Lesson 12 - Ministry Beyond Galilee

INTRODUCTION

Last week we left off with Jesus SENDING out His disciples by two

Later they ALL met at CAPERNAUM
There the disciples gave a REPORT of what happened
During this time NEWS that John the Baptist was MURDERED

During this time Jesus’ POPULARITY grew and grew

The CROWDS were EVERYWHERE
Jesus and His disciples had NO TIME literally to EAT or REST

Mark 6:31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

To get some REST, they went ACROSS the Sea of Galilee

We know that was a ADVENTURE in itself
When they ARRIVED, they were AGAIN met by a LARGE crowd
And AGAIN, Jesus HEALED the sick
It had been a FULL day, but it was not over YET

Mark 6:35 - 38 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.

FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND

This is the ONLY miracle that is recorded in ALL four Gospels

This miracle took place EXACTLY one year BEFORE Jesus’ crucifixion

John 6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

This event was the PEAK of Jesus’ popularity

Fierce OPPOSITION was GROWING from the Jewish LEADERS
The DEATH of John the Baptist marked a turning point
Jesus’ AGGRESSIVE public teaching ministry was coming to an END
From this point on, Jesus devoted Himself to TEACHING the twelve disciples

We are now in the LAST year of our Lord’s PUBLIC ministry

JESUS WALKS ON WATER

The THOUSANDS who were just FED were so IMPRESSED that they planned to FORCE Jesus to be their KING

Jesus would NOT have THAT #. He SENDS His disciples OFF without Him
Sending them BACK across the Sea of Galilee to CAPERNAUM
Jesus did NOT want them DRAWN into this MOB action
THEN Jesus went up into the mountain to PRAY

As we have seen before, those STRONG mountain winds came across the Sea, preventing the disciples from getting very far going ACROSS the Sea

It was now 3 a.m. and they had only gone a SHORT distance

John 6:19 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.

i. Gone only 25 to 30 furlongs

ii. A furlong is just over 600 feet

iii. So they had rowed only 15,000 to 18,000 feet

1. They rowed only a little over 3 MILES ALL night

iv. Just a little over HALF way back to Capernaum

Jesus SAW that they were having a BATTLE of their lives
SO – Jesus WALKED out on the Sea to THEM
At first they were TERRIFIED at the sight of Jesus WALKING on the water
Jesus CALMED them down
Then good ol’ Peter
He just had to rush to Jesus’ side

Peter WALKED out to Jesus

Then he realized WHAT he was DOING and WHERE he was AT

Matthew 14:30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

That is WHAT happens when we take our eyes OFF Jesus
This is also the SHORTEST recorded prayer in the Bible

i. “Lord, save me”

ii. We KNOW Nehemiah prayed and answered the King

1. Don’t know what he said

2. We can speculate

3. But here were KNOW what Peter said

Peter got right down to business #. He needed help NOW
They finally go to Capernaum

JESUS WENT TO GENNESARET

Matthew 14:34 - 36 And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.

Again, the large crowds

Again Jesus healed

Jesus now is on the West side of the Sea of Galilee

Jesus then travels on back to Capernaum

Some of the people who were at that MIRACULOUS feeding of the 5,000 met Jesus AGAIN

Now it is Jesus turn to see if they UNDERSTOOD what had happened

JESUS – THE BREAD OF LIFE

John 6:26 - 27 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

They asked what they must do - to WORK the works of God

Jesus replied:

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Then they SAID – “give us a sign” - reminding Jesus that Moses GAVE his followers MANNA from heaven

Jesus replied:

John 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

The people WANTED that BREAD Jesus spoke of

John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Jesus continued by saying He IS the LIVING Bread

John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Whosoever eats of THAT Bread shall live FOREVER #. That caused the Jews to ARGUE among themselves

John 6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Again we read on in John 6:53-58 - Jesus REENFORCES the fact that He is the Bread of Life

Jesus carried this SAME message into the synagogue in Capernaum

So MANY of the FOLLOWERS found that HARD to accept #. Jesus THEN asked THEM what their REACTION would be IF they saw Jesus ASCEND up to WHERE He came?
Jesus KNEW they would not BELIEVE and REBUKED them

i. Saying THEY wanted an EARTHLY kingdom

ii. ALL they wanted were the PHYSICAL benefits

The MASSES that followed Jesus in Capernaum quickly DWINDLED

No longer the BIG crowds
May be down just to the 12
Jesus wondered where THEY stood

John 6:68 - 69 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

JESUS CONTINUES TO TEACH

The scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus with a COMPLAINT

Complaining that His disciples were not WASHING their hands BEFORE they ate
NOT talking about hygiene, the Disciples were messing around with TRADITON

Jesus responds with a REMINDER of ANOTHER tradition

Mark 7:11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

What we are talking about here was a TRADITION where one could take money or property INTENDED for their parents’ support and DECLARE it ‘Corban’

i. DEDICATED to God

This freed him from using it to support his parents #. Jesus told this Jewish LEADERS that ‘Corban’ was a ‘man-made’ tradition that BROKE God’s Law that parents should be honored – Mark 7:8-13

Then Jesus answered their question directly

Mark 7:14 - 19 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

Rather WHAT defiles:

Mark 7:20 - 23 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

ANOTHER MIRACLE – HEALING OF THE SYRO-PHENICIAN WOMAN’S DAUGHTER

Jesus’ popularity reached it’s peak while He was in Galilee

The Jewish leaders would NOT let Jesus teach in the synagogues in Judea

John 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.

Now they were attempting to do the SAME in Galilee #. MANY of Jesus followers became DISCOURAGED
MANY of them JUST quit

Herod Antipas, was the ruler of Galilee

He was the one who had John the Baptist MURDERED #. He would quickly SIDE with any Jews who wanted to get rid of Jesus
Jesus KNEW this

Jesus MOVED on to the territory around Tyre and Sidon

This area was under the rule of the proconsul of SYRIA
While Jesus was resting in a house there, a Syro-Phenician woman came

i. Begging for HELP

Mark 7:26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

ii. Jesus LISTENED to her pleas

iii. But told her that His MIRACLES were for the JEWS

While in Galilee Jesus DID ministered to BOTH Jews and Gentiles

But NOW Jesus was in GENTILE land
IF He were to EXTEND His ministry to Gentile countries, it would CLOSE the door to His ministry to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel
AND the Jewish leaders would use it to DISCREDIT Him as the PROMISED Messiah

i. Calling Him GENTILE”S Messiah NOT ISRAEL’S

But Jesus went ahead ANYWAY to healed the girl

Mark 7:28 - 29 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

Jesus then moved on to DECAPOLIS

THE FEEDING OF THE FOUR THOUSAND

There he HEALED a deaf man with a speech impediment

Again CROWDS would follow Jesus #. For days these folk would NEVER leave Jesus’ side
Jesus had COMPASSION of these folk
Been with Him now 3 days
Close with one more miracle:

Jesus BLESSED a small portion of food and fed 4,000 people

Matthew 15:29 - 39 And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 30And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: 31Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel. 32Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. 33And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? 34And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. 35And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 37And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. 38And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. 39And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.