Archives for May 14, 2015

Dr. Halvor Ronning at Ancient Synagogue in Capernaum

Capernaum, which means “village of Nahum” (with no apparent connection to the prophet by that name) was chosen by the Lord Jesus as the strategic center of His ministry in Galilee (Matt. 4:13). This made Capernaum a privileged place indeed. Christ may have had some family connections there (John 2:12). Simon Peter’s home was in Capernaum, and there Christ healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a severe fever, and many others (Luke 4:31–41).

It was in Capernaum that Christ was teaching in a house when four men brought a paralyzed man to Him by cutting a whole in the roof and lowering the man down. Christ used this is an opportunity to declare His authority to forgive sins, which shows that Christ is God (Mark 2:1–12).

Christ taught in Capernaum’s synagogue and cast an evil spirit out of a demonized man (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:31–37; John 6:59). The synagogue building had been constructed through the generosity of a Gentile centurion who proved to be a man of great humility and faith in Christ (Luke 7:1–10). However, Christ refused to settle His ministry in Capernaum, but traveled as an itinerant preacher throughout Galilee (Luke 4:42–44).

God blessed Capernaum with great gospel privileges, and from its people the Lord drew men like Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be Christ’s disciples (Mark 1:16–21). Yet sadly, most of its people did not repent of their sins, though they heard Jesus Christ’s preaching and saw His miracles (Matt. 11:20). Later in Christ’s ministry, He pronounced this curse upon them: “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell… it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Matt. 11:23–24).

Capernaum should sober us. Great gospel privileges bring great gospel responsibilities. Every sermon we hear, if we are not believers, heats hell’s fires hotter for us. How hard is the heart of mankind, that the very presence of the living Jesus was not enough to turn us back to God! Whenever the Lord gives someone us a new heart that is humble and contrite at His Word, then we should profusely thank Him. We should join Jesus in saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt. 11:25–26). Thank God for saving grace!

Fish Dinner in Israel

Tabgha is an Arabic name derived from the Greek word for “seven springs” (heptapegon). Christians have traditionally associated this location with two events in the life of Jesus Christ: the feeding of the five thousand and the threefold re-commissioning of Peter to feed Christ’s sheep after the Lord rose from the dead. Both of these events remind us of the insufficiency of man and the sufficiency of Christ.

One wonders what kind of expression was on the apostles’ faces after Jesus told them, “Give ye them [something] to eat” (Mark 6:37). Five thousand men plus women and children—a veritable army—surrounded them. In their hands were five loaves and two fish, a mere snack for the twelve apostles, much less for the crowds milling around them. They blurted out, “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread?” (Mark 6:37). Translated into modern terms, “Should we spend over eight months of wages to give this crowd a single meal?” Surely Jesus was asking them to do the impossible. They were inadequate for the job.

Fast-forward past Christ’s resurrection, when He appeared to seven of his disciples as they were fishing on the Sea of Galilee (John 21). The disciples fished all night, and caught nothing. Once again, they were confronted by their inadequacy, here even to provide for their own needs. Later they met Christ on the shore, and three times He asked Peter, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” (John 21:15–17). Like a doctor debriding a wound, his three questions painfully cleansed Simon Peter of his three denials of Christ. How utterly humbled he must have felt, totally unworthy to serve the Lord as one of His apostles.

However, at each point, just as Christ uncovers our insufficiency He reveals His all-sufficiency. In the hands of Jesus, the five loaves and two fish multiply to feed the thousands, with baskets left to spare. At the command of Jesus, the fisherman cast the net on the right side of the boat, and hauled in 153 large fish. And each time Peter answered Christ’s probing questions with a humble, “Thou knowest that I love thee,” Jesus answered not with a rebuke or accusation, but with a fresh calling to ministry: “Feed my sheep.” Our insufficiency opens the door for the entrance of Christ’s sufficiency so that we can serve Him with confident faith.

This is a lesson that must be experienced: I am weak, but Thou art everything. Only when we have learned the lesson of the fish are we prepared to serve Christ by His grace alone.

With My Family on the Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee will always be a favorite place for Christians touring Israel, for it was here that so much of our Lord’s ministry took place. Here He taught the people from a boat just offshore. Here He walked on the water. Here He calmed the raging storm.

The region of Galilee was the place where our Lord began His ministry of public teaching and preaching. It was here that His teaching dawned upon the world like the rising of a sun after a night that lasted millennia. Galilee is rarely mentioned in the Old Testament, and generally only as a point of geography, but there is one beautiful promise made about Galilee in the prophecy of Isaiah 9. We find it quoted in the Gospel of Matthew:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matt. 4:14–17).

When Isaiah spoke that prophecy, the nation of Assyria was poised to seize the northern kingdom of Israel (Isa. 7:16–17; 8:3–4). God fulfilled His words in 733–732 BC, when King Tiglathpileser of Assyria conquered Galilee and the surrounding regions and carried their people into captivity (2 Kings 15:29). A decade later the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed. The darkness of Israel’s idolatry had overwhelmed the land. As E. J. Young said, “Darkness without and darkness within, ignorance, distress, misery, and sin.”

What a picture this is of our natural condition since the fall: darkness. The Bible not only says that we live in darkness, but that darkness is inside of us, yes, that we are darkness until God saves us (Eph. 4:18; 5:8). Unconverted sinners love the darkness and hate the light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19).

Over seven centuries after Isaiah died, the Roman Empire ruled a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in Galilee through its appointed tetrarch, Herod Antipas. In the midst of the darkness, a brilliant light began to shine. Jesus, the Light of the world, had come (John 8:12). His coming as light into darkness reminds us of God’s word spoken into the primeval darkness, “Let there be light.” Christ’s preaching heralded the beginning of a new creation. Has the light of Christ shone into your heart? If so, then you are a new creation too.

Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee