An Aerial View of the New Testament - Part 3

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Well, tonight we return to our survey of the New Testament. This is a real exercise for me to try to cover everything I want to say and everything I want to deal with in a limited amount of time. I promised you when we began many weeks ago that I would do a survey of the Old Testament in six weeks, then one week on the intertestamental period, and then six weeks on the New Testament. That has been a stretching exercise for me. There are so many things to leave out that it seems almost wrong, but I think it's been helpful as well. Many of you have said that it gives you the big picture, lets you see how all of the events of Scripture fit into the larger context.

As we begin our time tonight, I want you to take a little quiz with me. I want you to think back for a moment in your life to the summer of 2004. Maybe there were some specific events that marked that summer for you. Perhaps it was just an ordinary time. But regardless, I want you to start in the summer of 2004 and I want you to think through all that you have experienced since then. Just for a moment, think through the sort of mental checklist of the highlights, the major accomplishments of your life over that period of time. You say, "Well that's not very long. It takes time to achieve lasting accomplishments. Three and a half years isn't very long." And that's true, but that is exactly how long our Lord's public ministry lasted. At the age of about thirty, He launched His public ministry. And for the next three and a half years, day and night, He taught and discipled and healed and served His disciples primarily, His apostles, as well as the people of Palestine and the surrounding areas. Tonight, as we come to our continuing study of the New Testament, I want us to examine in an overview form those three and a half unparalleled years of ministry.

But before we do that, let me briefly review a couple of important matters that we looked at several weeks ago because it will give you some context. You'll remember that we learned several different ways as we looked at the timelines, the time clues I should say that the Bible gives us—we established that Jesus' ministry probably began somewhere in 26 to 27. And again, we looked at that in a number of different ways. I'm not going retrace all of that.

We also discovered that the length of His ministry was probably three and a half years, and that is structured, as you will see tonight in more detail, around the Passovers that are mentioned in John's gospel. Of course, the Passover happens only once a year so we can look at the Passovers that occur in John's gospel and structure the ministry of Christ. And when you do that, it leaves you with a ministry of about three and a half years.

So, beginning in 26/27, three and a half years—here was the summary timeline of the life of Christ we put together as a result of that. And again, I'm not going spend any time here because we did that in detail, but I just want to remind you of it. The birth of Christ was probably about 5 or 6 BC. And then in 26, He begins His ministry. Probably in the summer is His baptism of AD 26. The fall is the temptation, leading in then to His ministry as you go into 27. So that gives you that summary with His death coming in AD 30, in April of AD 30.

So, with that in mind, there's one other little housekeeping issue I want to take care of before we look specifically at the ministry of Christ—very briefly. It's what scholars call the synoptic problem. Some of you have probably never even heard there was such a problem. The first three gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—are often referred to as the synoptics or the synoptic gospels. That's because you see, the two components of that word "syn" meaning "together" and "optic" meaning "to see." The synoptics see things together. What's the problem with Matthew, Mark, and Luke? Well, they often resemble each other. They use identical language. They record the same events. They maintain the same order of events. You've probably sensed that as you're reading through the gospels. I think I've read that somewhere else. And you look back in one of the other synoptic gospels and you have captured something very similar.

But the synoptics sometimes differ from each other. They choose different material. They change the order of events like the temptations for example, the order of the temptations that are listed in Christ's temptation. And sometimes, they even seem to contradict each other as in Mark 10. You have Jesus coming and meeting Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. And in Matthew's gospel, two blind men were sitting by the road. Of course, there aren't contradictions. They can be worked out. But on the surface, on the face of it, they appear to contradict each other. They record the same events with different terminology. And so, there are a number of different problems that are seen with the synoptics. Now this doesn't seem to be a problem to me, and it probably doesn't to you, but it is something that needs to be resolved.

The solutions have been twofold in the big scope of things. Liberals who reject the inspiration of Scripture have proposed a number of theories that undermine the inspiration of Scripture. You may have heard about sources that Mark borrowed from and that the other gospel writers borrowed from that are not inspired sources and so forth. But the simple explanation, and I'm not going spend a lot of time in there because most of you probably haven't read these people and there's no need for me to track through their unbelief. For those of you who have, just know that there is a simple explanation to the synoptic problem. The word is "inspiration." The similarities—well, they all witnessed or heard from the witnesses of the same, either witnessed or heard from the witnesses of the same events so of course, there would be similarities.

What about the differences? Well, remember that most of the record of the gospels—that is, most of the events I should say of the gospels—were originally spoken in Aramaic, but then they were written in the gospels in Greek. So of course, there would be differences in wording, how things were phrased. Also, each writer, as we've already seen, desired to stress a different point. They were writing to a different audience with a different purpose in mind. Their sources of information varied. In some cases, they had direct knowledge as in Matthew for example. Others like Mark heard from Peter. Various written sources as well that they used—Luke says he investigated everything carefully from the beginning, including other written documents, and wrote his gospel. But the bottom line is because of inspiration, their writing was all superintended by the Holy Spirit to ensure that the final product has been recorded for us without error as it was in the originals, and we have trustworthy translations of those original documents. So that's the synoptic problem. It's not a problem, but if you've heard about it, I just wanted to expose you to that much.

With that said, I want to move on to the public ministry of Jesus Christ. This, by the way, is a model, a scale model that is in the city of Jerusalem today, just outside the city of Jerusalem, that is a model of the temple in Jesus' time. You see the main edifice standing there in the middle. That main building would've been, housed the Holy of Holies. And so, you get a little feel for what that would've been like.

When we come to the ministry of Christ, it's preceded by the ministry of the forerunner, a man named John the Baptizer. We see a little bit of the circumstances about when John began his ministry in Luke chapter 3. The political circumstances are recorded, the religious circumstances. John at this point would've been about thirty years old. He was just a little older than Christ, you remember—conceived shortly before Christ was. He was a prophet. John was a prophet. Now understand, as we already saw when we did the Old Testament and the intertestamental period, there had not been a prophet in Israel for four hundred years—four hundred and thirty plus years. And so then John shows up.

You can understand the interest that caused people to be attracted to this man. John's message was simple: "The King and His kingdom is at hand. The Messiah you've long been waiting for is about to arrive. Therefore, repent and prepare for His coming and be baptized as a sign that you have repented and are awaiting His wonderful arrival." John's baptism was commanded by God according to John 1:33 and it did not work repentance in the heart, but it was an outward sign that they had already repented. You remember John rebuked the religious leaders of Israel for coming out to be baptized and he said, "First, you need to show the fruit of repentance." So, it was an indication that there had been repentance.

And John's ministry was absolutely overwhelmed by popularity among the people. In Matthew chapter 3, we read: "Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sin." Luke 3 says: "He began saying to the crowds who were going out to be [baptized to him] baptized by him." And of course, some of them were not coming with the right motives so he chastises them. In Luke chapter 3, verse 15, it says: "The people were in a state of expectation and were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether [or not] he was the Messiah."

So, you have to get this picture of what was going on just before Jesus began His ministry. John, this prophet, shows up. It's been four hundred years since there's been a prophet in Israel. He's preaching out in the wilderness and all the people from Judea and Jerusalem go out to hear him and many of them are being baptized and he's saying, "Listen, the King is coming. The kingdom is at hand. Prepare for the coming of the King." That is the context in which the ministry of Jesus Christ begins.

Now to give you some structure for the ministry of Christ, think about it like this. You know that His ministry ended with His death on Passover. If you back up from the Passover which He died, you will find that there are several Passovers that mark His ministry. The first Passover of His ministry did not begin His ministry, however. His ministry began a few months before that. That's the half year that we talk about. So, there was a half year before the first Passover. And then there was a full year to the second Passover, another full year to the third Passover, and then He dies at that final Passover of His ministry. So, with that in mind, I'm going take His ministry in periods. We're going start with the period of those few months before His first Passover, the first Passover of His ministry.

But before we do that, let me give you a little overview of Palestine in the time of Christ. You can see that this particular map is a little bit at an angle. You see the Sea of Galilee up in the north, this blue spot up here. The Jordan Rift Valley goes through the middle down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point in the land. Over here is the Mediterranean. And you can see that then you have Judea and Samaria just above it. And up here is Galilee. Across the Jordan, you have the Decapolis which you hear about in the gospels and also Perea here in the yellow across the Jordan. Those are outside the land of Israel. So that gives you a little bit of context of when I mention places where He was ministering.

So, the first period of the ministry of Christ begins in the summer of AD 26 and runs to His first Passover, Passover of AD 27. Now let me just warn you that I'm going go through more than you can possibly write down. We will make copies of these notes as we often do and have them available next Sunday night for those of you who'd like copies. Of course, you can jot down whatever you'd like. That would be helpful but know that we'll have copies available.

So, this first period beginning in the summer of AD 26. and running through Passover is somewhere between three and five months, maybe as many as six months. The major description of this period of time, Jesus begins His public life and ministry, and it is a time of what we could call relative obscurity. By the way, this picture on here is a picture of the Jordan River in which Jesus will be baptized as we'll see in a moment. This is at the north end of the Jordan, probably not where He was baptized. He was baptized closer to the south end, but it at least gives you an idea of what that would have been like. So, this was that first, those first few months before Jesus' first Passover.

So, I want to look at the major events that occurred in this period. Of course, the first one that initiated His ministry was His baptism sometime in the late summer of AD 26. This is recorded for us in the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The question that comes up when you think about the baptism of Christ is why. There have been several explanations or reasons that have been suggested. Why did Jesus have to be baptized? I mean, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance.

Well, several reasons have been suggested. One is, and this is not a good one, but it is suggested that Jesus did it as sort of a publicity stunt. It was to gain attention and notoriety. Everyone was going out to John at the Jordan, so Jesus went out there and this was a plot of self-promotion on the part of Christ and John the Baptist.

A second possibility is to provide a picture of His future death, burial, and resurrection, in other words, a sort of advance note on Christian baptism. To sanctify baptism for the future, in other words, He was going to put His stamp of approval in a sense on baptism as it would eventually be known in Christian baptism. A fourth reason is to accomplish His ceremonial purification as the great High Priest who would end up giving His life for all. Others say, "No, He set an example for us. He was baptized because we need to be baptized." And a final suggestion is that Jesus was baptized to accomplish vicarious repentance.

Now we can't be completely sure of which of these was involved. I can tell you at least the first one was not involved. The last one seems the most likely to me. I really believe that when you look at the life of Christ, you see Him living the righteous life we should have lived. When you look at His baptism, you see Him expressing repentance like we should express it. And you see the death of Christ, you see vicarious sacrifice. But I don't think you can be dogmatic about this. Jesus gives us the basic reasons beyond which we don't need to go. He said in Matthew 3:15, "Permit it [He says to John the Baptist] at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Something about Jesus being baptized was the demonstration of righteousness and it needed to be done.

And a second reason that I think Jesus hints at later in His ministry in Matthew 21, verse 25, He asks the religious leaders of Israel, "'The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?' And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?''" And so, it may very well be that Jesus, to endorse John as being from God as the forerunner, went out and was baptized. Beyond these two very specific expressions, we really can't be sure of why Jesus was baptized. We can only guess.

The second major event in those several months leading up to His first Passover was His temptation. This comes in the fall of 26. It's recorded also in Matthew 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4. And it comes immediately after His baptism. If you look at the wording in those texts, this follows immediately on the heels of His baptism. It was for forty days as you know, but what you may not be clear on is that His temptation was not initiated by Satan. His temptation was initiated by God. Matthew puts it very clearly in Matthew 4:1, "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."

For what purpose? I think the purpose was to make clear who Jesus was, His power over Satan, His authority over Satan, over the powers of darkness. Jesus, as it were, challenges Satan. G. Campbell Morgan writes, in his book on The Crises of the Christ, that he believes that if Satan could have avoided this encounter, he would have. That instead, Jesus was completely in charge and forced Satan to do his best and showed that He would not succumb to those temptations.

By the way, they were real temptations. Again, we're just sort of hitting the top edges here of this event, but it was a real temptation. However, for a number of reasons, I think we can safely say that Jesus could not have sinned. God Himself is unable to sin and Jesus was both man and God and as God, unable to sin. As the American theologian described it, if you take a thin filament of wire, can you break that thin filament? The answer is yes. But if you take that thin filament of wire and you weld it into the heart of a great iron bar, can you break it then? Theoretically, yes. Practically, it can't be done. The same thing is true with Jesus' humanity as it is united to His deity. Theoretically, could Jesus have sinned? Yes. Practically, could that have happened? No, because His humanity was engulfed and supported by His deity.

You say, well how could He really be tempted then? You know, the truth is you and I don't know what temptation really is because it always reaches a level in our lives when we (what?) succumb, when we give in. Jesus never gave in and so He knows what temptation looks like and feels like when it runs completely out to its extreme. Absolutely He was tempted and the Scripture's clear in teaching that. It was a real temptation.

The lessons for us from the temptation of Christ are that temptation itself is not a sin. So often, we get confused about this in our thinking. Temptation is not a sin. Now in Christ, temptation only came from the outside because there was no evil heart in Him. From us, our evil heart responds to the external temptation. But temptation itself is not a sin.

And secondly, victory over temptation is found in Christ. Isn't that what the writer of Hebrews says? "Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid [to the help] of those who are tempted."

After His temptation in the winter of 27—the late fall of 26, the winter of 27—you have the beginning of Christ's ministry. Now all of the synoptics—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—jump ahead here. They all jump ahead to the Galilean ministry. Only John records the events of the next few months of Jesus' ministry. In fact, I think if you look at it carefully, John 1 beginning in verse 19 and running through chapter 2, verse 11 seems to be a very careful daily record of the first week of Jesus' public ministry. It begins with John answering questions of a committee sent to him from the Sanhedrin. They say, "Are you the Messiah?" And he says, he says, "No, I am not the Messiah. I am the announcer of the Messiah." "Well, why are you baptizing?" "I'm baptizing under the authority of the One who's coming"—quizzed by the Sanhedrin.

On the heels of that beginning in chapter 1, verse 29 of John, you have John's, as one writer says, John's official statement made under a self-imposed oath concerning the identity of Christ. Look there for a moment—John chapter 1. Right after this encounter with the committee, verse 19 says there were these Jews sent to him, priests and Levites from Jerusalem, to sort of quiz Him. So, this is a committee from the Sanhedrin. Right on the heels of that, verse 29, verse 28 says: "These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day [right here in verse 29, you have John's self-imposed oath, official statement of the identity of Christ, the next day] he saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" Verse 34, he ends his statement with: "I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God." John the Baptist, the last prophet really of the Old Testament era in a sense, gives testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God.

With that, you have Jesus beginning to build His disciples. He gathers His first disciples in chapter 1 beginning in verse 35 and running down through 51. These will be future apostles. It's over about a week's time. It's very soon after the temptation and the baptism. It's early then in His ministry. Now they understand that there were many disciples of John the Baptist who accepted John's testimony about Jesus as the Messiah, but these are specifically mentioned because later they actually become apostles. Listed here are Andrew, John, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel and possibly James is included here as well as the brother of John. So, Jesus gathers His first disciples to Him. They are not yet apostles—we'll see that later in His ministry—but at this point, they are John's disciples who become His disciples.

Following on the heels of this is Jesus' first public miracle. He goes to Cana in Galilee, and it's recorded in John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. You're familiar with the turning of the water into wine at the wedding there of a family friend. Jesus here demonstrates His deity for the very first time. It comes six days after the interview that John had with the committee from the Sanhedrin according to John's testimony here and it is His first miracle.

What is a miracle? Well, here's a definition. It's an observable event caused by the direct operation of God's power that cannot be explained by the normal working of providence. He turned water into wine. Now if that sounds familiar to you, it should because it happens every day. How does water normally become wine? It's a very complex process. The hydrological cycle picks up water from the rivers and streams and oceans, brings water over the land. It falls from the clouds in the form of rain, and it drops into the ground near the grapevine. The roots of the grapevine absorb the water that falls from the sky, soaks it up through the vine into those developing grapes and it begins to develop into grape juice. At some point, after the grapes reach their full potential, they are picked and harvested, and they are then trampled or crushed. And out of those grapes comes that juice that has been formed by the falling rain being absorbed up through the vine. And then that juice is allowed to sit and naturally ferment. And eventually in that process as the various bacteria and things that are part of that process, it turns into wine.

So, God does this all the time, but we don't see His hand. It's like God does it wearing a glove. C. S. Lewis used this analogy. It's like God's hand is in a glove. We don't see His hand, but He's doing the same thing every day. In a miracle, God removes the glove. He removes His hand from the glove and He shortcuts the process. That's what Jesus does here in His first miracle. Jesus is in control of our world. Every day, He turns water into wine. But in the case of the wedding at Cana, He took His hand out of the glove where everyone could see it.

The same thing is true with His miracles of healing. Who restores the human body when there is illness and disease? Who gives life where there is death? Only God can do that. Only Jesus, the great mediator between God and man, can do that. Normally, He does it with His hand in the glove. He uses time and medicine and doctors and various other elements. But when Jesus performs a miracle, He does exactly the same thing that He does every day in our world, but He pulls His hand out of the glove and allows us to see it.

So, the question then is, why miracles? You see, there were only certain times in redemptive history when God was performing miracles. People are always looking for a miracle: "I want a miracle." Do you understand that there were only a few times in redemptive history when there were miracles, primarily during the periods of Moses, Elijah and Elisha and Christ and the apostles? That's it. And for most people in the world, there were no miracles. There were just a few people that experienced miracles because miracles have a distinct purpose. What is the purpose of miracles? To vindicate that person's claims concerning himself and his ministry. And the same thing was true of Jesus.

Listen to Peter in Acts chapter 2 in his great sermon at Pentecost. Acts 2:22, "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God [how?] with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know." The miracles Jesus performed were validations of His claims to be God's representative and, more than that, to be the Messiah, to be the Son of God. The miracles validated. Of course, the ultimate miracle was His resurrection and He promised that He would be raised from the dead as the ultimate vindication of His ministry and His words and works.

Now why was this first ministry of changing the water into wine a significant miracle? Well, we learn in chapter 2, verse 11 that this was the beginning of His signs. It's the first one. Secondly, it manifested His glory. And thirdly, it was significant because as a result of it, His disciples truly believed in Him.

This first period of Jesus' ministry, that, those few months leading up to His first Passover, ends with Jesus going to Jerusalem for Passover number one in John chapter 2, verse 13. Those are the events that we know of, the major events that occurred during those few months from the summer, late summer of His baptism to His first Passover.

Now that brings us to period number two, Passover AD 27 to Passover AD 28. This is the first full year of Jesus' public ministry. If you wanted to describe it, you would say that first of all, early part of that year, about the first eight months He spent in Judea—that is, the lower portion, the area, the region in which Jerusalem exists. The last four months of the year, He began a major Galilean campaign, a major Galilean ministry up near the Sea of Galilee. This Galilean ministry was to last in all about eighteen months, but the last four months of this second year, or excuse me, of this first full year was spent in the Galilean ministry as He began it. This was a time, this first full year, was a time of Jesus' increasing popularity and favor with the people.

So, with that in mind, let's look at the major events that occurred in this first full year from AD 27 to AD 28. marked by the Passovers. The first major number of events occurred in that ministry in Judea, the first eight months or so. There are three significant ones. You have, first of all, His first cleansing of the temple during the Passover season. It's recorded in John chapter 2. Jesus gets to Passover and the very first Passover of His ministry—remember He'd been to Passover every year since His bar mitzvah, since His becoming of a son of the Law, son of the covenant, back at thirteen. Every year since then, Jesus had come, as all Jews were required to by the Law, to Jerusalem for the Passover, but this is the first Passover of His ministry.

And He shows up and He goes into the Court of the Gentiles and in that section of the temple called the Court of the Gentiles, one of the courts surrounding that huge edifice that is the holy place in the Holy of Holies, He finds there those buying and selling various things. And this is another message for another time, but essentially what had happened is those who controlled the temple had come up with a scheme. They'd come up with a way to extract money from the people. And so, they would insist that you needed to have an animal for sacrifice. But if you didn't have an animal or if on the way from the journey from wherever you lived, let's say up in Galilee down to the temple, your animal somehow got a blemish (and of course, the priests were the ones who identified whether or not the animal had a blemish), then, "Sorry, your animal isn't suitable, so you need to buy an animal." "Okay, where do I buy an animal?" "Well, first of all, your money isn't good here. You can't use Caesar's money in God's temple and so you're going have to exchange your money for the money we use here in the temple." Of course, there's a little exchange rate issue going on there, a little more extraction from the people. And so, then you exchange your money, you get the money you need to buy the animal and guess what? It's Passover time. Demand is high. So, the animals are going cost more than they normally cost. So, they get the money.

And you get the idea. It was a system that was extracting money from God's people even in the worship of God. And Jesus comes into that, and He's absolutely incensed, and He drives these people out. And they ask Him by what authority He does it and He gives them a hint of what's coming. It wasn't clear at the time. It was later clear to the apostles. He says: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up [again]." They thought He meant the temple proper. He meant the temple of His body. Jesus said, "I'm going stake everything I say and everything I do for the next three and a half years on this one reality: I will die, and I will be raised from the dead after three days." Very significant event in the life of Christ—it demonstrated His clear Messianic authority and claims.

That's followed by the interview with Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Jesus then joins with John the Baptist. You can see this in John 2 to 4, but especially in chapter 3, verses 22 and following. Essentially, Jesus gathers to Himself all those who had attached themselves to John the Baptist in anticipation of the coming Messiah. So, after that, John is arrested. Jesus departs for Galilee, but He passes through Samaria on His way and there He encounters the Samaritan woman at the well.

The second part of that first full year begins the major Galilean ministry. About the last four months of this first year of public ministry, Jesus goes to Galilee and begins a lengthy, extensive ministry in Galilee. He goes first to Nazareth. And I wish we had time to turn to Luke 4. We don't, but there, Jesus goes to Nazareth, and He preaches a sermon in His hometown. He reads from Isaiah, closes the book, and says, "Today this is fulfilled in your hearing." And the people end up absolutely rejecting Him, wanting to stone Him. Why? Because He told them they were wretched and poor and blind and they had nothing to appeal to God—that if they ever hoped to have any hope of seeing God, of enjoying forgiveness, it would be an expression of the grace of God, and He was there to ensure it. And that was more than their self-righteous hearts could take. They reject the hometown boy, try to kill Him. Jesus then moves His ministry headquarters to Capernaum.

Shortly thereafter, Jesus calls His first four disciples. Now understand that at first, this is a call for those who have come to believe in Him as Messiah to assist Him, to help Him. They're not yet apostles. The stages of Christ's interaction with His apostles—first of all was their conversion and then they traveled with Him for a while, returning to their jobs and homes, from time to time. Then came ministry. They now, they're already believers. They now leave their secular employment to follow Him exclusively and totally. Later will come a time when out of those, He chooses twelve to be His apostles, His "sent ones."

As part of this Galilean campaign, Jesus performs a lot of miracles during this stage of His ministry. He seeks the crowds, and His message is simple: "I am God, and I am Messiah." And His proof is the miracles that He does. He travels around Galilee, touring Galilee with these four disciples, preaching. It's on that tour that the call of Matthew comes. This year, these four months and the eight months in Judea, end with Jesus going to Jerusalem for Passover number two. It's either not in the Biblical record or some believe that it's Passover that's described in John chapter 5, verse 1. We can't be sure.

That brings us to period three, Passover AD 28 to Passover AD 29. It's the second full year of public ministry and it's the entire year given over to the great Galilean ministry of our Lord. It is a time of immense popularity with the people. When you start looking at what happened during this second full year of public ministry, you find that He begins to confront the Pharisees in a major way. During this year as well, the twelve apostles are chosen. When you look at the ministry of Jesus, you have all those who connected themselves to Jesus, His disciples. You have the seventy and then you have the twelve apostles, the twelve as they're called or the apostles. There are four lists of these men in Scripture. Every time they're listed, there are three groups with the same four members in each of those three groups. For example, group one is always Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The same name always heads each of the three groups. So, the three groups seem to be led by Peter, the first group, Philip leading the second group and James of Alphaeus leading the third group. As you go down the list, you have a decreasing level of intimacy with Christ because He actually singles out three of them to be in the inner circle: Peter, James and John. And He asks them to go with Him when He leaves the other apostles somewhere else. So, there's this specific attachment Jesus has to those in the inner circle. He was equipping all of these people, but the form and intensity of that equipping varied based on their relationship to Him and His plans for their future ministry.

Part of this year was the famous Sermon on the Mount, the most representative of Jesus' messages. I encourage you if you haven't read it lately to read it. In Matthew, you have the fullest account—Matthew chapter 5, verse 1 running all the way through the end of chapter 7. It was on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee. By the way, this picture is the traditional site on the northern side of the Sea of Galilee, this sort of naturally shaped amphitheater where you can speak and be heard because of the way the winds blow and Jesus may very well have spoken this sermon there.

What you have in the Sermon on the Mount is first lessons for those in the kingdom—that is, the spiritual kingdom over which Christ rules. It's not, if you might have heard, for just the millennium, for some future time as some classic dispensationalists teach. It is a description of what Christians are. The key verse comes in Matthew 5:20 where Jesus says unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, you cannot follow Me and still cling to the kind of self-righteousness you've heard from the Pharisees. Make up your mind. Matthew 7, the end of the chapter, is essentially an invitation Jesus gives and it's a powerful one at that. But this is His great sermon.

By the way, if you want to study something from the life of Christ, buy Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book on the Sermon on the Mount and work your way through it. It will be life changing. It was for me when I was in seminary and worked my way through it.

In this third period, you have a second preaching tour of Galilee, but then a significant event occurs which changes Jesus' ministry. It happens near the end of His second preaching tour. Jesus performs a miracle that proves Him to be the Messiah. It's recorded in Matthew 12:22. But the Jewish leaders, in response to that miracle, accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan: "He did this by the power of Beelzebub." You remember that statement? Jesus responds or answers their accusations by saying, "That's illogical. Satan would be destroying himself if he were empowering Me to cast out demons. And moreover, yours is a double standard. Why is it acceptable for your disciples to cast out devils or to heal in God's power, but then accuse Christ of being in league with the devil when He does it? What have I done to make you think I'm in league with the devil when you don't say the same about your own?" So, Jesus comes to one option. It can't be Satan's power. I've just proved that to you. Then there's only one other person who's more powerful than Satan and that's God so it must be God's power.

And Jesus confronts them with those statements about the unpardonable sin. Listen, the unpardonable sin is not something that can be committed today. The unpardonable sin was what those Jewish leaders of Jesus' day did. They saw a miracle that was unequivocally proof of Jesus' deity and Messiahship, and they rejected it because of the spirit of envy, and they claimed that it was the work of Satan instead. And Jesus said you are blaspheming the Holy Spirit and there is no hope for you. That's the unpardonable sin. This is the official rejection by the leaders of the nation of Jesus Christ. It'll continue, but this is when it raises its head for the first time.

So, period three, you have Passover AD 28 to AD 29. Another event that occurs in that period of time is that Jesus' mother and brothers seek to take Him saying that He's mad. This occurs on the same long day as the rejection of the leaders, by the way, and this is His family's rejection of His claims. Jesus then begins, as a result of this, to speak publicly in parables and then privately explain them to His disciples. This is part of the same long day–Matthew 13 and Mark 4. The first two parables are spoken publicly and interpreted privately. The other five are all spoken privately to His disciples. It's followed by His final rejection at Nazareth. This is the rejection of His extended family and friends.

This period of time finishes with the twelve going out by twos and Jesus going out alone. And it ends, this third period, with Jesus not going to Jerusalem for the Passover—Passover number three recorded in John chapter 6 and verse 4.

That brings us to the final period of Jesus' life, period four, Passover AD 29 to Passover AD 30. This is the third full year of public ministry. It can be described as the end of the Galilean ministry, about just the first month of this year, the training of the twelve, about six months, and then in and out of Jerusalem for three different feasts over about six months. It is a time of sinking popularity and Jesus constantly avoiding Jewish areas and the Jewish leadership.

The end of the Galilean ministry has the twelve returning. Jesus withdraws from Galilee to Bethsaida. He feeds the five thousand. He walks on water, stills the storm. And Jesus confronts the superficial disciples. He challenges those who have loosely attached themselves to trust in Him exclusively and entirely. And as a result, there is a mass defection among the disciples and the Galilean ministry ends. You see that in John chapter 6 after the feeding of the five thousand. This is the popular level rejection of Christ that happens after that feeding of the five thousand when they all go away.

That ushers us into the training of the twelve. Jesus' methods and approach change dramatically during this period of time: instead of seeking the crowds, He focuses on His disciples in private; instead of constant miracles, He seeks to downplay His miracles; instead of open teaching, He resorts to parables; instead of concentrating His ministry in Israel, He focuses more on the Gentile territories and cities. So, at this point, He goes to Syrophoenicia and there He heals the daughter of the Gentile. He goes to Decapolis, again, outside Jerusalem or outside Judea rather, and does several things. Then He comes back to Galilee for a short time and then to Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is very interesting because for the first two and a half years of Jesus' ministry, He had not clearly, unequivocally predicted His coming death. But in Matthew 16, verses 21 to 28, He provides His first clear prophecy of His rejection, death, and resurrection.

And that is immediately followed by the transfiguration. You have to understand that to appreciate the transfiguration. It's recorded in all three synoptic gospels. It is intended to be a great encouragement. Jesus allows the three disciples who were a part of the inner circle to be eyewitnesses of His glory. And He does that, this event occurs, both to encourage Christ as He talks with Moses and Elijah, as well as to strengthen the faith of the apostles—that there's something more going on than the human, earthly life of Christ. After that, He goes to Galilee and the final departure.

The last six months of Jesus' earthly life are spent in and out of Jerusalem. Again, you'll remember the areas like Perea and Decapolis are areas to which He will resort—outside of, across the Jordan from the area of Judea. So, these final six months are spent that way. You could describe this entire period in John 7:30, "So they [that is, the leaders] were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come."

Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. There's great excitement there in November of AD 29. Then He goes back out of Jerusalem in Judea, sends out the seventy to minister and there are other confrontations that occur. He goes back to Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication in December of AD 29. And then He flees to Perea on the other side of the Jordan for three and a half months.

He goes back into the nation to Bethany and there He raises Lazarus from the dead. Now I wish we had time to focus on John 11 because John 11 is crucial. It is carefully calculated. It's really the only one of Jesus' miracles that is calculated to receive the maximum effect. He carefully calculated to supply the entire nation with one great final proof of His claims. There were eyewitnesses. There was no doubt that Lazarus was dead. There was everything needed for it to be proven as a bona fide miracle. And yet in the face of that, how do the Jewish leaders respond? They make an infamous decision in John 11. Look at John 11. John 11, verse 46. After all these events, they come and tell the Pharisees the things which Jesus had done. "Therefore [verse 47] the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council." This is an official meeting of the Sanhedrin. They were saying what are we going do? "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." Caiaphas says one man needs to die for the people so that the whole nation perish not. Of course, you know how he meant it, but verse 51 says:

He did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, [God spoke through him and] he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. From that day on they planned together to kill Him.

So, Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews. They make their decision. So, Jesus goes to Ephraim where He waits for the right time.

Then He journeys to Jerusalem one last time for Passover number four in John chapter 12 and verse 1. That is followed by the events that began today on Palm Sunday more than two thousand years ago, almost two thousand years ago rather—the events of the Passion Week which we will look at together, Lord willing, next time. I thought it would be appropriate on Easter Sunday for us to do that, to look at the specific events that happened during that final week of our Lord's life.

Let me just finish with this comment. Listen carefully. Let me draw all this together. What I want you to see tonight, and I know we've gone through a lot, but what I want you to see is Jesus' sovereign control of His life and ministry. Jesus was on an inexorable march toward the cross. He knew it. He said to His parents when He was twelve years old, "I must be about My Father's business." When He began His ministry, you remember the cleansing of the temple that happened early in His ministry, what did He say? "Destroy this temple, and [what?] in three days I will raise it up again." Jesus was marching every day, every day, toward the cross. Two and a half years into His ministry, He finally comes out and in very clear terms tells His disciples where they can't be thick enough to miss it: "I'm going to be rejected, I'm going to die and I'm going to be raised again."

The last six months of His life, as we just looked at it together, He knew they were after Him to kill Him, but He purposefully avoided being captured and killed prematurely. Listen, the chief priests were not in charge. The Romans were not in charge. Jesus was in charge of everything. Through the power of the Spirit that was energizing Him, He was arranging everything so that at that time on Passover afternoon between three and five on the day of Passover when the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple, He died. He laid down His life. He gave up His spirit. And everything we've studied tonight was marching toward that reality. That's why He came. He said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." He said, "The Son of Man has come not to be served, but to serve, and [what?] to give His life as a ransom for many." As a ransom, the Greek word is "anti"—in the place of, instead of —to give His life instead of the many.

I hope you see, as you look at the life of Christ, not a string of incidences strung together by a few sermons here and there, but an inexorable, sovereign design marching every moment toward the cross. And why? As we studied this morning, for you. If you're in Christ, Jesus had a plan and that plan took Him to the cross so that there, God could credit your sins to Him and for those six hours one Friday pour out every drop of wrath that your sins deserved for eternity. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Let's pray together.

Our Father, we are overwhelmed by what we have seen tonight as we have traced so briefly through our Lord's life. We thank You for what You accomplished in Him. We thank You for Your plan worked out in history in His extraordinary life. We thank You that in three and a half years of public ministry, He accomplished everything You intended for Him to accomplish and then the ultimate accomplishment—to give His life as a ransom for many. We thank You, Father, for Christ. May our hearts love Him and adore Him and follow Him and obey Him and remember that we are His slaves, and He is our Master and our friend. It's in His name we pray. Amen.