Gathering the Group
- It's straight to business for Jesus. First up, a short 40 days and nights spent in the wilderness fasting.
- While he's there, Jesus gets tempted by the devil himself. Satan offers Jesus bread and power and tries to get him to test the power of God. But Jesus basically tells him that no means no.
- Jesus learns that John has been arrested (wait, what?) and makes his way to Capernaum to start his ministry. This, of course, fulfills a prophecy, courtesy of Isaiah.
- And the first thing that Jesus starts preaching about? "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (4:17). John and Jesus are quite the tag-team.
- Knowing that he can't go at this alone (and hey, the more the merrier), Jesus begins to gather his disciples. The first recruits are Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Not the Baptist.
- From there, Jesus and friends go throughout Galilee teaching in synagogues, curing all sorts of illness, and becoming all sorts of famous.