GEOBI · Teach, present & print
Jesus' Galilee Ministry: A 3-Week Course
Week 1 · Rejected in His Hometown
Luke 4:16-30
As he begins his ministry, Jesus returns to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he grew up, and reads from Isaiah. After reading, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to preach the gospel to the poor," he declares, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" — an audacious claim to be the fulfillment of that very prophecy. At first the people marvel at his gracious words, but soon they reject him for being too familiar: "Is not this Joseph's son?" The fact that he was hardest to be recognized in the very place he was most familiar shows that faith is a response to revelation, not to familiarity.
Discuss together
The people of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus too well, and that very familiarity kept them from recognizing him. Are there places in our own lives where familiarity gets in the way of real recognition?
Quiz and explanations
Which prophet's writing did Jesus read from in the Nazareth synagogue?
- Jeremiah
- Isaiah
- Ezekiel
- Daniel
Check order
2. In the Nazareth synagogue, Jesus opened and read from the writing of the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:17).
Why did the people of Nazareth reject Jesus?
- Because he resisted Rome
- Because they knew him as Joseph's son
- Because he collected taxes
- Because he was a foreigner
Check order
2. The people rejected him, saying, "Is not this Joseph's son?" — precisely because they thought they knew him too well (Luke 4:22).
1. Week 1 · Rejected in His Hometown
Luke 4:16-30
As he begins his ministry, Jesus returns to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he grew up, and reads from Isaiah. After reading, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to preach the gospel to the poor," he declares, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" — an audacious claim to be the fulfillment of that very prophecy. At first the people marvel at his gracious words, but soon they reject him for being too familiar: "Is not this Joseph's son?" The fact that he was hardest to be recognized in the very place he was most familiar shows that faith is a response to revelation, not to familiarity.
The people of Nazareth thought they knew Jesus too well, and that very familiarity kept them from recognizing him. Are there places in our own lives where familiarity gets in the way of real recognition?
Nazareth
2. Week 2 · Called by the Lakeshore
Matthew 4:18-22 · Matthew 8:23-27
The Sea of Galilee is the iconic backdrop of Jesus' ministry. There he calls the fishermen Simon and Andrew, James and John, as they mend their nets, saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." It was not the theologically trained or the socially prominent, but ordinary working people, who were called as his first disciples. Later, when the disciples are terrified in a storm, Jesus commands the wind and waves, "Peace, be still" (Mark 4:39) — a scene that shows the call was not an ending, but the beginning of a shared journey.
Jesus called ordinary fishermen, not religious experts. Do we sometimes think we have to be 'qualified' before we can respond to a call?
Sea of Galilee
3. Week 3 · Capernaum, a Base for Ministry
Matthew 4:13 · Matthew 8:5-13 · Matthew 9:1-8
Capernaum is the village Jesus makes his ministry base after leaving Nazareth (Matthew 4:13). In its synagogue he teaches with an authority unlike the scribes, and when a paralytic is brought to him, he heals him upon seeing the faith of the friends who carried him there. It is also in Capernaum that a centurion's servant is healed — the centurion believes Jesus doesn't even need to come to his house, only to speak the word. Finding such faith in a Roman centurion, not in Israel, Jesus marvels and declares, "as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
The centurion believed that Jesus' word alone was enough, without him needing to come in person. Does our own prayer and faith carry that kind of boldness?
Capernaum
Rebuild the journey
Choose the places in journey order to reconstruct the route.