Page 67 - Advanced Life of Christ - Student Textbook

righteous, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of
God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe
him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and
believe him” (Matthew 21:31–32) (https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-tax-collectors.html)

Whether Matthew was an abuser of this system, we do not know. However, we know that Jesus came
to “not call the righteous, but sinners” to repentance.

Jesus Saturates Galilee with His Message (Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 1:35-39 and Luke 4:41-44;
Luke 8:1-3; Matthew 9:35, Mark 6:6-13 and Luke 9:1-6)

During His ministry in Galilee, Jesus’
sought to establish Himself as the
promised Deliverer, the Messiah. He
also claimed to be the Son of the
Living God or God in flesh, the
promised Emmanuel – God with us. As Jesus made
these claims, He performed miracles to validate the
truth of His claims as divine messenger. After all, who
else but God could do the miracles He performed?

Traditional religion in Israel believed that God alone
forgave sins. While Jesus did not reject all the Jewish
practices, within them He demonstrated the divine
characteristics of omniscience and omnipotence. He
forgave the sins of the paralytic and demonstrated His authority to do so by healing him instantly. The
Scripture records that the entire crowd marveled and glorified God who had given such power to a man.

In his three journeys across Galilee, news spread all over the region as far as Syria, the Decapolis,
Jerusalem, and all of Judea and thousands of people were brought to him, those who were ill, those who
suffered severe pain, those who were demon-possessed, or paralyzed or had seizures and He healed
them. He continued to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, namely that He, the Messiah, was
present with them. During these trips, the twelve disciples, as well as Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Susanna, and many others, accompanied Jesus and helped fund the campaigns out of their own money.

The last trip through Galilee
occurred late in the 18-month
Galilean ministry, after the
nations, in spite of the
hundreds of amazing miracles
they experienced, had
determined to disbelieve and
after it became clear that,
because of the anger of the
religious leaders, namely the
Pharisees, He did not have
much more time before they

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