3A23.     Isaiah 8:23-9:3.  Isaiah originally writes this to tell the Hebrews that the darkness that has befallen them because of their infidelity to the Lord with the invasion by the Assyrians will be dispelled by a savior that God will send.  Christianity sees this passage as a prophecy that Jesus is the savior who is the light that takes away the darkness of sin.

Matthew 4:12-23.   Once John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus saw that the way was opened for him to begin his public ministry, which he began in Capernaum.  “From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” As the king of a new spiritual kingdom, Jesus begins by calling 12 Apostles to replace the old kingdom of Israel that had 12 tribes from the original 12 sons of Jacob, the father of Israel.  In calling the fishermen, there seems to have been a mighty grace that flowed out into them because they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus.  Jesus “went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17.   “Be united in the same mind and in the same purpose,” which is to belong to God and his Will.  Paul preached “the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.”  The full meaning of the cross is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)