Today was one of my favorite days so far on our journey through Israel. It was a busy day but we saw and learned some amazing things as we began our tour of Galilee.
We started at Mt. Arbel, one of the places Jesus probably went to for a “solitary place to pray” (Luke 6:12; Mark 1:35-39). It was an amazing hike and an awesome view. We looked over the Sea of Galilee with a beautiful and peaceful view and again saw many of the places we read about in the Bible.
Hiking this mountain helped me to realize how much effort Jesus put into spending one-on-one time with the Father. In our hectic worlds Jesus demonstrated that we must find time to be alone with God.
We then went to Tabgha, the place where Jesus called His first disciples to follow Him (Luke 6:13-16; Mark 1:16-20). This is a place of calling people to follow Christ. This is also where he ate with the disciples after His resurrection (Luke 24:36-49). It’s a place of calling to discipleship, and a place of glorification that is to come.
From there we climbed to the place were Jesus taught what we refer to as “the sermon the mount” found in Matthew 5—7 (cf. Luke 6:17-49) - (no picture). Jesus taught many things here and one of them was how we ought to pray, often referred to as the Lord’s prayer (Mat. 5:5-15). Holly and I took some time to reflect on Jesus’ teaching and then prayed the Lord’s Prayer in the spot Jesus most likely taught His followers to do so; another amazing opportunity to see and practice the text in real life. It was one of the meaningful times Holly and I grew together as the scripture came alive to us.
We then when to Korazin and leaned about family and community living. The 1st century church had “Insula,” a family and community living arrangement that caused them to be mutually dependant on one another. The community scripture calls us to have with one another as believers was actually built into the way they lived. The challenge for us is to live life with Insula. We should design our lives so that we are mutually dependant on one another (Acts 2:42). This community is the way God desires for us to live.
Next we went to Capernaum, the headquarters of Jesus’ ministry (Mat. 4:13-16). Jesus performed many miracles and healings here. It is also the place where Jesus trained His disciples for ministry, both intellectually and practically.
The question to us is, Who are you discipling? Who are you training to live their life as a servant of Christ? As I thought through ministry and the guys I meet with I was challenged to do more and train harder. It was a real blessing to see the place where Jesus set up His ministry.
Finally, our last stop was at Bethsaida. This is where Jesus fed the 5 thousand (Luke 9:19-17), healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and the town where Philip, Andrew, and Peter grew up (John 1:44). To picture them on the hills and down in the Sea let your imagination run free, it made these people real and normal. Thinking of ministry and discipleship, Jesus used regular guys from a regular place. It was their faith that made them effective!
If we want to be people of the text, people with an meaningful life for Christ we must be people who live finding time to be alone with the Father, people who are committed to following Christ, people who live in genuine and dependant community with other believers, people who are equipping others to live as disciples of Christ, and people who live trusting Jesus and His word. We learned this today in living color!
Today was a big day…a big, big day!
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