The Good Shepherd | Page 6

they told John how sorry they were, and John
baptized them in the River Jordan. John told the people that he could
only baptize their bodies with water, but that some one else was
coming who would be able to baptize their hearts with the Holy Spirit.
This was Jesus.
[Illustration: Jericho, from plains above.]
After John had baptized a great many persons, he saw coming to him,

one day, for baptism, a Man about thirty years old; and when John
looked at Him, he saw that He was quite different from all the people
who had been to him before. It was Jesus who had come to be baptized
before He began His work. He wanted to obey God in everything; and
He wanted to show that He was the Brother and Friend of all the people
whom John had been baptizing. And so, as Jesus wished it, John went
into the River Jordan with Him and baptized Him.
When Jesus had been baptized, and was full of the Holy Spirit, He went
away into a wilderness. And there, when Jesus was tired and hungry,
Satan came to Him--just as he came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden--to tempt Him.
To tempt means to try. Mother tries you sometimes, to see whether you
can be trusted; and God tries us all sometimes. But if God tries us, it is
to make us better; and if Satan tries us, it is to make us worse.
Every time that Jesus was tempted, He said, 'It is written,' and then He
told Satan something 'which was written in the Bible. That is the very
best way to fight Satan. The Bible is called 'the Sword of the Spirit,'
and Satan is afraid when he sees us using that Sword. Let us ask God to
fill us, like Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, and then we shall soon learn
how to use the Sword of the Spirit, and we too shall be able to drive
Satan away when he comes to tempt us.
Only we must be sure to read the Bible, as Jesus used to do, or else we
shall never be able to drive Satan away by telling him the things that
God has written there.
CHAPTER V
JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK
One day, when the fight of Jesus with the devil in the wilderness was
over, He came to Bethabara, where John was baptizing, and when John
saw Jesus coming towards him, he said:
'BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE

SIN OF THE WORLD.'
The next day John saw Jesus again, and again he said the same words:
'BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!'
John called Jesus the Lamb of God, because He had come to die for our
sins.
Two men were standing close to John when Jesus came by, and they
heard what he said. The name of one of these men was Andrew, and of
the other John. Jesus knew that they would like to speak to Him, so He
turned round and asked them what they wanted. 'Master,' they said,
'where dwellest Thou?' (that means 'where are you living?') Jesus said,
'Come, and you shall see.' And He took the two disciples to His home,
and He let them stay with Him the whole of the day. What a happy day
that must have been!
Andrew had a brother called Simon, and he went and found him, and
told him that he had found the Messiah, and brought him to see his new
Master. So now Jesus had three disciples--John, Andrew, and Simon;
and next day He took them away with Him to Galilee. While they were
going along, Jesus saw a man called Philip, who came from the place
where Simon and Andrew lived when they were at home. Jesus told
Philip to come with Him, and he came. But Philip went to a friend of
his, a very good man called Nathanael, also called Bartholomew, and
he told him that he had found Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, and
begged him to come and see Him.
How many disciples had Jesus now? Let us see. John, Andrew, Simon,
Philip, and Nathanael--five. And very likely John had brought his
brother James to Jesus. If so, that would make six.
Directly Jesus came into Galilee He was invited to a wedding, at a
place called Cana, and all of His disciples with Him. Jesus went to the
wedding because He likes to see people happy, and loves to make them
happy. In America, people often drink more wine at weddings and at
other times than is good for them, and a great many people go without

any wine at all, so as to set a good example. But in the East it is
different.