THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS – PART 1

Luke 4.1-2: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (2) for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. (ESV) Chapter three of the Gospel of Luke gives the account of the beginning …

THE SPOKEN WORD, PART 13 – THE WORD OF JESUS CONFIRMED

Acts 28.30-31: He lived there two years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (ESV) These last two verses of the Book of Acts confirm that the word of Jesus to the Apostle Paul recorded in Acts 23.11 …

THE SPOKEN WORD, PART 12 – PAUL APPEALS TO CAESAR

Acts 25.11-12: “If then I am a wrong-doer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.” (12) Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, “To Caesar …

THE SPOKEN WORD, PART 11 – STAND YOUR GROUND

Acts 23.11: The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” (ESV) The Apostle Paul had been warned prophetically by Agabus in Acts 21.11 not to go to Jerusalem. The prophecy said that Paul would in effect be …

THE SPOKEN WORD, PART 10 – HE STILLS THE WAVES

Mark 4.39-41: And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (40) He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (41) And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that …

THE SPOKEN WORD, PART 9 – THE VIOLENT MAN SAVED

Luke 8.35:Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. (ESV) The man in the verse above is one of my favorite people in the New Testament. The second …

THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE

Luke 3.7: He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (ESV) John the Baptist was a prophet and as such he spoke with prophetic authority. Like the prophets in the Old Testament he could perceive by divine inspiration the very …

EVERY VALLEY SHALL BE FILLED

Luke 3.5: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways,” (ESV) The coming of Jesus was the coming of the King. And as was a tradition in ancient times, whenever a king would plan to come into some district of …

MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD

Luke 3.4: as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make ready the way of the LORD, make his paths straight.’” (NASB) The Gospel of Luke quotes Isaiah 40.3-5 more completely than the other gospels. In Isaiah 40 the name “LORD” is the same name God …

A NEW SONG TO SING – INTRODUCTION

Psalm 40.1-2: I WAITED patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. (2) He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. (NASB) This song is based upon Psalm 40. I composed this in 1976. And after …