Conversion Experiences

Read John 1:35-51

In this part of John, John focuses on the disciples' conversion experiences, specifically five of the 12. John demonstrates in this passage that first of all, conversion experiences differ, and secondly, the different instruments that God uses for witnessing.

We can learn a few lessons from this passage on sharing salvation. First of all, when sharing Christ with others, we see from this passage that different personalities need different approaches (we will look at this more closely in a bit). We also see that only the Holy Spirit can effectively lead us in witnessing. In addition, we see that no method or system works every time. Ultimately you have to seek discernment from the Holy Spirit for each time you are witnessing.

           

The first two men mentioned in this chapter heard a preacher (Andrew and John), Simon and Nathanael were brought to Christ by other individuals, and lastly, Philip was found by Christ himself. Looking at these five men's experiences, we see God's instruments for witnessing. First of all, God uses the preaching of his followers, secondly, he uses the personal work of individuals, and sometimes, even if the first two are present, he uses circumstances to draw his people to him. We also see that Christ's way of addressing these men who became followers of him varied according to the individuals' needs and personalities. For the first two men, he tested their motives by asking them "what do you seek?" He let Peter know that He knew all about him but would transform him. He simply commanded Philip to "Follow me." And he spoke a gracious word to disarm Nathanael.

Now, when I taught this in class, I took time here to discuss their own salvation. So, before we dig farther into each of these men's conversion experiences, I will share with you some of the applications we discussed in class. After we discussed salvation and I gave the students a chance to write their conversion experiences, we discussed some signs of salvation. First of all, upon meeting Christ, we see that the disciples wanted to be with Jesus all of the time, which is a sure sign of salvation. In addition, we discussed that sometimes your interest and desire for Christ may wane, but that we have hope in Christ and the fact that He will not let us go.

*OK, Let’s look at how Christ  met His disciples’ specific individual needs.*

Looking at John 1:40-41, we see the conversion experience of Andrew. In this passage, it says that he is one of two who heard a preacher (this preacher was John the Baptist). We assume that this is John the Apostle because the writer does not give a name. In this passage however, looking at Andrew, we see that he is satisfied with Christ and has so much joy in Christ that he immediately needs to share it with others ( a sure sing of his salvation). If you think about it, we tend to advertise the things we enjoy. So, if we are satisfied in Christ and enjoy our relationship with Christ, it is only natural that we will have a desire to share Christ with others.

Next, look at John 1:42. In this verse, Christ empowers Peter. Obviously, in this brief conversation with Christ, we see that Christ was aware of Peter's personality and his strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps Peter was thinking, "I can't follow him. I'm too weak; I curse, lie, and cheat; I'm only a rough uneducated fisherman." However, we see Christ calm those fears by telling Peter, "You shall be called Cephas," which translated means rock. Christ is demonstrating the fact that He can take a man who would be considered unfit and make him into one of the great leaders of our church.

Moving onto John 1:43-44, we see the conversion experience of Philip. If we look at Luke 19:10, we see that Philip was a doubter. However, even despite the fact that Philip had doubts in life, we see that the simple command of Christ's to "follow me," rang with so much authority and power for Philip that he simply followed Christ in blind obedience. In fact, he then sought out Nathanael, who we will come to in a minute. The incredible part of this passage is that Philip had not met Christ before, yet he left everything to follow this stranger upon Christ's simple command. Not only does this demonstrate Philip's blind obedience to Christ, but Christ's power and influence (Mark 1:22 states that Christ "taught them as one that had authority, and not as scribes.").

The last one that we will look at is Nathanael in John 1:43-51. In this passage, Christ sees Nathanael and declares him to be an "Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Guile means to be "open and honest." Now, backing up, when Philip comes to find Nathanael, Nathanael is sitting under a fig tree. In 1 Kings 4:25 and Micah 4:4, the fig tree is used as a place of safety. This is symbolic because Nathanael is called away from the security of the fig tree to the greater security of Christ. Of course, these is a lesson in here for us in the fact that we need to learn to leave the security of our money, homes, popularity, etc, to follow Christ.

Not only does the fig tree represent security, but it was also the traditional place of mediation for devout Jews and rabbis. Because of its great shade, it was a most comfortable place to meditate on the Old Testament law. Obviously, Nathanael was a very devout Jew. So, when Philip came to him speaking of the Messiah, Nathanael challenged Philip and said, "can there be any good thing that comes out of Nazareth?" Philip, being new in his faith, handled this doubt/question well by simply taking Nathanael to Christ. When he does meet Christ, Christ answered Nathanael's objections by displaying omniscience and omnipresence, demonstrating that Christ knows all about us, including our hearts.

Reflection: Can you identify with any of these men's experiences? How did you come to know Christ? How is your life a testimony of God's instruments of witnessing?

                  

The Forefunner of Christ

Read John 1:19-34

Let's set up the story here.

Character One: John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin and was born six months before Christ. As an adult, he preached about 30 miles from Jerusalem in the wilderness of Judea. John had two purposes in preaching. First of all was to bear witness of Christ (verse 15) and second, was to reveal "the record" about Christ (verse 19).

John had an unusual way of living. We know from Mark 1:5-7 that he dressed in camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist.He also had an unusual diet of locusts and wild honey. Yummy, right? We also see that John was very humble. Even as the Jewish leaders confront him, he doesn't make great claims for himself or try to draw honor and glory for himself.

Character(s) Two: When the word Jews is used in the Gospels, it is generally meant to refer to the Jewish religious authorities.

There are two different types of Jewish authorities that we are going to focus on here.

 The first is the Levites. They were of Jewish descent, most specifically from the tribe of Levi (one of Jacob's twelve sons). They were God's chosen servants and were called specifically by God to serve as his priests and/or workers in the temple. However, by the time of Christ, they were not the devoted followers of God that you would imagine a called servant of the Lord would be. By the time of Christ they had become calloused, cold-hearted, and self-righteous. They were obsessed with tradition (think "Fiddler on the Roof") and were no longer following God out of devotion, but out of duty and routine.

The second group of Jewish authorities that we will focus on are the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of men who emerged during the four hundred "silent years" before Christ's birth (between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament). These men believed that because Israel did not follow God's law, this was the reason why they were taken into captive in the Old Testament times. So, they believed that to return to the true nation of Israel, they needed to bring Israel back to God by strictly following the Old Testament Laws. Was it such a bad idea that they had? What are some examples that you can think of that can be used to illustrate the Pharisees and Levites as described here?

                                                         

Now, in this passage, the Jewish leaders approach John with five questions to figure out just what this crazy man was doing and preaching to their people. What are these five questions and how does John answer them? Why do you think they came asking John these questions.

Let's look a little more closely at the Spiritual Condition of the Jewish Leaders. They are suffering from three different spiritual "ailments". The first one is Spiritual Ignorance. Isaiah 40 gives a complete prophecy of John the Baptist. In fact, it is almost verbatim in its description of John. So, the Jews should have known and recognized John as the prophesied forerunner. However, they still come and ask him "who are you," hinting at the fact that they don't recognize him even there.

They also suffer from Spiritual Pride. They come to question him because they are afraid of the power that John might have and the fact that he might steal their job. It's almost like they're saying, "who do you think you are to tell men to repent? You aren't one of us!!!! You don't have the right religious education and training, like us!" So the question becomes, did John have the right to baptize? Why? Well, John stands his ground under their pressure and confesses, first who he was, and second, he didn't deny who he was or what he was doing. He knew that he was called by God and in the right.

Lastly, the Jews are suffering from Spiritual Confusion. After questioning him and hearing his answer, they still ask him if he was Elijah ('that prophet").  Now the reason they ask him this is because at this point in time, the Jews believed that Elijah, who if you recall, had not dies but had been lifted up to heaven in a whirlwind (1 Kings), would come back to earth. So, they were thinking he was truly Elijah. As an interesting note, we see that the disciples weren't confused in Matthew 16:13-14. They knew exactly who the true Christ was, and they didn't have the educational background!

Enough about the Jewish Leaders. Let's look at what John does to place Christ in the spotlight despite the blindness of the Jewish Leaders. First of all, John calls himself a voice. This is very significant. If you remember in the beginning of John 1, Christ is called the Word. Think of it this way:

1. The Word exists in the mind before the voice utters it--Christ, the Word, had existed before John, the voice, came to announce Him.



2. A voice is heard, not seen. In other words, as we see in this passage, John didn't put himself in the spotlight, but continued to point to Christ.

3. The Word remains after the voice is silent. Even after John was silenced, Christ remains.

OK, continuing with what John did to place Christ in the spotlight. The second way is that he exalted Christ. Verse 25-27 move the spotlight from John to Christ. John even goes so far as to say he is not worthy enough to untie Christ's sandals. Why would this be a significant statement?

We see on the next day in Bethabara, or "Bethany beyond Jordan," that John continues to exalt Christ and place him in the spotlight as the Lamb of God. This is when Christ's baptism takes place. It occurs the day after the Jewish leaders had publicly questioned John. In fact, we see in verse 30, that John refers to the questions of the day before and then reveals that Christ was the very man they were looking for. However, they weren't really looking for Jesus as we know him. They were looking for a prophet, Elijah, a king. They didn't want the spiritual Savior that Christ represented. And this sets us up for the constant battle between Christ and the Jewish leaders as they reject him and all that he represents.

So, the question becomes, who do you line up with most in this story? Who can you identify with the most?

If you line up with John, what are you doing to exalt Christ and put him in the spotlight?

If you line up with the Jews, which Spiritual Condition are you struggling with the most? What can you do to escape Spiritual Ignorance, Pride, and/or Confusion? How can you help others who are struggling with these?

 

Christ's Incarnation: Wrap Up

OK, let's wrap this puppy up!

We've talked about Christ's incarnation and what is means, we've talked about Christ's glory. Let's talk about the purpose of Christ's incarnation. There are three parts to this. Christ's incarnation is meant to reveal the nature of God, the grace of God, and the truth of God.

God's Nature (John 1:18)

We've already talked about this, but until the incarnation of Christ, men had never seen God in the flesh. They had seen many aspects of God, such as the theophanies of the Old Testament, the handiwork of God in creation (Romans 1:20), and they had read about Him in the Old Testament. But now, God wants us to know Him personally! We're able to have a relationship with Him now that we had never been able to have before!!!! In this verse (18), John says that Jesus has made Him known. The verb used here means "revealed", "interpreted", or "made known." This gives us a clue as to why John calls Christ "the Word." Think about it: through words, we make our feelings known. In the same way God makes his feelings about us known to us through His Word (check out Hebrews 1:1-2).


God's Grace (John 1:14, 16-17)

In the Old Testament, man experienced God's Law and Justice. However, God was gracious still. What are some ways that we know of that God was gracious to man in the Old Testament? So, how does the incarnation reveal Christ's grace? Well, God didn't have to send Jesus to begin with. We most certainly did not deserve it. In fact, man did not even want God's love and grace! Yet, despite our rejection of Him, God still sent His son. And this is how the incarnation reveals Christ's grace.

God's Truth (John 1:14)

What's another way to think of God's truth? Maybe this will help. God loves us, but His truthfulness will not let Him overlook our sin. Sin has to be punished. So, Christ came to be punished for us. Christ's agony on the cross reveals not only the grace and truth of God, but also these three things:

1. The awful consequences of sin

2. God's hatred of sin

3. The consequences that we must pay if we refuse His substitute

So, wrapping up John 1 (and I promise we will move quicker through the other chapters), we see both the importance of Christ's preexistence to prove Christ's deity, but also the need for Christ's preexistence to help us see and personally experience God. So, why do you think John packed this much into John 1?

The Incarnation: Christ's Doxa

Take a look at John 1:14 again to refresh your memory.

We wrapped up last time with talking about the parallels between Christ and the tabernacle. The last one talked about how the tabernacle was the center of Israel's camp and how Christ should be the center of our lives. Continuing that thought process, if Christ is the center of our lives, we should see His glory, just like Israel saw the Lord's glory resting on the tabernacle. The Greek word used here for glory is the word "doxa." This word means literally "to seem." This is referring to the lofty reputation that a person has in another person's eyes. So, in this case, a man's glory is his reputation.

OK, so if glory here means reputation, then how can we "behold Christ's reputation"? Isn't that something internal? What does this mean????

Well, glory in this context means more than a person's reputation. It means that when we behold Christ, we are basically viewing God's reputation...in other words those attributes that God alone possesses and can reveal. So, in the midst of discussing Christ's incarnation, John still takes the time to make another reference to Christ's deity. Almost like he is saying, "Christ is a man, but wait, don't forget he's God too!!!"

Let's take a second and look at these attributes and how Christ is the only one as fully man to live up to these attributes. If you recall from Christianity 101, sin is our failing to measure up to Christ's perfection. In other words, God is holy and anything that we do that is unholy, we are sinning.

God is omnipresent (or everywhere at once) and whenever we try to hide from Him, we are sinning. God is omnipotent (or all powerful) and whenever we fail to trust Him, we sin. God is merciful and whenever we are unforgiving or seek revenge on others, we sin. God is patient and whenever we are impatient, we sin. God is sovereign and whenever we try to run our own lives, we sin.

WHEW!!!! Talk about conviction! We see how we fail to measure up to God in this idea of God's glory being His reputation and we see how desperately we need a Savior. Which is why (I think just from looking at this test with fresh eyes) John takes the time to reference not only Christ's deity, but the fact that He was fully man so that we would know that we are not walking this human life alone. We have an advocate whose reputation (His doxa) is flawless and can represent us to His Father. What wonderful peace we can find in this!!!!

To wrap up this week, look at Ephesians 1: 6 and 12. Look at what "we are saved to the praise of." Kind of changes the perspective in light of Christ's doxa, doesn't it.

Questions to ponder:
1. Which of the above attributes of God convicts you the most? Why?
2. What does this idea of Christ's glory/reputation mean to you?

                                                     

                                      

The Incarnation of Christ, Part 1

OK, to save this blog from getting very long, I am going to divide it into three parts. This first part is going to focus on comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of the appearances of God in the Old Testament and the Incarnate Christ in the New Testament.

So last week we focused on the preexistence of Christ and what it means to the Christian faith and Christ's deity. Now let's talk about his incarnation. John doesn't actually reference the historical circumstances of Christ's birth. In fact, the only reference he makes is in John 1:14, where John says "and the Word was made flesh." Literally translated, this means Christ literally became flesh. So, why does John take the time to reference this? What's the big deal really???

Well, we talked a bit about this last week, and from my understanding of scripture (and of course, what was already studied for me), this is significant because this is the first time that God (who is Spirit) became flesh, or became human, and walked among us. This is why Christ is called "Immanuel" or "God with us."

It's important to recognize the fact that Christ took on flesh and became fully man because we do have other occurrences of God appearing to man throughout the Bible. Before Christ was born, God appeared to man in visual forms, but not in a human, fleshly body. These are called "theophanies." We know of at least seven occasions that God did this. However, at each of these instances, He did not appear in a fleshly body.
Here is the key to all of this and why it is important to make these distinctions. The incarnation means that God did not "dwell" in a human body. Rather, it means that He became man, what He was not before. But, it's important to remember that He did not cease to be all that He was before.

All right, now that we've established the fact that Christ was God walking among us, let's talk about John's choice of words. In verse 14, he says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." The word that John uses for "dwelt" here literally means "Christ tabernacled, or pitched his tent" on this earth. In other words, John wants to give the image of a temporary living quarter, or that Christ only lived here for a temporary man (33 years).

This translation reminds us of the tabernacle in the dessert and we can draw some parallels between the tabernacle of the Old Testament and Christ "tabernacling" (yes, I think I just made up a word, but you get the picture) in the New Testament.

For example, the tabernacle was a temporary thing, as was Christ. Now hold on, before that is taken the wrong way, what I mean is that Christ was only on this earth for approximately 33 years. Interestingly enough, the tabernacle was only used for about 35 years in the desert.

Moving on, we know that the tabernacle was God's dwelling place (check out Exodus 25:21-22). And of course, we remember the definition of "Immanuel", or "God With Us," meaning that Christ dwelt among us.

The tabernacle was where God met man. In the Old Testament, God told Moses how to build the tabernacle and said He would meet man there (again, Exodus 25:21-22). Today, Christ is the meeting place between God and man (John 14:6)

When God told Moses how to build the temple, He directed that it be placed in the middle of the Israelite camp. In the same way Christ should be in the middle of our lives. Going along with this thought, it says in the Old Testament that God's glory rested on the Tabernacle. In the same way, when Christ was walking among us, we beheld his glory.

Now, hold that thought on glory for next week. We're going to focus on Christ's glory and what it means for us and dig into some of the original Greek and meaning of the texts. For now, here are some questions for you:

1. Why do you think that John focused on Christ's incarnation if he is trying to prove Christ is God?

2. What are some of the theophanies of God that we see in the Old Testament?

3. What does Christ's "tabernacling" mean to you and how can we keep our focus on him in light of this idea?

The Preexistence of Christ

Now, let's dig in and get some meat out of John. Read John 1:1-18

We're talking Christ's preexistence, i.e., his eternal nature, this week. Why is this so important to John that he addresses it in the first 18 verses of his Gospel? Because he wants to firmly establish that Jesus was much more than just a man, he was God, the Messiah, the Christ! So, he takes the time to set his readers straight first off. The curriculum I used said it this way, "John offers no argument, apology, or explanation for what he said about Christ's preexistence." I like that. A "take no prisoners" kind of attitude.

So, verse one. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." By saying "in the beginning," John is saying when all things began. In other words, Christ was present already when all things began. The actual Greek word that John uses for "the Word" is the word "logos," which literally translated means "thought" or "expression." Look at the beautiful picture this creates. Jesus was God's Word to us, expressing who God is and what He wants to do for us. He was God walking among us.
Sticking with verse one, the phrase "the Word was with God" literally translates that Jesus was "face to face" with God. This is very key. Remember our previous discussion about Gnosticism and Docetists? John was needing to establish for His readers that Christ was more than an idea in God's mind before the world began. In other words, "if Christ was facing God," then if God saw Christ, Christ must be more than an idea in God's mind. He was God participating in the creation of the world.
Jump onto verse 3. "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." The Greek word used here for creation is the word "egeneto" which means "came into existence." In other words Christ brought into existence something out of nothing, or "ex nihilo." Why does John take the time to talk about Christ bringing something into existence? Because he wants to establish Christ as Creator, as being part of God's work, not as being a part of God's mind.

Remember, all of this is to establish Christ's preexistence. OK, going on....
Here is what other parts of the Bible has to say about Christ's preexistence, to support John 1:
Look up John 8:58. The key phrase here is "Before Abraham was, I am." What's wrong with this sentence? That's right, the tenses are all wrong. Christ starts in the past tense and then moves onto the present tense. We're not supposed to do that in the same sentence! Jesus must not have paid attention in Hebrew class. OK, he is God. So why does he switch up tenses? He is creating this wonderful picture for us of the fact that even 2,000 years before that time, he is present. In other words, he lives outside the realm of time. 2,000 years ago, He is now, and 2,000 years from now, He already is! This is also one of Christ's claims to deity.

Look up Exodus 3:14. This is where the whole "I AM" phrase comes into play that is recorded for us. A little food for thought here. After Christ says the "I AM" phrase in John 8:58, the Jews try to stone him. In light of Exodus 3:14, why would they try to stone Christ?

OK, look up Micah 5:2. This was written several hundred years before Christ's birth. Yet, Micah foretells of one who would be born then, but has existed "from of old." All of these support the fact that Christ has existed from before the beginning of time and support John's opening chapter.

So, Christ preexisted. So what? Why is this an important part of proving Christ's deity? Let's look at some more scripture. Look up 1 John 5:11-12, Colossians 3:4, and Galations 2:20. What do these verses say that would implicate that Christ's preexistence is important enough to discuss first thing?
Think of it this way: In these verses we see that when we trust Christ, we die to ourselves and Christ becomes our lives. So, what kind of life does Christ have? Therefore, what kind of life does every believer in Christ have? That's right, eternal life. Only one who has always existed could provide eternal life.  And here's the key: because Christ was, is, and always will be, and is in us and is our life, we CANNOT lose our salvation once we are truly saved!!!! CANNOT!!!!!!!!!!! What wonderful hope that is for us! And that is the key for why we must believe in Christ's preexistence, and why John starts with Christ's preexistence. Our eternal security rests entirely on the fact that Christ lives forever and is GOD!!!!

Questions for thought:

1. What is the form of Christ's preexistence? Think about this one and we will discuss this one.
2. How did and will people respond to Christ's preexistence?
3. In today's world, we might not be fighting Gnostics or Docetists, but we do have some worldview that we have to deal with that deny the preexistence of Christ. What might those be?

The Geographic and Political Situation of Israel during Christ's Ministry

Next week we will be getting into John 1, but just to give you a little more background and to set up the book of John, let's look at what the geography and politics of Israel looked like around 30 A.D.

Location and Size of Israel:

Israel is a small country. In fact, it is 390 miles long and ranges from 30-80 miles wide. To give you a perspective from our part of the world, it is about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Also, an interesting side note, Israel, when you look at a map of the world, it is roughly in the middle of the world. Coincidence or not?

The Perfect Country:

Climate:

Israel has every type of climate imaginable. It has snowy Mount Hermon, which is a popular Israelite ski spot, and then the tropical Dead Sea region. In fact, you could go skiing in the morning and then hit the beach in the afternoon!

Crops:

On the plains of Sharon, you can find crops of oranges and bananas. In Galilee, you can find grapes, cucumbers, and almost any type of vegetable imaginable.

As far as land is concerned, the country of Israel really is the perfect country. In fact, it makes sense why the area is called "the land flowing with milk and honey."

Christ's Itinerary:

Here is just a quick overview of Christ's itinerary through the book of John. Notice how much land he covered.

John 4:1-5—From Jerusalem to Galilee through Samaria: about 50 miles through hills
John 4:43-46—From Samaria to Galilee: about 40 miles through hills and coastal plains
John 4:54-5:1—From Galilee to Jerusalem: about 90 miles through coastal plains and hills
John 10: 40—From Jerusalem to beyond Jordan: about 20 miles through hills and the Jordan Valley
John 10:40-11:1-17—From beyond Jordan to Judea, Bethany: about 18 miles through hills and the Jordan Valley

John 11:54—From Bethany to Ephraim: about 25 miles through hills

Political Divisions During Christ's Time:

There are three major areas in Israel: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Remember, John focuses most of his gospel on Judea. Now, Rome is ruling Israel at this point, and the Roman government divided Israel into three political areas. As we look at these divisions, try to tuck them in the back of your mind for future reference when we talk about the people Christ ministered to in these areas. It will help you understand why he said what he said and did what he did.

We have Judea and Samaria, which is made up of broken hills and valleys and was good for grazing herds and flocks. Seven different men ruled this area during Christ's lifetime.

We have Galilee and Perea, which was heavily wooded in some areas during this time, received a great amount of rain and run-off from nearby Mount Hermon (about 25 inches annually), and was a rich and fertile land. Herod Antipus ruled this area.

Lastly, we have Iturea and Trachonitis, which is in the northern Galilee area. Trachonitis was northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Because the Itureans were nomads, we don't know an exact area they lived in, but are able to narrow it down to this area around the Sea of Galilee. Philip ruled this area during this time.

Now, there is one more area I'm going to include because we will discuss it. It is not a Roman province, but was under Rome's partial control and/or influence. This area is called Decapolis and was made up of 10 Greek cities.

OK, here's a bit more geography and then I have a great illustration to share with you. These are the break down of the geographical divisions of Israel. If you look at a map of Israel, you can draw five vertical lines through Israel to create these areas. Again, tuck these in the back of your mind for future reference when looking at Christ's ministry. Here is a quick rundown of them:

The Coastal Plains
1. It is along the Mediterranean Coast to Mount Carmel
2. It ranges from 6 to 20 miles wide
3. It contains some of the richest soil in the world
4. A large part of the most desirable land in Palestine is in this area

The Shepelah
1. Found between the Coastal plan and the central hills is a series of foothills called the Shepelah
2. It has rolling hills
3. It has low hills at 500 to 1,00 feet high
4. It is suited for growing olives, grapes, and grain
5. It is also suited for pastoral farming activities
6. It once served as a buffer zone between the Philistines and the Israel.

The Cis-Jordan Hills
1. This area is commonly associated with Israel’s history
2. Most of Israel’s cities and people are located in this area
3. The hills range from 1,500 to 3,000 feet high.
4. The elevation increases to the north, and the hills become the Lebanon Mountains in northern Galilee
5. The mountains rise to an elevation of 10,000 feet

The Jordan Valley
1. It stretches from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea
2. It represents only a small section of one of the most remarkable geographic depressions on the earth, which is fully known as the Afro-Arabian Rift Valley
3. This rift is responsible for creating the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea in Israel
4. Due to the constant moving, between 200-300 earthquakes occur here daily!
5. Although the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are only 65 miles apart in a straight line, the Jordan River winds through this area for more than two hundred miles
6. The Dead Sea is about 1,292 feet below sea level and 1,300 feet deep
7. 6 million tons of water flow into the Dead Sea every day from the Jordan River
8. The Dead Sea has no outlet, so the water evaporates during the day, leaving behind minerals—the Dead Sea is one of the greatest mineral deposits in the world.

The Trans-Jordan Hills
1. These hills and mountains lie on the other side (east of the Jordan River)
2. It is a high plateau that rises gradually from north (about 1,320 feet high) to south (higher than 3,940 feet)

Hopefully this helps you gain a better understanding of the area and peoples that Christ was ministering to and of the politics he was facing.

OK, here's the illustration I promised (actually, I want you to think about it, see what you come up with, and then I will share with you what I see). Look back at the description of The Jordan Valley. Think about the Dead Sea. How could we use the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to describe some Christians?

This picture isn't the illustration, I just thought it was funny!