LOC 024: Life of Christ:
Jesus
on the Move
We have been considering the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
chronologically as it is revealed in the Gospels. Recently, we have spent a lot of time in the
Gospel of John because John records some events at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry that we do not find in the other Gospels.
However, that is about to change.
In John 4 we find Jesus going North to Galilee, but it is in the other
Gospels we find out why.
John, the writer of the Gospel said:
JOH 4:3 He [meaning
Jesus] left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
John doesn’t tell us why.
He tells us simply that Jesus left for Galilee. John is still showing us how Jesus is the one
who knows all men and that he knows there hearts. The first example of this was Nicodemus, the
ruler of the Jews and the next example will be the common Samaritan Harlot at
Jacob’s Well. But we have the entire
Jewish religious establishment squeezed in between them. John is showing the
ministry of Jesus and its effects. Yet
in verse one of John four, he tells us :
JOH 4:1 Therefore, when
the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more
disciples than John
Jesus knew all men, including the plots of the Pharisees. Why is this significant?
Lets let’s the Scriptures interpret themselves and set a context
for our understanding of them.
Turn look at Luke 3:19-20 specifically. But let’s start at verse 1
for the entire chronology and context.
LUKE 3:1 Now in the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor
of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of
Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
2 while Annas and
Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias
in the wilderness.
3 And he went into
all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins, :4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the
prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the
way of the LORD; Make His paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled And
every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth; 6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of
God.'"
7 Then he said to the
multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers! Who
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy
of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our
father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from
these stones.
9 "And even now
the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 So the people
asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?"
11 He answered and
said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none;
and he who has food, let him do likewise."
12 Then tax
collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall
we do?"
13 And he said to
them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you."
14 Likewise the
soldiers asked him, saying, "And what shall we do?" So he said to
them, "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with
your wages."
15 Now as the people
were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he
was the Christ or not,
16 John answered,
saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I
is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and
He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His
barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
18 And with many
other exhortations he preached to the people.
19 But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias,
his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, 20 also
added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.
New ¶ and retrospective idea 21 When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus
also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.
22 And the Holy
Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from
heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well
pleased."
23 Now Jesus Himself
began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the
son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
Herod was upset with John the Baptist. John told us in 3:24 the
John had not yet been imprisoned. Yet it
appears that he was soon after his exchange with Jesus recorded at the end of
Chapter 3.
Luke does not record the events of Jesus early ministry. He only mentions that Jesus began his ministry,
John tells us some of the details of that early ministry. Concurrent with Jesus’ early ministry and
trip to Galilee, John was thrown into prison.
Let’s look further:
Matthew gives us the clearest statement as to why Jesus went to
Galilee. He wrote:
MAT 4:12 Now when Jesus
heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.
In Matthew’s Gospel, this is where the public ministry of Jesus
begins as if it were right after the temptation. Matthew has Jesus going to Galilee because John
was imprisoned.
Mark connects the two also:
MAR 1:14 Now after John
was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
Mark also makes this the most significant event after the
temptation. Jesus went to Galilee after
John was imprisoned to preach the Gospel.
Luke tells us of Jesus on the move from yet another perspective.
LUK 4:14 Then Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the
surrounding region.
Jesus was led by the Spirit to return to Galilee. News of The Lord Jesus Christ went out to all
the surrounding regions. He was getting
known, here still at the beginning of his public ministry.
Jesus and John caused much agitation in Palestine. For it John was thrown into prison. Because of this (and since it was not his
time) Jesus moved back to Galilee. Jesus
was careful to honor his Father and to do his will.
There were two ways to get to Galilee in the North from Judea in
the South. The first was to take the Coast route in order to avoid Samaria and
the second was to travel through Samaria.
The Coast route took at least twice as long. But many Jews would take it
in order to stay clear of the unclean Samaritans.
John tells us:
JOH 4:4 But He needed to
go through Samaria.
Jesus doesn’t give into the petty prejudices and biases of his
day. There was something that compelled
him to go through this despised region of Samaria. He needed to go there. He has purpose to be there. He had to go--there was no other way. Knowing the hearts of man, of all men, he had
an important mission to accomplish. The
imprisonment of John the Baptist, moved him to travel to Galilee, but there was
work to be done along the way.
John doesn’t tell us about the arduous travels. He moves right along to a place where Jesus
went. He wrote:
JOH 4:5 So He came to a
city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave
to his son Joseph.
It is the opinion of most commentators that Sychar is the ancient
city of Shechem that played a part in Israel’s history on many occasions.
This was where God first appeared to Abraham, the father of the
faithful (Gen 12:6).
In Gen 34:2ff we find it is the place where Jacob disgraced
himself with Dinah upon his return from Padan-Aram and the murder of the
Shechemites took place.
It was here where Joseph’s brethren fed their flocks when Jacob
sent them not knowing it would be many years before they would be reunited.
(Gen 37:12)
Israel took possession of the Promised Land. It was one of the cities of refuge. (Josh
20:7,8.)
This was the place where Joshua gathered the Children of Israel
when he addressed them for the last time. (Josh 24:1)
According to Josh 24:32, this is where the bones of Joseph were
buried because this is where the Fathers of Israel had been buried.
This is where the events surrounding Abimalech took place. (Judges
9:1ff).
This was the place where Reheboam met the tribes of Israel after
Solomon’s death. It was here he gave the answer that tore the kingdom in
two. (I Kings 12:1ff)
It was here Jereboam lived when he was first made King after the
division. (I Kings 12:25.
Close by were the mountains of Ebal and Gerazim that were to be
witnesses to the solemn covenant renewal ceremony after they entered the
Land. Here was the place where the
children of Israel where to recite the blessings and curses that awaited them.
(Josh 8:33)
This was a place full of history and significance. It was a place of intrigue, great blessing,
overt sin, abundant promise, profound provision, and professions of
faithfulness to Jehovah God.
With all this storied past, we ought to wonder why it does not
play a more prominent place in the New Testament. You see, the Samaritans were despised by the
“Pure Bred Jews” for a number of reasons.
This is one of the great ethnic and racial hotspots of all times. Yet, Jesus had to go there.
The Samaritans were of Jewish descent. They are those who remained in the area after
the fall of Samaria in 722 BC and subsequent Assyrian invasion. These Remaining Jews and Assyrian settlers
intermarried against God’s commands. These became the first Samaritans. Their very existence was a testimony to man’s
disobedience.
They believed God was to be worshipped on Mt. Gerazim, only. There they built a temple that they might
offer their animal sacrifices.
When the Jews returned from Exile, they despised the Samaritans
for a number of reasons. The Jews called
them the foolish people who lived at Shechem.
In about 128 BC, the temple in Shechem, Samaria was destroyed
forever pitting the Jews against the Samaritans. From that point forward, they
had nothing to do with each other. To
this extreme, Jews preferred the Coastal route from Judea to Galilee, rather
than the shorter route through Samaria.
In Matthew 10 we will see that Jesus told his disciples to stay
away from Samaria, initially. In John 4
he brushes aside the Samaritan claim to exclusive worship on Mt Gerazim. Although, Jesus visited a Samaritan village
in Luke 9:52 and made a despised samaritan the hero in a parable. In some ways, Jesus portrays the Samaritans
as being more open to God’s rule than the Jews.
Jesus played on their racial sensitivities to provoke the Jews to
thought and action. In Luke 17, Jesus
cleansed 10 lepers. The one who returned
was a Samaritan. In Acts, the disciples
are commissioned expressly to go to Samaria.
Samaria was of concern to God.
This was the place where Jesus needed to Go. Samaria had fallen into oblivion and
obscurity. But, Jesus had work to do.
The Text Says:
JOH 4:6 Now Jacob's well
was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the
well. It was about the sixth hour.
There is no record of a well belonging to Jacob in the Old
Testament. Although, this area is near the land Jacob gave to Joseph and where
the forefathers are buried.
What is interesting is not that the well is not mentioned
elsewhere, but why Jesus is here. It was
about noon and Jesus was wearied from his journey.
Jesus was a real man with real bodily needs--real thirst. Jesus and his disciples had been travelling
all morning in the dry climate of Palestine.
Jesus was weary, he was tired, he needed some refreshment.
There is an ancient heresy that is making a comeback in our
day. It is called Docetism. It gets its name from the verb dokeo meaning
to appear. They believed that Jesus was not actually a man, that he only
appeared to be a man. He was a divine phantom in human form for the sake of
appearance. Strangely enough, this
teaching is drawn mainly from the presentation of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Some people use selective information to make
Jesus appear other-worldly and superhuman.
They isolate the passages where Jesus has insight into men’s character
like the discussion with Nicodemus.
What they miss in their selective use of Scripture are the
profound statements of John himself to the humanity and divinity of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is not one or the
other--he is the GOD-MAN.
It was John who told us:
JOH 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
And,
JOH 1:30 "This is
He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was
before me.'
And,
JOH 1:45 Philip found
Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and
also the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
He was a real live guest at the wedding in Cana and he really
talked to Nicodemus, John the Baptist and others. Jesus was not a mere phantom appearing to be
a man--he was a man and all that entails except for one thing--he had no
sin.
This is important for us to remember. Jesus experienced every emotion, every
temptation, every indecency known to man.
Yet he continued to pursue the course laid out before him. Nothing was going to keep him from doing his
father’s will. Sure he had insight into
man’s hearts and character, surely he knew things others did not know. It is the glory of God breaking through. The finite could not contain the
infinite. The glory of God was bound to
break through at times.
What a comfort it is to know that Jesus has already known
suffering and temptation and that he can give me strength and empathy as I go
through the trials of life:
HEB 2:18 For in that He
Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
And, he is the one who can intercede for us before the father
because:
HEB 4:15 For we do not
have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all
points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Next week we will look at the narrative of the Samaritan
Woman. Jesus loved mankind so greatly
that he violated cultural norms, racial expectations, and social sensitivities
to bring the Gospel to one woman who then passed it on to others.
God used turmoil in the world--the imprisonment of John the
Baptist--to return his Son to Galilee by way of Samaria. When God wants to act, he will send a
preacher where he is needed in order that the Gospel will come with power. God works in mysterious ways. Yet, it is all according to his plan and in
line with his purpose. It all shows us
the Love of God for sinners.
Jesus didn;t go through Samaria to take the shortcut. He went to do his father’s business, he had
to fulfill his calling as Messiah, not just of Israel, but of the whole world.
What do we learn?
1. God is a God of
Grace--As sinners, Samaritans did not deserve salvation or even the presence of
the Messiah. They had deviated from
God’s Law many years before. But God
sent his Son to them. To the despised of
the world.
2. There is nothing you can
do to separate yourselve from the love of God except for one thing--perpetual
unbelief. Jesus came and worked that men
might find life in him. Even if you see
yourself as somehow beyond salvation, you are not. Jesus has never turned away a sinner you
earnestly desired to come to him. He
goes out of the way to bring some the Gospel.
3. The plans and purposes of God are beyond our
understanding. Today might be the day
when the Gospel comes through these feeble attempts at preaching to affect your
heart and mind. Consider Jesus the
Savior God has appointed for mankind. He
is your only hope.
4. Jesus is a real man who
has experienced what it is to live among sinners. He feared nobody, but ministered his
undeserved grace and mercy to many. Can you imagine what it must have been like
to be free from sin while living among sinners.
Can you imagine what it must have been like to know the wickedness of
men’s hearts? What if it were only the
wickedness of your own heart that Jesus knew?
How could a perfectly righteous being tolerate the knowledge? He did because he had a job to do. As much as he needed to go to Samaria, we
must remember it was along the way to Calvary.
Life among men was part of the suffering Jesus endured in his life in
order to be a perfect sacrifice in his death. His life saves us as much as his
death. Listen to ROM 5:8 But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
9 Much more then,
having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God through the death
of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
the reconciliation.
The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ shows us the outworking of God’s
saving plan. Each part is important because they all add up to our
salvation. Jesus came to live as a man
in order to bring us back to God.
Whatever it took, he was willing to do--FOR US! FOR US!
That we might believe, that we might be born from above, that we might
hear of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is preached. These aren’t stories of heroes
conquering other men. This is the story of God and how he loved sinners--even
the despised and rejected of the world.
It is about Jesus, the friend of sinners.
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