Word Alive: How to Study Your Bible (Week 4)

THE WORD ALIVE | Week 4: "This Is My Beloved Son" | Matthew 3:10-17

Why was Jesus baptized if He had no sin to repent of?

In Week 4 of The Word Alive, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Matthew and discover one of the most powerful moments in Jesus' life and ministry—the day He stepped into the Jordan River and the Father declared:
"This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

Together we'll explore:

✅ Why Jesus insisted on being baptized
✅ What it means to "fulfill all righteousness"
✅ The incredible Isaiah 53 connection
✅ The Trinity revealed at Jesus' baptism
✅ Why the Holy Spirit descended like a dove
✅ The Old Testament prophecies hidden in the Father's words
✅ Why God's affirmation came before Jesus performed a single miracle

You'll also learn practical Bible study skills using BibleHub.com as I demonstrate how to:

📖 Follow cross-references from the New Testament into the Old Testament
📖 Compare Gospel accounts side-by-side
📖 Use study tools that bring Scripture to life

DOWNLOAD YOUR HANDOUT HERE: https://higherpursuitministries.com/w...

Whether you're new to studying the Bible or have been reading it for years, my prayer is that you'll leave with a deeper understanding of God's Word and a greater confidence in studying it for yourself.

📌 Resources: www.biblehub.com
🌐 Website: higherpursuitministries.com
✍️ Substack: cecilylachapelle.substack.com
🎙️ Podcast: The Higher Pursuit Podcast

If this teaching encourages you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who wants to grow deeper in God's Word.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And so learning how to study the word and being literate in the word of God is something that is important to me, and it's important for me to help you become literate in your Bible. A lot of people can, you know, open their phone and they can scroll through a devotion. They can read something that somebody else dug for and regurgitated for them, but they don't know how to find those nuggets for themselves. They don't know how to hear God's word and God speaking to them in the word for themselves. And that's something that I would love to play a very small part in globally, in fixing. For more content, check out our ministry website at HigherPursuit Ministries.com. You can also find me on YouTube at Cecily LaChapelle with Higher Pursuit Ministries. Okay, now let's dive into the podcast. Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Higher Pursuit live stream and podcast if you're listening to the audio version. If you're new here, I'm Cecily LaChapelle and I'm your host. And I'm super excited that you chosen to join us. I guarantee you, if you stick around, it will be worth your while. And for those of you who have been with us on this journey, I know that I've been hearing from so many of you that you are getting so much out of this study, this series that we're in, we are, which is part of the Higher Pursuit live stream, but the series that is that we're doing right now is called The Word Alive, How to Study Your Bible. Why am I doing this series? Well, my core value always has been, always will be till the day I die, is that we walk on two very important legs as Christians. First of all, our knowledge and understanding of God's word. And second of all, our ability to hear his voice. And so learning how to study the word and being literate in the word of God is something that is important to me. And it's important for me to help you become literate in your Bible. A lot of people can, you know, open their phone and they can scroll through a devotion, they can read something that somebody else dug for and regurgitated for them, but they don't know how to find those nuggets for themselves. They don't know how to hear God's word and God speaking to them in the word for themselves. And that's something that I would love to play a very small part in globally in fixing. So that's what we are doing in this series, Word Alive. All right. So let me just share with you guys a little bit about my story, how how I got into putting the Word Alive class together. I would say, like a year into it. Oh, hey, Linda, good to see you. Linda Nardella is in the house. Awesome, our stellar student. She always has all the answers. Uh, I love that. All right. So tell me in the chat, by the way, tell me where you're viewing from. Let me know that you're here. Put a wave, emoji, something. Just let me know that I'm not just talking into a camera, that I'm not here alone. And uh it just makes it so much more enjoyable for me to know who is on this journey with me. Okay, so um, back to my story. Uh about a year into stepping out of my corporate job into what I call ministry preneurship. All right, we got Mandy Gorman. Nice, John LaCapelle. So good to see you guys. I'm so glad you're here. Whitney is here. Fantastic. Hey, Wit. Nice to see you. So, um, about a year into ministry preneurship, I was overwhelmed. I was drowning. I had piled so much on my own plate. I was looking around on social media and seeing all these people that were doing what I felt God had called me to do. And they were doing it with such excellence, such finesse. They had these enormous platforms, and I was just on YouTube tutorials. How do I start this? How do I do that? How do I launch a book? How do I write a book? How do I start a podcast? All the things. And I was suffocating. And one day, as I was reading the Gospel of Mark, actually, it dawned on me that Jesus had the weight of the world literally on his shoulders, right? And yet he was never stressed, he was never overwhelmed, he was never overburdened. I'm sure he felt physically tired. I'm sure he felt physically hungry. We know that he felt, you know, emotions, but he was always in control. He was always walking at his pace in his lane. I mean, think about it. When Jesus was on the earth, there were millions of people that he never met, he never talked to, people that he knew he was gonna die for. And people he didn't heal. A lot of people died, he didn't raise them from the dead. But that didn't, he, that didn't keep him up at night. He knew that he had a calling, he had his lane, and as long as he heard the voice of the father and followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to do just those things he was called to do, then he won. He won the day. And so I looked at that and I went, you know what? There's something for me here. This is a new way for me to study the gospels. I need to mark the movement of Jesus. I'm gonna write that down because this has become a phrase that I now have taken into my study of the gospels. It's marking movement, and we're gonna talk about that. Sorry, I'm trying to write large here. Marking movement. I wanted to see why Jesus move from one place to another? Why does he get up from this place and go to another place? Did he hear a voice from heaven? Did something happen? Did he was he moved along by the spirit? Like can we see that he's moved by the spirit, or does sometimes does he just move and do something or react or respond because people just were there? And then what does he do in those situations? How does he handle certain people? How does he handle attacks? How does he handle betrayal? How does he handle being tired? And um, how does he handle staying close to the Father? So I wanted to mark the movement of Jesus, and that's what brought me into the study of the gospels that way. And then I decided I would go into to study the book of Matthew, because that one was written to the Jews and would require me to study even harder because there were so many things in that gospel that I had just read over and never forced myself to really understand and comprehend. So that's how a word alive came to be, because I thought, you know what? If I'm going on this journey, I bet there are some people that want to go on this journey with me. And I don't have all the answers. We can find the answers together, we can dive in together. And so I did this class last spring, summer, and fall, into a little into the little little bit of the winter at our church. And a friend of mine named Megan helped and she assisted me as well. And so then I decided we're gonna take this online and see what is see how many people want to join online. Oh, Pat Hodgkin is here. That's awesome. Okay, so that's the backstory to how Word Alive came to be. And that's what I'm hoping you will do, that you will mark the movement of Jesus, that you will see what he's doing, how he responds to people, how people respond to him, and take personal lessons for yourself from the things that you learn. So tonight we are, we are gonna be wrapping up Matthew chapter three, if I can fly like an eagle and get through this super fast. So um, you guys have been telling me that you're here. Tell me where you're watching from. And meanwhile, I would like you to turn in your Bibles, if you have your Bibles, to Matthew chapter three. And we're gonna be starting in verse 10 and we're going through to the end, verse 17. And so in verse 10, if we if you remember where we left off last time, John the Baptist was speaking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees that had come out to watch him baptize people in the wilderness on the east of the Jordan. And last week we talked about who were the Pharisees, who were the Sadducees, who were the Essenes, all of that. So you can go back to your notes, you can go back to your handout and last week's video if you have any questions there. But these people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, are still standing there. As John says this, he says, even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now, we might read this and be like, okay, so the axe is laid at the root of the trees. I get it. You know, if it's not a good tree, you're gonna whack it down. It doesn't seem like there's anything deeper there, does it? At first blink, but there is, because the Sadducees love the book of Isaiah, and they would know the references that John is making here. So if you have your Bible, turn to Isaiah chapter 10, verse 34. And while you're turning there, I'm gonna read it to you. It says, He, meaning God, will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one. So, what you I'm gonna give you the whole backstory on that. God is prophesying the fall of Assyria in this, saying that his people have been taken captive by Assyria. But don't worry, Israel, I, your redeemer, am going to put judgment on Assyria. And they might look like a mighty oak right now, but no oak can stand against my axe. And when I cut them down, they're going to fall hard. And that's what he's prophesying there. And so what is John doing? He's he's flipping that prophecy right over onto the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He's saying, You guys are now this mighty standing oak. You feel like you can never be toppled. But guess what? When God gets out his axe, oh, how the mighty are going to fall. And that would have absolutely triggered them. They would have put all that together because originally that judgment was meant for Assyria, but now that judgment is hovering over the head of all of Israel that will not submit to Jesus Christ. Matthew's Jewish audience totally would have gotten that. All right. And so now I want you to turn to Isaiah 11, 1, because if you know, these um the scriptures were not written with chapter and verse. Chapter and verse, these markers were put in later, thousands of years later, so that we could find our way through the Bible and have reference points. But this was all one big long scroll that was all rolled up that they would read. So um Isaiah 11, 1 comes right after the scripture we just read. And it says, and then shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Let me pull up my uh there we go.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Let me pull this up for you. Because that way you can actually see the scripture.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

All right. Oh, I guess I didn't put that up for you. So right here in this scripture it says, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, a branch from whose roots shall bear fruit. Okay, a shoot from the stump of Jesse. Put in the chat who Jesse is. I want to see who knows who Jesse is that is being referred to in this scripture by Isaiah. Tell me now if you know Jesse is the father of somebody very famous, also a king. Anybody Bueller, John's father, not John's father, that was different. Good good guess though. But David, King David's father was Jesse. And so what Isaiah is prophesying is that out of the stump of Jesse, yes, David, very good. King David's father, yes, absolutely. Liz Hutch, yes, King David. That's right. So the stump of Jesse, so it's already talking about the fact that their Israel is a tree that's been cut down, but then out of that stump, there's going to grow a shoot from the kingly line of David. Y'all, do you remember that genealogy that we read at the very beginning of this study? And how Matthew made the point of saying that Jesus came from the kingly line. Well, here is John the Baptist saying, guys, judgment is coming, but don't you worry, God has sent a redeemer. And where judgment has to cut down the proud, out of that stump will rise a redeemer from the kingly line of David. You know that Matthew, we've talked about this throughout the study. Matthew is trying to show the Jews to whom he is writing that Jesus is their not their Messiah. He is the king of a new kingdom and of a new covenant. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees would totally have been able to put all these things together. I absolutely, I just absolutely love that. Jesus is the shoot that's going to come up from the stump of Jesse. Judgment is not the end of the story. A new king is coming, a new kingdom is coming, and Jesus is going to rise from the wreckage of sin and death and judgment. And speaking of rising, we're going to get to his baptism in a minute. And I hope I remember to come back to this because there's a part where it talks about immediately Jesus came out of the water. And hopefully I remember to come back to that because that is going to be so important. Okay, so now marking movement. We are going to we are moving now on to verse 13. Tell me what if what you have in your Bible as the very first word of verse 13. Tell me what you have as your very first word of verse 13. I have the ESV Bible, so I'm not sure if everybody's Bible starts with the same word that I have, but I'd love to know what your first word is. I'm looking in the chat. Let's see. Then Lyndon Ardella says, then. Yes, that's what I have. Then yes, that's what I have. Okay. So when we see that, wipe it this way. So we're marking movement. And verse 13 says, then. In my Bible, I have a red box around that. I put a red box around every time a scene changes, movement happens. Jesus goes from one place to another, or something new is happening. It clues me in that now I need to find out that my five W's, remember the five W's, who, what, when, where, and why. Whitney says hers is Niv and she has the C. I think we all had that word then. So it's telling us then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. So Jesus, I'm gonna see if I can pull up if I still have it up.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

I'm not sure if I still have it. Uh nope, I guess I don't.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Um I must have closed the tab. That's unfortunate. If you remember the um Israel in the time of Jesus map that I gave you guys last week in your resources, if Israel looks like this, the where John the Baptist was baptizing was like down here, and Galilee is up here, Nazareth is right around here. So, and Samaria is here. So Jews would walk around Samaria. We know at one point Jesus didn't, but we don't know about that for this time. So he would have walked this way and down about 30 miles, 30 miles on foot to be baptized. Very interesting. So let's start with our in our five W's. Who are we talking about in this story? Who is in this story of Jesus and John the Baptist and Jesus baptism? We have Jesus and John. Then the what? What is happening in this story? What is going on? Well, if you have a little heading, it probably tells you. Oh, please move to the other side of your board. Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Um to the other side. I'm not sure. Can you can you see this? The screen share is blocking the board.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Oh. Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. I actually see it on my phone. It looks absolutely mirror image different on my laptop than it does on your phone. Okay, that's very interesting. So I'll I will switch that and start writing on this side. Gotcha. Okay. So the who is Jesus and John, the what is the baptism. And then we have the when. Well, when is when Jesus came down from Galilee to meet John at the um at the uh river Jordan. Beyond the it's the um, sorry, the Gospel of John actually says that the place is called Bethabra and it was on the east side of the Jordan, which is very interesting because the east side of the Jordan is where the Gentiles were, the west side of the Jordan is Israel. So it's very interesting that John the Baptist was baptizing on the east side of the Jordan. And there are many Bible scholars who say that it is also very interesting that God the Father directed Jesus to go be baptized on the east side of the Jordan as if the Lord was signaling, don't worry, Gentiles, I'm coming to stand in your place as well. When I go down in baptism, I stand as you as well as the Jews. It's very, very cool. So the where is the Jordan River. We just talked about that, and the why. Jesus says why he has to come and be baptized by John. Can any of you find that why in the scripture? Liz Hutchinson, whoa. I know it's so good, isn't it? Isn't the Bible so awesome? I just love studying the Word of God, it's so incredible. So as you read through this really quickly, In your Bibles, John doesn't want to baptize Jesus because he knows who he is and he knows he's not a sinner and he knows that he doesn't have anything to repent of. But Jesus says the why for the baptism. Can you put that in the chat when you find what why Jesus says he has to be baptized? Let's see what you what you guys find. I'll give it a give it a minute or so because this becomes the key to understanding the entire passage. All right. Well, I'm gonna just jump in and say it. Jesus said to fulfill all righteousness. What does that mean? You know, because John objects, I need to be baptized by you. That's what he's saying. Oh, look at huh? There's the map, you guys. That's why I closed the tab. I put the map there. Yay, Linda said to fulfill all righteousness. That's awesome. So there, there's the map. I'll let you look at it for a second. It'll show, in fact, I'll I'll make it bigger. Hang on one second. There we go. So now you can see up here is Nazareth. I'm not sure if you can see my cursor, but up here is Nazareth in Galilee. And he came down to here, to Bethany or Bethabra, east of the Jordan. That was the 30 miles that Jesus walked. Okay. Awesome, guys. Good answers to fulfill all righteousness. That's right. That's why he did it. So Jesus was not baptized not because he was sinful, but because he identified with the people that he came to die on behalf of you and me. So his first public act is one of humility. It's so beautiful. That's why Jesus came. So he's identifying with the people that he came to save before he worked a single miracle, before he healed anybody, before he preached a single sermon. His very first act of ministry was to identify with you, to stand in your place, to stand in my place. Jesus steps into the water beside sinners. So his first public act is one of humility. And he's standing there just like all the others to be baptized by John. It's absolutely beautiful. So beautiful and so intense. So I want you to know that Isaiah, the one of the Jews' favorite prophets, so foresaw this connection. In Isaiah 53, you have your Bibles, turn with me to Isaiah 53.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Let me put our slide forward.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

And I'll make it bigger for you. Okay, so Isaiah 53, 5 and Isaiah 53, 12. It tells us that he was pierced for our transgressions. That's in Isaiah 53, 3. And then he also said that he would, he was numbered with the transgressors. That's 53.12. So Jesus is publicly embracing his mission. He came to do so many things, but he came to reveal the Father. He came to serve humanity, to die for our sins, and to reign forever as king. And right here in Isaiah 53, we see prophesied what Jesus is doing in this baptism. He is identifying with us, knowing that he will be pierced for our transgressions. All right. So another critical night um item that we need to notice at the baptism is the appearance of the Trinity. The Trinity is never mentioned in Scripture, but it is the Trinity are very present, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but you see it almost nowhere more clearly than you see it here, because you see the Son standing there to fulfill all righteousness. And then when he is baptized and he comes up out of the water, immediately the Spirit descends on him like a dove. And then the voice of the Father speaks audibly from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is Jesus' ordination moment. This is where he is ordained for lack of a better word into his ministry as your representative, as your rabbi, as my rabbi, the one who would stand in our place, who would pay our debt, who would be crushed for our sins, who would be laid in a tomb and experience hell, but be raised to life. And when when he went down into that water, that represented his death. And when he came up out of that water, when it says immediately the spirit came upon him and the father affirmed him, y'all, that is your new birth pictured right there. Because it tells us in Romans, in in Hebrews, that we died with Jesus in, we were baptized into his death, and then we were raised to the newness of life. So literally, his baptism is a picture of what happened to you at the new birth. You went down, you were actually a sinner, where he was not, and your sins were left there. And when you rose, immediately the Holy Spirit could now come and dwell in you and be upon you. And now the Father could affirm you and say, This is my beloved daughter, my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. You guys, this all happened before Jesus did one single act of ministry. And God affirmed you the moment you were born again. And he didn't rescind his affirmation. You are still as affirmed and loved and beloved and cherished. He is just as well pleased with you on your worst day as he was the first day, the first moment you were born again. We get all caught up in the weeds thinking that our behavior now makes God happy that he purchased us as his children, or maybe he's not so happy about it. Maybe he's regretting sending Jesus to the cross for us because we're a hot mess. No, not at all. We are already affirmed. Yes, he's hoping we'll follow him because that's what's best for us. Yes, he's hoping that we will follow him because then we get to participate in the expansion of the kingdom and we get to live the life that is the most fully satisfying and rewarding for us. But his pleasure in us is not hanging in the balance. I hope that's clear. And I hope you can see that. And I hope you can see your new birth experience in the baptism of Jesus. So great. Okay. So why does Matthew say that the Holy Spirit came down like a dove? So many people get have painted pictures of like an actual dove, you know, coming and sitting on Jesus or whatever. But it says like a dove in the way that a dove would come. But the Jewish audience to whom Matthew is writing would immediately have made two very important connections where a dove is mentioned. Put in the chat if you can think of any Old Testament references to a dove. I'm gonna give you a minute to put that in the chat. Tell me where, you know, think back. Where have I heard this before? Where has a dove appeared before? Let me know what you think. Where have you seen a dove mentioned? Let's see what's coming up in the chat. Anybody yet? Because the father's declaration over Jesus combines two messianic messages that are referenced in a dove. I'm gonna just jump ahead and let you know what those two things are. The first one is yes, Noah let the dove go. Yes, so that was the second one. But let's start there since you said that. When Noah, um, when the the earth dried and Noah let the dove go, when the dove did not return to him, he knew that it was time for he and his family to leave the ark. And that dove represented, actually, the dove came back with an olive branch. He knew that the earth was now sprouting. And so the dove represented the new covenant, the new creation. And then again, yes, Whitney, Genesis. Yeah, girl, come on, come on. Very good. In Genesis, the Holy Spirit is hovering over the waters. And so now, here, yes, um, to the ark, yes. Oh, John said when God sacrificed a dove with Abraham. I don't know about that one. I was thinking about Genesis, and I was also thinking about Noah and the Ark, because both of those references are talking about new creation. Talk, I mean, if you think about it, the dove was hovering over the chaos of the waters. Everything was without form and void. It was a soupy mess, and the the Holy Spirit was executing the will and the word of the Father, bringing order, bringing the new creation into being. Same thing with Noah. So the dove reference is God is bringing through Jesus a new creation, a new covenant, a new kingdom. And there is the dove bringing it all about through Jesus. So cool. All right. So now I want us to look up two other scriptures. Let me see. Yes, right here. Psalm 2.7 and Isaiah 42.1. You'll see the scriptures there, but you can just mark them in your Bible. Because when God the Father says, This is my beloved son, again, the Jews are going to be making references in their mind back to things, scriptures they know well, that we don't make those connections. We don't make them without a commentary helping us, or without a study Bible helping us, or without cross-references helping us. And we're going to get to that. I'm going to show you how to find cross references. You excited? Because I'm going to show you how to find these things that I'm showing you right now. But so in uh Psalm 2.7, God says, over the Messiah, you are my son. And then in Isaiah 42, 1, God says, My chosen one in whom I delight. So those two things, my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased, it's those two scriptures put together. So God identifies Jesus as the promised king and the suffering servant and his beloved son that he delights in. Matthew's Jewish audience would have put those two things together right away. You know, you've got to think about things that we put together right away. If I said jingle bells and ho, ho, ho, we all think Santa Claus, right? So somebody else from a a hundred years ago or maybe 200 years ago or somewhere in the future, if they're not celebrating Santa, maybe a thousand years from now, something like that. If they saw a letter where I said to my daughter, you know, I um I hope you're hanging your jinkrel bells and ho ho ho or something, um, they they wouldn't put it together. But we do because we know what that's referring to. So that's why we've got to study our Bible with the tools so we can get into the mind, the head, the culture, the background of the audience that is hearing this, so we can understand the nuance of what they would get. Because I tell you what, guys, these words slapped people right across the face. It just was just like they couldn't believe what was happening. Because essentially the Messiah that they have been waiting for for thousands of years has now shown up, and God is announcing him at every turn, using their scriptures that they've grown up knowing and pulling out all of these references, saying, I fulfilled this, I fulfilled this, this is me. Do you get it? See this over here. And but yet their brain is going, does not compute, does not compute, does not compute. Has that ever happened to you where God has been speaking to you, but you can't get out of your own way of framing things out? And so you're like, nah, that's crazy. That's not God. That's not, I don't know, that wouldn't be God. And God is going, look, I am trying everything I can to get this through to you. I know you don't get it. It doesn't make sense. Lean not on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge me and I'll direct your paths. I promise. That's that's what God is doing to these people. He's trying to announce his son so that they will receive him. But many of them were just too locked into their paradigm that they they couldn't get it, even though it was clear. So when the father speaks these words, the father's affirmation over Jesus comes before he's done anything publicly. So reflection questions for you. When do you feel the most approved? Is your worth tied to what you do or who you are? And why do you struggle to believe that God loves you before you feel like you've earned it? Those are some questions for us to consider tonight and over the next week. All right, so before we head out of this live stream, I want to show you guys where you're going to find some of these cross-reference things. I told you that Bible Hub is the tool that I really like. And so I'm going to screen share and I'm going to show you some things that you can do in Bible Hub to find some of these, um, some of the things I'm talking about. Okay. So let's see. Right over here. If you can see in this upper left-hand corner, tell me if you can see my screen.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Is it sharing with you guys? Tell me in the chat if you can see the screen. Okay. I'm just waiting to see if you guys can see it.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Okay, yes, great. So in this upper left-hand corner, where you see the Bible Hub logo and the words Bible Hub. If you click on that, just click right there, it's going to bring you to this page right here where it's say Bible Hub, login, subscribe, all of that. We're going to scroll down, down, down, down. Oh, there we go. Bible study tools. And there's amazing Bible study tools in here. For instance, there's the Atlas that we talked about, then commentary. Commentary is awesome. Um, Concordance. You've even got devotions. You have an interlinear Bible, you've got your Greek and Hebrew, got a Bible dictionary. Um, oh my gosh, even measures. It's crazy. But this is what I want you to see right here. This is parallel gospels. So it says P-A-R Gospels. I'm going to click on that. Close. And here are parallel gospels right here. So you are going to see every single story, parable, account from all of the gospels listed here. And when you click on the one you want, it's going to show you where it appears. So I'm going to go down to the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. That's number 23. Here we go. And look, here is that account of Jesus' baptism side by side. So we can see it's talked about in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And you can see who wrote the most about it. Matthew wrote the most. So that means he included things that Mark and Luke didn't include. So I would love it if you guys could try to quickly read this because I want to ask you a question about it. I want you to tell me, since all three of them wrote about it, they all include one thing. All three include one very important detail. And it comes at the end. I'm going to give you that hint. What do they all include? Because they all have different things, have different things to say. It was funny, as I was reading this, I had to chuckle because I thought, Matthew, if we if this is like the world of text, that's the way I text. Luke, that's the way my husband texts. I can write him a book and give him every detail of everything that I think is so important. And he will send a text back going, yep, sounds good. And that's actually a lot of words for him. Generally, he might just give a thumbs up or something. So you can see right here that Matthew has a lot more to say about this, and for a very good reason. But put in the chat what is the one detail, and it comes at the end of all three accounts that they all include. And I'm going to wait and see if anybody has the chance to put that in the chat. Because it's very important. They all want their audience to see Jesus. Yes, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. John goes, hey, that's so funny. Yes, a voice came, the son in whom I am well pleased. Exactly. They all include that detail. So, guys, if you were to do this, if you were to go into Bible Hub and do a parallel gospel comparison, you would see it would open your eyes so much when you realize that the gospel writers, each, because of the audience they were writing to and their own background, decided that they needed to include certain things and not include other things. Matthew put in that whole conversation between Jesus and John. I would have included that, but and he included it, but Mark and Luke didn't think that that conversation was important. But what they all include is God's affirmation of Jesus as his son. So that is so important. Okay, so then let's see, what else did I want to show you? Um, that's the parallel gospel. Oh, I want also wanted to show you cross references. So we're gonna go back. I'm clicking back now and if you see up here right here in this line where you can choose your book I'm gonna choose Matthew and then I'm going to choose Matthew three what did I want to do uh Matthew three seventeen so I'm scrolling down to Matthew three seventeen and now I want to go all right so under Matthew 317 right here in the center of the window underneath it you're gonna see audio if you click on that you get audio bible then it says cross that's for cross references then study that's so great y'all that you can scroll down you can get all these study notes it'll tell you to um tell you what meanings of words are who people are all of that then you've got your commentary and then the whole thing in Greek every single thing you need for amazing Bible study is right there. I kid you not we're gonna go to cross references so I'm clicking cross references and the cross references are over on the right hand column right here and so I'm gonna scroll down because I want us to look at Psalm 27 right here in the middle it says I will proclaim the decree spoken to me by the Lord you are my son today I have become your father you guys that is where God remember we just talked about that cross reference of that combination of Psalm 27 and Isaiah 421 and you're probably wondering Cecil you're so smart I can't believe you know so much about the Bible how did you even know that was there I use cross references. I'm not that smart. I have to study but I'm using these tools so that I can say where are the cross references for this why would there be Old Testament cross references in here? Oh probably because God said something about this thousands of years before Jesus even showed up on the scene and so then if you scroll down from Psalm 27 that cross reference for Isaiah I wonder if I passed it I probably did it's probably up at the top there it is Isaiah 421 it's right there. And that's the combination of those two scriptures that becomes this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. So good. All right guys well we're gonna wrap it up here I do want to let you know that your challenge for this week should you choose to accept it let me just stop sharing here remove that. Okay your challenge for this week should you choose to accept it is to practice with the cross references you just pick a verse and find it in in uh Bible hub and then look right underneath where it says audio cross for cross references click on that and just have fun like get into Bible hub and just start scrolling and see what you find. Look at all the Bible study tools look at the commentaries I love reading the commentaries I really do. And then also check out the parallel gospel viewer. So remember to get there you're gonna click on the Bible hub logo and then you're gonna scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll till you see all of those icons underneath the tab that says Bible study tools and then you're gonna look for PAR par gospels and just start reading with the parallel gospels and comparing it's so easy and it keeps you from having a flip in your Bible and trying to find where it is in Mark or Luke or John. Okay and then for homework it'll be on your handout if you downloaded your handout study the Jordan River. You guys this is so incredible there's a reason why God had Jesus be baptized in the Jordan River where he was baptized it's a thing called cosmic geography. There are places on this earth for whatever reason that are either angelically or demonically charged. They're either charged by heaven or charged by hell. And the Jordan River is a place that has been heaven's geography for a long time. And so study the Jordan River and when you think about the fact that Jesus was baptized there let your mind go off into some prophetic implications of wow, what does Jesus fulfill by being baptized in the place where these certain things happen? It's super cool guys. All right well as always I'm just gonna ask you to like comment subscribe and share please share this on your social media just you get more people joining us it would be so great to have more and more people joining us in this live stream. If you find value if this has helped you in any way if you can make a comment that's also phenomenal YouTube really likes it when people make comments after the live stream in the little comment box, not our chat. And you can also follow me on Substack at CecilyLochelle dot substack.com I'm doing a lot of writing there posting articles and notes and there's just a lot of really cool people really great Christian people who are posting amazing things on family and finances and leadership and all kinds of stuff. It's just a great platform I think you would really just enjoy being there. I know I'm loving it. I'm like Instagram schminstagram tick tock flick talk I don't care like this is the place I want to spend time. And um and also you can check out my website which is higherpursuitministries dot com. Let's just close in prayer. Heavenly Father I thank you so much for sending Jesus I thank you Lord for the fact that Jesus stood in our place he did not have to repent for his sins he had nothing that he needed to be baptized about but he stood as us. And when he went down under the water in baptism we went down with him when he went down into the baptism of death we went down with him and when he was raised to up from the waters of baptism and the Holy Spirit descended and your voice of affirmation was heard this is the symbol of our new birth and we are so grateful Lord we are so grateful to be called your children. We are so grateful to be affirmed by you Lord we don't always win in life we make lots of mistakes and we sin a lot but that affirmation never goes away and it never wavers and we're so grateful we give you all the thanks and all the praise we are in love with you and we are devoted to you Jesus and we just want to be better disciples to see you more clearly to love you more dearly to follow you more nearly Jesus so we thank you for the study of the word help us to see you in it in Jesus' name amen well guys I love you and I hope you have a wonderful week I'll see you next time hey family I pray that you were blessed and encouraged by that episode and that you took away something you can use in your walk with the Lord starting today Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So I thank you for making me a part of your pursuit until next time abide in him