Sometimes people never get quite out of the gate to follow Jesus. They see the benefits and blessings of serving Christ and speak of doing so themselves, but they lack true commitment and either stay or stray away. I’m sure we could rifle through Scripture to discover a hundred characteristics of true followers of Jesus,… Read More »
Gabriel appears four times in Scripture. In each instance, he gives a message about the Messiah and other events to come. In the first instance, he appeared to Daniel, looking like a man and frightening him with his presence and his words (Daniel 8:15–18). Helping Daniel back to his feet, he prophesied of things to… Read More »
What is the filling of the Spirit? This article attempts to concisely answer to this question from the NT as it describes those who were full of or filled with the Spirit. Luke and Acts describe many who were filled with the Spirit for the purpose of speaking the Word of God. John the Baptist… Read More »
The parallel passages described together below are Matthew 24–25, Mark 13:1–37, and Luke 21:5–36. Matthew adds a number of parables to the section that are not recorded in Mark or Luke, and Luke gives a number of details that are not recorded in Matthew or Mark. Matthew 24:1–3; Mark 13:1–4; Luke 21:5–7 The disciples pointed… Read More »
Each gospel records one instance in which Jesus was beaten just before His crucifixion, but it seems that a comparison of these accounts indicates that Jesus was beaten more than once. In trying to sort out the details, it is helpful to remember that a beating by the Romans could vary in intensity, and three… Read More »
As we have seen, Mark is somewhat abbreviated when the Evangelists of the other Gospels give more detail. What follows is an account of all the details given from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) on the record of the Transfiguration. (John does not record the Transfiguration.) Except for a few words here and… Read More »
Mark 9:33–37, 42, Matthew 18:1–5, and Luke 9:46–48 give parallel accounts of Jesus’ use of a child to illustrate His teaching to the disciples. These passages differ, however, in which teaching they choose to report. We see at least four teachings from these passages. Have the faith and humility of a child (Matt 18:3–4). Speaking… Read More »
There are two sets of parallel Synoptic passages in which Mark and Luke speak of a man that Jesus healed while Matthew speaks of two men. In the first, Mark and Luke record that Jesus cast demons out of a man (Mark 5:1–20; Luke 8:26–39), and Matthew speaks of Jesus casting demons out of two… Read More »
Ancient manuscripts of Scripture attest to three variants or options for the name to identify where Jesus cast some demons into pigs which then ran into the sea (Matt 8:26; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26). The names given are Gadara, Gerasa, and Gergesa. Interestingly, of six major translations surveyed, none of them are uniform in their… Read More »
A quick review of a parable in Luke 16:1–8 allows us to understand an important lesson that Jesus taught in Luke 16:9. A mediocre manager reported to his master and was consequently fired for squandering his master’s goods (16:1–2). As a part of being relieved from his position, he was commanded to turn in an… Read More »