Page 56 - Life of Christ w videos

ordained time. His opponents failed in their attempt to seize Him “because His hour had not yet come”
(John 7:30).

Jesus used the traditional practices of the Jewish religious festival to set the stage for His message. He
went to the temple because that is where the crowds of people would be. During the Feast of
Tabernacles, the people would offer prayers for the fall rains that were necessary to assure a bountiful
springtime harvest. On the final day of the festival, the priest would present a special offering of water,
along with the daily drink offering of wine, in thanksgiving and prayer to God who supplies the life-giving
rains. It probably was at this moment that Jesus rose and spoke to the people, “If anyone thirsts, let him
come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). Then in the next breath, He reminded the people of the rock in the
wilderness that provided the Israelites with water. He said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture
has said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water” (v. 38). He spoke of the Holy Spirit that would
indwell all those who believed in Jesus, the Messiah.

At that point, some believed, but most did not, stating that the Messiah must come not from Galilee as
Jesus had come, but from Bethlehem. This demonstrated an ignorance of who Jesus was, for He did
come from Bethlehem.

Jesus Ministers in the Region of Judea (Luke 10; Luke 10:25-37; Luke 10:38-42; Luke 11:1-13)

This period of Jesus’ ministry is often called “The Later Judean Ministry” of Jesus. You recall that Jesus
ministered for several months in the Judean region at the onset of His public ministry, along with John
the Baptist and before the calling of His disciples. Even though Jesus had visited the region briefly on
several occasions, He had not spent any extended time there concentrating on the effort to saturate the
area with His claims concerning Himself. Now that He is in Judea, He did just that. By now it was clear
that the nation as a whole was determined to disbelieve in Him, even though some individuals have
believed. Also, the area of Judea was very much under the domination of the religious leaders centered
in Jerusalem. So, Jesus spent time in Judea so that the masses there could also hear His claim to be the
Messiah and the Son of God accompanied with validating miracles. He did this so that no person in
Judea could assert that they did not know who Jesus claimed to be. They would be without excuse.

Jesus organized a group of disciples to share the Gospel of the Kingdom among the villages and towns in
Judea. He appointed 72 men and sent them two by two to all the places He intended to go. Some
translations say 70 were appointed, but the older manuscripts add “and two”. He gave them careful
instructions, warning them that some towns would not receive their message. He illustrated His point
by cursing three Galilean cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. He had preached and healed
hundreds of people in these cities, yet they would not believe in Him. The seventy-two returned with
great joy declaring that they were even able to cast out demons in Christ’s name.

During this time in Judea Jesus was asked by a scribe who was a student of the law how a person could
be saved. This scribe was testing Jesus in hopes he could find inconsistencies in His teachings. Jesus
answered his question with a question, often called the Socratic Method. Jesus asked the Scribe a
question who answered it correctly: “Love God and love your neighbor”. Jesus responded in sharing a
parable specifically to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

He told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Having just come through Samaria, he recalled the
animosity Jews and Samaritans felt for one another. The parable shared how a man was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, a distance of 25 kilometers. In Jesus’ time the Jericho-Jerusalem road was

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