August 12 – The Beginning of Jesus’ Ministry – Mark 1
Jesus’ earthly ministry began when He was approximately 30 years of age. It began when He was baptized by John the Baptist. Immediately after He was baptized, the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by satan himself. When Jesus comes into Galilee from the wilderness, He finds John the Baptist in prison; however, this does not stop
Jesus from preaching the gospel right away. He then begins to recruit His disciples to join Him. His next step was to go to the synagogue to begin teaching and reaching the religious leaders of the day. It was only after these steps that the chapter relays His first miracle. The first miracle mentioned in this chapter was directly focused on satan and his demons when Jesus cast the unclean spirit or demon out of the man. It is interesting to note that the man with the unclean spirit was found in a religious atmosphere. Jesus’ second miracle benefitted one of his own disciples personally when he healed the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law. After Jesus performed this last miracle, many people were brought to Him to experience a miracle personally. Also important to note that these people that came to Him has selfish motivations of wanting something physical from Jesus, but Jesus did not turn them away. He took the opportunity to minister to their physical needs so that He could minister to their spiritual needs. Jesus’ earthly physical ministry had officially begun. Word history would be altered forever.
