The Galilee, the Rock and the Sons of Thunder

Transcript

uh we are uh gonna take a look at uh a subject that I've always been interested in it's kind of rattling around in my head you know about you know the origins of Jesus where he lived uh you know what what the Galilee was like why did you know why did Jesus come out of the Galilee why were all his disciples for the most part from The Galley what was so special about this place

um that God kind of chose this area for his son to grow up in you know why Nazareth uh you know he was always you know interesting to me and I guess the biggest question is what did what did his um you know his upbringing how did that have an effect on him and interactions in Nazareth then travels to the to the Sea of Galilee how did how did that all kind of fit together and in the ministry of Christ so I'll hopefully we can try to answer some of those questions I think I finally find it fascinating how you know locations in geography affect uh people individuals really you know kind of make make them who they are so what we do in oftentimes in a situation like this is we get a lay of the land um and uh it's it's always good to kind of look at Maps anyways to kind of figure out where we're at and what we're dealing with as far as the geography of a place is it mountainous is it flat is there water around that type of thing so we can start on the uh the right hand side map of ancient Galilee and you can see that that section there obviously if we know uh our geography of Israel Israel is on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea uh kind of a small little sliver of land

um abutting the Mediterranean Sea and up north you this is where we have the Galilee and there's several towns that you may be uh familiar with there Capernaum magdala ganesara Tiberius Nazareth of course name

um Haina you know all of these different uh places visadia these are these are places that we find in the Bible very very easily uh and it's as we're going to see the Galilee uh was the center point of Jesus's Ministry the majority of his teaching the majority of his miracles took place in this area if we look at the gospels you know obviously not saying that he didn't travel to other places he did but this was his hometown this was the area that he knew about uh the best you know be like me if I was going to kind of start you know preaching uh you know where would I where would I do well I do it in an area that I knew I knew the language I knew the people I knew the culture so New England would be you know probably a good place to start instead of me saying going down to say Alabama or something like that these are two very different places and as we're going to find out the Galilee was very different from Judea and particularly Jerusalem

um you know for a lot of different reasons some of them are actually pretty humorous as as we're going to see so just let's let's just get a lay of the land we're up north in the land of Israel

um up on the border of what is today uh Northern Israel bordering Lebanon the Golan Heights which borders Syria so this is the area that we're talking about and um you know we'll get into that a little bit more uh so here's here's the thing let's do this um if you have any questions let's just hold them to the end uh because uh you know I I tend to be a little long-winded here or already at seven 7 40. so um and I also have a video hopefully a multimedia presentation brother Jim boyko loves those uh that kind of go it's I think it's like eight or nine minutes uh and it's pretty good so all right anyways so take a look at these Maps oh the other thing is this uh Galilee is divided up into two areas the upper and the lower Galilee all right and again there's going to be differences with that as well all right let's go

so number one uh the Galilee was a hotbed of political activity in other words you know if you were really interested in um you know in politics and how things were going in Israel particularly around the relationship with you know Herod and his sons and most importantly Rome in their control of Israel

um the Galilee was the place for you you know if you were uh if you were really into violence against Greeks and Romans uh

and wanted to kind of take that violence uh to the Romans and to the Greeks the Galilee was the place for you this northern part of Israel had a history of political autonomy

um and you know one one event that kind of comes to mind is um you know uh between Elijah and Ahab and a lot of the people in the Galilee uh looked at themselves like Elijah in other words you know they were kind of standing up uh for uh you know their own political economy against the Ahab of that modern day which was kind of the political parties the Sanhedrin and their relationship with Rome they looked at them as the wicked King Ahab and they were fighting against that

um fighting against the tyranny of Rome fighting against the tyranny of the Sanhedrin who down in you know Jerusalem were always you know passing these laws and so on uh that affected the Galilee um and and you know that was you know Jerusalem was the center of Jewish culture and religion but you know it was very far away from the Galilee you know granted you could walk there or you know ride a donkey or whatnot but it took time and so it reminds me again yes of um you know an incident in the in the United States history which was the American Revolution you know it took six six weeks to cross the Atlantic during that time and the you know in the 1700s and you know things that Parliament did over in England you know really didn't affect the Americans too much and even if they did they didn't follow the laws anyways you know like the Stamp Act you know the British passed the Stamp Act to kind of recoup some money from the French and Indian war in the Americans Americans are like nah you know we're not going to follow that and this happened quite a bit and so I I like to use that as an analogy of the relationship between Jerusalem the leaders of the Sanhedrin scribes Pharisees uh Sadducees that type of thing and this in the Galilee this far away place

um that didn't you know wanted to do their own thing they were fiercely independent uh they the biggest thing was they didn't want Rome sticking their nose into their business

um you know when there was taxes associated with this as well they all they always hated paying their taxes

um and you know this the Zealot movement that we that we know about during um the war the Jewish Wars against Rome you know the zealots played a big part of uh you know of of this confrontation we'll get into that a little bit more so a nice picture here of the Galilee brother Jason I think has been here a few times

um I think he actually stayed in an Airbnb and Jason you can uh kind of uh you know I'm sure give us some information on that how beautiful it is I know the pictures you shared with me were pretty cool so um anyways all right so as we know from scripture

um the Galilee was the center of Jesus's Ministry you know the majority really of uh the major events uh happened particularly around teaching

uh like the Beatitudes Sermon on the Mount that all happened up in Galilee all of his uh you know a lot of the famous Miracles and interactions that we know about as well where did it happen it happened up in the Galilee um so an important area uh you know some people say that you know the Galilee in that area is a it's a beautiful place it's one of uh one of the more beautiful places in in the Middle East along that Coastline and it's still you know a place where tourists go and people you know Pilgrim making pilgrimages to to that area so uh it's still a very important area even today uh just from secular Israel it's important because of the water source of the Sea of Galilee

um but there's a tremendous amount of Agriculture up in that area as well it's really uh you know it's really you know a lot of people can say you know it's like almost like the Bread Basket of Israel um but anyways uh the Romans uh looked at this area as like backwood right like you this is a real Lawless area

um and the way they handled any lawlessness really was in the tried and true method of Rome violence right violence brutality you know you couldn't assemble up in in the Galilee you couldn't kind of come together you know if the Romans thought there were too many people that break it up you know go in there and you know kill a few people beat a bunch of people up so you know even though the the galileans kind of felt that they were autonomous and they were fiercely independent they still had this reminder

uh of Rome they still had the reminder that they were not free they were not free to excuse me practice their religious beliefs the way in which they wanted to uh they were not free to keep their own money they were not free uh you know to trade into practice uh the things they wanted to do and so uh that was obviously a cause of concern and so

you know we just mentioned this it's really where uh the Zealot movement began which was just an incredibly violent um reaction to the violence of Rome

um and so you know we we talked about this if you saw my uh my presentation on the fall of Rome of all of Rome fall of Jerusalem in 80 70. there was a subgroup of Fanatics within the zealots called the Sakari and they were just kind of just assassins and they killed any Romans Greeks or any Jews who supported them right so you can think about you know as we kind of fast forward into history after the death and Resurrection the Ascension into Heaven by Jesus in the beginnings the early stages of Christianity these political ideas in this fanaticism about being Jewish uh really began the Rebellion among other things right really begin the Rebellion against Rome beginning in uh 66 A.D and this is going to last for four years you know eventually you know through sheer brutality in uh in a tremendous amount of killing uh the Romans are going to subdue the Jews during this time

all right so this is this is uh you know kind of a list I would say of you know how the Galilee was different from Jerusalem you know what what made it so different and so number one uh there were a lot of non-jews in the area okay you had syrians in that area you had the you know Lebanese people up in that area you had some Samaritans as well and we'll talk about that a little bit uh you know you had you had Jews up in this area too that were kind of non-practicing Jews uh they would they would use only an ethnicity and not in religion right and so a lot of trade was going on here a lot of the major roadways would go through the Galilee

um and in some areas of the Galilee even though it was backward people were making a good living particularly supplying food for areas down in the south in Judea and in uh and in Jerusalem and so you know you had a mixed population that mixed population

um was not found down in Jerusalem and other areas it was much more Jewish

um you know much more kind of uh homogeneous down in the South where up in the north you know you had all kinds of different people coming and going trading that type of thing not the trade wasn't happening down in Jerusalem but it was it was a different atmosphere

um kind of you know the best way to you know and I know it can be a cliche but think about think about the American West right as people moved West uh more and more people moved West but it took a long time for kind of law in order to get there to

um you know to to you know to have the sheriff there and all that other other things kind of the infrastructure you know think about that like the wild west

um they were separated by the Samaritans we know that the Samaritans were a group of people um that were transplanted by the Assyrians after the defeat of the northern tribes they were scattered uh these 10 tribes of Israel were scattered into the Assyrian Empire and into other places and in their place the Assyrians uh brought in uh different people from all over Mesopotamia and other places and uh they there was a tremendous amount of hatred between the Samaritans and uh the Jews that really began right around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah as the as the Jewish people returned from uh their captivity in Babylon you already had this mixed group of people from other places they were non-jews but they were practicing Judaism are a form of Judaism uh and so you know a tremendous amount of hostility so think about this brothers and sisters you have down in the South you have Jerusalem the kind of the center of religion and culture of the Jews and then you kind of have a buffer between Jerusalem and Judea of this area where the Samaritans were it was like a no-go Zone in fact Jesus went around the area of the Samaritans a few times right he also had good interactions with them

um and a couple different couple different situations but uh you know the Samaritans were a buffer between uh the Galilee so you had the Galilee you had the the Samaritans and then down in the South he had Jerusalem and the Jews which so that was kind of another way in which geography in the politics of the time are going to separate the Galilee from uh the connection with Jerusalem which I think is interesting that's obviously going to play a part in you know kind of the leaders of Jerusalem looking at Jesus as a real threat to them particularly because they came from he came from the Galilee you know this wild place where everyone kind of did their own thing they wouldn't listen to anybody you know so the thing is we that kind of you know I can make us laugh but you know just again just kind of think about uh you know the first kind of the colonies the American colonies you know they're coming over here and they didn't want anyone telling them what to do they wanted to do their own thing so

um the northern part traditionally uh was controlled by herod's sons uh different you know different uh sons of Herod would control this Northern Area while Judea and Jerusalem Jerusalem actually had a a um a Roman Governor when we know one of the Roman governors obviously Pontius Pilate uh it was very difficult in some instances for Rome uh to kind of control the Galilee uh you know they would they would put down these little rebellions you know one you know a lot of different prophets came out of this area as well a lot of false prophets as well who said that they were the Messiah and they were going to start a revolution against Rome you know this is why uh it's you know the disciples and other people are always asking Jesus you know are you going to restore the kingdom of God at this time because that was a major political theme

um not just for Jesus in in his disciples but really for the people particularly up in the Galilee when is the Messiah coming you're going to get rid of these corrupt leaders or corrupt leaders when are they going to get rid of uh you know these Pagan Romans stomping all over on land taking our money brutalizing us right these are some of the things

um that really uh got people upset completely understandable we mentioned this before but the Galilee was an agricultural hotbed a lot of good Farmland up there uh they get because of the mountains and so on they do get a pretty good amount of rain uh during uh the winter the winter months and of course we know this there's excellent fishing in the Sea of Galilee

um and you know the Sea of Galilee is not a big it's not a big uh Lake you know it's a it's a relatively small Lake compared to other you know other Lakes like me you know like you're on and Michigan and stuff like that um but think about all the great things that happened in this little place that's what I like to think about you know this is like the Galilee this little Backwater placement the things that happened the things that were said the things that were done changed the world change the world you know the gospel message of God began here uh with with his son so considered backward and religiously lacked I think that was that's pretty interesting right the the uh the really you know very religious Jews the scribes and the Pharisees the Levites they all lived down in Jerusalem that was the center of worship right the temple

um you know the rituals of the law following the law every every detail every jot and Tittle of it uh the galileans you know not so much they would follow some things they would follow other things remember you know they had you know they had Pagan um Pagan cities full of uh pagan people Greeks you know other people syrians worshiping their own Gods and so you know it wasn't really super important for them to keep the whole law not saying that they didn't because we know that there were synagogues up there certain you know synagogues that were up in the Galilee that Jesus went into

um but uh

you know but it it was LAX it wasn't as strict as

um as down in uh Jerusalem and then this last one is pretty funny because you know I have a pretty thick Boston accent myself the galileans were made fun of for their very thick accent right oftentimes it was so thick that some of the people down in you know Jerusalem couldn't understand them like what what in the world are they saying you know um so you know it would be like you know you kind of you kind of feel for Peter it would be like I would I would be by you know I'd be sitting by the fire with a with a group of people from say Texas and they're all talking in their accent and then I talk and they're like yo

hey this this guy is from a different place and that's what happened to Peter unfortunately you know he spoke and they're like this guy is definitely a Galilean just like if someone heard me speak they would like oh this guy is absolutely from the Boston area without question

um so yeah so so think about that as well so there are a lot of there were a lot of interesting things about the Galilee during this time but that was that was one that was uh that was pretty funny very thick accents I guess it would probably be the same way those those you know those of you that are familiar with um you know Great Britain right there's some there's people down in London that have a very different accent and you know a very thick Scottish accent to me is almost impossible to understand uh and so that would that would be true like a cockney accent a very thick Cockney accent hello Governor right that you know it can be very difficult to understand as well so

all right

all right so we're going to take a look at some um you know the Galilee in scripture which is obviously uh you know kind of the most important part here uh you know what happened in the Galilee Are there are there events that happened in the Galilee that we cannot apply to our lives well of course there are right and so we'll cut we'll go through uh some of them if this is not a comprehensive uh uh Deep dive it's but you know there are certain aspects of um of Christ and his interactions in the Galilee that I think are important to our walk

um into our faith and how uh our relationship with God and our relationship with each other as well first of all the Galilee is mentioned about 67 times in scripture okay not a whole lot but you know it's mentioned 67 times

it's uh it's somewhat important you know from from that nine of those times are mentioned in the Old Testament so clearly uh much more are uh you know is mentioned in the New Testament obviously because that's that's what Christ started his ministry and that's where the majority of his ministry is going to take place but let's take a look at a couple of these in um Kings the ninth chapter uh you know this it tells us that that it was a gift the Galilee was a gift to Hiram that uh

that Solomon gave in the 11th verse of the ninth chapter

um which is interesting now Hiram verse 11 the king of tire had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees and with gold according to all his desire then then King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee

well what it what was so what was Hiram's reaction and Hiram came out of tire to see the cities which Solomon had given him and they pleased him not

and he said what cities are these which thou has given me my brother and he called them the land of Kabul unto this day and if you look at your um uh your margin it says displeasing or dirty that's interesting so you know the he so Hiram didn't like the area of the Galilee you know it wasn't wasn't up to withstandards these you know the the the the uh the land that Solomon gave

um so okay that's that's interesting now uh in Isaiah

and the ninth chapter

and this is certainly a direct connection to Christ the ninth chapter

um verse one nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation when at first he lightly Afflicted the land of Zebulon in the land of naphtali and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea Beyond Jordan in the Galilee of the Nations or of the populace verse 2 the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shine so wow we have a a really nice connection there right with with Christ and with the land of the land of the Galilee the Galilee is specifically mentioned and then in the very next verse it talks about the people that were walking in darkness have seen a great light well what was that great light well we know that great light was the coming of the Son of God the savior of the world

um and you know Isaiah is really going to take uh take this on in several of the different Pro uh the Messianic uh prophecies this idea of light and darkness right God bringing forth his son into a dark world to spread light uh upon it to save it from its own iniquities um we know that all the disciples came from there you know the rock Peter right the sons of thunder uh all came from here they all had jobs in here uh they all had families we know that Peter lived in uh Capernaum I believe his mother you know his mother-in-law was sick Jesus is going to heal her

um so yeah they you know they lived and worked in this area they were they were truly Galilean and so you know they brought with them their upbringing in their culture uh you know Jesus had this kind of uh the same upbringing in in a certain way he lived in this culture right he knew the ins and outs of Galilee what it meant to be a Galilean think about the characters Jesus must have must have ran into you know I run into a lot of characters in my travels as well you know assistant principal or you know officiating wrestling that type of thing you know you run into a lot of different characters uh so you know I think about that too you know what was what was some of the characters that Jesus ran into I mean we have we haven't recorded for us right he he ran into a lot of different people that were really suffering they were struggling

um

you know and he did his very best to try to uh alleviate a lot of that suffering but you know as we're going to see you know people came from all over the place

um so yeah with that in mind let's look at um Matthew the fourth chapter

uh in verse 23 . and Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people and his Fame when thrown all Syria and they brought into him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases torments possessed with Devils lunatic palsy he healed them all and they followed and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from Beyond Jordan now so let's think about this brothers and sisters you know we we just talked about how how Galilee was a Backwater but it certainly doesn't sound like a Backwater now that Jesus is teaching and preaching is it people are coming from all over the place they're coming up from the north from Syria and from Lebanon coming down into the Galilee what does it say about the other uh about Jerusalem and about Judea well instead of the galleons coming going up you you know down to Jerusalem and up to Jerusalem the people from Jerusalem are going up to the Galilee you know that was unheard of it's almost like the old Switcheroo uh you know no people aren't going down to Jerusalem to worship people in multitudes throngs of people are going up into the Galilee to see this great preacher the teacher the Healer up in the Galilee you know it's I I think that's kind of like a you know a beautiful um you know a beautiful example of God turning the world on its head you know the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God you know Jerusalem really wasn't the center now it was Christ Christ was the center of of worship it was Christ that people were coming to uh and this obviously is kind of like a first red flag I would imagine to the leaders of the Sanhedrin and uh the scribes and the Pharisees they're like whoa you know we got people leaving Jerusalem

to go see this guy what's what's the story right

um Peter talks about this as well in Acts 13. we'll look at a couple things in acts in Acts 13 and verse 30. um speaking of this is uh this is Peter

um yeah this is Peter actually who is this and Paul no no is Paul Paul's talking now

um

and he says in verse 30 but God speaking uh God raised him Jesus from the dead and he was seen many days of them which came up with him From Galilee to Jerusalem who are his Witnesses unto the people and we declare you glad tidings how that the promises which were made unto the fathers God has fulfilled the same unto their children so on and so forth and so even Paul now recognizes the importance of the Galilee right he he knew the stories of Jesus growing up in the Galilee and the disciples in this idea of the Galilee being the center of teaching and eventually Jesus and his disciples are going to move are going to travel to uh to Jerusalem we know that Jerusalem is where Jesus is going to be uh you know betrayed

and he is going to be crucified

and then lastly uh even you know even the angels of God recognize recognizes the importance of the Galilee right and acts acts the first chapter verse 11 and one that we know very well uh you men of Galilee why are you standing gazing up into heaven Jesus this same Jesus was just taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven so you men of Galilee that was uh that was the title that the angel gave

um to the disciples they were men of Galilee you know that meant something I'm a man of Galilee right I'm uh I'm a New Englander you know I say that what I'm a New Englander hearty New Englander right there's a certain connotation well uh I'm a southerner oh what does that mean right I'm from California okay

uh that means something right so the you know all of these different places

um you know have have an impact on you as you grow up

um you know it's almost impossible not to you know there's certain things like like you know say in Massachusetts that are very unique to this place

um just like there's other things you know in other places of the of the country that you know are you are unique to that part of the country and that was the same in ancient Israel Galilee was a very unique Place uh mostly for bad stuff but the the greatest event of mankind happened in the Galilee and that's why it's important

all right let's let's take a second now uh to kind of talk about Nazareth

um on that right on the right hand side you could see Nazareth kind of uh from you know from a hill location kind of looking down on Nazareth and you can see that it's kind of it's an elevated area it's

um it's in it's in kind of a mountainous hilly area there are some flat stop flat spots but Nazareth really was a Backwater you know it was a Backwater town and a Backwater region

um you know Nazareth really during the time of Christ only had about 400 people they've done some excavation archaeological excavation and Nazareth was not a big place so it was kind of it was a difficult life in a lot of different ways you know that Jesus uh you know most of the poor farmers most of them were poor Farmers kind of scratching out a living up in this uh kind of poor poor agricultural land area some were Tradesmen we know that Jesus was a carpenter or a builder most likely and he most likely you know worked not necessarily in Nazareth but they're like Tiberius was a bigger city uh there was there was a couple others you know uh that uh people went to to look for jobs right for you know in Jesus's case you know do you need something built is there any building projects that are going on

um in that area uh and so let's you know let's look at John the first chapter

because Nazareth is directly mentioned in this uh in this year and I think it just reinforces what we've been talking about in the 46th

um actually in verse uh

yeah verse 45 Philip finds Nathaniel and says unto him we have found him

of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did right Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph so what they're saying is we've we've found the Christ we found the we found the Messiah right now this wasn't you you would think like wow this is people would have jumped at this opportunity you found Messiah okay so who it is but people were pretty leery about this because we already talked about this there were a lot of Messiahs during this time people professing to be the the one the chosen one who was going to bring about the Kingdom of Israel and get rid of the Roman Authority and so you know when um when Philip finds Nathaniel and says look we found the Messiah this is the guy Jesus of Nazareth you know Nathanael says Ken anything good come out of Nazareth right so Nazareth already has a reputation as kind of being you know you know kind of a crappy place right can anything good come out of Nazareth right just think about kind of like wherever you live kind of think about like a rundown town or a run-down City that kind of has a reputation of not being a great place uh you know just you know what what what's there in Nazareth you know and there may have been other reasons too again you know most of the Galilee was kind of looked down upon and so you know Nathaniel is really this is an example of Nathaniel kind of harboring some of the prejudices uh against the galileans against people that lived in Nazareth ah they're all a bunch of yokels they don't know anything the Messiah is coming from Nazareth come on that's silly talk um and so okay so keep that in mind now uh in Luke what do we got for time oh boy yeah all right in Luke the fourth chapter

um you know this is uh in verse there's a beautiful uh you know beautiful account here in uh the fourth verse in verse 14. uh in Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee and they went out a Fame of him throughout all the region round about and he taught in their synagogues

being glorified of all so he's starting his ministry in where well in the Galilee you know he this is the place he grew up in it's the place he knew he obviously traveled all around these places he knew the roads into Capernaum he knew all the spots he knew the area around the Sea of Galley it most likely had traveled there right and so he returned in the power of the spirit right he just had been tempted of the devil he was in the wilderness for 40 days he you know he's just he just came out of a very intense

uh spiritual and physical

um you know just event and he he comes out of this and he is ready he's ready to preach the kingdom of God and where does he stop well he went to the synagogues in and around Capernaum but there is one event that's mentioned even in this fourth chapter and it is when he went to Nazareth he went to his hometown he's going to preach in there he's going to go into the synagogue that he grew up in right he has these beautiful words right and there was the verse 16 and he came to Nazareth

first uh where he had been brought up and as his custom was wow he already had a custom what was his custom he went into the synagogue and he stood up to read Jesus could read brothers and sisters he could write we know that he could write because he wrote in the ground

um when the woman was caught in an adultery so we could read and write that was his very that was very uh very special particularly in in the Jewish religion and the Jewish culture they were always pushing for the Jewish uh you know boys to read because reading you had to read the law you had to know the law and so how would you know the law well you had to read it you could hear it spoken but to read the law is very different it was very important to the ancient Jews it's very important to Jews now to have uh to have the ability to read this was something that a lot of people did not have in the ancient world Brothers as this is particularly

in the Galilee right so

uh and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah

and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was Isaiah 61 the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach Deliverance to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind to set at Liberty them that are bruised

to preach the acceptable year of the Lord right now we could we could do a whole class on this on these two verses here brothers and sisters but you know he's preaching the gospel to the poor there are a lot of poor in the Galilee

there are a lot of people that needed to be healed there were a lot of Brokenhearted

a lot of captives

blind people that were Desiring Liberty in the Galilee they were bruised they were suffering and so brothers and sisters the Galilee was the perfect place for Jesus to begin his ministry

they were suffering people they were all poor people they were struggling people but they were also a proud people they didn't want Outsiders telling them uh what to do and so you know

and he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down and he began to say and they were all looking at him like whoa

this day

is this scripture fulfilled in your ears and all bear him witnessed and wondered at the gracious Words which proceeded out of his mouth right and so um but okay so that's great but he goes on and he really kind of sticks it to him now right he he starts telling the truth hard truths that they don't unders they don't want to hear this will surely say unto me this proverb physician heal thyself whatsoever We Have Heard done in Capernaum do also here and in my country and then he uses this example but I tell you verse 25 of the truth many many widows were in Israel in days of Elias when the heaven was shut up three years and six months in six months but unto none of them was Elijah sent save unto the surepta of the city of sidon unto a woman that was a widow so he's you know here are the here are these Jews very confident in their jewishness very confident that they were the chosen people they had the Oracles of God as Paul says in Romans

but Jesus says he used an example from scripture and says that you're just like the time of Elijah where Elijah was sent not to not to Jewish people but to a sidonian to a Phoenician woman right and they we know the reaction to them they totally rejected Jesus at this point they tried to cast them off the cliff right so that tells us that Nazareth is kind of up in a mountainous area and so Nazareth his own Hometown rejection right

all right so um

all right we're doing good so a lot of different major events right uh happened during this time and let's just take a take a look at uh you know a couple of couple of these but in Luke 5 verse one this is we're right here in the in the fourth but let's look at it um verse 5. he's at the lake the the Lake of ganesarito the Sea of Galilee um

and he saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were going out and they were washing their Nets and they entered into one of the ships so he goes into the ship which was Simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and he taught the people out of the ship

now when he had left speaking he said unto Simon go out into the deep and let down your nets and you know Peter says man you know look we've been out all night we haven't taken anything and so he says look go you know because you're saying it go I'll go and do it and when they had this done they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their next break they're breaking so he had to get his other partners and his other ships to try to pull in this net they had a massive amount of uh fish

um to the point where these ships are starting to sink and so this is great you know again we could do a whole a whole class or two on Peter himself and these interactions with Jesus you know Pete is such a wonderful character it says in verse 8 that he fell down

at Jesus's knee saying

depart from me

for I am a sinful Man O Lord

uh it's it's just such a great story and such a great you know uh reaction by Jesus you know and Peter saw the power of Christ and he knew he was so he was So Unworthy of it

um but Jesus didn't depart in fact he says Peter come with me I want you to follow me I want you to be by my side uh and sometimes we can feel as if we're not worthy of the of of the mercy of Christ and the goodness of Christ uh but we are and he's by our side and we should be walking with him just like Peter walked just like the disciples walked throughout Galilee

um he he will never leave us or forsake us and that's what we need to remember you know as we go through our sufferings and our trials and our tribulations just like Peter did just like the disciples did and so we're not going to at all of these but you know the Centurion servant I put both of these in there the Centurion servant you know the Centurion

um

and you know I'm not worthy that you should enter into my house but only you know say say the word am I and you know my servant will be healed right the faith of a gentile Matthew 15 up in the Galilee up in the northern part of the Galilee the woman of Faith the syrophoenician woman right but you know even the dogs partake of the of the crumbs that fall from the table right these two individuals show greater faith

uh you know in all of Israel um crisis

okay uh

we got a 10 minute video that we're gonna close with

the land of Israel is into incredible Geographic complex

I'm Jack Beck I'm a Bible geographer and I hear in the Holy Land in order to explore all the geographical differences that this land has to offer and I'm doing it as a Bible teacher because in order to best understand our Bible and the stories that only fit in the place of her we're going to go on a trip that visits all sorts of different places in this region we know that Nazareth was nowhere spilled and no one expected the Messiah to come from there but in God's plan Nazareth turned out to be the perfect place for Jesus to grow on I am going to show you a way

to read you page ever have experienced before we're going to make the Bible's geography meaningful thank you

this is hands down one of the most iconic places in the Holy Land

to really appreciate it we need to get out here on the lake and look back across beautiful Shoreline that's Ground Zero for Jesus ministry here this is the Sea of Galilee foreign

I can't think of a single person whom I brought to this Lake who said oh that's what I was expecting to see they always look at it and wait that's way smaller than what I was expecting we're looking at an inland Lake here that's just seven and a half miles across 13 miles from north to south and 32 miles around it isn't much of a lake

it's got big stories but it's kind of a tiny Lake what I want you to know for sure and see for sure is how very different this place is the Nazareth

we move from a high mountain valley down here under this sprawling Lake Country with a beautiful agricultural Plains surrounding it we move from a place where we've got creamy colored limestones to a place where we have dark souls and black boulders

and we move from a place that had a very simple subsistence economy to a place with a very complicated economy one that involved both building and fishing in agriculture and supportive international trading even the manufacture of grinding meals from the local basalt

this lake is completely different from Nazareth it changes and when Jesus comes into this space people begin to think about him differently it's a place where expectations are rising

all the archaeological sites in the Holy Land the place I think I feel most home might be this one

this is the home of Jesus turn them and it's a place that I feel at home because I'm among so many people who are here because Jesus was here at the time of Jesus there were maybe 12 1500 people who were living here observant Jews who lived in work in these homes around us

one difference between these observant Jews in Capernaum and those that lived up in Nazareth folks here were accustomed to meeting people from many different places and as a consequence of that heard a lot of new ideas and in fact we're

that means Jesus got a hearing here that he didn't get in other places

if Jesus had remained in Nazareth there's simply no way that he would have met either the large number of people or the variety of people that were here in Bible time

they came here for other purposes some some of the synagogue and heard Jesus

Jesus and what I love about Mark is that Mark not only tells us what Jesus said in this building but how people responded to what he said

Jesus teaches with authority and not like the teachers of the law in other words Jesus quality of instruction is better than the teachers of the teachers in Jerusalem that's what made him unique and that is what was lifting expectations about Jesus here in caperna

most of Jesus teaching centered in a small two and a half square mile area on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee

at a nearby fishing Village called magdala I want to show you another synagogue in which Jesus likely taught

if I've been sitting in this room listening to Jesus in the first century I'd be sitting so close to him I could see the color of his eyes this is the synagogue in the town of magdala

I find so striking about this is its intimacy the people who were sitting with Jesus and he could see the problems the physical emotional mental problems that they had out of love to demonstrate the authority of his messages he would do miracles

the point of that the kind of short clip was the differences between Nazareth and Capernaum Capernaum was almost like a Cosmopolitan place if you could call it that and there were a lot of different people that were coming there for a lot of different reasons and uh it was a perfect place for Jesus to start preaching the gospel very different from Nazareth

um you know very different in a lot of different ways so