Publication details
LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF Jesus
Practical Insights from the Gospels
By R. Herbert
2017, 2020, 2022, 2025, Living Belief Books – an Imprint of LivingWithFaith.org & TacticalChristianity.org
Fourth edition, revised © 2025.
ISBN 978-1-64007-970-0
The text and images in this e-book are copyright. All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. In a few cases, the ESV (English Standard Version ©), CSB (Christian Standard Bible ©) and NKJV (New King James Version ©) are cited, and these translations are also gratefully acknowledged.
The capitalization or non-capitalization of the word gospel in this book follows the Society for Biblical Literature guidelines.
This book is not to be sold. It is made available without charge by the publisher and free copies can be downloaded from the website FreeChristianEBooks.org.
About the Author: The author served as an ordained minister and church pastor for a number of years and holds an earned Ph.D. degree in the languages, cultures and archaeology of the ancient Near East and biblical world. He regularly writes for a number of Christian publications and websites. His many other e-books are available for download without cost at a number of online sites. Cover: Base image © by Anna Kucherova
CONTENTS Introduction PART ONE: SONSHIP 1. Why Bethlehem? 2. The Gifts the Wise Men Gave 3. The Boy in the Temple 4. Why Was Jesus Baptized? 5. Lessons from the Wilderness 6. What the Blind Man Saw PART TWO: SERVICE 7. Humble Servant or Mighty King? 8. What Shepherds Do 9. A Sign of Service 10. What Do You See? 11. Not Just a Face in the Crowd 12. Caesar and the Servant
PART THREE: SIGNS 13. He Could Do No Miracles There 14. The Gentile Healings 15. Do You Want to Be Well? 16. Why the Healings with Mud and Spit? 17. Nothing Lost 18. The Last Miracle PART FOUR: SERMONS 19. What Jesus Said 20. Why the Sermon on the Mount? 21. Blessed Are … 22. Another Look at the Lord's Prayer 23. Did Jesus Really Mean That? 24. The High Cost of Love PART FIVE: SACRIFICE 25. A Sacrifice Foretold 26. Celebration Before the Storm 27. Thirty Pieces of Silver
28. The Crown of Thorns 29. The Psalm of the Cross 30. Three Triumphant Words About Our Books
INTRODUCTION "No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life." – Albert Einstein Einstein's words summarize well why the four gospels are the most read books of the Christian Bible – they give us the closest and most life-filled view of the Son of God that we have. As a result, no other New Testament books come close to being so well-known as the four accounts of the life of Jesus. Many Christians have read one or more of the gospels multiple times and may even have read other summaries of the life of Jesus.
So why another book – this book – on a story that everyone knows? Rather than retelling the story, this book looks at some of the things recorded in the gospels that are often overlooked or that go unseen. These are things you might not have thought about – details you may have missed or connections that may not have been clear to you in five important themes: the sonship of Jesus, his service, signs, sermons and sacrifice. This focus on details is important because sometimes even a minor fact in the narrative can provide a window for us to see things we have not seen before, enriching our understanding of the overall story.
So in the following chapters we focus on some of the details of the gospel narratives that are easy to miss, but which can help us to better understand the life and teachings of Jesus. In each case there are lessons we can learn and apply – sometimes with the potential for an effect on our lives that is well out of proportion to the seemingly small detail that conveys the lesson.
By looking at the gospel accounts a little more closely than we might have done before, we can gain insights that help us see more clearly the One the gospels are all about so that we might better follow his example. We hope this book will help you to do that.
PART ONE:
SONSHIP
The four gospels constantly show the life and work of Jesus from the perspective of sonship. We are told that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but also the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and even more generally, the Son of Man. The allusions to sonship – and the lessons we can draw from them – begin with the birth of Jesus and continue throughout the story of his life…