The 3 stages of Jesus’s early ministry (Year one of Jesus’ ministry – c AD27-28)
Introduction.
Jesus, now about 30 years old (Luke 3:23 Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.) travels from his home-town of Nazareth in Galilee to the River Jordan, possibly near Bethany-across-the-Jordan (Luke 11:21, John 1:28), he is baptised by John the Baptist, a distance of about 132 kilometres or to 4 days walk, 2 if you are fit and intense.
Mark 1:9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
He was then led by the Spirit in to the Judean Desert or wilderness to face the devil’s temptation (Matt 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1)
This is parallel to young Christians being tested as Jesus warns us about in the parable of the sower after baptism.
Mark 4:16-17 “Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”
The key to why Jesus passed this testing is that he had deep roots in the word, this is why we must make sure our young Christians are deeply rooted in God’s word, to the point of being able to refute false doctrine, not simply knowing what first principles is.
Luke 4:3-13 “The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”
Satan tried to twist scripture and pull Jesus away from God. by getting Jesus to believe he could:
A. Use his power, or talents to fulfil his own desires, turning stones into bread – today we are to use our gifts and talents for God not our own desires, false Christianity would have you believe that God is there for you to take from and use for your own wants, however prayer is more about getting your heart in line with God’s will than God with yours.
B. Worship the things of this world, success in the worlds eyes, our parents and friends eyes and still please God, that it would lead to his ultimate happiness. The truth though is that only being devoted solely and wholeheartedly to God will bring you true happiness.
C. Test God’s love for him by doing stupid things (throw yourself of a high wall) and so get him to doubt God’s power and love.
Yet Jesus knew Satan was twisting scripture and was able to refute it, we must get all our Christians to really know their bible and how to put it into context. To know when others are taking it out of context.
Stage 1 of Jesus’ ministry – The attracting and bonding of his disciples.
At the River Jordan near Bethany-across-the-Jordan, or Bethany (Jn 1:28), and according to John’s Gospel, Jesus calls his first five disciples (Jn 1:35). These include Philip, Nathaniel, most probably John (the author of the Gospel) Andrew, and Simon Peter all from Bethsaida in Galilee (Jn 1:44)
John 1:35-42 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
John 1:43-50 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.”
Jesus first disciples were more gathered than called in his first year of his ministry, there are some significant things about who he attracted though, the first two Andrew and John were already spiritually minded as they were John the Baptists disciples, so they knew what it was to be in a student and teacher or master relationship, they were keen to learn and took direction well. Andrew was evangelistic and persuasive, he quickly got his brother to meet Jesus.
Jesus then decided to leave the South and returned North to his home area Galilee and found Philip, whom it seems he knew, Philip was also evangelistic and persuasive, as seen in him getting Nathanael. Nathanael was spiritually minded as noted that Jesus had seen him under a fig tree, a usual place to find people having times with God.
When starting a ministry, it is all about bearing personal fruit, getting your own disciples with just the help of God you need to be very specific about who you choose to build on, the key characteristics to look for are:
A. They are looking to be spiritual.
B. Do they want to place themselves in a student, teacher relationship.
C. They are bold, evangelistic.
Jesus then set about building a relationship with them, attending a wedding in Cana (Cana was 2 long days walk from Bethany, Jesus was fit), where he changes the water into wine, his first recorded miracle which also helped his disciples believe in him, he then proceeded to bond with them by bonding them with his family.
John 2:11-12 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
So at this stage he is spending time with his new disciples in the region of Galilee, close to his family and the Sea of Galilee which has Capernaum on its northern shore and Bethsaida close by. The disciples are not called to leave their jobs yet. This is still all in the first year of Jesus’ ministry
Stage 2 of Jesus’ ministry – The Teaching of conviction, confrontation and conversion.
This is Jesus’ early ministry in Judea, Samaria and Galilee.
A. Conviction.
Jesus then travels south to Jerusalem for the Passover with his disciples, the first Passover mentioned in the Gospels (Jn 2:13). There he drives the money-changers from the Temple for the first time (second time is at the end of his ministry Mt 21:12-16; Mk 11:15-18; Lk 19:45-47) and teaches his disciples his standard of zeal for God as opposed to the religious worlds standard.
John 2:16-17 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
B. Confrontation
Jesus taught them to be confrontational, a life of following Jesus is one of confrontation, we are to change the world and this will take lots and lots of confrontation as we call people to think differently, call them to change.
John 2:18-19 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
When questioned by what authority he was so judgmental and radical, he was not intimidated, nor did he back down. He also meets a Pharisee, a prominent leader, Nicodemus. He challenges him to be a man of knowledge, spiritual knowledge, especially as he claims to be a leader in his spiritual movement.
John 3:9-10 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
You see this spirit of confrontation passed down through the Apostle John one of his first disciples as he writes in the following verses:
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
C. Then he taught them to baptize by taking them away from all distractions.
John 3:22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.
Jesus came with a purpose, to change the world. He was looking for disciples who were going to help him change the world and the way was through converting others. Do you love to baptize, it is what you love to do, talk about, focus on or are you still filled with dreams of career, the American Dream? Loving to baptize is to have the heart of Jesus. You must seek disciples who love to do what Jesus did, baptize.
Stage 3 of Jesus’ ministry – Multiplication of leadership
John 4:1-3 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
At this stage Jesus was still in Judean countryside while his disciples had learnt to baptize without him. This is the third stage of ministry, from finding disciples, to teaching them to baptize, to them doing it on their own.
When Jesus learnt the Pharisees knew how effective he was being he set off with his disciples’ north, back to Galilee through Samaria where he met the woman by the well.
John 4:4-8 Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The disciples caught up with him again and were surprised at what Jesus was doing.
John 4:27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
He then adds to their training the concepts of crossing social barriers, sexual barriers, cultural barriers as they see many Samaritans believe (Jn 4:39). Showing them that the harvest is plentiful if they lose their preconceived ideas.
John 4:34-38 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Jesus got his disciples to the point where they were doing the baptizing on their own and encouraged them to do it even more. After 2 days of converting (Jn 4:43) Jesus leaves back for Galilee with his disciples.
Jesus concludes his first year back Galilee (Mt 4:12; Mk 1:14; Lk 4:14; Jn 4:45), back in Cana he heals the official’s son who lays sick in Capernaum (Jn 4:46) at the north end of the Sea of Galilee, then Jesus returns to his home-town of Nazareth, and preaches in the synagogue (Lk 4:16). He is rejected for the first time (Lk 4:28).
Conclusion.
After Jesus was Baptized he went through his initial testing, as we all do as young Christians. He then took his disciples through 3 significant stages before he called them into the full time ministry in his second year.
Stage 1 of Jesus’ ministry – The attracting and bonding of his disciples.
Stage one of building a ministry is all about finding personal fruit, finding disciples for you to train. We must find people who are looking to be attracted to a teacher, who want to be involved in a teacher’s life. To find these sorts of people we must model this for them as Jesus did to God (Jn 6:38). Do you desire a student teacher relationship with someone spiritual? To give your heart to them, if not you will not move to stage 2 because you cannot be taught but unless you have a learner’s heart. You have to ask yourself if you are resistant, critical, reserved, half-hearted in your student, teacher relationship, have little or no relationship with their family. Are you self-focused and un-giving, are you chasing your teacher like Andrew and John wanting to initiate and spend days with your teacher to learn or are they chasing you to teach you. Who wants you to grow more, you or them, this is seen clearly in how much you initiate with them. The key to finding great disciples is being a great disciple. God blesses humility.
Stage 2 of Jesus’ ministry – The Teaching of conviction, confrontation and conversion.
Without deep conviction and a confrontational character you will not baptize. When you study with people, this is what produces change in people and baptisms, if you are the stage where you are not baptizing you need to see that you have not mastered these two characteristics of Jesus in the way Jesus did it. The best way to change and learn this is to bring all your studies to your teacher to learn, even if you have been a disciple some time as you can lose this skill.
Look at your ministry, if it is not growing you are at stage 2, the need to be taught how to baptize, bring all your studies to your teacher.
Stage 3 of Jesus’ ministry – Multiplication of leadership
Baptizing on your own, but needing to learn how to do it more, reaping a plentiful harvest, looking everywhere for it, getting all your ministry fruitful. How? By assessing every bible talk and every disciple in your ministry as seeing which stage they are at, and getting them to the next stage until they reach stage 3.