Can you hear the sound....of silence???

...........yup........i hear the silence too.....

I have been having a hard time feeling motivated these days...working on it tho

I'm reading through the book of Acts right now in prep for my next course. It's AMAZING how much more it all makes sense now that I know some of the history and culture of the time!  I've always had such a hard time understanding anything out of the bible, now it's starting to make some sense...crazy!

If I don't post anything in the next few weeks feel free to start harassing me!

After the "Passion"

Well, in my last post I said I would go more into detail about this time, because it was too much to cover in just one blog entry. I'm sorry to say I might disappoint some of you here. After further review I don't think I am going to go too in depth about this. My studies focused mostly on who told what in reference to the different Gospels, and that sort of knowledge isn't the goal of this blog.

I strongly encourage you to take some time and sit down to read about the arrest, trial, Crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord. Knowing what Christ endured only brings me that much faster to my knees.

This will actually end my blogging on my first course "Christ in the Synoptic Gospels". Thank you so much for following along with me through this course, and I sincerely hope you were able to walk away with a better understanding of the History and Culture of Jesus' time.

My next course will be on the books of Acts...So I'll see you soon!!

The Ministry of Christ

Ok, so here is another LOADED topic. My goal here is not to re-tell the bible, really, you should read it for yourself! But this will hopefully serve as a guide to give you a better understanding of the Gospels. The Gospel writers weren't too interested in painting a chronologically correct picture of Jesus' ministry, but I think it does help to have a general outline of how things likely happened. Just please note that this timeline is NOT 100% accurate, it's just the best guess.

The Early Judean Ministry

• Began with Jesus' baptism and temptation in the desert
• Lasted about 8-10 months
• The Synoptics tell little about this time period, so the book of John helps to fill in the blanks a bit
• Jesus chooses his first 5 disciples:
• Andrew
• John
• Simon Peter
• Philip
• Nathanael (thought to be another name for Bartholomew)
• Goes to Cana and Capernaum in Galilee briefly. (Here he performs His first recorded miracle of turning water into a wine at a wedding feast. (John 2:1-11) Makes you wonder if that's why he bothered to go to Galilee for such a short amount of time. I can't imagine it was a quick or easy journey...His mother must have wanted him to come...what a good son!)
• Returns to Jerusalem for the Passover feast where he clears the temple of money changers (John 2:14-16) and has a little meeting with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). Nicodemus was a Pharisee...we will touch on that a bit later :) 
• Christ preaches in the Judean countryside, while John the Baptist is baptising not too far away.
• Controversy is brewing between the Pharisees and John the Baptist's disciples regarding Jesus' ministry in comparison to John the Baptists. This is likely a reason that Jesus decided to leave Judea.
• Christ moves through Samaria (where he talks to the woman at the well) on His way to Galilee.
• According to Mark and Matthew John was imprisoned before Jesus left, Luke states it to have happened after.

The Galilean Ministry

• Jesus selects the last of the disciples, completing the list of 12
• Simon Peter
• John
• Andrew
• James son of Zebedee
• Levi (Matthew)
• Bartholomew
• Judas
• Phillip
• Thomas
• James son of Alphaeus
• Thaddeus
• Simon the Zealot
• This area of the ministry is a little harder for me to put into a timeline format. What really matters is that Jesus preached, taught, and performed miracles all over Galilee. This was his main area of ministry, lasting about 20 months.
• At the beginning of the Galilean ministry Jesus was creating a lot of buzz, and people seemed to be attracted to his teachings. The Bible often notes "large crowds" that followed Jesus as he taught. I'm sure this was in somewhat of a contrast to what the ministry in Judea was like. It's like country mouse and town mouse! 
• As time went on people started to be challenged by the teachings of Christ, and as that happened, more people started to question and reject Him.
• A key event in the latter part of this time is when John the Baptist's disciples come to question Jesus. (Matthew 11:2-19; Luke 7:18-35). This seems to be a pivotal point where we can note the attitudes of people changing toward Jesus.
• The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36) occurs during this time.
• Toward the end of this time Jesus starts to spend more time alone with His disciples and less time teaching to the public. This is understandable when you think of the rejection He was facing, as well as His preparation for what was to to come. Jesus knew what was going to happen when He left Galilee and returned to Judea, and He needed to prepare His disciples.
• The end of this part of Jesus' ministry is best summed up in John chapter 7. He is rejected by His own brothers at the Feast of Tabernacles. That leads us into....

 The Later Perean/Judean Ministry

• Jesus spends time in both Perea and Judea over a time of about 6-7 months
• Of the Synoptics, Luke will give you the most info on this part of Jesus' ministry. Start with Chapter 9.
• The Gospel of John again fills in some holes. (Thanks John!)
• Controversy is continuing to mount against Jesus'
• More and more of Jesus' time is spent alone with His disciples
• When Jesus does teach to the public (and well...I suppose to His disciples as well) He is using more and more parables to teach. (I will touch on the reasoning of this a bit later...be patient!). Because of this I am not going to elaborate too much more on this time frame. There isn't much for me to elaborate on...if you want to know what Jesus taught on during this time, read Luke 9-19. (yup, it's a long one, but a pretty easy read)

The "Passion Week"
I'm going to buzz through this part a bit, not because it's not important, but I feel like we are getting to an area that most people are pretty familiar with. (It's ok if you are not though, remember, we all are learning together here!!). I'm going to address this area as my text did, and lay it out there in a day by day format.

1. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11)
2. Jesus cursed the fig tree, and drove out the money changers (Matthew 21:12-17) The chief priests and teachers of the Law began to look for ways to have Jesus killed
3. Christ is challenged by the chief priests and teachers, and He responds with parables and teaching...wow what a patient guy! ...But wait!!! READ Matthew 23:1-39...I LOVE IT...way to sock it to them Jesus, you are just too cool. (Verse 33 is my favorite, ohhhhh how that must have sent the Sadducees and chief priests right over the edge! If ever they had any doubt about wanting this man dead, this must have sealed their decision.) Christ delivers His Olivet discourse. (Matthew 24:1-25, Mark 13:1-37, Luke 21:5-36) on this day as well
4. This is a quieter day for Jesus, at least there is less recorded about it. A few highlights we do know that likely occurred on this day is the woman anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, and it is likely this is the first time Judas Iscariot has contact with the chief priests. (Who are still fuming over being called a "brood of vipers"...hehehehe) 
5. Jesus ate the "Last Supper" with his disciples (this was the Passover meal), predicts Judas' betrayal, goes to the Mount of Olives where he predicts Peter's denial, then on to Gethsemane where Christ prays.

I'm going to leave this one at that point, and I will pick up the details of Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection in the next post...this one is long enough!!!