Hello,
My name is James Whitaker.
Welcome to today's scripture reading.
Reading in God's word is a very important part of a Christian's life.
In 2 Timothy 3.
16 in the Passion Translation it says,
God has transmitted his very substance into every scripture,
For it is God-breathed.
It will empower you by its instruction and correction,
Giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness.
Before we start,
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your daily presence.
Thank you for your love and guidance.
Calm our hearts and calm our minds.
We pray that as we read or listen to your word that we would have a greater understanding of what is said.
Let it teach us,
Guide us,
And correct us.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Today we will be reading from the third and fourth chapters of Matthew in the Passion Translation.
I will only be saying what chapters are being read and not each verse.
This is for better flow and understanding.
If you have a Bible,
I encourage you to read along.
Matthew 3.
It was at this time that John the Baptizer began to preach in the desert of Judah.
His message was this,
Heaven's kingdom is about to appear,
So you'd better keep turning away from evil and turn back to God.
Isaiah was referring to John when he prophesied,
A thunderous voice,
One will be crying out in the wilderness.
Prepare yourself for the Lord's coming,
And level a straight path inside your hearts for him.
Now John wore clothing made from camel's hair,
Tied at his waist with a leather strap,
And his food consisted of dried locusts and wild honey.
A steady stream of people from Jerusalem,
All the surrounding countryside,
And the region near the Jordan,
Came out to the wilderness to be baptized by him.
And while they were publicly confessing their sins,
He would immerse them in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many coming from among the wealthy elite of Jewish society,
And many of the religious leaders known as Pharisees coming to witness the baptisms,
He began to denounce them saying,
You offspring of vipers,
Who warned you to slither away like snakes from the fire of God's judgment?
You must prove your repentance by a changed life,
And don't presume you can get away with merely saying to yourselves,
But we're Abraham's descendants.
For I tell you,
God can awaken these stones to become sons of Abraham.
The axe is now ready to cut down the trees at their very roots.
Every fruitless rotten tree will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.
Those who repent I baptize with water.
But there is coming a man after me who is more powerful than I.
In fact,
I'm not even worthy enough to pick up his sandals.
He will submerge you into union with the Spirit of holiness,
And with a raging fire.
He comes with a winnowing fork in his hands,
And comes to his threshing floor to sift what is worthless from what is pure.
And he is ready to sweep out his threshing floor,
And gather his wheat into his granary.
But the straw he will burn up with a fire that can't be extinguished.
Then Jesus left Galilee to come to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
But when he waded into the water,
John resisted him,
Saying,
Why are you doing this?
I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you,
And yet you come to be baptized by me?
Jesus replied,
It is only right to do all that God requires.
Then John baptized Jesus.
And as Jesus rose up out of the water,
The heavens realms opened up over him,
And he saw the Holy Spirit descending out of the heavens and rest upon him in the form of a dove.
Then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky,
Saying,
This is my Son,
The Beloved.
My greatest delight is in him.
Matthew chapter 4.
Afterward the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to experience the ordeal of testing by the accuser.
And after fasting for 40 days,
Jesus was extremely hungry.
Then the tempter came to him and said,
How can you possibly be the Son of God and go hungry?
Just command these stones to be turned into loaves of bread.
He answered,
The Scriptures say,
Bread alone will not satisfy,
But true life is found in every word that constantly goes forth from God's mouth.
Then the accuser transported Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem,
And perched him at the highest point of the temple,
And said to him,
If you are really God's Son,
Jump,
And the angels will catch you,
For it is written in the Scriptures,
He will command his angels to protect you,
And they will lift you up so that you won't even bruise a foot on a rock.
Once again Jesus said to him,
The Scriptures say,
You must never put the Lord your God to a test.
And the third time the accuser lifted Jesus up onto a very high mountain range,
And showed him all the kingdoms of the world,
And all the splendor that goes with it.
All of these kingdoms I will give to you,
The accuser said.
If only you will kneel down before me and worship me.
But Jesus said,
Go away,
Satan,
For the Scriptures say,
Kneel before the Lord your God and worship him only.
At once the accuser left him,
And angels suddenly gathered around Jesus to minister to his needs.
When Jesus heard that John the Baptizer had been thrown into prison,
He went back into Galilee.
Jesus moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum,
Which is by the Lake Galilee in the land of Zabolon and Naphtali.
He did this to make the prophecy of Isaiah come true.
Listen,
You who live in the land of Zabolon and the land of Naphtali,
Along the road to the sea on the other side of the Jordan in Galilee,
The land of the Gentiles,
You who spend your days shrouded in darkness can now say,
We have seen a brilliant light.
And those who live in the dark shadow land of death can now say,
The dawning light arises on us.
From that time on,
Jesus began to proclaim his message with these words,
Keep turning away from your sins and come back to God.
For heaven's kingdom realm is now accessible.
As he was walking by the shore of the Lake Galilee,
Jesus noticed two fishermen who were brothers.
One was nicknamed Kepha,
Later called Peter,
And the other was Andrew,
His brother.
Watching as they were casting their nets into the water,
Jesus called out to them and said,
Come and follow me,
And I will transform you into men who catch people for God.
Immediately,
They dropped their nets and left everything behind to follow Jesus.
Leaving there,
Jesus found three other men sitting in a boat,
Mending their nets.
Two were brothers,
Jacob and John,
And they were with their father Zebedee.
Jesus called Jacob and John to his side and said to them,
Come and follow me.
And at once they left their boat and their father and began to follow Jesus.
Jesus ministered from place to place throughout all of the province of Galilee.
He taught in the synagogues,
Preaching the wonderful news of the kingdom and healing every kind of sickness and disease among the people.
His fame spread throughout all Syria.
Many people who were in pain and suffering with every kind of illness were brought to Jesus for their healing.
Epileptics,
Paralytics,
And those tormented by demonic powers were all set free.
Everyone who was brought to Jesus was healed.
This resulted in massive crowds of people following him,
Including people from Galilee,
Jerusalem,
And the land of Judah,
The region of the ten cities known as Decapolis,
And beyond the Jordan River.
Thanks for joining me today.
I hope his word was clear and that it goes into not only our minds,
But our hearts as well.
May we not only be hearers,
But also doers of his word.
Have an amazing day.
God bless.
