Transcription
Foreign. [Music] [Applause] [Music] This town, Capernaum, has been mentioned in the Bible more than any other town in the Galilee. And there are many of Jesus's disciples that came from here: you've got Peter, James, Andrew, John, and Matthew. Matthew, a tax collector, was from here. So this was the center of Jesus's teaching.
As you know, he went to Nazareth because Joseph brought his family to Nazareth to avoid Archelaus. We talked about that already because Archelaus was a bad guy. So he grew up in Nazareth, but then he made this town sort of the center of his ministry. Seventy percent of his time was spent in the Galilee; it wasn't spent in Jerusalem. They found a marker out here pointing out that this was part of the route called The Way of the Sea. Ellie's talked about that a lot—that to go from, say, Africa, to go from Egypt, you'd come up the coast of Israel, then you'd cut inland, pass right past here, and then head out to Damascus. And then if you wanted to go up to Europe or Asia, you could. Jesus picked this place maybe because it's right on this Way of the Sea, this heavily busy road that people would take.
Why would Matthew be here to collect taxes? As Ellie was saying on the bus earlier, to collect taxes. They found 10,000 coins underneath this synagogue you see here. This is a synagogue called the White Synagogue; it's fourth century A.D. But the black basalt you see under there is the foundation of the first-century synagogue in which Jesus taught. And he taught in that synagogue quite a bit. We'll see one of the teachings here in just a minute.
Now, let me ask you guys a question: What is wrong with the world? If you had to sum up what's wrong with the world, what would you say? Sin is certainly wrong with the world. What else? What's that? Self-worship? Okay, that would be part of sin, right? We're concerned about ourselves more than anything else. Sin gets us into trouble. What else can hurt us? Huh? Greed? Still, you're still talking about sin. Get away from sin for a second. Natural disasters, right? Nature can hurt us. Sickness can hurt us. And, of course, the ultimate problem is death, right? Death is our ultimate problem. If you think about the problems in the world, why is this a broken world? Because there's sin, there's nature that can hurt us, there's sickness that can hurt us, which ultimately leads to our biggest problem—that is, death.
Now, if you notice when Jesus did miracles, he wasn't doing card tricks; he wasn't doing things just randomly. He was doing miracles in those four areas: sin, nature, sickness, and death. He could raise the dead. So let's take a look at the first one: sin. First of all, Jesus is sinless. He conquers sin; nobody else can conquer sin but him. Secondly, what did he do in Capernaum in Mark chapter 1, Mark chapter 2, with regard to sin? What did he say to the paralytic? Do you remember? "Your sins are forgiven." And immediately the priests or the Pharisees, whoever were here, said, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah by claiming to be someone who can forgive sin. I mean, imagine if someone sinned against someone else and you said, "I forgive you," you had nothing to do with the sin. You know, Peter sinned against Sheamus and I said to Peter, "Peter, I forgive you." Should I go? What? You don't have the authority to do that. Were you coming up with this idea that you can heal or that you can forgive sins unless you're God? So Jesus has power over sin.
Secondly, what he demonstrates is he has power over nature. We were just out in the Sea of Galilee earlier today. We already talked about the fact that he had power over the waves and the wind. He just told them to stand down, and they did. He didn't, by the way, notice he didn't have to pray to God to do that. He didn't have to say, "Oh, Lord, could you help calm the seas?" No, he just said, "Be still," and they were still because he had the power to do that, like Yahweh in Psalm 107, same thing. He can overcome nature. He can turn water into wine. He can walk on water, right out here. He has the power over nature.
Thirdly, Jesus also has the power over sickness. Who did he heal in this town? Just about everybody. Here's a list of the people that Jesus healed in Capernaum: He healed the demon-possessed man (Mark chapter 1). He healed a paralytic let down through the roof. You remember the story about how there were so many people around that they couldn't get in to see Jesus? So what is what is what do these guys do? Ellie was talking about how a roof is made of mud and thatch and all that. They dug through the roof to lower him in. Now think about the imagery of this: Jesus is in a house around here, right, within probably 100 yards of where we are right now, and there's crowds all around the house. These guys go up on the roof; they carry this guy up; he can't walk; they dig through the roof and they lower him in. What does that make you think of? Oh, an elevator? Yeah, it's a burial; they're burying him into the grave. And who's in there? Jesus is in there. Jesus can resurrect him. He just says he's in there, and he says, "Arise and walk; your sins are forgiven." Who can do that but the Messiah alone? And he does. So they're like pallbearers; they're putting him in, and he stands up and walks out, and everyone is amazed.
Jesus also healed the man with the paralyzed hand (that's Mark chapter 3), healed the woman of hemorrhaging blood (you remember the lady that grabbed a hold of His garment: "If I could just touch His garment, I'd be healed"). That's here; it's all right here. Also, he healed Jairus's daughter, Peter's mother-in-law, who lived right there under the Millennium Falcon. Get a shot of the Millennium Falcon over there. That's the Catholic church that has been built over Peter's mother-in-law's house, or Peter's house; that's where she was. By the way, no extra charge for this. Here's another undesigned coincidence: Jesus is in Capernaum; he's healing all sorts of people; and then he goes to Peter's house. And it says, "After sunset they came to the house to be healed." And you're thinking, now, if you're in Capernaum and you know Jesus moves around a lot and he's here to he's he's healing people and you're sick, are you going to wait till sunset? No, he might leave right at me; jump in a boat and go the other side, and you're go, "I missed the opportunity." But why did they wait till sunset? Huh? The gospel that it's written in doesn't tell us. The one gospel I'm speaking of, you got to go to another gospel. The other gospel says it was the Sabbath, so they couldn't go until sunset. That's an undesigned coincidence. One doesn't tell you that, and you're left scratching your head, going, "Why would they wait till sunset?" You read the other gospel; I got it. That's why they waited; it was the Sabbath. So we healed people there. Is it any wonder why great crowds followed him around? Where you could heal people like that! He healed the Centurion's servant from here, and they caught a miraculous amount of fish. How many fish did they catch? It was right in this area: 153. Now, why would they have that in John chapter 21, the actual number 153? First of all, it's a lot of fish. Secondly, that's what that's what fishermen do, right? We got 153. It's not a made-up detail. All this is done right here. And also, there were Greek inscriptions found in this house right here, in Peter's house below. You'll see it when you go in. Most of these inscriptions are from the early second century. They knew that this place was converted into some kind of worship center. And 111 of these inscriptions have been found there. That's why archaeologists are saying, "Hey, this has got to be Peter's house," because the followers later turned this into a bit of a shrine and then ultimately a church.
All right, so Jesus has power over sickness. And then finally, Jesus has power over death. He can resurrect the dead, and he, of course, resurrects himself and then gives us that opportunity to trust in him for us to be resurrected.
Now, one of the most famous teachings of all that Jesus had right here, right behind you in this synagogue, is in Mark—I'm sorry, in John chapter 6. Here's what Jesus says in John chapter 6, beginning in verse 35: He says, "I am the bread of life." This is the Bread of Life sermon he gives. Now, why is he saying, "I am the bread of life?" What did he just do earlier in the chapter? He fed the 5,000, where? Right there in Bethsaida, the real Bethsaida that Ellie was pointing out earlier. Okay, just right across the water right there. He had just fed the 5,000, and then people followed him over here. He goes into this synagogue right here and he says, "I am the bread of life." He's playing on what he had just done. And then he goes on to say, "He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." Later he says, "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." And then, as you know, it gets real controversial for Jesus at this point because he says, "If you want to follow me, if you want eternal life, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood." And it says many of the disciples—right there in the text says many disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. We can't follow this guy anymore. What's this guy talking about? We're not going to follow him. Eat flesh, drink blood? Forget it; I'm out." Right? This is another example of what we know is not a made-up story. Right? If you were going to make up a story about Jesus and you're trying to attract followers, are you going to say something like this where a lot of his disciples say, "Nope, I'm out; forget this"? They're not; it's not made up. And then Jesus turns to Peter—most of the time when Peter responds to Jesus he puts his foot in his mouth—right? This time he doesn't. Here's what here's what Peter—or Jesus says to Peter after all these disciples are going, "I'm out; can't can't follow this guy anymore"—he says, Jesus says to Peter, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" He asked the twelve; he asked all of them, "You all want to leave too?" And Peter's the one that speaks up. Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." Where are we going to go now? Think about this in your own life: Where are you going to go? Where else are you going to go? What other religion gives you grace? There's none. They're all works-based, and they also have the unfortunate circumstance of having false teachings in them. But Christianity does not. Christianity is telling you the truth because this is exactly what happened.
Now, if someone ever asks you, "How do you know that God exists?" what should you say? I think what I would say if someone asked me, "How do I know that God exists?" is, "I know God by his effects." So if there's an effect, there's got to be a cause. So if there's a creation, that's an effect; you're reasoning back to a cause, a creator. And if there's a spaceless, timeless, immaterial creation—in other words, nothing existed, and then space, time, and matter came into existence out of nothing—whatever created space, time, and matter must be beyond space, time, and matter. It can't be made of space, time, and matter. So the cause must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal, and at least intelligent. We get that from one argument known as the cosmological argument. We have this effect, and we're reasoning back to a cause: a spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal, intelligent Creator. We see design in the universe; that's the effect. We're reasoning back to a designer. We have a moral law written on our hearts; that's the effect. We know certain things are right, other things are wrong. We're reasoning back to a moral law Giver. We have the capacity to ascertain truths about the real world. We have these laws of logic as well that we can use to discover what's out there. Our minds can ascertain these truths. So if that's the effect—this ability to reason—then we're reasoning back to a cause. What could be the product of reason—or should say the source of reason, the cause of reason? A mind itself. So we're reasoning from effect back to cause. If you think you have some sort of religious experience that tells you that God exists, you're doing the same thing; your reasoning from effect back to cause. So when you look at somebody like Jesus who does all these things, what's going to be your your solution or your judgment as to who this man is? If he can do all these things—if he can forgive sins, if he can calm nature, has power over nature, he can heal sickness, and he can raise the dead—who is this guy? What could do those things? Only a cause like God is the cause of Jesus. In fact, Jesus is God. He's the second person of the Eternal Trinity. He has a human nature but also a divine nature. And so when you look at the scriptures and you look at what Jesus has apparently done, I think you need to realize that you're dealing with God in the flesh. This is a being that came to Earth, added humanity to his deity, walked right here, taught right here, healed right here, calmed the seas right here, raised the dead here, and, of course, rose himself in Jerusalem so that he could fix our broken world. He can overcome sin; he can overcome nature; he can overcome sickness; he can overcome death. That's our problem in this broken world, and he is the solution. So when Peter says, "Where else are you going to go? Where else are you going to go?" You're going to go to Islam? Works-based. You're gonna go to Hinduism? Don't even have a God, or they have a whole bunch of gods, but they're not the God. And it's works-based. Where else are you going to go? Jesus was very wise—or I should say Peter was very wise—to say, "Where else are we going to go?" There's no else; there's nobody else. You hold the key to eternal life, and he does.
Questions? Questions on any of this? Peter did—I should say Jesus did—so much right here; that's why it's my favorite spot. You know he was here. Frank, if you got an opinion on religions versus Jesus' worldview—in other words, did he come to set up a religion?
Well, it depends on what you mean by religion. Uh, yeah, I hear people say that all the time, you know, "Christianity is a relationship, not a religion." But the scriptures even use the word religion. Okay, this is true religion: that we help the poor, we help the needy, we take care of widows, right? Okay, so it depends on what you mean by religion. It is a worldview, obviously. You're viewing the world through the truths of the scripture and truths of what we know beyond the scripture. Um, so it is a worldview, and to be honest, it is a religion. The question is, what kind of religion is it? It's not the kind of religion that just about every other religion—in fact, it's unique in the fact that it's the only one that offers grace. You don't do things in order to please God and to somehow have God owe you. You do things because God has already saved you, and out of gratitude for what he's done, then you live a life pleasing to him. It's not to earn anything with God; he owns everything anyway. In fact, I think it was Martin Luther who put it this way: "You're saved by faith alone, but your faith is not alone; it's always going to be accompanied by good works because out of love for God you are going to do good works; you're going to follow him." "If you love me, you'll keep my Commandments," said Jesus. But keeping the Commandments doesn't get you to God. You've already broken the Commandments. Actually, I should rephrase that. You know, you can get to Heaven by being good. You can; you just have to be perfect your whole life. Too late for me. How about you? Right? Anyone else? Well, apparently not. Apparently not, because Jesus cursed the town, right? He cursed this town, Bethsaida and Chorazin, where we were earlier today. So while I'm sure some have did become Believers—in fact, the disciples that lived here did, obviously—but many of them didn't. Look, people, you hear people saying all the time, "If God would do a miracle, if God would show himself to me, I would believe." No, you wouldn't, probably. You'd probably see a psychiatrist and say, "Oh, somebody's appearing to me." Right? There's a problem here. Because if your worldview is set up against God, if you don't want God to exist, you're going to do everything you can to avoid that conclusion. This is why I always ask people, "If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?" Most people, if they're honest, they'll say no. They're looking for God like a criminal is looking for a cop, right? They're not interested; they don't want God to exist because they want to be God of their own lives. They want to go their own way. They're not on a truth quest; they're on a happiness quest, and they're just going to do whatever they think is going to make them happy. The problem is, you can make yourself happy over the short term doing a lot of fun things, but over the long term it's a disaster. And everyone here who's over 40 knows what I'm talking about because many of us have tried it ourselves, right? You're going to do it your way; it doesn't work. Only it works short term, not long term. Anyone else? Go ahead, Alpheus. Timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal, and intelligent. We get that from one argument. Oh, yo, go. [Music] He's immaterial, awesome, powerful; he's so smart, and he's kind enough to live in my heart. Heart. That describes my God. Oh. [Applause] That's that's kind of like a creed, but that's all right. That's it. That's kind of like a creed. You see, it's got a musical tune that goes with it. In fact, some of the some of the sections of the New Testament are like that; they're creeds and put put to music. Some people think that Philippians chapter four—or it may be Philippians chapter two—where it talks about uh that Jesus emptied himself and uh didn't uh didn't think it was uh uh he didn't grasp the attributes of God; he gave that up; he became a humble servant. I think that may have been a Psalm of some kind that was sung so people would remember it.
Ticked a lot of people off? Yeah, all the time. Well, he ticked off the people you just said in in John chapter 6, right? "Eat flesh, drink blood; I'm out." I probably would have been out too, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah. Associated with Matthew? Go ahead, Alexis. Attempted to play. That's Nazareth; that's tomorrow. Yes, that was his hometown; maybe that's why he left, right? Tried to push him off a cliff. That's where he would he grew up, but once he started doing ministry he came here. Okay, yeah, we're gonna be there tomorrow. Oh, yeah. I've seen one estimate; I think it's probably too high. Maybe Ellie has a better one. Estimates 15,000. That seems high to me. What do you think, Ellie? Right here at Capernaum, first century—first century uh population? I know. I think around a couple thousand. A couple thousand, maybe? Yeah, that's I've seen more of that, yeah. Live from fish, you know, so maybe they did some little bit businesses here, a little bit there; got two fish, you know, and a tax, and on the highway. So we're talking about let's say between 2,000 to 5,000. Okay. Okay, 2,000–5,000, maybe. But you could see how they could easily surround a place, and the only way to get in was go through the roof, right? Especially if you guys can heal somebody, you'd be like, "I gotta get in there; I have to get in there." So they did. All right, why don't we do this? You want to go in that church? If you can, you just got to be really quiet. And when you look down, you will see the remains of Peter's house. And literally it's a, you know, 15-second walk from the synagogue. So Jesus finished teaching this synagogue; he goes to Peter's house; heals his mother; most right there; it is right there. So go look around. And five o'clock it closes, so that's probably our time to leave. Then you can look around a little bit more; some of the remains over here. Go in the synagogue, certainly. The synagogue's right here. [Music]