Week 3: Jesus's Ministry Begins...

This week we went over Mark 1: 1-20 and covered a wide range of topics that came from this text. We where introduced to John the Baptist, a camel hair clothed Man VS Wild type of guy who lived in the dessert surviving off of locusts and wild honey....yummie. ( He probally looked much like a logger with rattier clothing, like James pointed out in our discussion .) We saw how John the Baptist was the messenger or forerunner of Jesus's ministry and how John the Baptist preached that people had to have a cleansing of the heart , not just outer religious or moral practice. He foreshadowed the messiah ( Jesus according the Bible) who would come and "baptize" (or cleanse and make new) peoples hearts. Jesus himself was baptized to symobolize his humanity and his willingness to identify with sinners (all who violate God's moral command) and need cleansing.

After Jesus's baptism we saw how Jesus went out and confronted Satan (polar opposite of God, morally corrupt/evil adversary) and was tempted by Satan for 40 days, this showing that he had came to overcome corruption and sin.

Jesus began his ministry after John was put in prison for his teaching. Jesus went out and taught that " Kingdom of God is near. Repent (turn from what you are doing) and believe the good news!" We discussed that the Kingdom of God was the spirtual kingdom and rule that Jesus was claiming to bring to Earth with his life and teaching and then later his death and reasurecction according to the Biblical account.

We saw that Jesus choose simple people to help spread his Kingdom. He choose Simon, Andrew, James, and John (not John the Baptist), all probally lower class fisher men that probally did not smell to good. They followed Jesus without delay after he told them he would make them "fishers of men" refering to the message that they would help him spread during and after his life.

.....Next episode will contain a demon pocession, a bunch of healings, and an encounter with a guy with chronic skin lessions....haha Stay Tuned!