his followers to understand it better. He taught that even a basic knowledge of Scripture should show a person God's will for salvation through faith in Himself.
Near Galilee, Jesus performed His most amazing miracle yet. He took seven loaves of bread and two fish, blessed them, and broke them into enough pieces to feed 4,000 people! But this did not draw more people to faith in Jesus; in fact, they turned away because they couldn't figure out why and how He wanted them to “eat” His body and “drink” His blood (John 6:52–66).
The twelve disciples stayed true to Jesus, and He began to focus His efforts on training them. He increasingly taught them about His coming death and resurrection, explaining that they also could expect to suffer death if they kept on following Him.
This brings us to the end of Jesus Christ's life on earth. Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, betrayed Him to the hostile leaders of Jerusalem, and they nailed Him to a wooden cross to die among common criminals. But He rose from the grave and appeared to many of His followers, just as He had promised, and gave final instructions to His closest disciples. As they watched Him ascend into heaven, an angel appeared and said they would see Him return in the same way. In other words, He would come back visibly and in His physical body.
James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney and William White, Jr.
Even so come Lord Jesus |
