Hello Friend,
I’m working on my next book, which is actually the FIRST book in a series of FOUR different books (I think? Things change, so you never know. HA!). The books are about the Gospels …
Matthew.
Mark.
Luke.
John.
… and each book will focus on a different Gospel and the stories of Jesus as told by that Gospel writer.
The objective of each book is to give the reader a look into the original audience of the Gospel (the original readers or listeners) and a taste of …
What they were experiencing.
What problems they were facing.
What struggles were in front of them.
… so that we can (then) look at various stories of Jesus from that Gospel through the lens of its background and context.
We want to let each Gospel and each Gospel writer speak for itself/himself.
AND THEN.
(This is the fun part.)
We want to let our imaginations run WILD as we wonder why each Gospel writer would have included the stories they did AND what those stories might have to speak to us today.
Each book will open with a chapter about the original audience along with some of what we know of them and their circumstances and then will contain anywhere from 20-30 different chapters/reflections/entries/whatever you want to call them on various stories from the Gospel; AND each entry will end with a couple of reflection questions and plenty of space for you to journal your own thoughts and reflections.
Maybe you’ll read one entry a day.
Or one a week.
Or 10 a day.
Maybe you’ll read the book devotionally.
Or maybe you’ll read it in one sitting.
Or return to it again and again and again.
How you read it is totally up to you, but I’m REALLY excited about this project because I feel like it’s stemming from my sweet spot and my deepest passion (Jesus and the Gospels) along with what I’ve learned from my friend Alexander John Shaia and his lifelong work with the 4 Gospels. I was trained in Biblical studies back in seminary and love to dig into and reflect on the stories we find in the Bible, especially in the Gospels … and that’s what these books are shaping up to be.
All of that to say, today I want to share with you an unedited excerpt from chapter 5 - the story of Jesus’ baptism.
Enjoy, and thanks for supporting my work!
Glenn || MY BOOK || PATREON || BUY ME A COFFEE
Before I share the excerpt with you, a little context for Matthew’s Gospel (which will be the focus of chapter 1) would be helpful.
Matthew was writing to the Jewish/Messianic Christians who were living in the wake of Rome’s destruction of the temple, the center of their universe. They would have witnessed the deaths of …
Their family.
Their friends.
And their teachers.
ALONG WITH.
The destruction of their temple and much of Jerusalem.
They relocated to a place called Antioch where they were tasked with rebuilding, starting over again, and (in a sense) separating from their Mother faith (Judaism) so that they could follow the way of Jesus The Christ (who they believed to be the Messiah), which much of their family and circles of friends didn’t understand or approve of.
And so, Matthew tells these readers about Jesus’ Baptism …
—
A Baptism of Repentance
I think it’s funny that no one wants to talk about this. Right? Because in Matthew 3:1-2 we see Matthew introducing us to John the Baptist who “came preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
And then.
Later on in that chapter (in verse 13) we see the story of Jesus’ baptism where Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John after which a dove descended from heaven and a voice called out saying, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
I don’t know about you, but to me it seems that Jesus was baptized on the coattails of John’s message to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Right?
I mean …