John Bevere - The Beginning of the Gospel
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And this particular fast, I said, «Lord, what book do You want me to read?» I heard so clearly in my spirit, «Read the Gospel of Mark.» So I went over to Mark chapter 1, I read it, and the Holy Spirit stopped me, arrested me, and said, «You didn’t get what I’m saying. Go back and read it again.» I went back and read the whole chapter 1 again. The Holy Spirit said, «You didn’t get it. Read it again.» I went back to 1 and read the whole chapter again. The Holy Spirit said, «You didn’t get it. Read it again.» Now my attention is captured; I’ve read this, and this takes a while for me to read, you know, chapter 1 three or four times. Finally, I went back and said, «Okay, God, help me to see what You’re trying to show me.»
I went back and read verse 1, and look what I saw: «The beginning.» Everybody shout, «The beginning!» The beginning! Shouted, «The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.» The words «the beginning» jumped off the page and hit me right between the eyes, and I went, «Oh my goodness!» Because what’s next is, «As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.» John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching—here’s his message—preaching a baptism of repentance.
Now, baptism means full immersion; he preached complete repentance, not partial. Then all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit said, «Did you notice that John the Baptist is at the beginning of all four Gospels?» You know, like some Gospels have some stories and others don’t, right? Like you’ll find the Prodigal Son in Luke, but you won’t find it anywhere else, right? And then you’ll find some Gospels that have some stories, but this account of John is at the beginning of all four Gospels. Then the Lord said, «Now go read what Jesus said.»
So I started going through my concordance and all the times Jesus talked about John, and look what I found. This is Matthew 11:13. Everybody look up at that scripture. Now I wish I would have done this, but these words are red. Everybody say «red,» which means what? Jesus spoke these words, correct? Look what Jesus said: «For all the law, excuse me, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.» And the Holy Spirit said, «Do you notice that Jesus didn’t say all the law and the prophets prophesied until Me? Why? Because John is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His message is the beginning. Look at Hebrews 6; the first foundational is repentance from dead works.