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A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
Conquered people vary in their reactions to conquerors, some collaborate, some resist, some concentrate on keeping their identity by religion or lifestyle, many simply get on with life.

The Romans had conquered both Galilee and Judea, the two Jewish regions separated by Samaria (not Jewish but also conquered). Reactions varied. Sadducees were collaborators out of political expediency. Tax collectors collaborated for money and were despised by everyone. Zealots were resisters. Pharisees concentrated on keeping their religion pure and took pride in being spiritually superior. Many common people simply grew their crops and cared for their families. Even to the common people, however, their religion gave them identity which Roman conquest could not take away, and every Sabbath Day saw the Synagogues full.

Into this uneasy but temporarily stable country came John the Baptist, a fiery young orator who fitted neither the pattern of erudite Rabbi, nor popular preacher. He did not, it seems, preach at all in Synagogues and how he came to attract crowds to hear him in the wilderness is not known. But they came.

His strident message shook the community, and central to it was the declaration, I am here to prepare the way for someone else. “No,” he said, “I am not Messiah, but He is coming. Turn your lives round, God’s kingdom is close at hand.”

He used to baptise people in the river Jordan, and offended religious leaders twice over. He offended them by accepting for baptism, people they regarded as unacceptable, prostitutes and Quisling tax collectors. He also offended them by baptising pillars of respectability who were not supposed to need to turn their lives round, or commit themselves to a new life.

Then among them all came Jesus, asking to be baptised. He did not need to repent or be forgiven, but baptism looks forward as well as back. Jesus committed himself to the same kingdom that the outcasts and the respectables together were committing themselves to - though He was its king. And He took on all the implications of being identified with them, ultimately dying for them.


GALILEE TO JUDEA AND BACK.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all move straight from the account of Christ’s temptation to His return to Galilee after John the Baptist was put in prison. Only John fills in the events between (John 1:29-4:54). This was a first mission in which Jesus called a few disciples, six at least, and took them to Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside of Judea for a tour, preaching and baptising and gathering followers.

It ended when the Pharisees heard that “Jesus has made and baptised more disciples than John.” Jesus decided to return to Galilee, possibly not wanting to appear to compete with John, possibly because opposition was growing and He wanted to cover Galilee while the opportunity was still clear.

It seems that the band of disciples dispersed for a while, the fishermen returning to their boats (from which Jesus later called them to follow Him full time) and Jesus going alone to Nazareth. About this time, Herod had John the Baptist arrested.


ORDER OF EVENTS.
The order of events in this early phase of Christ’s work then, is:

John preaches, baptises and gathers disciples.
Jesus is baptised, and goes into the wilderness. Is tempted.
Events recorded only in John’s Gospel.
Jesus returns, John publicly acknowledges Him, John’s disciples Andrew and John follow Jesus, bringing Peter, James, Philip and Nathaniel; the first six.
Marriage at Cana in Galilee. Jesus turns water into wine.
The group make Capernaum their base, on the shore of Lake Galilee.
They travel to Jerusalem.
Jesus throws out temple traders for the first time, (beginning a long feud).
Jesus preaches and does miracles in temple courtyard and surrounding areas, making and baptising disciples.
Meeting with Nicodemus
John the Baptist speaks of Jesus again - He must increase, I must decrease.
Return to Galilee via Samaria, meeting with Samaritan woman.
Healing of official’s son in Cana.

Apparently the disciples disperse, briefly, though maybe Jesus stayed with them a while in Capernaum
Jesus becomes well known in Galilee.
Visit, alone, to Nazareth Synagogue.
About this time, John the Baptist is arrested.


Why did the other Gospels not record the events in John? Probably because they worked from a combination of written records and personal memories, avoiding what came to them as hearsay. John was personally present and recorded these events as an eye witness. Luke probably had the account by Mary the Mother of Jesus, and she saw the visit to Nazareth which John did not; so that event is only in Luke.

Of events after that, more evidence was available, written or personal, because the next phase was Christ’s rapid rise to popularity in Galilee.



FATHER, SON, HOLY SPIRIT AND DEVIL.
God the Son had just pledged Himself to go forward whatever the cost, and as He came out of the water, God the Father had something to say about Him. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Then the Holy Spirit came down from Heaven onto Him, visible at least to the eyes of John.

Thus accredited, Jesus now had to confront Satan who offered Him a different kind of accreditation.

“Accredit yourself by using your power to get what you want.”
“Accredit yourself by dazzling the people with wonders.”
“Let me accredit you by giving you my authority over the world’s kingdoms.”

The answer was, No.


HE MUST INCREASE. I MUST DECREASE.
John the Baptist had introduced Jesus, seen his own followers transfer to Him, heard of His rising popularity. Now a Pharisee tries to stir things up by telling him, “Jesus is supplanting you.”

John’s reply contains two of the world’s wisest sayings ever uttered. He said, “We can receive nothing except what is given us from Heaven” his own role as prophet had been given him from Heaven and for a while he held it. But being overshadowed by the one he had heralded, was all part of the deal. What is not given us from Heaven, is simply valued at - zero.

He went on, “He must increase, I must decrease.” It was what happened. It was also the secret of any life that would be wholly tuned in to Heaven. It still is.

John’s work was nearly over. He had made an enemy of Herod by speaking against his adultery with his sister-in-law, among other evils. Herod now added to those evils by having John arrested and put in prison.

News of this reached Jesus and He also realised that the Pharisees were well aware of His own increasing popularity.

So He left Judea and the group set off to walk the sixty mile journey back to Galilee.


SETTING THE PATTERN. 1/ Water into wine.
He brings water from rock in the desert - and turns it to wine at a feast.

Jesus did not become a public figure in Galilee until after He returned from the Judean tour; so the miracle at Cana was a kind of preface or advance sample of what was to come. Turning water into best vintage wine, just to save his host embarrassment and enable the revels to continue, seems an odd beginning.

Did He know that in centuries to come His followers would often have the reputation, sometimes deservedly, for being dull, joyless moralisers? Right then, at the very outset He put taste into what had been insipid, and His ability to do just that has been a characteristic of His involvement in human affairs ever since. But if that event set the tone, lightweight and joyful, the next major event set a very different pattern.


SETTING THE PATTERN. 2/ The Temple Traders.
In the outer courtyard of the temple (the part where gentiles were allowed) there were money-changers and dealers in animals. Worshippers from all nations coming to make offerings had to change their currency or buy animals which were approved as clean for sacrifice. It was a highly profitable business, both for the traders and the officials who issued their licences. The common people knew it was dishonest but felt that there was nothing they could do.

It was this clash with the Temple Traders that made Jesus a nationally-known public figure and also set another pattern. For three years the clash continued until the traders, knowing there was a warrant out for His arrest, thought they were safe and tried again, only to find that the warrant meant nothing to one who could ride into the city thronged by cheering crowds. Probably they made some attempt to get back every year. His ability to keep them out shows how great His influence was in the community.

The last book but one in the Old Testament, Zechariah, ends with the prophesy that there will be no more traders in God’s house, yet here was a profitable business, exchanging money and selling animals for sacrifice, in the temple courtyard. It was the Court of the Gentiles where foreigners were permitted - obviously foreigners were easier to exploit. Making money out of worship is bad. Making it out of genuine seekers wanting to know God and having limited understanding of Him - that is treason. The Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. “All Nations” it seems is one of God’s favourite phrases, used in His promise to Abraham and in Christ’s Great Commission as well as Solomon’s dedication of the Temple.

So Christ set His face against money-mindedness and commercialisation, thereby ensuring for Himself and His followers a permanent supply of enemies among those with vested interests.

The people loved it. As He overturned the bankers’ counters and scattered their coins over the ground, the people cheered. Some no doubt shared His dislike of commercialised worship, many just enjoyed the spectacle. He became in one moment a popular hero and an enemy of the establishment.

From that day on He lived balanced on a precarious knife-edge between popular acclaim and official opposition.


TWO PERSONAL INTERVIEWS.
Read John 3 and 4 for a vivid contrast in how Jesus dealt with individuals. A leading Pharisee and respected teacher of religion, came cautiously and nervously to see if he could discover more to add to what he knew of God. He was told he had to start all over again, with a new life that came from the Holy Spirit.

Then a lonely but sociable foreign woman, despised by her own people, but willing to talk to a stranger who asks for a drink, was told first that there was an inner spring of life to be had, then that she was talking to Messiah face to face.

What was common to both was the call to let God’s Spirit into their lives and be caught up in something previously outside their experience. Like the wind. Like a spring.



TEXT FROM MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE & JOHN PARAPHRASED AND DRAMATISED (FROM “WATER, WIND AND FIRE”).

LUKE
It was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. Herod was in charge of Galilee. Annas and Caiaphas were High Priests.

MATTHEW
The prophet had said

PROPHET
A voice in the wilderness crying today
Prepare for the Lord who is coming this way.
Remove every obstacle, make His path clear
And give Him free access. The Lord coming here.

MATTHEW
And John the Baptist came to the wilderness of Judea, where he lived on locusts and wild honey. Dressed in a camel-hair coat with a leather belt, he preached to the people who had walked miles to hear him.

BAPTIST
Turn your lives round, the Kingdom of Heaven is here.

MATTHEW
When they confessed their sins, he plunged them into the Jordan as a sign that their old life was dead and new life had begun.

Then some Pharisees and Sadducees came, highly respected and very religious people.

BAPTIST
You vipers! Who warned you to run away from God’s approaching anger. Let’s see a real change in your lives. Don’t think you are privileged because you descended from Abraham. God could make Abraham a new lot of descendants out of these stones if He wanted. Tree felling has begun. Trees without fruit will be cut down and burned.

Now listen everyone. Someone is coming. Just wait. Someone greater than me. I don’t even deserve to clean His shoes.

I plunge you into water. He will plunge you into Wind and Fire - into the Holy Spirit of God!

Like a farmer at harvest time He will work right through His threshing floor, flinging every scrap of corn into the wind, for the chaff to be blown away from the grain. The wheat He will gather safely into His barn. The chaff is for burning in a fire that never goes out.

MATTHEW
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised.

BAPTIST
You can not be serious - surely you should be baptising me, not I you.

JESUS
Please do it. I have to go through with all that is right.

MATTHEW
So John baptised Jesus and as He came up out of the water, Heaven opened and they saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove upon Jesus and a voice from Heaven said, “This is my Son. I love Him and He thrills me.”

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. For forty days and forty nights He had no food. He was hungry.

DEVIL
If you are really the Son of God, why not turn these stones into bread.

JESUS
It is written, “People need more than bread. Every word God speaks is a necessity for life.”

DEVIL
If you really are the Son of God, why not jump down from the top of the temple in front of all the people. That will make them believe in you. After all, it is written, “Angels will take care of you, in case you hurt your foot on a stone.”

JESUS
It is written, “Don’t try out experiments with the Lord your God.”

MATTHEW
The devil then gave Him a glimpse of all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

DEVIL
Look. These all belong to me you know, but I will give them to you if you just bow down and worship me.

JESUS
Get away from me Satan. It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and Him only.”

MATTHEW
The devil did get away from Him, and angels came to help Him.

JOHN
Meanwhile back at the Jordan, John was still baptising when he saw Jesus returning.

BAPTIST
Look. There He is. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Remember I said there’s a man coming after me who takes precedence over me because He existed before me. Well, here He is.

The whole purpose of my coming and baptising is to make Him known. I didn’t realise who He was at first, but God who sent me had told me that when I saw the Spirit descend on a man, He would be the one - the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit. Well I saw and I’m telling you, this is the Son of God.

JOHN
Next day John pointed Jesus out to two of his own disciples who promptly went and followed Jesus.

JESUS
Hello, what are you looking for?

JOHN
They answered, “Rabbi” which means, “Respected Teacher,” where are you staying?”

JESUS
Come with me and see.

JOHN
It was late afternoon and they stayed with Him that day - but first, one of them named Andrew ran to fetch his brother.

ANDREW
Simon, come quickly, we have found the Messiah.

JESUS
Hello Simon son of Jonas, you will be called Peter.

JOHN
The name Peter means Stone.

Next day Jesus set off to walk to Galilee. In Bethsaida, where Andrew and Peter came from, He found Philip. Philip went and found Nathaniel.

PHILIP
We have found Him. The one Moses promised, and all the prophets wrote about Him. Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.

NATHANIEL
Nazareth, you can’t tell me the Messiah comes from Nazareth, why there has never been - - -

PHILIP
Oh stop quibbling. Just come and see for yourself.

JESUS
Hello, here is an Israelite who can be trusted; nothing devious about you.

NATHANIEL
How do you know me?

JESUS
I saw you under the fig tree, before Philip called you.

NATHANIEL
Rabbi, you must be the Son of God, the King of Israel.

JESUS
You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. One day you will see Heaven open and angels coming up and down on The Son of Man.

JOHN
Next day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. His Mother was a guest and when Jesus turned up with His new followers they were all invited.

MARY
They have run out of wine.

JESUS
Please Mother, don’t bring me in to this, my time has not come yet.

JOHN
But she told the servants,

MARY
Just do what He tells you.

JOHN
Now they had six of the usual giant stone jars holding water for washing.

JESUS
Fill the jars with water and take some to the Master of Ceremonies.

JOHN
They did as they were told, and when the Master of Ceremonies tasted the water that had been turned into wine, he called the bridegroom.

M.C.
Here, this is best vintage. You should have brought it out at the beginning when everyone was in a fit state to appreciate it.

JOHN
So there in Cana of Galilee, Jesus did His first miracle. Soon after this, He, His Mother, brothers and disciples moved to Capernaum by the sea of Galilee. Then at Passover they went to Jerusalem.

In the temple courtyard Jesus found traders selling oxen, sheep and doves and others changing money.

JESUS
Get this stuff out of here at once. Stop trading in my Father’s house.

JOHN
And with a rope whip in His hand, Jesus drove them out, man and beast, pushed over the money-changers’ tables and scattered their coins all over the ground. The disciples remembered that the prophet had said

PROPHET
I am on fire with zeal for your house.

JOHN
During that Passover time in Jerusalem, many people saw His miracles and believed on His Name; but He did not trust Himself to them, He knew human nature too well and needed no one to tell Him what people are really like.

There was one exception. A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a member of the Supreme Court, came to see Him at night.

NICODEMUS.
Rabbi, we know you are a teacher from God or you could not do these miracles.

JESUS
If you want to see God’s kingdom, you will have to be born into it.

NICODEMUS.
Born - but I am old. If it means starting from the beginning, I would need to be really born again for that.

JESUS
Born of the water - born of the wind - to enter God’s kingdom you need birth from outside your experience. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit to spirit. Don’t look so surprised. You really do need this new birth. Listen to the wind blowing. You don’t know where from or where to. Birth from the spirit comes from a power outside yourself, just like the wind.

NICODEMUS.
This is beyond me. How can such things happen?

JESUS
And you are a teacher of Israel - don’t you understand. We speak what we know and tell what we have seen, but you don’t take it for yourself. If I speak of earth and you don’t believe, what if I speak of Heaven. No one has been into Heaven except the Son of Man who belongs there.

Remember when Moses put the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness and those who looked at it were healed. Well something like that will be done to the Son of Man.

God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever trusts Him will not be destroyed but have eternal life. God didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn it but to rescue it.

Those who trust Him are not condemned. Those who refuse God’s only Son have already brought in their own verdict against themselves.

Here is the verdict - light has come to the world and people didn’t want it. They loved darkness better because evildoers hate light. It shows them up. Those who do the Truth come to the light. It shows them up too.

JOHN
Jesus and His disciples then moved out of Jerusalem into the surrounding countryside of Judea. They baptised people (although it was the disciples who did the baptising, not Jesus Himself).

John was baptising farther north. Some Jewish leaders were discussing a problem with him when one of them said

PHARISEE
Rabbi, you remember that man you told us about, well He is baptising too and everyone is going to Him.

BAPTIST
Good. You didn’t think I’d be jealous did you. We can each receive only what is given us from Heaven. Remember I told you I am not the Messiah but came to make people ready for Him.

I am like the best man at a wedding, full of joy for my friend the bridegroom - but He is the one with the bride. He must increase. I must decrease.

I come from Earth and can only speak from Earth. He comes from Heaven, speaks from Heaven, and yet people don’t receive what He tells them. Those who do, are lining themselves up with God.

God sent Him, He speaks God’s words and has God’s Spirit beyond measure. There is eternal life for those who trust Him and God’s anger for those who reject Him.


JOHN
Jesus, realising that the Pharisees knew of His increasing popularity, decided to leave Judea and return to Galilee.

The route took them through Samaria and they came to Sychar, where the disciples went to buy food, leaving Jesus near Jacob’s well. Jesus, tired from His journey, sat by the well in the midday sun. A Samaritan woman came to draw water.

JESUS
May I have a drink, please.

WOMAN
Fancy asking me. You Jews are not supposed to speak to us Samaritans.

JESUS
If you knew God’s gift and who is asking you for a drink, you would be asking me for a drink of fresh spring water.

WOMAN
Fresh spring water Sir, and where will you get that from? It’s a deep well and you haven’t got a bucket. Or are you somebody special, greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well. He used to drink here himself you know, and his sons and herds.

JESUS
And yet when you drink this water, you will be thirsty again. Now the water that I give is different. You never thirst again because it turns into a spring inside you and goes on bubbling up for ever.

WOMAN
It would be nice not to have to come here every day for water. Sir, I’m not sure what you are getting at, but I would like to have it.

JESUS
Right, go and fetch your husband and we can talk.

WOMAN
I haven’t got a husband.

JESUS
That’s right; so you haven’t. You have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband. You told the truth.

WOMAN
Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Tell me, our fathers worshipped on this mountain but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place to worship.

JESUS
Believe me the time is coming when worship will be neither here nor in Jerusalem. You don’t know what you are worshipping, we do because the Rescuer will come from the Jews. But soon - already in fact - true worshippers will worship the Father honestly from their hearts, those are the kind of worshippers the Father is looking for. God is spirit himself and must be worshipped in spirit and truth.

WOMAN
Ah well, we shall know all about these things when the Messiah comes. He will tell us everything won’t He.

JESUS
You are talking to Him now.

JOHN
The woman rushed back to the village, forgetting even her water pot.

WOMAN
Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. This must be the Messiah.

She fetched the villagers who invited Him back. Jesus was so excited He did not want to eat the food His disciples had brought. He stayed in that village two days and many Samaritans trusted Him - the first non-Jews to do so.

After that they went on to Galilee and for a while the disciples went back to their regular work as fishermen. But plenty of Galileans had been to Jerusalem for Passover and seen what Jesus did there; so the news went ahead of Him.

LUKE
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and His fame spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and was highly acclaimed.

Then He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up and on the sabbath day went to the synagogue as usual. They asked Him to preach.

He stood up to read the scripture and they brought Him the parchment scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He selected Chapter 61 and started to read.

JESUS
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to tell good news to those in desperate need. He has sent me to heal broken hearts, to set prisoners free, give sight to the blind, bring freedom to those who have been shattered, to declare that this is the time when God will accept people -

LUKE
And at that point, right in the middle of a sentence, He stopped and rolled up the scroll. The congregation knew that He had deliberately missed out Isaiah’s next words -

PROPHET
And declare our God’s day of vengeance.

LUKE
He had handed the scroll back to the verger who was replacing it in its safe. Jesus then took His place on the speakers’ seat and every eye was fixed on Him.

JESUS
Today this prophecy is fulfilled, You are hearing it now.

LUKE
As He went on speaking they were amazed and, for a while, thought it was wonderful.

JESUS
I know what you are thinking. “Physician heal yourself,” as the saying goes. Do some of your miracles here in your home town. But it doesn’t always work like that. Prophets are not honoured in their own country.

In Elijah’s time, during the famine, there were many widows in Israel, but he went to a foreigner, a widow in Sidonia.

In Elisha’s time there were many leprosy sufferers here in Israel, but he healed a foreigner, Naaman the Syrian.

LUKE
At this they were so angry they rushed forward and dragged Him outside. Some wanted to push Him over the cliff side, but He calmly walked through the middle of the mob and they found that they could not do it.

It ws not His remarkable claim that offended them. They knew Him as a local man and knew He was remarkable - that He was more than they had previously thought credible. They had heard news of His miracles and popularity. They were prepared to go along with the idea that he was someone very special, and a fulfilment of the prophecy he read from Isaiah.

As soon as He started to say, however, that God’s blessing was for foreigners as well, they were angry. After all it was foreigners who were oppressing them and they maintained their identity by taking refuge in being God’s own very special people. They forgot that the promise to Abraham - the very promise which had made them special people - was a promise of blessing to all nations. God never chooses humans except to bless other humans through them. This they could not take.

Jesus went back to Capernaum and made it His base, continuing His preaching all over Galilee.

JESUS
This is the moment you have been waiting for, the time for which all time was made.

God’s kingdom has arrived and is right here beside you.

Turn your lives round and believe the good news.