CHAPTER 4 MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST BY MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE Luke 3:1-2. _“In the fifteenth year of the dominion of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the Trachonitis country, and Lysanias being... [ Continue Reading ]
GENEALOGIES Matthew 1 and Luke 3. There is but one fact of vital importance in all of these genealogies, and that is the transmission to all generations, an infallible history of our Lord's progenitorship, setting forth, beyond controversy, the fact of His human descension from Adam. In order to re... [ Continue Reading ]
JOHN REJECTS THE HON TONS OF THE CHURCH Matthew 3:7-8; Luke 3:7-8. Among the teeming myriads, here came the Pharisees, with their boasted orthodoxy; and the Sadducees, with their “higher criticism,” cutting up God's Word to suit their carnal natures, both feeling sure that John will be glad to get t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ABRAHAMIC PATERNITY Matthew 3:8-10, and Luke 3:8-10. O the withering denunciations which leaped from the eloquent lips of John, like lightning from the skirts of the clouds! _“Ye generations of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of rep... [ Continue Reading ]
GENUINE FRUITS OF REPENTANCE Luke 3:10-14. _“The multitudes continued to ask him, saying, What then shall we do? Responding, he says to them: Let the one having two coats. give to him having none; and let the one having food do likewise.”_ John was no shoddy preacher, daubing with untempered mortar.... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 5 THE BAPTISM WHICH JESUS GIVES CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF JOHN Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:7-8; Luke 3:16. _“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but the One coming after me is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am unworthy to carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.”_... [ Continue Reading ]
ARREST & IMPRISONMENT OF JOHN THE BAPTIST Matthew 14:3-5; Mark 6:17-20; Luke 3:19-21. Mark: _“For Herod himself, having sent, arrested John, and bound him in prison, on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he married her. For John said to Herod, It is not lawful for thee to h... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-23. _“Then Jesus comes from Galilee unto Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.”_ Our Lord was six months younger than John, and hence He awaits the arrival of His majority thirty years before He will enter upon His official Messiahship. A... [ Continue Reading ]