As we get ready to begin our journey through the gospels, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1) Very often, the sections in the gospels are not in a historical order - they are organized thematically and theologically, not necessarily according to the order in which they happened. We will follow John's chronology as much as possible, but this means that there may even be some teachings of Jesus that come before the passion, or before the resurrection in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that Jesus actually taught after the resurrection. You'll see when we get there, but the point is that we are trying, as much as possible, to follow the historical order of things.
2) Like any good teacher, Jesus repeated himself a lot, so, often that is the reason for differences between the gospels (he told the same story or lesson many times, changing it up for different audiences or contexts) - but that's good news because we can use the differences to help us interpret the meaning behind the teaching.
3) Pretty much everything Jesus taught is ultimately about the Kingdom of God, and that comes in 2 phases:
a. concealed
b. revealed (partly over time, and partly only at the end of the age)
I'll have a lot more to say about this as we go along...
4) Jesus was always having to manage large crowds who might riot and/or proclaim him the wrong kind of king (and Pilate had already violently put down such mobs), so the main reason for Jesus moving around so much is to put off his arrest and crucifixion until the right time. This is also the reason he sometimes tells people NOT to talk about him, or about him being the Messiah.
OK - here we go - I'll be posting the text soon...
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX
