(John 2:12)
�After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.�
It seems almost amazing. After spending almost the entire first chapter of John�s Gospel talking about John the Baptist and the calling of some of Jesus� early disciples, then spending the first eleven verses of the second chapter recounting the events at a wedding feast, the trip to Capernaum is covered in one verse.
Many people today are beating a path to the Gnostic writings. They want to know more about the early years of Jesus. They want to know more about the early days of the Christian church and its variants. It would seem that they deem the Bible, God�s preserved Word to His people and His churches, just doesn�t have enough information to satisfy modern man.
Would it be more accurate to say that the Bible doesn�t contain enough tales to titillate the imaginations of modern man? The Apostle Paul warns young Timothy about such men as these.
�For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.� (II Timothy 4:3-4)
These verses give an accurate rendition of the �religious� tendencies of many modern people. They have turned from the Truth. �We want a Bible that is so easy to read that even the unsaved will want to read it.�
Have these people lost sight of the fact that sin separates from God. �As it is written, There is no one righteous, no not one: There is none that undersandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.� (Romans 3:10-11)
Finding a �bible� (small case intended) that the unsaved will be anxious to read is foolishness. The real Bible is anathema to the sin darkened soul. No one will begin to read the Scripture without the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
Even the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts, chapter eight, who was reading the Scripture on his trip back home, had no understanding of the Book. He had been to Israel for religious festivals and yet the Book was closed to him until Philip came and opened the Scriptures under the anointing of God.
Cornelius was a �devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.� (Acts 10:2) Even this man did not begin to read the Scripture in order to find the way of salvation. God did not lead this man to the Scripture. God lead this man to Peter who opened the Scripture, and the plan of salvation, to him.
God gave the command to be witnesses (see Luke 24:48) to us. God�s plan for this age is that we, the Blood Bought Believer, witness to the lost. We use the Scripture. We pray in the convicting power of the Spirit. One of the miracles of God�s Word is that it is intended to prepare us to share the message within those holy pages.
Men will not read the Scripture with an eye toward their eternal destinies. Not rightly they will not. They need the illumination of the Holy Spirit. They need the anointed witness of the Christian.
Christianity, rightly defined, is not a religion. A religion is the process by which a person seeks to appease Deity so that he will be accepted. True Christianity is of the realization that God has condescended to come to us with an offered salvation that we can not earn. Salvation is not of our work; salvation is of our acceptance of His Work.
Sinful men who do decide to read the Scripture will never understand this truth. By very definition, their reading of the Scripture is a work in that they are trying to find a way to appease Deity. Only the Spirit can show anyone the error of this thought process. And, the Spirit has deemed that we are to approach the sinner with this truth. We back our witness with three things.
We back our witness with the Scripture. If the Bible don�t say it, it ain�t worth repeating to anyone concerning their salvation. Salvation is of God. He tells His Own story in His Own pages.
We back our witness with the truth that God has saved our own souls. �He did it for me and He�ll do it for you.� We can only witness of that which we know. Any other sort of witness is simple form without soul saving substance.
We also back our witness with prayer. In this manner we engage the Holy Spirit. In the final analysis the Holy Spirit is the Only Power that will give true conviction and lead to true salvation.
We simply lay out the truth. The Holy Spirit gives our words and witness the power to do the impossible. A soul is saved from sin and set on the road to Heaven.
The truth is that we do not need a Bible that is easy to read. We need a Bible that is an accurate representation of the preserved Words of God. We need God�s Bible.
As we look at our text verse we see the move. �After this he went down to Capernaum��
We look for information about the trip and find none. We suppose that Jesus traveled from the center of Galilee, around the tip of the Sea of Galilee, and into Capernaum. Geography tells us this.
The Biblical teaching about Christ suggests that this was not a simple �walk in the woods.� Jesus always moved with a purpose. Along the way I would surmise that He met many people to whom He ministered.
Remember, the miracle at Cana was described as �the beginning of His miracles.�
I envision a person with a sever limp, a person who must walk with a crutch of some sort. He is sitting by the side of the road when Jesus passes by. This man can not go into the fields and work. He is from poor stock and has never had an education. He can find no gainful employment. It seems that begging for charity is the only way that this man can put food on the table for his impoverished family.
It isn�t a good life. It is a hard life. It is a demeaning life. Some people will give him a pittance because it is seen as a duty. Some people will simply pass by and pretend not to notice. Some will chastise the beggar for not finding work �like the rest of us.� This man sees Jesus and hopes for a gift to allow him to go to bed and not feel the pangs of hunger ravage at his body. Or, maybe, the man thinks, this Jesus and His entourage will simply pass him by. Maybe they won�t poke fun at him and his condition.
The man is in hope, but not - as always - very far from despair.
Jesus looks upon the man with compassion. The man begins to hope that some small change might come his way. Then Jesus speaks, �Pick up thy bed and walk.�
The man is dumbfounded. This is not the taunt which so many have thrown his way. This seems to be a command which expects a result. The man begins to rise, fully expecting to fall back into his disability. To his surprise the man stands straight and begins to walk with a healthful gait. The astonished man is overcome with joy as he leaps and runs for the first time in his life. He knows that tomorrow he will be able to go out into the fields with the other day laborers. Perhaps he will earn enough to be able to help some of the other poor beggars of these roads.
Suddenly the man�s focus returns to the One Who had caused him to be healed with a simple word. He gazes upon his Benefactor�s smiling face. �I am come,� this Healer says, �That ye might have life, and to have it more abundantly. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. I am the Way to God. Believest thou this?�
The wonder that fills the man�s soul is even greater than the wonder that had filled his broken body. He suddenly realizes that he stands in the presence of the Messiah of Israel. His Benefactor was no mere man. He was healed by the Son of God!
Yes, Jesus needed to down to Capernaum. Like meeting the woman at the well, Jesus had an appointment with a man in a road. He had work to do and was never far from performing the Father�s business.
The trail of Jesus must have seen many such incidents. He never took a day off from His work. Even when He went aside, to avoid the crowds for a time, it wasn�t to take a rest. Oh, it was a time of refreshment. The refreshment was that He spent time in prayer with the Father.
I was in Chez Golden Arches a few hours ago. I watched one of the employees wipe down some of the tables. When that cloth is soaked in the cleaning solution and spread over the table, the germs are eradicated. There is always a little moisture left over from this operation.
How good it is in our day that Jesus cleanses our souls of the infestation of sin. And, in the process, He leaves a trail of His Own love and glory for us to experience.
The trail of Jesus always saw things in better order, in more perfect and spiritual order, than they could possibly be otherwise.
We don�t see a transcript of these acts, always, in the Scripture. Towards the end of John�s Gospel we are informed that not everything was written down. Those things that were written were so that we might know that Jesus is the Savior of the world to all those who would accept Him in faith.
There is a transcript, however, of each of the mighty works of Jesus. That transcript is written in the hearts and lives of those who have been touched by the wonder of The Master�s Hand.
I�m sure the man on the road, possibly a young man, never forgot the day He met Jesus. He told his friends, �I was crippled with a sever limp. I had to use a crutch simply to get to the road to beg. Then Jesus set me free!� Even his grandchildren heard the story over and over.
How many hear the story that we, the blood bought Christian, have been saved from our sins by the touch of The Master�s Hand?
We see the masses who traveled with Jesus. ��he, and his mother, and his brethren; and his disciples��
One of the things we see about Jesus from the New Testament accounts is that He was always going from place to place.
We have all heard stories of people who go to a mountain range and climb the highest hill so they can speak with �an ascended master� who will tell them the mysteries of the universe. This wasn�t the manner of Jesus. He never waited for people to come to Him; He always went to where the people were. When the crippled man was near the pool Jesus did not call him over to be part of a �healing service.� Jesus went to the man and healed him.
When the publican was in the tree, seeking to just get a glance of Jesus, Jesus said, �Come on down and come over here. I�m going to have lunch with you today.�
Jesus didn�t stand near the well and beckon the woman to come over to Him. Jesus went to the well and dealt with her soul.
A lame man may have been down through the ceiling tiles in order to see Jesus, but Jesus quickly responded to the needs of that man.
No one had to come looking for Jesus because Jesus was seeking the lost. That was His purpose and desire.
Did Jesus go to Capernaum to seek someone�s soul for salvation? I can not doubt that He did so. This was His manner of life and ministry.
The mother and family also went with Jesus. It is probable that Joseph was some years older than Mary, the mother of Jesus. Many have conjectured, since Joseph is not mentioned after the time that Jesus was talking with the elders at the Temple in His youth, that Joseph died while Jesus was still somewhat young.
When we see, especially in the early days of the earthly ministry of Jesus, that His mother and brethren were with Him, we may consider that, as the oldest child, He had taken on the duty of the head of the family. As His half-brothers and sisters attained their own adulthood, some of them left His side. They �had their own life to live,� I would assume.
The fact that Jesus had His family with Him, and might have been in the role of head of that family, is important when we consider that this did not deter Him from fulfilling His role of ministry to the world at large. He was responsible in that He fulfilled His family duties even as He fulfilled His spiritual duties.
Often we are prone to argue with God. We say, �God, you know that I�m too busy to do that.� Folks, when God gives us a charge He will make a way for us to be obedient to His leading. We are never too busy to be obedient to the Lord.
But, this does not mean that we can shirk other duties which God may also have given us. A pastor who is a father to his children must never forget to spend the time with them that will lead them to understand their own role as children of the Heavenly Father.
The wife of a pastor should never be sent to a cubicle as a virtual monk in a monastery of her husband�s career. She may have married for better or for worse. Her husband also promised to honor her. He should never allow her to be forgotten as he ministers to those more important. She is, he must never forget, the most important single human in his life. She is his helper and confidant. She is his physical and emotional comforter in this life. She is his wife.
Pastor, if your �church work� is taking up so much of your time that your family is deprived of your love and attention, you are not a true representative of the love of Christ for His church. We preach with our life and example even as we exhort with our words and study.
As Jesus was walking along those dusty roads I would believe that He was ministering to His disciples. He was teaching them about life and the things of the Spirit.
The disciples learned of Jesus from His words and His example before them. He was not a Teacher Who entered a classroom at five minutes before the hour and left the classroom at fifty-five minutes after the hour. His teaching was such that the disciples would learn from simply being with Him.
How much time do we spend with Him, in His Word and at the Throne of Prayer? Not much, I am afraid, for must of us.
One time when I was quite young I went shopping with my mother and younger brother. I was probably about ten. My brother is eight years younger than I. As my mother and I were looking over goods to buy, we noticed that my brother was missing. We looked all over for him. The clerks looked all over for him. We were desperate to find him and could not.
Finally, one of the clerks looked inside a cabinet where fabric was stored. There was my little bother. He had wandered off from us, climbed into that cabinet, and went to sleep.
Don�t wander off from the Savior�s side. You will not learn from Him when you are not near Him. You will fall, spiritually, asleep to the things of God as you dwell far from His presence.
There was also, I am certain, a mission in the trip to Capernaum. ��and they continued there not many days.�
The trip to Capernaum was a shortened trip.
I don�t have any research to back me up, but I think that the single profession which has the most turnovers is the clergy. A pastor who has been preaching from the same pulpit for over five years is a success story. A pastorate of over twenty years is almost unheard of.
Why is this? I think part of the reason is that many pastors, after having spent so much time in seminary, take a vacation from study when the depart from the school for the last time. After all, they�ve learned it all. Haven�t they?
Of course not.
All of the �sermon outline� books and web sites are an invitation to take an easy way out. This is a dangerous trend. The same pastor who isn�t ready to �crack the books,� is also one who is ready to �crack The Book.� Quite often this is a pastor who does not have a regular time of communion with his Lord, as well.
There are also those pastors who are in �the business� for the wrong reasons. Some see social standing as they are members of a �professional class.� Some have entered the pastorate because they enjoy being the �big fish;� the like the idea of being in charge. Some just like the hours. They can set their own schedule, except for Sunday mornings, of course, and they generally set a very lax schedule at that.
Generally speaking the Lord isn�t going to allow these types of persons to pollute His churches for very long. I know one man who has either been fired, or has seen the church split, in every single church he has ever �served.� He still hasn�t got the point that the Spirit is asking him to sell insurance, or work in a convenience store. Just don�t harm any more of the Lord�s churches!
�Failure� in one church might just be stony ground. A pattern of failure is probably the leading of the Spirit as He works in His churches. It is most often the Lord saying that one should check to see if he is God Called or self called.
That is really the bottom line problem of many pastors. They fail to realize that it isn�t �their� church; it is the Lords congregation.
Sometimes it is just that the work is done. I pastored a church which was slated to be closed. They very few persons who still worshipped there were waiting for the widow of the churches founder, a beautiful lady in her 80�s, to die so they could close the church without insulting her.
When I began to serve at this church there were fewer than ten members and we had only the Sunday Morning Worship Service. Two years later we were averaging in the forties and we had a morning and evening service on Sunday as well as a Wednesday Night Prayer and Bible Study. When Linda and I finally went back to see the old church, thirty some years later, the church was still standing, greatly refurbished, and strong for the Lord.
I see two reasons why that church is still serving the community. The first, and the most important, is that the Lord wanted that church in that area for the spiritual needs of those people.
The second reason is that when the Lord said �Go,� I didn�t consider myself as important to the church. I left. God was done with me in that location. God wanted someone else to tend His garden.
My �job� was done.
I think that this was somewhat the situation of Jesus in His short trip to Capernaum. Obviously, there was no one else who would take His place. But, I do believe that Jesus completed what was needed at that particular church, at that particular time, and moved on to complete His total ministry objective.
The trip to Capernaum was also a strategic trip.
Jesus, I believe, had something to accomplish on the way to Capernaum. Jesus had something to accomplish in Capernaum. And, Jesus had something to accomplish as He left Capernaum and journeyed on to His next objective.
The point is that Jesus was giving us an example of service. We are never, so long as we reside in this body of clay, finished in our work of furthering the work of God.
I have a friend whose father had been a minister and a Bible College teacher. This father was stricken with Alzheimer�s. In the natural one would believe that this was the end of this man�s ministry.
Not so.
All of his life this man had been convinced that he was but a servant of His Lord. His life was an evidence of the love of Jesus. As he began to loose those mental facilities which he had worked to hone for his work for Jesus, people began to notice that he would talk, sometimes not even realizing that he was talking to his wife, his son, his closest friends, of the Lord and His glories.
In his dotage, even as his own personality was hidden in the fog of his malady, he was an inspiration to others of the Love and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. His work and witness were not stilled until his very soul was called to be greeted by the One he had loved and served for so many years.
The trip to Capernaum was a serving trip.
When I was in the military I was stationed at several different posts. Each movement from one post to another was at the command of the military. I had no say in any of these moves. The reason I had no say was because the needs of the military had preference over any plans I might have made.
I was given my pay, and allowed to find housing, at each post as I completed my job in each location. With the movement I was able to observe that the military was still taking care of my interests.
Folks, it is no less true that we are not our own. We are bought by a price with the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Each place in which He calls us to serve is a base upon which we will continue to build upon those gifts with which He has gifted us.
No matter where He calls us He will take care of us. Our duty is to serve Him. More than our duty, it is our reasonable service to serve Him. More than our reasonable service, it is our joy to serve Him. Some day in eternity that joy will be complete as He looks us in the face, with that beautiful face of the Savior, and says, �Well done, thou good and faithful servant.�
The glory, the wonder, the sheer joy of His approval!
What about you? Are you ready to serve Him? Have you accepted Him as your own Savior? He will give your life joy. He will give your life purpose. He will give your life a real meaning. He doesn�t offer an existence, or a philosophy of life. He offers salvation from your sin, a home in Heaven, peace with God. And He offers the dignity and great purpose of being allowed to work, hand in Hand, with the Author of the Universe.
Accept Him today!