CHAPTER 5

Jesus entered Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the whole region. The region of Galilee was 45 miles north-south and 25 miles east-west, with a population of about 300,000 living in about 200 villages and towns. All the people of Galilee welcomed Jesus, for they had seen the miracles that he had done at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem.

Jesus taught in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. From that time on, Jesus proclaimed the good news of God, and that the kingdom of God has arrived! He declared that the time has been fulfilled and that the people must repent, turn to God, and believe the good news of God.

Once again, Jesus walked to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned water into wine. In Capernaum there lived a Roman military officer whose son was very sick. When this man heard that Jesus had returned to Galilee from Judea, he hurried to Cana to meet Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum and heal his dying son. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my son dies.” Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said and left for his home. While he was walking from Cana to Capernaum, his servants met him and said, “Your son is living!” The man asked them, “What time did he begin to get better?” They said, “Yesterday in the early afternoon.” Then the father realized that it was the exact time that Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So, the official and his whole household believed in Jesus.

This was the second miracle that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

After the healing of the officer’s son, Jesus walked from Cana to his hometown of Nazareth. On the Sabbath day Jesus went into the synagogue. When he stood up to read, he was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus unrolled the scroll and read Isaiah 61:1-2 out loud, “The Spirit of the Lord has come upon me, for he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and to give sight to the blind, to set free everyone who is oppressed, and to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.’” Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the synagogue attendant and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue was staring at him. Jesus said to them, “Today, this passage in Isaiah is fulfilled in your hearing.”

All the people in Nazareth were saying good things about Jesus and were amazed at the gracious words that he spoke. They asked each other, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Jesus said to them, “Surely you will tell me, ‘Do the miracles here in Nazareth that we hear you did in Capernaum.’ But I tell you the truth: No prophet is accepted by the people of his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel during the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three and one half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of the widows of Israel, but to a widow in the town of Zarephath in the non-Jewish region of Sidon. And many people in Israel had leprosy during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were healed except Naaman the Syrian.”

When the people in the synagogue heard Jesus speak about God’s favor on non-Jews, they became filled with anger. They got up, drove Jesus out of the town, and took him to the edge of the cliff on which Nazareth was built, so they could throw him over.

But Jesus walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

After being rejected in Nazareth, Jesus went to live in the town of Capernaum. Capernaum was located on the north coast of Lake Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500. Jesus’ permanent move to Capernaum fulfilled what is written in Isaiah 9:1-2, “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way to the Sea, east of the Jordan River in Perea, Galilee of the non-Jews—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has risen.”

One day Jesus left Capernaum and was walking along the north-west coast of Lake Galilee.

As Jesus was walking along the shore, he saw the brothers Peter and Andrew. Peter and Andrew were fishermen, and they were throwing a fishing net into the lake. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Immediately they left their fishing nets and followed Jesus.

Walking a little further along the shore, Jesus saw the brothers James and John in a fishing boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishing nets. Jesus called James and John to follow him. They immediately left their fishing boat, their father Zebedee, and the hired men, and followed Jesus.

Leaving the coast of Lake Galilee, Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James, and John walked back into Capernaum. On the Sabbath day, Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach the people. Suddenly, a demon-possessed man screamed out in the synagogue, “Jesus of Nazareth, what do you want with us? Leave us alone! Have you come to destroy us? Go away, Jesus of Nazareth! Why are you bothering us? We know you are the Holy One of God!”

Jesus spoke with God’s authority and ordered the demon, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” The demon shook the man violently and threw him to the ground in front of everyone. Then the demon came out of the man with a loud shriek, but the demon did not hurt him.

After casting out the demon from the man, the people attending the synagogue were all amazed at what they saw and asked each other, “What is this? What kind of teaching is this? Is this a new teaching with authority? Jesus’ message has God’s authority and power to order demons to come out of people. He commands demons and they obey him. Jesus teaches with God’s authority and not like our religious lead- ers.”

After Jesus set free the demon-possessed man in the Capernaum synagogue, news about Jesus spread throughout the whole surrounding region of Galilee.

With James and John, Jesus left the Capernaum synagogue and entered the house of Peter and Andrew which was nearby. When they arrived, Peter’s mother-in-law was lying in bed suffering with a terrible fever. They told Jesus about her and asked him to help her. Jesus went and touched her hand, bent over her, and ordered the fever to leave her. And the fever left her. Then Jesus took her hand and helped her up from her bed. She immediately got up and began to serve them.

That evening—after sunset when the Sabbath was over—the people of Capernaum gathered outside the door of Peter’s house. They brought to Jesus the people who suffered from various kinds of sick- ness—those who were sick and demon-possessed. Jesus healed the people of all kinds of diseases and all who were sick by placing his hands on them. He drove out the demons from people with a single command. Demons came out of many people shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus rebuked the demons and ordered them not to speak because for they knew that he was the Messiah.

This fulfilled what is written in Isaiah 53:4, “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

The next morning, Jesus got up just before daybreak. He left Peter’s house in Capernaum and walked to an isolated place in the hills west of Lake Galilee where he could be alone and pray. Peter and many people left Capernaum and went out to search for Jesus. When they found him, they said, “Everyone in Capernaum is looking for you!” And they tried to stop Jesus from leaving them. But Jesus said to Peter and the crowd of people, “Let’s leave here and walk through the nearby towns of Galilee, so that I can proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God there also, for this is the reason that I came into the world.”

So they walked throughout Galilee, preaching and teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the message of the kingdom of God, casting demons out of people, and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people. And Jesus kept on preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

As a result of his ministry, news about Jesus spread throughout the whole region of Syria, a non-Jewish region north of Galilee between Damascus and the Mediterranean Sea. And people brought to Jesus all who were sick with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, those tormented by demons, those having seizures, and those who were paralyzed. Jesus healed them all!

Large crowds of people from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region of Perea east of the Jordan River followed Jesus

One day as Jesus was standing on the northwest coast of Lake Galilee, a crowd of people pressed around him to listen to the word of God. Jesus saw two fishing boats at the shore that had been left there by some fishermen washing their nets. Jesus got into Peter’s fishing boat, and asked him to push the boat out a short way from the shore. Then he sat down in the boat and taught the people.

When Jesus had finished teaching, he told Peter, “Row your boat into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch of fish.” Peter said, “Master, we’ve fished all night and have not caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down my nets.” When they did what Jesus had told them, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.

So Peter and Andrew called to their fishing partners James and John in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats with so many fish that they began to sink. When Peter saw this catch of fish, he fell at Jesus’ feet and declared, “Lord! Go away from me, for I am a sinful man!” They were all amazed at their catch of fish. Then Jesus said to Peter, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”

So when they pulled their boats up onto the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

When Jesus was in one of the towns of Galilee, a man walked by who was covered with a severe skin disease. When he saw Jesus, he came and fell on his knees and then bowed with his face to the ground before him. The man begged Jesus saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Jesus was filled with compassion and reached out his hand and touched the man saying, “I am willing. Be healed! Be clean!” Immediately his skin disease disappeared and he was healed.

Then Jesus sent him away with a strong warning. He ordered the man, “Make sure you don’t tell anyone that I healed you, but go to Jerusalem and show yourself to the temple priests and offer the sacrifices according to the law Moses commanded for your cleansing. For this will be a witness to them.” But instead of going to the Jerusalem temple, the man healed of a skin disease went out and told everyone about Jesus.

Because of Jesus’ ministry, news about him spread even more, so that large crowds of people came to hear him teach and be healed of their sicknesses. Because of the growing crowds, Jesus could no longer walk into a town in Galilee openly. So he would often withdraw from the crowds of people and go out to stay in rural, isolated places, where he could be alone and pray. But people would still go out to see him from everywhere.

When the people heard that Jesus was in Capernaum, they went to Peter’s house and gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Jewish religious leaders were also sitting there from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And Jesus taught them the word of God.

When God’s power was with Jesus to heal the sick, four men carried a paralyzed man on a stretcher to him. They tried to take him into Peter’s house and lay him before Jesus, but they could not get near him because of the large crowd of people. So the four men took stairs onto the roof, dug a hole in the roof, and lowered the paralyzed man on his stretcher through the tiles into the middle of the crowd—right in front of Jesus.

When Jesus saw the faith of the four men who brought him, he said to the paralyzed man, “My friend, take heart; your sins are for- given.” Now when the religious leaders heard Jesus, they said to one another, “Why is he talking like this? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins, but God alone? He is making himself equal with God.”

Jesus knew in his spirit what the religious leaders were thinking in their hearts. He said to them, “Why are you thinking this way? Why do you allow evil thoughts to enter your hearts? What is easier for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher and walk’? I want you to know that the Son of Man has God’s authority on earth to forgive sins.”

Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Stand up, take your stretcher and go home.” The paralyzed man was healed immediately. He stood up in front of everyone, took his stretcher, and walked out of the house for everyone to see. He walked home praising God.

When the crowd of people saw that the paralyzed man was healed, they were amazed and praised God because he had given such authority to man. They were filled with awe and said, “We have never seen anything like this before! We have seen a miracle today!”

Jesus left Capernaum and once again walked along the north-west coast of Lake Galilee. At that time a large crowd of people gathered around Jesus, and he began to teach them. As Jesus was walking along the shore, he saw Matthew, a chief tax collector, sitting at his tax booth. Jesus called out to Matthew, “Follow me!” So Matthew immediately stood up, left his booth and everything else, and followed Jesus.

After becoming a disciple of Jesus, Matthew held a large banquet for him at his house in Capernaum. While Jesus was at Matthew’s house, a large crowd of tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples. Many of them were followers of Jesus.

When the religious leaders saw Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, they complained and asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you and your teacher eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Eating with people—table fellowship—was an indication of friendship.

The religious leaders would not eat with those they considered to be nonreligious sinners and social outcasts. In contrast, Jesus broke down these barriers by eating with all classes of people to show them the love of God. People who did not live a lifestyle according to God’s law were called ‘sinners’. They were religious outcasts.

Jesus heard the religious leaders and said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come into the world to call the righteous, but sinners to repent and turn to God. You need to go and learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”

The disciples of John the Baptist and the Jewish religious leaders would often pray and fast. And so after seeing Jesus banqueting at Matthew’s house, the disciples of John the Baptist came and asked Jesus, “Why do we fast and pray, but your disciples continue to eat and drink and do not fast?”

Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the wedding guests of the bridegroom mourn and fast while he is still with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then my disciples will fast.”

Jesus used the example of a wedding celebration to respond to those asking why his disciples did not fast. As part of the wedding celebration, the bridegroom went out to receive his bride from her parents’ home and bring her to his own. His friends and family participated in the joyful procession. After this bridegroom procession, they ate a marriage feast. Jesus identified himself as the bridegroom, and his disciples as the wedding guests. It would be after Jesus’ ascension to heaven that his disciples would fast.

Jesus was referring to his ascension into heaven when he said that the bridegroom will be taken away from them.

Then Jesus told them these stories of the old and the new: “No one takes a new cloth patch and sews it on an old garment. The new patch will shrink when the garment is washed, and the new patch will tear away from the old. The tear will be worse than it was at the beginning. The new patch will not match the old garment.

“Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will expand and cause the old wineskins to break open. Then the new wine will pour out, and both the new wine and wineskins will be ruined and useless. Instead, pour new wine into new wineskins, and then both of them will be preserved. No one after drinking old wine wants to drink new wine, for they will say, ‘The old wine is better.’”

In saying this, Jesus emphasized that the new covenant with God was totally incompatible with rigid religious traditionalism and human rules. For in Jesus, the kingdom of God became a new present reality.