Before the First Sermon
The child of Bethlehem grew up quietly in Nazareth until He was about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). Then, before He preached a sermon or healed anyone, two things happened. He went down into the Jordan, and He went out into the wilderness. In one, the Father said who He is. In the other, the devil tried to stop what He came to do.
These two events belong together. Matthew moves from one to the other with a single word: Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1). At the Jordan the sinless Son took His place beside sinners. In the wilderness He stood where Adam fell and where Israel fell, and He did not fall. Everything in His ministry and everything at the cross grows out of these days.
They also touch your life directly. If you wonder how to answer temptation, or why hard days can follow your best days, or whether God is displeased with you because the pressure is on, this is the place to look. For the doctrine of His true manhood, see The Humanity of Christ. Here we follow the story.
Jesus shows us how to fight, and that is only half of it. He won the battle we keep losing, and He won it for us.
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For Deeper Study
- John the BaptistAmazon F. B. MeyerA warm study of John's life and humility by a well-known English Baptist pastor of a century ago.
- The Words and Works of Jesus ChristAmazon J. Dwight PentecostA dispensational study of the life of Christ in order, with careful chapters on John, the baptism, and the temptation.
- The Crises of the ChristAmazon G. Campbell MorganA classic by a Congregational expositor on the turning points of Jesus' life, including His baptism and temptation.
- Jesus Christ Our LordAmazon John F. WalvoordDispensational. A study of the person and work of Christ by a defender of His impeccability.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Birth of Christ
Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem in the days of Herod, as God had promised, and everything around His birth shows who He is, God with us, and why He came, to save His people from their sins.
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