October 10, 2025 • 24 mins
JesusX30 Challenge—Scene 10: THE CAMPAIGN GAINS MOMENTUM
1. Key Texts
• Mark 3:1–19—Healing of the man with the withered hand; calling of the Twelve
• Matthew 12:9–21—The same healing and its prophetic meaning
• Luke 6:6–16—Sabbath confrontation and the choosing of the apostles
• Exodus 20:8–11; Isaiah 42:1–7—Sabbath and Servant themes
• Matthew 10:1–4—Apostolic commissioning
2. Outline / Notes
Date & Place
• Spring 28 AD—after the second Passover in Jerusalem.
• Region: Galilee, along the Sea of Galilee.
• Setting: open countryside and fishing towns (Capernaum, Bethsaida, Magdala).
• Distance from Jerusalem gives space for regrouping, training, and expansion.
Main Account
• Following intense conflict in Jerusalem, Jesus withdraws north—not to retreat but to rebuild.
• In a Galilean synagogue, he heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1–6).
– Asks: “Is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath?”
– The man’s hand is restored; leaders respond by plotting “to destroy him.”
• Jesus relocates to the shoreline, where crowds gather from across the region.
– He uses a small boat as a teaching platform—symbol of expanding beyond religious walls.
• From there, he goes up a mountain and appoints Twelve apostles (Mark 3:13–19).
• The Twelve represent the renewed Israel, a diverse core of fishermen, radicals, skeptics, and collaborators united under one mission.
Meanwhile
• Jesus’ withdrawal is strategic: movements need depth, not just crowds.
• Galilee becomes mission control—a training ground for leadership and momentum.
• Each act marks a shift:
– Healing = confronting legalism with mercy.
– Shoreline teaching = opening access beyond institutions.
– Choosing the Twelve = building infrastructure for long-term impact.
• The Kingdom is expanding through preparation, not performance.
3. Main Point
• Jesus doesn’t retreat—he recalibrates.
• Leaving Jerusalem is not escape; it’s strategic regrouping.
• Every lasting movement—spiritual or social—requires a “Galilee season”: a time to strengthen foundations before advancing again.
4. Exegetical Insight
• Mark 3:5—sullupoumenos epi tē pōrōsei tēs kardias autōn (“grieved at their hardness of heart”) shows divine compassion resisting legal hardness.
• Mark 3:14—hina ōsin met’ autou (“that they might be with him”)—discipleship begins in presence before mission.
• “Twelve” = symbolic reconstitution of Israel, echoing Exodus 24 and the covenant community.
• Galilee functions as both refuge and launchpad—geography mirrors theology.
5. Reflection Questions
• Have you ever mistaken a pause for failure?
• What might your own “Galilee season” be teaching or forming in you?
• How do you balance movement and rest, action and preparation?
• What mix of people has God placed in your life for the next stage of your calling?
6. Action Step / Challenge
• Identify one area where God may be calling you to slow down and rebuild.
• Ask: “What needs strengthening before I can advance again?”
• Journal or pray about how your current season might be strategic, not stagnant.
7. Share & Join the Movement
• Share your reflection using #JesusX30Challenge, #JX30, or #JesusX30.
• Invite someone into the 30-day discipleship journey.
• Subscribe on YouTube or Spotify to stay caught up with each scene.
Buy the books!
This 30-day challenge is based on my book trilogy entitled Jesus: The Strategic Life and Mission of the Messiah and His Movement (3 Volumes, Hekhal Publishing Co., 2025).
The Challenge follows the same “scene-by-scene” structure: historical, strategic, exegetical, devotional.
Designed to bring together scholarship + discipleship in a way that’s both accessible and transformational.
You can buy or borrow the trilogy at:
Hekhal Publishing Co. (look for free samples of each book as well)
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Have you ever stepped back from a situation that's really
important to you, not because you're throwing in the towel,
but because you realize you needto regroup and to rebuild?
It's not quitting, it's not hiding.
It's pausing just long enough toregain clarity, to sort of
strengthen your foundation and prepare for the next big move.
(00:30):
That's exactly where we find Jesus in this scene in his
campaign. What's up everybody?
I'm Tyson put off. And this is scene 10 of the
Jesus X30 Challenge. Up until now, Jesus has been
making waves in Jerusalem. He's been healing on the
Sabbath, claiming divine authority, confronting the
religious establishment during Passover.
(00:51):
His actions have really stirred excitement among the crowds and
also stirred hostility among theleaders who oppose him.
And when I say hostility, I don't mean Snyder Marks and
gossip. I mean people actively trying to
figure out how to kill him by this point.
So he leaves Jerusalem and he heads back to the Galilee.
(01:11):
And we need to understand this is not an escape.
This is a calculated move. Remember, Jesus uses people in
time and resources strategically, but he also uses
geography strategically. And that's what he's doing here.
He understands that revolutions don't survive on adrenaline
alone. OK, adrenaline burns hot, but it
(01:32):
burns out movements that need more time to grow.
And they need more than a excited crowd.
They need leaders. They need training.
They need organization. They need strategy for
sustainability. Sometimes you have to regroup.
And in the Galilee, Jesus beginsto do exactly that.
So it's spring of 28 AD, It's a beautiful season in the Galilee.
(01:57):
So we've got fishing villages surrounding the shores,
Capernaum, Bethsaida, Magdala, Guinnessarat, narrow dirt paths,
wine between them. And they carry traders and
farmers and fishermen and travelers from as far as
Damascus or tire. So the Galilee is a crossroads.
The the VMRS, the Way of the Sea, runs along the western
(02:18):
shore and this connects Egypt inthe southwest, to Syria in the
north and and on up to the northand to the east.
Roman patrols occasionally pass through, but this is no fortress
city like Jerusalem. So the the watchful eyes of the
Sanhedrin and the authorities and the elites, they're still
(02:39):
miles away down South. And this distance matters.
As we've talked before, out hereup north, Jesus has room to
breathe. He's he has room to teach
without constant interruption from the authorities to gather
people who are curious and hungry for something new.
And it's also an ethnically and culturally mixed region.
It's predominantly Jewish villages exist alongside gentile
(03:03):
towns or non Jewish towns with Greek architecture and Roman
influence, farmers and fishermenand artisans and merchants.
They're all living under the same Roman system and under the
shadow of Herod Antipas, the local tetrarch.
So life here is diverse, but it's hard for everyone.
Taxes are high. Opportunities for social
(03:23):
advancement are limited. The hope for deliverance,
whether that's spiritual or political or social or economic
or or all of the above, it's really strong at this point in
this region. In other words, it's fertile
ground for a message about the Kingdom of God.
And Mark tells us on one Sabbath, Jesus enters the
(03:43):
synagogue. Common practice for Jesus to do.
Synagogues in the 1st century weren't so much like modern
churches. They were multi purpose spaces
used for prayer and teaching andlegal discussions and community
gatherings. And if you if you can picture a
rectangular stone building with a flat roof, benches along the
walls, and sort of this open space in the center where
(04:06):
scripture could be read and discussed and issues could be
debated Inside this particular synagogue is a man with a
withered hand. Probably a long term disability,
maybe the result of an injury ora disease.
And this is tough for a manual laborer in the Galilee.
This type of injury basically could mean and likely did mean
(04:29):
economic ruin. If you don't have full body
strength and capabilities. You don't just they don't just
go and put you in an office job.This is an agrarian society and
most people had to work physically to earn a living.
Also in this synagogue setting, our religious leaders, probably
(04:50):
Pharisees, watching Jesus closely and they're not watching
him out of curiosity at this point, but in the hopes that
he's going to heal the man. And in their eyes, break the
Sabbath and their understanding of Sabbath law prohibited work
of any kind except to save a life.
Healing this man in his hand. It's something that could wait
(05:10):
till the next day. It's a long term disability, so
he's not in a rush to be healed.So he didn't qualify for that
life saving care on the Sabbath.Jesus doesn't avoid the
confrontation. He makes it public.
He calls the man stand in front of everyone.
He shifts his eyes to the center.
And then he asks the question that I think really cuts through
(05:36):
all of their legal calculations.Mark 3.
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil?
To save a life or to kill? And the silence is telling.
So in the Levitical code, the Sabbath was a gift.
It was a rest for the whole community, even for servants and
animals. But by the 1st century, there
(05:56):
had been a lot of interpretive layers placed around it to make
sure that nobody even came closeto breaking the Sabbath.
And Jesus's question kind of exposes the absurdity of of a
lot of these layers. They're trying to protect
holiness. But he's basically saying if the
Sabbath is meant for life and restoration, how could healing
(06:18):
be a violation of that? Even if it's not a life saving
healing, though, in the case of this man, it is a life restoring
healing. And when no one answers, Jesus
tells the man, stretch out your hand.
He does and it's instantly restored.
No touch, no, no magic potions, just just restored to wholeness.
And so this act pushes the opposition from suspicion to
(06:43):
outright conspiracy. Mark 36 says that they went out
and immediately began conspiring.
Get this, How they might destroyhim, how they might destroy
Jesus. And the Greek term here that
Mark uses is, is fascinating. It's literally the word to
destroy, to annihilate. So this is no longer a
(07:04):
theological disagreement. This is open hostility to Jesus.
So Jesus's opponents aren't justout to dispute him, right?
They're out to erase him from the earth and to stomp out the
growing influence he's began to have by this point, because they
know that there's something different about him and his
messianic campaign from all the others who've come and made
these claims in this same regionmany times before.
(07:28):
So Jesus leaves the synagogue and he heads to the shore of the
Sea of Galilee. And again, this isn't running
away, it's redirecting the battlefield on the open
shoreline. Jesus is beyond the Pharisees
control. And the crowds begin to pour in,
not just from the local villages, but from far off
regions, from Judea and Jerusalem and Indumia in the
(07:48):
South across the Jordan and evenfrom the Phoenician coast up
north, Tyre and Sidon. So, so you can imagine the same
people are arriving dusty and tired from days of travel, and
they're carrying sick relatives on makeshift stretchers and
they're leading those without sight by hand, helping those who
(08:08):
can't walk and can't travel physically.
They're helping them along. And others come not for healing,
but just to hear this teacher they've heard these rumors about
the one who speaks with this unique type of authority unlike
any of the teachers they've heard.
And the crowd is so large that Jesus has his disciples prepare
(08:29):
a small boat, but this isn't forfishing.
This is as basically a floating platform.
He's, he's pushed far enough outinto the shore where he can
teach without being basically pushed into the water by these
crowds. And this is a practical way of
controlling the crowd, but it's also a symbolic shift.
I think the the synagogue may have rejected him at the open
(08:51):
water, in the open air. They've become his new pulpit,
his new campaign platform from this growing community of
followers. Jesus goes up on the
mountainside, a place of revelation in Israel's history.
Mountains were where God met Moses in Exodus 19, where Elijah
(09:11):
heard the whisper in First Kings19.
In the Gospels, mountain settings often mark turning
points. They're drum rolls for something
big that's about to happen. The mountains in these regions
are also where revolutionaries would have banded together
because they were off the grid, and then they would have
(09:32):
formulated their attacks to comedown and try to launch a violent
revolt. So here Jesus goes up to the
mountain and he formally appoints 12 men.
This is the formal appointing ofthe 12 and of course the number
12. It's not an accident in in
Hebrew scriptures. In ancient Israelite thinking,
(09:53):
Israel consisted of 12 tribes descended from the sons of
Jacob. By choosing 12 apostles, Jesus
is kind of enacting A symbolic reconstitution of God's people,
not along genealogical lines at this point, but through
allegiance to him and his message.
Notice the list of disciples. That's fascinating.
You got Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, who are
(10:15):
fishermen. You've got James and John, also
fishermen, nicknamed the Sons ofThunder.
You've got Philip and Bartholomew got Matthew, who's a
tax collector and viewed as a collaborator with Rome.
Thomas, who's later famous for, remember Thomas becoming
doubting Thomas. James son of Alpheus and
Thaddeus, also called Judas, sonof James.
(10:36):
You've got Simon the Zealot, a political revolutionary, and
then you've got Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Jesus.
So this is a volatile mix, a zealot and a tax collector in
the same room. That's like putting a
revolutionary activist in a government tax auditor on the
same small committee. And Jesus isn't building a
(10:58):
movement on ideological uniformity.
He's building it on shared loyalty to God's reign.
Mark, 314 to 15, says he appointed them, that they might
be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to
have authority to drive out demons.
In other words, he appointed them for for a number of reasons
(11:21):
for presence, proclamation and power.
OK, presence. They've first got to learn from
being with Jesus proclamation. They're going to go and spread
the message. And they're not just preaching
sermons, They're preaching the arrival of a new empire, a new
Kingdom and power. They're going to demonstrate the
presence and reality of this Kingdom through acts of
(11:43):
liberation in the spiritual realm, by delivering demons, by
healing. This is the infrastructure stage
of Jesus revolution, OK? The 12 are going to be the
foundation on which the rest of the movement is built.
So when we see all of this together, these moves, healing
on the Sabbath, shifting to openspaces, appointing the 12, these
aren't disconnected events. They're steps in a deliberate
(12:06):
campaign strategy, and Jesus understands this.
And again, This is why Jesus's retreat is not an accident.
It's not an escape. It's a deliberate moment of
strategizing in building the foundation of a movement that he
expects to last long after he's ascended back to heaven.
So, for example, the healing in the synagogue, that's a direct
(12:27):
challenge to the interpretation of God's law that prioritizes
rules and systems over the people that those rules and
systems are supposed to help. The withdrawal to the shore
changes the setting from controlled religious space to
open public space where the message can spread more
unfiltered and where Jesus can operate and move a little bit
(12:50):
more freely. The appointment of the 12
creates a core leadership team, his elite unit that's going to
carry the mission forward even when opposition intensifies.
So in military terms, Jesus is moving from initial skirmishes
to establishing a forward operating base.
In political terms, he's shifting from energetic protest
(13:11):
to established party formation. In movement terms, he's
transitioning from this sort of flash mob momentum to sustained
organization. This reminds me of something in
every lasting revolution or reform movement.
There's almost always a stretch of quiet, deliberate regrouping
after this initial excitement phase, but before the next
(13:34):
sustained stage. Think about the civil rights
movement, the marches, and the speeches that we see in the
documentaries. Those were only the tip of the
iceberg. Beneath all of the public
speeches and actions that we seewere years of groundwork,
training volunteers in nonviolent resistance.
They knew that they were going to go out and be violently
(13:56):
opposed, physically abused in their marches and in their
resistance to the racism and thehorrible treatment.
So they had to be ready to resist non violently building
relationships with local churches.
They needed networking, securingresources.
They had to they had to secure funds to to continue to build on
(14:19):
the movement that they had initiated.
And all of this took training and timing.
And they this was sitting in rooms and and mapping out plans.
This was having long discussions.
This was all behind the scenes. Leaders like Baker and Ruston
rarely made the headlines. But without their behind the
scenes organizing the public victories would have been
(14:41):
impossible. And that season, that wasn't a
season of retreat. It was a season of preparation
and construction. I mean, we think about Nelson
Mandela before he became this sort of global symbol of of post
apartheid South Africa. He spent 27 years in prison.
And to the outside world, that looked like defeat.
(15:02):
But in those long and hidden decades, Nelson Mandela was
reading and thinking and mentoring younger activists who
cycled through the prison system.
He was building credibility and moral authority so that when he
finally emerged, he was ready tolead a deeply divided nation
toward reconciliation. His prison cell became a sort of
(15:25):
a Galilee, a place away from thefront lines where deep necessary
Peru, a place away from on the front lines where deep necessary
preparation could take place. And that's exactly what's
happening in the Galilee. Jesus is creating the conditions
for his mission to survive what's coming.
He knows it's going to face continued opposition, and he's
(15:48):
preparing for that. And a key part of that is the
12. The Gospels give us the names in
a quick list, but but if you slow down, you can see the
deliberate diversity Jesus chose.
Simon Peter was bold and pulsive, the kind of man you
want in front when you're rallying a crowd, but who needed
(16:10):
coaching and how to be patient and humble.
His brother Andrew was quieter but steadier, the one, the one
who kept bringing others to meetJesus.
Remember that James and John, the sons of Thunder.
They were passionate and intenseand sometimes too intense, but
they were fiercely loyal. Philip thought in practical
terms, calculating loaves and fish.
(16:32):
Bartholomew, or Nathaniel came with a reputation for honesty.
Matthew, the tax collector, knewthe machinery of Roman power
from the inside and also knew the stigma of working for the
empire. Thomas was cautious, skeptical,
unwilling to leap until the evidence was solid.
James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus are almost silent in
(16:55):
the record, but their quiet presence mattered as well.
Simon the zealot once believed the only way forward was violent
revolt. Now he sat across the campfire
from Matthew, who had once collected taxes for the same
empire that Simon hated and had previously wanted to violently
(17:15):
rebel against. And then there was Judas
Iscariot, who handled the group's money and who's betrayal
would become infamous. This is a volatile mix, as I
said before, fishermen, radicals, bureaucrats, dreamers,
skeptics, fighters. But as we've seen a number of
times in previous scenes, this is also a microcosm of the
(17:37):
Kingdom Jesus was announcing Different stories, different
politics, different temperaments, all brought
together into one mission. If the movement was going to
survive and to reach across divides, it had to start with a
leadership team that embodied that diversity and unity from
day one. So we see it in this light.
(17:59):
The shift to Galilee is more than just a change of scenery.
It's a strategic recalibration. In Jerusalem, every conversation
was under the gaze of the Sanhedrin, every healing a
potential arrest warrant. In the Galilee, the setting was
open hillsides, breezy shorelines, marketplaces where
fishermen mended Nets and farmers traded produce.
(18:19):
Here the message could be heard without constant interruption
from the gatekeepers. Here the disciples could be
trained to not only in what Jesus said, but in how to carry
themselves, how to respond underpressure, how to trust God when
the crowds turned hostile. Maybe you've been in a season
like that yourself, a season I'dcall your Galilee season.
(18:41):
It's not glamorous, it's not public, it's mundane, it's not
just boring, but it really seemslike you're just sort of
spinning your wheels. You feel like you've been
sidelined or that your momentum has stalled.
But what if it isn't exile? What if it's not that God has
(19:01):
LED you to a place and then dropped you off and driven away?
What if this is a scene of preparation for you?
What if God has pulled you out of the spotlight, out of the
heat, out of the mix, so that hecan deepen your roots and so
that your future growth can withwithstand any storms and so that
your ultimate impact on this world can be exponentially
(19:24):
greater? What if He's bringing the right
people into your life for what'sahead?
What if He's shaping your perspective so that your next
moves are more strategic and less reactive?
Athletes know the importance of the offseason.
The stands are empty, the lightsare off, but the training is is
(19:44):
even more intense. Skills are honed in the quiet
months that decide whether the next season will be a success.
Farmers know it too. Early spring can look bare, but
the seeds are being planted, soil is being enriched.
Weeds are being pulled. The work is invisible until it
suddenly isn't. NASA.
(20:05):
Before a rocket launch, there are months and maybe even years
of testing, problem solving, simulations, engineering, re
engineering. Astronauts spend more hours in
training modules than they'll ever spend in space.
Engineers check and recheck every system, not because they
expect failure, but because theywant to be ready for whatever
happens, whenever it's going to happen.
(20:25):
On launch day, the world sees the countdown in the ignition
and the blast and this, this ascent.
What they don't see is the Galilee season, the behind the
scenes preparation that makes the mission possible.
That's where Jesus is in scene 10.
This is his Mission Control. The shoreline has replaced the
synagogue as his primary platform.
(20:47):
The 12 are learning in real time, making mistakes and asking
questions, absorbing lessons they're going to need when the
heat turns up. And make no mistake, the heat is
going to get more intense at thestart.
I asked you if you've ever stopped and stepped back from
something that's really important to you.
(21:09):
Not to quit, but to rebuild. I've had some of these moments
in the last few years of my life, not really on purpose.
Some events and depression and anxiety and circumstances
prompted my stepping back from some things that have been
(21:30):
important to me and that I've been on a trajectory to excel at
for for a long time, 20 plus years.
And I stepped back and that season felt like and continues
to feel like, if I'm being honest, sort of a retreat at
times or sort of that I was on atrajectory.
(21:52):
And now where is God in all of this?
Did God keep going when I took abreak to catch my breath?
And now I don't know how to catch up with him.
So I understand these times in our lives aren't easy.
But these Galilee seasons, theseseen 10s, they're important.
And I think Jesus understands it.
(22:14):
I'm sure Jesus was getting excited and what was developing
down in Jerusalem, but he knew that he had more work to do and
his retreat to the Galilee wasn't a surrender.
His leaving Jerusalem wasn't defeat, Wasn't admitting that
that they're too strong for me. It wasn't saying, oh, God can't
(22:37):
continue to operate in this setting, it's too strong for
God. It was none of that.
It was the most strategic thing that Jesus could have done for
his mission at this moment. And I think he's showing us that
sometimes the boldest move isn'tto win the current battle, but
to step back, catch your breath,recalibrate, and prepare for the
(22:58):
decisive moments still to come. If you're in your own Galilee
right now, don't. Don't despise it.
Don't rush it. Continue to think forward and
tactically about how to advance in life.
Continue to put in the work. Keep praying that God will
launch you into the next scene of your life soon.
But in all of that, in all of this mundane, in all of the
(23:19):
unknowns and the toil, embrace it.
As you ask God to get you out ofthis, also ask Him what is He
trying to do in this moment, in this scene of your life?
Let it do its work. Let him do His work.
Let God use you during this timeto prepare you for the
incredible Kingdom work that He has in store for you.
(23:42):
Ask Him how He wants you to use this time to prepare and what
He's got in store for you. The foundation you're building
now may be exactly what carries you through the next scenes in
your life admission, just as this period did in Jesus's life
admission. Laku Ahmad, Go and learn.
Come back for scene 11 of the Jesus X30 Challenge.
Have you ever stepped back from a situation that's really
important to you, not because you're throwing in the towel,
but because you realize you needto regroup and to rebuild?
It's not quitting, it's not hiding.
It's pausing just long enough toregain clarity, to sort of
strengthen your foundation and prepare for the next big move.
(00:30):
That's exactly where we find Jesus in this scene in his
campaign. What's up everybody?
I'm Tyson put off. And this is scene 10 of the
Jesus X30 Challenge. Up until now, Jesus has been
making waves in Jerusalem. He's been healing on the
Sabbath, claiming divine authority, confronting the
religious establishment during Passover.
(00:51):
His actions have really stirred excitement among the crowds and
also stirred hostility among theleaders who oppose him.
And when I say hostility, I don't mean Snyder Marks and
gossip. I mean people actively trying to
figure out how to kill him by this point.
So he leaves Jerusalem and he heads back to the Galilee.
(01:11):
And we need to understand this is not an escape.
This is a calculated move. Remember, Jesus uses people in
time and resources strategically, but he also uses
geography strategically. And that's what he's doing here.
He understands that revolutions don't survive on adrenaline
alone. OK, adrenaline burns hot, but it
(01:32):
burns out movements that need more time to grow.
And they need more than a excited crowd.
They need leaders. They need training.
They need organization. They need strategy for
sustainability. Sometimes you have to regroup.
And in the Galilee, Jesus beginsto do exactly that.
So it's spring of 28 AD, It's a beautiful season in the Galilee.
(01:57):
So we've got fishing villages surrounding the shores,
Capernaum, Bethsaida, Magdala, Guinnessarat, narrow dirt paths,
wine between them. And they carry traders and
farmers and fishermen and travelers from as far as
Damascus or tire. So the Galilee is a crossroads.
The the VMRS, the Way of the Sea, runs along the western
(02:18):
shore and this connects Egypt inthe southwest, to Syria in the
north and and on up to the northand to the east.
Roman patrols occasionally pass through, but this is no fortress
city like Jerusalem. So the the watchful eyes of the
Sanhedrin and the authorities and the elites, they're still
(02:39):
miles away down South. And this distance matters.
As we've talked before, out hereup north, Jesus has room to
breathe. He's he has room to teach
without constant interruption from the authorities to gather
people who are curious and hungry for something new.
And it's also an ethnically and culturally mixed region.
It's predominantly Jewish villages exist alongside gentile
(03:03):
towns or non Jewish towns with Greek architecture and Roman
influence, farmers and fishermenand artisans and merchants.
They're all living under the same Roman system and under the
shadow of Herod Antipas, the local tetrarch.
So life here is diverse, but it's hard for everyone.
Taxes are high. Opportunities for social
(03:23):
advancement are limited. The hope for deliverance,
whether that's spiritual or political or social or economic
or or all of the above, it's really strong at this point in
this region. In other words, it's fertile
ground for a message about the Kingdom of God.
And Mark tells us on one Sabbath, Jesus enters the
(03:43):
synagogue. Common practice for Jesus to do.
Synagogues in the 1st century weren't so much like modern
churches. They were multi purpose spaces
used for prayer and teaching andlegal discussions and community
gatherings. And if you if you can picture a
rectangular stone building with a flat roof, benches along the
walls, and sort of this open space in the center where
(04:06):
scripture could be read and discussed and issues could be
debated Inside this particular synagogue is a man with a
withered hand. Probably a long term disability,
maybe the result of an injury ora disease.
And this is tough for a manual laborer in the Galilee.
This type of injury basically could mean and likely did mean
(04:29):
economic ruin. If you don't have full body
strength and capabilities. You don't just they don't just
go and put you in an office job.This is an agrarian society and
most people had to work physically to earn a living.
Also in this synagogue setting, our religious leaders, probably
(04:50):
Pharisees, watching Jesus closely and they're not watching
him out of curiosity at this point, but in the hopes that
he's going to heal the man. And in their eyes, break the
Sabbath and their understanding of Sabbath law prohibited work
of any kind except to save a life.
Healing this man in his hand. It's something that could wait
(05:10):
till the next day. It's a long term disability, so
he's not in a rush to be healed.So he didn't qualify for that
life saving care on the Sabbath.Jesus doesn't avoid the
confrontation. He makes it public.
He calls the man stand in front of everyone.
He shifts his eyes to the center.
And then he asks the question that I think really cuts through
(05:36):
all of their legal calculations.Mark 3.
Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil?
To save a life or to kill? And the silence is telling.
So in the Levitical code, the Sabbath was a gift.
It was a rest for the whole community, even for servants and
animals. But by the 1st century, there
(05:56):
had been a lot of interpretive layers placed around it to make
sure that nobody even came closeto breaking the Sabbath.
And Jesus's question kind of exposes the absurdity of of a
lot of these layers. They're trying to protect
holiness. But he's basically saying if the
Sabbath is meant for life and restoration, how could healing
(06:18):
be a violation of that? Even if it's not a life saving
healing, though, in the case of this man, it is a life restoring
healing. And when no one answers, Jesus
tells the man, stretch out your hand.
He does and it's instantly restored.
No touch, no, no magic potions, just just restored to wholeness.
And so this act pushes the opposition from suspicion to
(06:43):
outright conspiracy. Mark 36 says that they went out
and immediately began conspiring.
Get this, How they might destroyhim, how they might destroy
Jesus. And the Greek term here that
Mark uses is, is fascinating. It's literally the word to
destroy, to annihilate. So this is no longer a
(07:04):
theological disagreement. This is open hostility to Jesus.
So Jesus's opponents aren't justout to dispute him, right?
They're out to erase him from the earth and to stomp out the
growing influence he's began to have by this point, because they
know that there's something different about him and his
messianic campaign from all the others who've come and made
these claims in this same regionmany times before.
(07:28):
So Jesus leaves the synagogue and he heads to the shore of the
Sea of Galilee. And again, this isn't running
away, it's redirecting the battlefield on the open
shoreline. Jesus is beyond the Pharisees
control. And the crowds begin to pour in,
not just from the local villages, but from far off
regions, from Judea and Jerusalem and Indumia in the
(07:48):
South across the Jordan and evenfrom the Phoenician coast up
north, Tyre and Sidon. So, so you can imagine the same
people are arriving dusty and tired from days of travel, and
they're carrying sick relatives on makeshift stretchers and
they're leading those without sight by hand, helping those who
(08:08):
can't walk and can't travel physically.
They're helping them along. And others come not for healing,
but just to hear this teacher they've heard these rumors about
the one who speaks with this unique type of authority unlike
any of the teachers they've heard.
And the crowd is so large that Jesus has his disciples prepare
(08:29):
a small boat, but this isn't forfishing.
This is as basically a floating platform.
He's, he's pushed far enough outinto the shore where he can
teach without being basically pushed into the water by these
crowds. And this is a practical way of
controlling the crowd, but it's also a symbolic shift.
I think the the synagogue may have rejected him at the open
(08:51):
water, in the open air. They've become his new pulpit,
his new campaign platform from this growing community of
followers. Jesus goes up on the
mountainside, a place of revelation in Israel's history.
Mountains were where God met Moses in Exodus 19, where Elijah
(09:11):
heard the whisper in First Kings19.
In the Gospels, mountain settings often mark turning
points. They're drum rolls for something
big that's about to happen. The mountains in these regions
are also where revolutionaries would have banded together
because they were off the grid, and then they would have
(09:32):
formulated their attacks to comedown and try to launch a violent
revolt. So here Jesus goes up to the
mountain and he formally appoints 12 men.
This is the formal appointing ofthe 12 and of course the number
12. It's not an accident in in
Hebrew scriptures. In ancient Israelite thinking,
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Israel consisted of 12 tribes descended from the sons of
Jacob. By choosing 12 apostles, Jesus
is kind of enacting A symbolic reconstitution of God's people,
not along genealogical lines at this point, but through
allegiance to him and his message.
Notice the list of disciples. That's fascinating.
You got Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, who are
(10:15):
fishermen. You've got James and John, also
fishermen, nicknamed the Sons ofThunder.
You've got Philip and Bartholomew got Matthew, who's a
tax collector and viewed as a collaborator with Rome.
Thomas, who's later famous for, remember Thomas becoming
doubting Thomas. James son of Alpheus and
Thaddeus, also called Judas, sonof James.
(10:36):
You've got Simon the Zealot, a political revolutionary, and
then you've got Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Jesus.
So this is a volatile mix, a zealot and a tax collector in
the same room. That's like putting a
revolutionary activist in a government tax auditor on the
same small committee. And Jesus isn't building a
(10:58):
movement on ideological uniformity.
He's building it on shared loyalty to God's reign.
Mark, 314 to 15, says he appointed them, that they might
be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to
have authority to drive out demons.
In other words, he appointed them for for a number of reasons
(11:21):
for presence, proclamation and power.
OK, presence. They've first got to learn from
being with Jesus proclamation. They're going to go and spread
the message. And they're not just preaching
sermons, They're preaching the arrival of a new empire, a new
Kingdom and power. They're going to demonstrate the
presence and reality of this Kingdom through acts of
(11:43):
liberation in the spiritual realm, by delivering demons, by
healing. This is the infrastructure stage
of Jesus revolution, OK? The 12 are going to be the
foundation on which the rest of the movement is built.
So when we see all of this together, these moves, healing
on the Sabbath, shifting to openspaces, appointing the 12, these
aren't disconnected events. They're steps in a deliberate
(12:06):
campaign strategy, and Jesus understands this.
And again, This is why Jesus's retreat is not an accident.
It's not an escape. It's a deliberate moment of
strategizing in building the foundation of a movement that he
expects to last long after he's ascended back to heaven.
So, for example, the healing in the synagogue, that's a direct
(12:27):
challenge to the interpretation of God's law that prioritizes
rules and systems over the people that those rules and
systems are supposed to help. The withdrawal to the shore
changes the setting from controlled religious space to
open public space where the message can spread more
unfiltered and where Jesus can operate and move a little bit
(12:50):
more freely. The appointment of the 12
creates a core leadership team, his elite unit that's going to
carry the mission forward even when opposition intensifies.
So in military terms, Jesus is moving from initial skirmishes
to establishing a forward operating base.
In political terms, he's shifting from energetic protest
(13:11):
to established party formation. In movement terms, he's
transitioning from this sort of flash mob momentum to sustained
organization. This reminds me of something in
every lasting revolution or reform movement.
There's almost always a stretch of quiet, deliberate regrouping
after this initial excitement phase, but before the next
(13:34):
sustained stage. Think about the civil rights
movement, the marches, and the speeches that we see in the
documentaries. Those were only the tip of the
iceberg. Beneath all of the public
speeches and actions that we seewere years of groundwork,
training volunteers in nonviolent resistance.
They knew that they were going to go out and be violently
(13:56):
opposed, physically abused in their marches and in their
resistance to the racism and thehorrible treatment.
So they had to be ready to resist non violently building
relationships with local churches.
They needed networking, securingresources.
They had to they had to secure funds to to continue to build on
(14:19):
the movement that they had initiated.
And all of this took training and timing.
And they this was sitting in rooms and and mapping out plans.
This was having long discussions.
This was all behind the scenes. Leaders like Baker and Ruston
rarely made the headlines. But without their behind the
scenes organizing the public victories would have been
(14:41):
impossible. And that season, that wasn't a
season of retreat. It was a season of preparation
and construction. I mean, we think about Nelson
Mandela before he became this sort of global symbol of of post
apartheid South Africa. He spent 27 years in prison.
And to the outside world, that looked like defeat.
(15:02):
But in those long and hidden decades, Nelson Mandela was
reading and thinking and mentoring younger activists who
cycled through the prison system.
He was building credibility and moral authority so that when he
finally emerged, he was ready tolead a deeply divided nation
toward reconciliation. His prison cell became a sort of
(15:25):
a Galilee, a place away from thefront lines where deep necessary
Peru, a place away from on the front lines where deep necessary
preparation could take place. And that's exactly what's
happening in the Galilee. Jesus is creating the conditions
for his mission to survive what's coming.
He knows it's going to face continued opposition, and he's
(15:48):
preparing for that. And a key part of that is the
12. The Gospels give us the names in
a quick list, but but if you slow down, you can see the
deliberate diversity Jesus chose.
Simon Peter was bold and pulsive, the kind of man you
want in front when you're rallying a crowd, but who needed
(16:10):
coaching and how to be patient and humble.
His brother Andrew was quieter but steadier, the one, the one
who kept bringing others to meetJesus.
Remember that James and John, the sons of Thunder.
They were passionate and intenseand sometimes too intense, but
they were fiercely loyal. Philip thought in practical
terms, calculating loaves and fish.
(16:32):
Bartholomew, or Nathaniel came with a reputation for honesty.
Matthew, the tax collector, knewthe machinery of Roman power
from the inside and also knew the stigma of working for the
empire. Thomas was cautious, skeptical,
unwilling to leap until the evidence was solid.
James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus are almost silent in
(16:55):
the record, but their quiet presence mattered as well.
Simon the zealot once believed the only way forward was violent
revolt. Now he sat across the campfire
from Matthew, who had once collected taxes for the same
empire that Simon hated and had previously wanted to violently
(17:15):
rebel against. And then there was Judas
Iscariot, who handled the group's money and who's betrayal
would become infamous. This is a volatile mix, as I
said before, fishermen, radicals, bureaucrats, dreamers,
skeptics, fighters. But as we've seen a number of
times in previous scenes, this is also a microcosm of the
(17:37):
Kingdom Jesus was announcing Different stories, different
politics, different temperaments, all brought
together into one mission. If the movement was going to
survive and to reach across divides, it had to start with a
leadership team that embodied that diversity and unity from
day one. So we see it in this light.
(17:59):
The shift to Galilee is more than just a change of scenery.
It's a strategic recalibration. In Jerusalem, every conversation
was under the gaze of the Sanhedrin, every healing a
potential arrest warrant. In the Galilee, the setting was
open hillsides, breezy shorelines, marketplaces where
fishermen mended Nets and farmers traded produce.
(18:19):
Here the message could be heard without constant interruption
from the gatekeepers. Here the disciples could be
trained to not only in what Jesus said, but in how to carry
themselves, how to respond underpressure, how to trust God when
the crowds turned hostile. Maybe you've been in a season
like that yourself, a season I'dcall your Galilee season.
(18:41):
It's not glamorous, it's not public, it's mundane, it's not
just boring, but it really seemslike you're just sort of
spinning your wheels. You feel like you've been
sidelined or that your momentum has stalled.
But what if it isn't exile? What if it's not that God has
(19:01):
LED you to a place and then dropped you off and driven away?
What if this is a scene of preparation for you?
What if God has pulled you out of the spotlight, out of the
heat, out of the mix, so that hecan deepen your roots and so
that your future growth can withwithstand any storms and so that
your ultimate impact on this world can be exponentially
(19:24):
greater? What if He's bringing the right
people into your life for what'sahead?
What if He's shaping your perspective so that your next
moves are more strategic and less reactive?
Athletes know the importance of the offseason.
The stands are empty, the lightsare off, but the training is is
(19:44):
even more intense. Skills are honed in the quiet
months that decide whether the next season will be a success.
Farmers know it too. Early spring can look bare, but
the seeds are being planted, soil is being enriched.
Weeds are being pulled. The work is invisible until it
suddenly isn't. NASA.
(20:05):
Before a rocket launch, there are months and maybe even years
of testing, problem solving, simulations, engineering, re
engineering. Astronauts spend more hours in
training modules than they'll ever spend in space.
Engineers check and recheck every system, not because they
expect failure, but because theywant to be ready for whatever
happens, whenever it's going to happen.
(20:25):
On launch day, the world sees the countdown in the ignition
and the blast and this, this ascent.
What they don't see is the Galilee season, the behind the
scenes preparation that makes the mission possible.
That's where Jesus is in scene 10.
This is his Mission Control. The shoreline has replaced the
synagogue as his primary platform.
(20:47):
The 12 are learning in real time, making mistakes and asking
questions, absorbing lessons they're going to need when the
heat turns up. And make no mistake, the heat is
going to get more intense at thestart.
I asked you if you've ever stopped and stepped back from
something that's really important to you.
(21:09):
Not to quit, but to rebuild. I've had some of these moments
in the last few years of my life, not really on purpose.
Some events and depression and anxiety and circumstances
prompted my stepping back from some things that have been
(21:30):
important to me and that I've been on a trajectory to excel at
for for a long time, 20 plus years.
And I stepped back and that season felt like and continues
to feel like, if I'm being honest, sort of a retreat at
times or sort of that I was on atrajectory.
(21:52):
And now where is God in all of this?
Did God keep going when I took abreak to catch my breath?
And now I don't know how to catch up with him.
So I understand these times in our lives aren't easy.
But these Galilee seasons, theseseen 10s, they're important.
And I think Jesus understands it.
(22:14):
I'm sure Jesus was getting excited and what was developing
down in Jerusalem, but he knew that he had more work to do and
his retreat to the Galilee wasn't a surrender.
His leaving Jerusalem wasn't defeat, Wasn't admitting that
that they're too strong for me. It wasn't saying, oh, God can't
(22:37):
continue to operate in this setting, it's too strong for
God. It was none of that.
It was the most strategic thing that Jesus could have done for
his mission at this moment. And I think he's showing us that
sometimes the boldest move isn'tto win the current battle, but
to step back, catch your breath,recalibrate, and prepare for the
(22:58):
decisive moments still to come. If you're in your own Galilee
right now, don't. Don't despise it.
Don't rush it. Continue to think forward and
tactically about how to advance in life.
Continue to put in the work. Keep praying that God will
launch you into the next scene of your life soon.
But in all of that, in all of this mundane, in all of the
(23:19):
unknowns and the toil, embrace it.
As you ask God to get you out ofthis, also ask Him what is He
trying to do in this moment, in this scene of your life?
Let it do its work. Let him do His work.
Let God use you during this timeto prepare you for the
incredible Kingdom work that He has in store for you.
(23:42):
Ask Him how He wants you to use this time to prepare and what
He's got in store for you. The foundation you're building
now may be exactly what carries you through the next scenes in
your life admission, just as this period did in Jesus's life
admission. Laku Ahmad, Go and learn.
Come back for scene 11 of the Jesus X30 Challenge.
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