#132 Transition to Public Ministry

Way of the Bible

Welcome to Episode #132 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our fourth of eight episodes in our seventeenth mini-series, The Man Jesus Christ. On this episode we’re going to look at what the scriptures reveal about Jesus’ transition from a private secluded life in Nazareth to active ministry in Galilee.

On our first episode of this mini-series, I introduced biblical Christian discipleship. Salvation, often promoted as the central message of Jesus, is only the entrance into eternal life in the Kingdom of God now! Jesus brought salvation. He taught about living life in the Kingdom of God as a child of God, saved by grace through faith (i.e. Salvation). This type of living is described in Hebrews Chapter 4 as entering the seventh day rest of God. Hebrews 4:11 - Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (Unbelief).

Central to our entering that rest is to walk in the yoke of Jesus through our interaction with the living and active eternal word of God; the Bible. The word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the presence of Christ where two or more are gathered, all guide us.

In the yoke, I am not to be pulling Jesus to my messes and telling him to clean them up. In the yoke, I am not to demand my wants telling Jesus he owes me. Jesus is doing all the pulling and heavy lifting. I simply walk in his presence and follow where he leads.

What about learning from those I’ve been listening to? What about you listening to me right now? For us both, our learning and rest come from having Jesus are our primary teacher and burden bearer. That’s the first huge oyster to swallow; but it goes down easy.

Does it mean we stop listening to others or that you turn off this podcast; NO! We are to take every thought we have on our own or gained from another and make it obedient to Christ. How can we do that if we don’t know what Jesus said.

The apostle John said in 1 John 2:6 – whoever says he abides in him [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which he [Jesus] walked. What does that mean? As we walk out each day, let us walk in the manner of Jesus, doing what Jesus does. And we’ll know what Jesus did by studying and meditating upon the gospels. We will offer our bodies daily as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God and allow him to transform the way we think so we will know his good pleasing and perfect will.

For the past seventeen weeks I’ve been following prompts of Spiritual Exercises and daily Scriptural readings from a workbook called The Ignatian Adventure, by Kevin O’Brien, SJ. In this workbook, The Spiritual Exercise prompts provide the bible passages to read and what to consider for prayer and meditation. Central to the Exercises is the ancient Lectio Divina method of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word. This method was first practiced by the monastics in the 3rd Century and has been carried forward to the 21st Century as I am a witness and now practicing.

Lectio Divina does not consider Scripture as something to be studied for information’s sake. Rather, it considers Scripture as the living word of God. The living word that calls out to mankind to encounter and plumb the depths of God’s revelation. These depths are bottomless, containing “ALL TRUTH” God has deemed profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. To the end that in discipleship by the word and in the word we would, “all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13)

I encourage you after this episode to go look up Lectio Divina. It is not Bible Study where you interpret the Bible theologically or historically. It is a personal one-on-one conversation with God throug