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People must repent to enter the Kingdom of God.
12 When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.
14 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea,
beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
16 The people who live in darkness have seen a great light,
and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
15 Now while the people were in a state of expectation
and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ,16 John answered and said to them all, six
"As for me, I baptize you with water;
but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals;
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.17 "His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn;
but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."18 So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.
19 But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him
because of Herodias, his brother's wife,
and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done,20 Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.
Identify why John the Baptist was arrested.
Discuss the impact John’s arrest had on Jesus moving to Capernaum.
20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down;
and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.21 And He began to say to them,
"Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips;
and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph's son?"23 And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!
Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'"24 And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.
25 "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them,
but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.27 "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet;
and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage
as they heard these things;29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city,
and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built,
in order to throw Him down the cliff.30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.
Identify how Jesus was received in His hometown of Nazareth.
Discuss the impact Nazareth’s rejection had on Jesus moving to Capernaum.
Summarize this information from page 22 of the PSG:
“John the Baptist had made enemies of religious leaders . . .
whom he denounced as hypocrites.Therefore, they would have looked upon Jesus, the One to whom John pointed, with suspicion.
Jesus’s withdrawal from the region certainly was not because Jesus was afraid of the Pharisees and other religious leaders.
Instead, He desired to begin His ministry without any premature confrontation with these leaders. .Unlike Nazareth, which was small, insignificant, and rural,
Capernaum was an important city in the region.
It was strategically located on the northwestern shore of
the Sea of Galilee along important trade routes passing though the region.”
Note that much of Jesus’s ministry occurred in Galilee.
Highlight the similarities between John’s message and Jesus’s message.
Point out that Jesus’s mission didn’t focus initially on miracles and healings
but on preaching that pointed people to the kingdom of God.