In the course of trying to understand the actions of others and the behavior of myself, I learned the ABC’s while working in Corporate America. Namely the ABC’s of Antecedent—Behavior—and Consequence!
John the Baptist was the antecedent to Christ for our sake.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the word of God came to John, the son of Zachary, in the desert.
Preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; and all mankind shall see the salvation of God’”
“Brood of vipers! Who has shown you how to flee from the wrath to come?
And do not begin to say, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that is not bringing forth fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
I also learned in Corporate America that is best when communicating either one-on-one or to an audience when making presentations to speak in multiples of three—make three points and then tell a story to illustrate those points and the relative good fortune that they will bring if properly applied.
God does the same thing in this part of the Gospel of Luke as John’s words made people question what they were doing so they came and asked John.
Crowds: “What are we to do?”
John the Baptists: “Let him who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.”
Publicans: “Master, what are we to do?”
John the Baptist: “Exact no more than what has been appointed you.”
Soldiers: “And we—what are we to do?
John the Baptist: “Plunder no one, accuse no one falsely, and be content with your pay.”
Soldiers, any of the rank-and-file whether management rank-and-file or not—firemen, police, first line supervisors, accountants—content with their pay?
John the Baptist foretells Jesus’ ministry that begins around when he turns thirty years old.
“I indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with The Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
So with many different exhortations he kept on preaching the gospel to the people.
But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him concerning Herodias, his brother’s wife, and concerning all the evil things that Herod had done, crowned all this by shutting John up in prison.
We all know what happens to John almost as well as what happens to Judas later on in the Gospel.
But before John the Baptist goes to prison he does what his name implies to Jesus.
Afterwards, Jesus also having been baptized and being in prayer, that heaven was opened, and The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.”
As documented in the Gospel of Luke, the genealogy of Jesus—excerpted here as, the son of Joseph, the son of Levi, the son of Joseph, the son of Jesus, the son of Judas, the son of David, the son of Judas, the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Noe, the son of Adam, who was of God—in total 75 generations from Adam in the Garden of Eden to the First Coming of Jesus, Our Savior.
Now Jesus, full of The Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit about the desert for forty days, being tempted the while by the devil.
The Devil must have learned a thing or two in the business world although he tempts Jesus with all possible types of temptations, only three are recorded in the Gospel of Luke.
Devil, first time: “If thou art the Son of God, command that this stone become a loaf of bread.”
Jesus answered him: “It is written, ‘Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word of God.’”
Devil, second time: “Therefore if thou wilt worship before me, the whole (world) shall be thine.”
Jesus answered and said to him: “It is written, ‘The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and him only shalt thou serve.’”
Devil, third time: “If thou art the Son of God, throw thyself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge concerning thee, to preserve thee; and upon their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered and said to him: “It is said, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’”
And when the devil had tried every temptation, he departed from him for a while.
Counter the Devil, counter temptation in our life, whether in our thoughts to think or the words to speak with the Word of God—the Scriptures.
Easy to think, easier to say but a lot of work because in order to do so one has to know and absorb the Scriptures into one’s subconscious mind as well as conscious mind.
And the third point of this section of the Bible—following John the Baptist’s wisdom in cleansing one’s life and emerging with new behaviors and Jesus temptation killer advice—is when Jesus declares his ministry at nearly age thirty.
Three threes, a trifecta!
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of him went out through the whole country.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and according to custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; to bring good news to the poor he has sent me, to proclaim to the captives release, and sight to the blind; to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense.”
“Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
“Amen I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.”
And all in the synagogue, as they heard these things, were filled with wrath. And they rose up and put him forth out of the town.
And he went down to Capharnaum, a town in Galilee. And there he was teaching on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
And this was foretelling his fate when arrested by the Pharisees in the Garden of Gethsemane and processed by Pontius Pilate when it came down to the verdict of the people, human beings like me and you.
We have Antecedents in our lives and what is to be the Consequences of our Behaviors?
Is knowing the ABC’s of faith—as simple as consequences follow behavior?
Day 56: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Knowing the ABC’s of Faith—as Simple as Consequences follow Behavior?
Read and inspired by the New Testament, The Gospel of Saint Luke Chapters 3-4.
Bible Notes:
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
Saint Luke, a pagan by birth and a physician by profession, had never seen our Lord. An early convert, he became a companion and co-worker of Saint Paul.
In the first four verses of his Gospel he explains why he wrote it. Paul’s doctrine that salvation is for all, not for Jesus alone, is the theme of Saint Luke’s Gospel.
Luke Chapter 3: John the Baptist; John denounces the Pharisees and Sadducees; John’s advice to publicans and soldiers; John proclaims the Savior’s arrival; Elrod puts John in prison; The baptism of Jesus; Genealogy on Jesus.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar
The word of God came to John, the son of Zachary, in the desert
Preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; and all mankind shall see the salvation of God’”
“Brood of vipers! Who has shown you how to flee from the wrath to come?
And do not begin to say, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. For even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees; every tree, therefore, that is not bringing forth fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Crowds: “What are we to do?”
John the Baptists: “Let him who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.”
Publicans: “Master, what are we to do?”
John the Baptist: “Exact no more than what has been appointed you.”
Soldiers: “And we—what are we to do?
John the Baptist: “Plunder no one, accuse no one falsely, and be content with your pay.”
“I indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with The Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
So with many different exhortations he kept on preaching the gospel to the people.
But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him concerning Herodias, his brother’s wife, and concerning all the evil things that Herod had done, crowned all this by shutting John up in prison.
Jesus also having been baptized and being in prayer, that heaven was opened, and The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased.”
And Jesus himself, when he began his work, was about thirty years of age…
Genealogy of Jesus—excerpted; the son of Joseph, the son of Levi, the son of Joseph, the son of Jesus, the son of Judas, the son of David, the son of Judas, the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Noe, the son of Adam, who was of God—in total 75 generations!
Luke Chapter 4: The fast of forty days; The first temptation; The third temptation; Jesus in Galilee; Reading in the synagogue at Nazareth; The reaction of the people; Jesus speaks to the people; The people attack Jesus; He retires to Capharnaum; The cure of a demoniac; Peter’s mother-in-law; Other miracles; Jesus leaves Capharnaum.
Now Jesus, full of The Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit about the desert for forty days, being tempted the while by the devil.
Devil, first time: “If thou art the Son of God, command that this stone become a loaf of bread.”
Jesus answered him: “It is written, ‘Not by bread alone shall man live, but by every word of God.’”
Devil, second time: “Therefore if thou wilt worship before me, the whole (world) shall be thine.”
Jesus answered and said to him: “It is written, ‘The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and him only shalt thou serve.’”
Devil, third time: “If thou art the Son of God, throw thyself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge concerning thee, to preserve thee; and upon their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered and said to him: “It is said, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’”
And when the devil had tried every temptation, he departed from him for a while.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of him went out through the whole country.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and according to custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me; to bring good news to the poor he has sent me, to proclaim to the captives release, and sight to the blind; to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense.”
“Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
“Amen I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.”
And all in the synagogue, as they heard these things, were filled with wrath. And they rose up and put him forth out of the town.
And he went down to Capharnaum, a town in Galilee. And there he was teaching on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
Possessed by an unclean devil
Let us alone! What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth? Hast thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God.”
“Hold the peace, and go out of him.”
“What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a great fever.
And stand over her he rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she rose at once and began to wait on them.
All who had persons sick with various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands upon each of them and cured them. And the devils also came forth from many, crying out and saying, “Thou art the Son of God.” And he rebuked them, and did not permit them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
Now when it was day he went out and departed into a desert place.
“To the other towns also I must proclaim the kingdom of God, for this is why I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
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