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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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John 4:1
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This is around December AD 27, and John had now been imprisoned by Herod. Matthew and Mark make the trigger for leaving Galilee the Lord’s hearing that John had been imprisoned, but John adds a second trigger – the fact that the Pharisees had heard about the greater number of disciples coming to Jesus and being baptized. The Pharisees have a deepening concern about the popularity of the Lord Jesus’ ministry and this is in danger of causing them to move too early to arrest him, contrary to the divine timetable.How did he know about this? Maybe he was told, but certainly he knew all things, and he knew what he would do when he was arrested and who would betray him. He could have exercised his power as he did on a number of occasions to prevent this, but it would have caused disturbance and he wanted to teach unmolested, so when he heard this he left Judea and went to Galilee where much of his ministry was to be conducted.
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[The fact that Jesus did not personally baptize with water was in agreement with John’s statement: ‘I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost’ (Mark 1:8) that Christ did not himself baptise with water. Although he was born under the law and submitted to the types and shadows of the law, he came into the world to minister realities and not shadows and symbols. His baptism was to be a baptism that brings new life to the soul and a sense of sins forgiven, that actually unites individuals with himself by the Spirit. It was not fitting therefore that he should like John or even like his own disciples administer a baptism what was only a sign of the real change within the heart.]
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