Following Jesus — Dan Augsburger

Hi, this is Dan Augsburger. You are about to hear a message on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I shared this message in April of 2011 with some young adults of a Korean church in southwestern Michigan.

It's good to be here. Do I need to raise this higher so that people can hear me? Just it's for recording purposes, so... Okay. It's good to be here. I didn't realize I was going to have that kind of introduction.

To be honest with you. I was actually thinking about John the other day and wondering what he was going on. I didn't realize he was your youth pastor. I'd forgotten about that. So... Anyway, it's it's a privilege to be here.

I pray for the opportunity actually to go and share with others about Jesus. Because I believe that a relationship with Jesus is the very best thing that can happen to a person. I've done many many things in my life.

I don't quite know yet what I'm going to do when I grow up. I went to Andrews and I thought I was going to go into radio and television. But I didn't do that. I first worked as a hospital administrator.

Then I felt called to go into ministry. So I went back to the seminary and then they asked me to go into nursing administration. And then I lost my job and I went to an executive search which I did for 14 years or something.

And made more money than I thought was legally possible. Huge amounts of money. Placed one guy with an insurance worldwide director of quality that paid me $62 ,000 to find one employee for them. That's serious money.

Placed five or six people like that and you've got a real good year. But then the Lord kind of put a burden on me to learn about prayer. Because I needed some answers to prayer. And Pastor Dwight discovered I had an interest in prayer and he began asking me to do more on prayer.

Eventually, I just ran out of time to do my recruiting business. So now I make less than I think is practically possible. I don't even have to pay taxes to be honest with you. But I'm sure I go to more places than most people do.

Because when God is in charge God will take you and bring you place you never dreamed you would ever go. And you know, the nice thing is when you're really in relationship with Jesus the way he wants you to be, it's not about your ability.

It's more about your availability. And you're not concerned about your success. You're concerned about his success. You know, that's what you're praying for. Because you know, if it's all about my relationship with you folks, we will have wasted our time.

But if you connect to Jesus and God in a better way as a result of the time we spend, then you're strong anywhere you go, right? And sadly, sometimes I think in the church we have a bad habit of tethering people, if you understand what I mean by that word, attaching people to good speakers or whatever.

And we shouldn't do that. We need to attach them to God. We need to attach them to Jesus. Because if you're attached to Jesus, you don't need another person. You'll be fine. But if you're dependent on people, then not only do you need to be attached to the right people, to a person, but to the right person too.

Because attachment can lead you down a bad pathway as well. So thank you for inviting me. And I'm here this afternoon because having Roy and James and some of you coming over to my house, I'm aware that there have been both exciting mountaintops and challenges as well.

Following Jesus Requires Wholehearted Commitment

And I'd like to talk with you a little bit this afternoon about what it means to follow Jesus. Okay? Have a serious heart-to-heart talk about what it means to follow Jesus. And I hope that what I share will be simple enough and practical enough that you will never forget what I share.

Okay? Now, can you hear me well enough? I'm gonna speak louder if I need to. I want to make sure. You want me to be right up to the microphone? I'll just do it like this. How about that? Is that better?

Good. Okay. But before I do anything else, I'd like to have a word of prayer. And I'm gonna kneel for this prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you that I have the opportunity of being at this group this afternoon.

And Lord, you know that I have prayed for Roy and Janah and James and the others that are working here many times. And I've been excited, Father, to learn about those that have been praying, have been meeting in small groups, doing those kinds of things.

And Father, I've come not to pretend to know better than they do how to walk with you, but just to share what I've learned that perhaps they can learn from you as I have been learning. So please draw near this afternoon.

Make my words clear. Make my words simple. Make my words effective, Father, that each person would leave knowing you better, knowing better how to walk with you. I ask this in Jesus' name with gratitude.

Amen. One little adjustment. I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring. There's a chance you will never see her in this world again. Whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to hardships and sufferings of a missionary life.

Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of want, distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps even a violent death.

Can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Adoniram Judson was writing the father of Anne Hazelton.

He wanted to marry her, but he was warning the father that there's every chance that if you agree to my marrying her you will never see her another time the rest of your life. Okay, now how do you think your parents would feel if someone wrote them and said, you know, I'd like to have your child join me, you know, on a missionary venture and there's every chance you will never see this child again the rest of your life.

There's a chance they may die of, this person may die of disease, may die a violent death, something like that. Do you think that you would be likely to... Okay, thank you. Is this better? It's on, right?

How would you feel, how would your parents react if someone were to write them and say we'd like your child to come with us, you'll never see them again. Would they be likely to say yes? Would they struggle?

They would definitely struggle, wouldn't they? Her father didn't want to lose his daughter, but what he told her, he said, if you feel called I will not stand in the way of God. I will allow you to go.

Missionary Surrender and the Cost of Following Christ

Now I'm a big fan of the Keswick Holiness camp meetings. I teach church history, some at the seminary in addition to doing seminars, and it's interesting that at Keswick they used to recruit missionaries and it's interesting how they would make the appeal, quite different than what we do in our day.

First they would have any missionaries that were there or retired stand up, you know, as a show of commitment that they've made in life, and then they would next ask parents to stand up who are willing to send their children.

And then after that they would ask the children to stand up if they felt called to go as missionaries. It's interesting, they realized that the parents could play a role and we have in the Desire of Ages the phrase that there's no limit to the usefulness of one who sets self aside, makes room for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

You know that that phrase? It's from Desire of Ages, I think page 250 or something like that. Speaks of no limit people, and I'd like to suggest that if we are not no limit Christians, we are limit God Christians.

Did you hear me? There's only one of two alternatives, either no limit Christians or limit God, okay? It's interesting, when Adoniram Judson and his wife went, they first went to India. They were wanting to serve God in India, but the East India Company was fearful that their presence would get in the way of commerce for the East India Company, so they refused them entry and they ended up going to Burma.

That was a limit God company. Now it's interesting that Adoniram Judson had a lot going for him. He was already reading by the age of three. Back in those days, you know, ships and seafaring was was a big thing and he was already navigating at the age of 10, studying theology as a child, entered Providence College at the age of 17, could have done anything and everything that he wanted.

But while he was studying, he met a young man by the name of Jacob Eames, a devout deist and a skeptic, and this skeptic convinced Adoniram that God didn't really have an interest in what was going on, that there was no such thing as a God, or at least not a God that was personally involved, and so he convinced him to disavow any knowledge or interest or belief in God.

Okay. After graduation, he went on a trip. Adoniram did. That was what what young people did in those days. And as a part of that journey, one night he stayed at a motel and as he was sleeping that night, maybe some of you know the story, he heard some sounds coming from the room next door.

You know the story? Okay. I heard this noise coming from the room next door. It was someone who was sick, someone who was crying out during the night. The noise, the cries, the moans, the anguish grew and finally went completely quiet.

And as this had been going on, Adoniram had been wondering strange thoughts. He began to wonder, for example, I wonder if this person is ready to die. What will happen if this person dies? Are they ready to meet their maker?

And then he would think of himself, how can I think of this? Just think of my friend Jacob Eames. What would he say if he knew that I was troubled at all about a person's soul? As I mentioned, finally it all went quiet.

And so Adoniram went to the innkeeper the next morning and asked, what happened? And the innkeeper said, a man died. Really? He asked, well, who is this man? And he said, why his name is Jacob Eames. The very friend that had convinced him to not believe in God was the man who died in the room next door.

At that moment, Adoniram said, I must change the course that I'm pursuing. I'm going to go back to God. I believe in God and I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to warn people, you know, to be prepared to meet their maker.

I must plan my life to please the Lord. Did you hear me? I must plan my life to please the Lord. That's something that all of you need to be doing. That's something that I need to do, even at my age. Everything that we do with a mind of how we can serve God and how we can please God.

Well, Adoniram Judson prayed with friends, eventually went, as I mentioned, with Ann Hazleton. They went over to Burma. Now, it wasn't easy. Now, there was opposition. For example, there in India, as I mentioned, there was the East India Company that blocked him from entering.

Went to Burma. There, he spent three years studying 12 hours a day the Burmese language. Can you imagine spending three years studying 12 hours a day to learn a language? He was convinced he needed to learn the language.

He needed to translate the Bible. There wasn't a single Burmese Christian, so they were all by themselves for years and years. Six long years went by before there was the very first convert. Six years.

Now, many of us are into fast food, and we're into fast results as Christians, too. Would you agree? We pray, and we expect God to have answered within, what, a week, two, three weeks at the least, right?

And if it hasn't happened, what do we tend to say? Must not be God's will, right? Or we kind of forget. We move on. There's little expectation sometimes that God will act if we're praying. They went for six years without a single convert, and here's the first question I want to ask you this afternoon.

Would you have still been faithful working in Burma at the end of six years if you would have been the person there? Now, please understand, by the end of his life, they could count 210 ,000 Christians in Burma.

Okay? Praise God, he didn't quit, right? But would you have remained faithful year, after year, after year, after year, after year, after year, until you finally had the first convert? We're not talking about 30s or 40s, just the first convert.

Unfortunately, there was a disagreement with a British about that time, and he was accused of being a British spy, and he was thrown in jail for 21 months. And often, the way they made sure the prisoners didn't run off is they would take their feet, and they would hang them up in the air, so only their shoulders were on the ground, and that's how they would be during the night.

And his wife would bring food, and she begged and begged for the those in charge to set him free. Eventually, he was. Well, the work progressed. The gospel began to open blind eyes, as I mentioned, and he died in 1850 at the age of 62.

At that point, he'd been in Burma for 38 years. He only came home on furlough one time after 34 years. Okay, these are people that were making a commitment for the long term. You know, how can I say this?

Faithfulness Through Delay, Opposition, and Suffering

When you become a Christian, it is not the kind of, you know, wet your finger and test the wind and see how things go. It is making a long-term commitment to no longer belong to yourself, to belong to God.

Did you hear me? And that means that if God wants to give you results, you know, in two weeks, praise the Lord, but if God doesn't want to give you results in six years, just as great, praise the Lord.

Do you hear me? You see, that's part of the reason I come here this afternoon, because I think that we kind of have this assumption that we're gonna pray, we're gonna work, and then there's gonna be results, and when they don't happen, we wonder, number one, is there something wrong with us?

And number two, we wonder, where is God? You know, what is going on? And yet, sometimes God just has his way of working. You know, I have to say that one of the reasons God doesn't give us quick results is because if he gave us quick results, we would not learn half the things we need to learn to be strong for him.

Did you hear me? If, for example, those of you who are in leadership here just said, well, we're gonna do such-and-such a program, and you got the whole campus out, you say, praise the Lord, we're gonna just put our posters up, and we're gonna have the results every time, would you learn about prayer?

Probably not. Would you learn about patience? Probably not. Would you learn about the science of soul winning? Probably not. Okay, and it's because God cares too much that he is gracious and causes us to wait sometimes.

Okay? It is not humility when God is humiliating us. Did you know that? Okay? It is not delay when God doesn't give results right away. If we've committed everything into his hands, yes, we need to pray.

We must not assume that things are as they should be. I'm not saying that. We should pray. We should strive. But we should never get frustrated with God because God knows what he's doing. He's never late.

He never makes a mistake. And our part, you know, if you were to go to, for example, to the vineyards out here in the summer, and you ask the branch, what does it mean to be a branch? What would they say?

My part is just to stay connected and to allow the sunshine to come when there's sunshine. And the rain, you know, when the rain comes, that's my part. Because my life isn't my own, really. My life is just the sap coming from the larger branch flowing through me.

That's all it is. Okay? That's your role. That's your role, you know, as young adults who are motivated and surrender to Jesus. Well, Adam and Iram had the potential to be anything he would have wanted, but he made a huge, huge decision for God.

And in the minds, I'm sure, of many of his friends, they said, he's crazy. What a waste. So much ability wasted as a, as a missionary where no one knows about him. And yet you and I would agree he made a wonderful decision, didn't he?

Absolutely. Another missionary by the name of John Patton said, as I lay down my pen, let me record my immovable conviction that his is the noblest service in which any human being can spend or be spent.

Okay? Working for God is the noblest thing you can do in, in any area of life. Okay? It is the noblest thing. That doesn't mean that everyone is called to be a pastor. Okay? Because God needs engineers and doctors, everything else.

Don't get me wrong. But no matter what you do, your employment is to fund your soul winning. Okay? Did you hear me? Soul winning is not something you do on the side. Soul winning is something you do all day through because you have, I pray, a witnessing lifestyle.

Where you're saying, God, today, give me the opportunity to share with someone. Give me the opportunity today, Father, to share something. Okay? He said, it's the noblest service. And that if God gave me back my life to be lived over again, I would, without one quiver of hesitation, lay it on the altar to Christ, that he might use it as before in similar ministries of love, especially among those who never yet heard the name of Jesus.

Giving God Our Best Rather Than Our Leftovers

He gave his best, his son to me, and I give back my best, my all, to him. Now, let's imagine that, uh, that you went to an auction. And I don't know if you go to auctions much. I don't, but I've been to a few where sometimes they'll give you a box full of stuff.

There'll be, you know, books and some other stuff, and you see something you really want, and you bid on that. Okay? And you win the auction. How would you feel if later the auctioneer said, you know, I've decided to only give you the junk in the box, and I'd like to keep actually what you really wanted.

I've decided not to sell it. Would you feel cheated? Absolutely. How many people, when it comes to Christ, they say, well, I've surrendered my bad habits, you know? I've given up this vice and that vice.

Is that really what it means to surrender? Would you be happy if you paid the price, you know? Just get the junk or the vice, the things that aren't of any value anyway? You see, God wants not only your best, but all of you.

Guess how long? For all time. Not just some of you, some of the time, but all of you, all the time, for the rest of your life. Do you want to really fully surrender to Jesus? It's all things, all the time, for the rest of my life.

Have you made that kind of surrender in your life? You need to. You need to. Because if you've truly made that kind of surrender, it doesn't matter what's going on. Nothing's going to change in your life.

Peter Buller, the Moravian, said, if I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ with them all. Okay? Then there was another couple, Betty and John Stam. They served together in China with the China Inland Mission.

She wrote the following poem. She said, Lord, I give up my own plans and purposes, all my own desires, hopes, and ambitions, and I accept Thy will for my life. I give up myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee to be Thine forever.

I hand over to Thy keeping all of my friendships. All the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart. Fill me now and seal me with Thy Spirit. Work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost for me to live is Christ.

Work out Your will at any cost. Well, they went to China with Hudson Taylor. And within one year, they lost their lives to the communists. Within one year, they lost their lives. They made the ultimate sacrifice.

They made the ultimate surrender. So I asked the question this afternoon, how are such disciples made? How are such disciples made? Do you think that they're made by just going to a few rallies now and then?

No, no, no. Essentially, with the disciples of Jesus, they were called from their trades. They were instructed by his discourses, observed the way that he worked, equipped and empowered and sent on missions, given specific information on what to expect.

But did they really learn? It seems to me almost incomprehensible that they were often arguing over who was going to be greatest. Notice that, isn't it strange? They were with Jesus, the Messiah, and they were all arguing over who was going to be the greatest.

They looked for an earthly kingdom. They resisted thought of anything that would humble them. In the end, they denied and abandoned him. But suddenly at the day of Pentecost, they became fearless. And I guess the question that comes is, how did God bring about the change in their lives?

How did God bring about the change? What are your thoughts? We can have a bit of discussion here for just a moment. How did God bring about the change in their lives? He died. They recognized Jesus' death.

He left. Okay, as in the resurrection, you're saying? Okay, he sent back the Holy Spirit. He left and the Spirit came. Had Jesus been talking with them all along about what the real life was? Absolutely.

I believe it's number one. They finally heard. They finally understood. And they accepted his pathway. Okay. It is very possible that there's some of you, and I can say this because I can speak of myself and I know about myself, have been going to church all of your lives, but you've not been hearing really what they've been saying in church.

Either that or you've only been partially hearing what they're saying. I only found Jesus when I was a senior in college. It's interesting that my junior year, I was the essay leader of religious activities at Andrews.

And I was preaching sermons Friday night for Vespers. And at PMC, I was a highly visible Christian leader. But I only found Jesus as my savior the summer after I served for the first year. And then they elected me to be the same position the second year.

And what I did was completely different. But it's interesting. It was after I was a very visible leader that I finally found Jesus as my personal savior. You see, somebody gave me a book called The Life of Victory.

And as I read it, I realized I didn't know what it was about. And when I finally found Jesus as my personal savior, I went to my dad and I said, Dad, why did you never tell me about this? And he said, we've been telling you about this all of our lives.

Okay. Now, I was in Fiji. And in Fiji, I was working with the pastors there. And I made a statement to the pastors there. I said, perhaps there's someone here who has never accepted Jesus as their personal savior.

And a pastor put his hands up and said, how dare you suggest that a pastor not know Jesus as their personal savior? And I said, please forgive me, but I can only speak of my own experience. That same pastor came to me later in the week and said, when you first came, I was convinced I knew everything you knew.

But he said, by the end of the week, he said, it was just me and God. No one else. And he said, I had to admit that I didn't know the experience that you were talking about. Okay, so you need to hear.

Then you need to understand what you're hearing. Then you need to accept it. And then you need to commit to living it. Okay. Well, I was asked to speak on discipleship. How do you make a disciple? And as I thought about it, I thought, well, the easy place to start is when Jesus said, you know, come follow me and I will make you what?

Fishers of men. I said, well, I'll just talk about the experiences of the disciples. But the more I thought about it, the more I prayed about it, the more convinced I was that when Jesus said, follow me, he was actually meaning for them to follow him actually as from his birth upwards.

Because it changes it completely, you know, for the disciples, it was mainly just going along with Jesus and seeing miracles and, and healing a few people, these kinds of things. But there was a whole side to, to, to, to being one of the disciples of Jesus that they were missing, which Jesus had learned for 30 years.

Did you hear me? 30 years prior to his ministry beginning. And so this afternoon, I want to talk with you a little bit about what it means to, to follow Jesus from his birth. And I think you're going to find it quite interesting.

Jesus’ Humility and Voluntary Sacrifice

First of all, look at Philippians chapter two, verses six and seven. Philippians chapter two, verses six and seven. It says there, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter two, verses six and seven.

It says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.

And we'll read verse eight too. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Well, the decision to die on the cross, the decision to make that voluntary sacrifice actually was made in heaven long before he came to earth.

It was not easy for Jesus to leave. He voluntarily left his father's side where he was, you know, one of the Trinity was born to the most humble circumstances, okay? In the most humble circumstances to parents, et cetera.

So here's the first question I have to ask you. Do you recognize that in following Jesus, that you're making a decision to walk in a very humble way? Have you ever thought about that? Jesus talked about the need to deny ourselves, take up our cross, how often?

Each and every day and follow him. It's interesting that in the days of the crucifixion, when you saw a man carrying the cross, you knew that they had forced the cross upon him and they were forcing him, goading him on, maybe with the points of a sword or something, to carry the cross to his place of execution.

And those watching knew that that was the end of that man. But Jesus said what? He said, take up your cross voluntarily, take the instrument of death and embrace it. If you want to follow Jesus, you'll have to understand that you're voluntarily choosing to die to your own wishes, your own desires, your own ambitions, your own plans, and live for one purpose.

And that is to know his will in order to do it, to advance his kingdom and to bring honor to him. Are you glad to be a Christian? It's a whole change of life, a whole change of life. So that was the first thing.

He voluntarily left the courts of heaven, became vulnerable. Then he was manifested in a humble way. His divinity was veiled with humanity. He took upon himself, hi Barbara, he took upon himself humble humanity.

Okay. And then it says in Hebrews 10, look at Hebrews 10 verses five to seven. It says there, therefore, when he came to the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me.

Hebrews 10, five to seven, but a body you have prepared for me and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. You had no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come in the volume of the book. It is written to me to do your will.

Oh God. Okay. He left the courts of heaven to make a voluntary sacrifice of himself. Okay. Came to give himself. So that's the first point. When he came from heaven, he came to live for other people. He came to serve.

He came to, to in a humble way. Now let's, let's talk about his, his birth. Look, if you would, in the book of Matthew chapter one, as I studied about this on my own, I was really quite amazed by what I found.

Matthew chapter one. It says there in verse 21, Joseph, you know, I'd been wanting to put Mary away as a public example because she was with child. Verse 20, but while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take you.

Marry your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the what? The Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Do you want to know power in your life? You must also know the conception, which is of the Holy Spirit.

It's sad. It's sad that in our church, there's a reluctance to almost talk about the Holy Spirit. There's a fear when yet Jesus said, this is the best thing. This is even better than my being here is you're receiving the Holy Spirit.

But how many of you have intentionally said, I must know the birth of the Holy Spirit for myself. I must know the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. Jesus said, unless you're born again, how? By the Spirit.

You'll never see the kingdom of God. And I can tell you in my own personal life that I used to have a ministry that was very local. But as I surrendered more, God suddenly just opened it up much greater.

And then when I began seeking after the Holy Spirit, I began discovering that God began doing strange things that went above and beyond my words. It's what the Holy Spirit does innocent through us that makes the difference.

It's not our clever words. It is not our clever words. So Jesus had to be conceived of the Holy Spirit. And then we know about his birth, right? What do we know about his birth? Jesus was born where? Where?

In a manger in Bethlehem. Why was he born in Bethlehem? Because the Jewish people were being oppressed, right? If you read the first chapter of Desire Ages or something close to that, it talks about how it was in the fullness of time.

It was a time of extreme darkness for the people at that time that Jesus came. His parents, you know, in the eyes of other people were not married yet. You know, his mother was of questionable, you know, background that he was there pregnant.

Joseph had married before that he would have stepbrothers later. It was a poor family. He would be raised in poor Nazareth. It was, you know, kind of the least ideal situation possible for him to come to this world in.

Would you agree? But those circumstances were intentionally chosen by God for him. Sometimes when things are not going so well, we get frustrated. If only things were better. If only my circumstances were better, things could only be different.

And yet when we look at the birth of Jesus, God intentionally had him come to parents who were in Bethlehem where they were forced to go by the Romans. They didn't have any room in the inn. You know, he was born in a crude manger.

The king of the time immediately began to attack and actually killed all the babies under two in that town because of him. They had to flee to Egypt. Later, they came back to Nazareth. And you know what the expectations were for Nazareth.

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Do you want to follow Jesus? God will so orchestrate your circumstances that he will make your life a life of dependence on him. Where you learn that things are okay because he's in charge no matter what you see around yourselves.

Okay, that's interesting. He was born, as I said, there, he grew up in very humble circumstances. He was dedicated to God. How long was he at home? I already mentioned that. What, 30 years, right? Is it strange to you that Jesus spent so much time at home before he began his ministry?

You would have thought God would have started maybe at the age of 20 or something, but God waited till longer, right? This is the point. Jesus lived to obey his father, his father's time, his father's words.

Everything that his father said was what Jesus was going to do. Here's something that may be of interest to you. Do you know how we learn to submit to God? Who knows how we learn to submit to God? By submitting to the people around us.

How do you like that? You see, Jesus learned to submit by submitting to his parents. And you and I, we learn to submit to God by submitting to the people around us. Although Jesus would never submit and obey to such a degree that he disobeyed his father, right?

But it's true. If you want to follow Jesus, you'll have to accept the fact that you learn to submit in submitting to people around you. So there's people who frustrate you sometimes are actually a blessing in disguise.

You know how you deal with frustration as a Christian? Praise the Lord. Somehow this is for my good. I just don't understand it yet. It helps to have that kind of attitude. Okay. He grew up submitting to his parents.

Okay. He was studying the scriptures. Okay. Notice what happens next. So it talks about how Herod persecuted the babies. In verse 13, we read about the fight into Egypt. There was the massacre of the innocents.

Then they finally come back in verses 19 and onwards. And then it says, In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Okay. And then it goes on to where Jesus comes along. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And are you coming to me?

And Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him and he agreed to baptize. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? Why did Jesus need to be baptized?

What are your suggestions for that? Did Jesus need to have something, you know, washed, quote unquote, forgiven? Excuse me. He was setting an example. That's true. He was setting an example. That's part of the answer.