Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3055 When you read Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel, you encounter something puzzling. Both give genealogies of Jesus, but they are different. Matthew traces the line from Abraham through David to Joseph. Luke traces the line from Jesus back through David to Adam. But the differences go beyond direction. Even within the section from…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3057 Jesus was a master storyteller. When crowds gathered to hear him, he often taught through parables: short, vivid stories drawn from everyday life. The sower and the seed, the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the talents, the pearl of great price. These images have shaped the imagination of the world for two thousand…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3058 The Gospels tell us about Jesus’ birth, his presentation at the Temple, the visit of the Magi, the flight to Egypt, and his family’s return to Nazareth. Then there is silence. Luke alone records a brief glimpse of Jesus at age twelve in the Temple. After that, nothing until his baptism at around…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3059 Every few years, some book or documentary claims to have discovered evidence that Jesus was married. Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code popularised the idea that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. In 2012, a fragment called the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” made headlines before being exposed as a modern forgery….
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 3044 When we read the Gospels, we encounter the title ‘Son of David’ applied to Jesus with striking frequency. The blind call out to Him using this name. The crowds shout it during His triumphal entry. Matthew opens his entire Gospel by declaring Jesus to be “the son of David, the son of Abraham”…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3045 We use the word ‘Christ’ so frequently that it can almost seem like Jesus’ surname. But ‘Christ’ is not a name – it is a title, and one loaded with meaning. Understanding what ‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ actually signify helps us grasp who Jesus claimed to be and what He came to accomplish. The…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 3047 The book of Hebrews makes an extraordinary claim: Jesus, the Son of God, serves as our High Priest. This would have been a startling assertion to Jewish readers, since Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, not Levi, and the high priesthood was hereditary through Aaron’s line. How can Jesus be a High…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 3046 When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching, he made one of the most profound declarations in all of Scripture: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). This title, ‘Lamb of God,’ reaches back through centuries of sacrificial imagery and forward to the eternal worship of…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 3048 Some claim that Jesus never actually said He was God – that this was a later invention by the Church. They point out that Jesus often called Himself the “Son of Man” and referred to God as His Father, suggesting distinction rather than identity. Is this accurate? Did Jesus actually claim to be…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 3036 Few phrases in Scripture carry as much weight as “the blood of Jesus.” It appears throughout the New Testament as the foundation of our redemption, the means of our forgiveness, and the guarantee of our peace with God. Yet for many believers today, the language of blood can seem strange or even off-putting….