What you were about to see and hear is the gospel.
The real gospel... not some watered down counterfeit.
This is the gospel of Yeshua, the Messiah, the Son of Yahweh.
The Old Testament ended with Malachi promising that God (Yahweh)
would send a special Messenger to prepare us for the Messiah.
Isaiah, too, predicted that there would be a voice crying in the wilderness
to prepare people for the coming of the Lord.
That voice would be telling people to clear the path for Yahweh's promised one.
John the Baptist was that voice
out in the wilderness of Judea, where he called on people to change.
John would cover them with water as a symbol of forgiveness.
But only if he felt that they were sincere about wanting to change.
People from Jerusalem and other small towns all over Judea came to him
admitting their sins and asking to be baptized in water as a symbol of their desire to change.
And John... you should have seen him. He wore camel hair for clothes and had a leather loin cloth.
He literally ate bugs covered with wild honey to make them taste better.
Listen! he's preaching now.
You see this water? It's all I have to represent Yahweh's forgiveness.
But the one I have been sent to proclaim... what he has is so much better than this.
I'm not even worthy to be his servant, helping him to remove his sandals.
This one who is coming will baptize you in a completely different way. He will do it with the actual Spirit of Yahweh.
So one day, along comes Yeshua from Nazareth
a town in the most northern part of Israel... the part which is called Galilee.
Yeshua asked John to baptize him with water.
Then, when Yeshua came up out of the water, Yahweh open John's eyes to what real baptism is all about.
John literally saw Yahweh's Spirit coming down on Yeshua from heaven, like a bird....
just settling down all over him.
Then, he heard an audible voice coming from heaven.
"You are my Son. I see nothing to forgive in you, because you have done everything I ever told you to do."
And just like that, Yahweh's Spirit led Yeshua off into a desert place all by himself.
He was there for forty days, tempted by Satan and surrounded by various dangerous animals.
But Yahweh's angelic messengers were there too, and they took care of him.
Some time later John was put in prison
and Yeshua returned to Galilee
where he started telling people that it was time for something that he called "Yahweh's Kingdom" to be revealed.
He told everyone that they needed to change, and that they needed to believe the gospel that he was preaching...
the gospel, or the good news, about this whole new world which was radically different to any other kingdom on Earth.
One day, as he walked along the beach on the shores of the sea of Galilee
Yeshua saw two brothers: Simon and Andrew, out in a boat trying to catch fish with a net.
"Hey Simon! Andrew! Come with me and I'll teach you how to catch men instead of fish."
Just like that they left their nets and the boat and followed him.
Not far from there, he saw two more brothers: James and John.
They too were in a boat, on land, with their father, Zebedee, and with some other workers, repairing nets.
"Hey, psst. James. John. Come with me!"
And just like that, they left their father all alone in the boat with his employees.
You should have seen him! No wonder Yeshua later called that pair the sons of thunder!
Together they went into town, into Capernaum.
It was a Sabbath Day, so there were people at the synagogue.
Yeshua entered the synagogue and started teaching them.
What he said amazed everyone.
It was obvious that he really knew what he was talking about... not like the religious leaders who were full of empty talk and bluff.
In the same synagogue, there was a man with a bad spirit in him.
The spirit knew who Yeshua was, and it also knew that Yeshua was going to drive him out of the man.
"No! Go away! Leave us alone! Are you going to destroy us?
"Back off, or we'll tell the people who you are! You're not just some guy from Nazareth.
"Your Yahweh's special messenger.
"Hey everyone did you know that..."
"Shut your mouth! And come out of him!"
"Arrgghhhh! No, let me go! Help, help, helahhhh..."
"Look at that!"
"The bad spirit is gone."
"How did he do it?"
"It's more than just theory for this guy.
"He was shouting nonsense earlier; now he's cool as a cucumber!
Just like that, his fame spread all over the region.
On leaving the synagogue, the five of them: Yeshua, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, went to Simon's house.
But as it turned out, Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a fever.
Simon and his wife told Yeshua about her being sick.
Yeshua took the old woman by the hand and helped her out of bed.
As he did that, the fever stopped.
Then immediately, she started doing all she could to make things comfortable for the others.
That night, after sunset, many sick people and people with bad spirits were brought to him.
The house was packed, and people could not even get through the door.
Yeshua healed many of them, and he drove out the bad spirits that were in so many of the people.
But he stopped them from saying anything, because they knew who he was.
Yeshua did not want to let the general public know just yet.
Very early the next morning, before the sun was up
Yeshua went out where he could be alone and pray.
Later, Simon and the others came and joined him.
"Lord, some people was coming 'round this morning wanting to see you. You ought to go out there and talk to them."
"No, Simon. It's time to move on. I need to preach in other towns too. Not just this one."
So Yeshua preached from synagogue to synagogue, throughout all of Galilee.
And he drove out bad spirits wherever he went.
One day, a leper came begging Yeshua to heal him.
The beggar fell on his knees in front of him.
"I know you can heal me if you want to. Please, can you help me? Please!"
Yeshua was moved with compassion for the man.
"Oh I do want to heal you. There.. you are clean now."
And instantly the leprosy left. He was healed.
"Listen this is very important. Don't tell anyone about this.
"Just go to the priest with a gift like it says in our laws and ask him to verify that you've been healed.
"But don't tell him how it happened."
Instead, the leper went out and blabbed it all over the place, so that when Yeshua could no longer walk openly in the town.
From that time on, Yeshua was forced to mostly hide out in deserted places
where people who really wanted to see him could come and find him on their own.