John (referred to as John the Baptizer) was Jesus’ cousin and a couple of months older. John preceded Jesus in ministry, pointing people to Jesus. John did his work admirably and without fault, albeit amidst criticism. He was eventually imprisoned because of what he said. With all the amazing things Jesus did and the miracles […]
The Father Is the Destination and the Savior Provides the Path Jesus tells Thomas, “I am the way.” The only way to get to the Father is through the Savior (John 14:5-6). He’s not a way. He’s the only way. Though many people uphold the Christ as the primacy of the Trinity, we must remember […]
John Baptizes with Water and Jesus Baptizes with the Holy Spirit The third chapter in the book of Matthew focuses on John the Baptist and makes the transition to Jesus, the star of the rest of the book. This chapter also contains some teaching from John. He quotes Isaiah and calls for the Jewish people […]
The book of Joel is classified as one of the Bible’s prophetic books, as it contains a foretelling of the future. After multiple reads, however, this short, 3-chapter book begins to emerge more as poetry than prophecy, revealing multiple levels of meaning awaiting the patient reader to unveil and discover. The name of the book […]
In Baptism, We Turn from Sin, Follow Jesus, and Receive the Holy Spirit Another concept that only appears in the New Testament is baptize and baptism. Baptize occurs fifty times, and its counterpart baptism appears twenty-one times. These two words often show up in the Bible’s four biographies of Jesus and especially in the book […]
Some of the Bible’s Most Significant Words Don’t Appear in the Old Testament I use the Bible to study the Bible. That is, I tap one passage to help breathe understanding into another. Sometimes when investigating a specific term, I do a word search to find out where else and how else Scripture uses it. […]
Who Is John Mark? In “Another Man with Two Names” we talked about a guy known as John Mark. Although no one knows why he’s called John Mark, it does distinguish him from other men in the Bible named John. John In addition to John Mark, I count four guys in the Bible with the […]
Learn about Jesus through the Testimony of Others in the Bible Who is Jesus? C. S. Lewis attempted to answer this question when he popularized a trilemma (a dilemma with 50 percent more content) about Jesus. He argued that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. If you’ve read many of my […]
Childless, Elizabeth and husband Zechariah are getting old; their chance for kids is slim. Still they pray for the improbable. Despite not receiving what they yearn for, their faith remains strong. They are a righteous couple who honor God. One day at work, an angel shows up and tells Zechariah that he and his barren […]
The word baptize is only found in the New Testament of the Bible. Prior to John the Baptist preforming this water ceremony, it is never mentioned. John, by the way, baptizes Jesus. The Old Testament doesn’t mention baptism and there is no biblical account of its origin. It seems to have just started on its […]