The Lord Jesus came directly to the religious world. However, every time He went to Jerusalem, the center of the religious world, He encountered nothing but debating, fighting, and opposition. This forced Him to make a great change by giving up Jerusalem and going to Galilee, where He called some young fishermen and trained them for three and a half years. An apprenticeship to learn a trade normally lasts three or four years. The Lord trained His disciples not by sending them to a school but by bringing them with Him wherever He went, mainly around the Sea of Galilee. After the Lord resurrected, He appeared to the disciples and charged them to stay in Jerusalem for a number of days (Acts 1:4).
We may be familiar with these facts, but we need to be impressed with the real significance of this picture. First, the Lord Jesus was conceived in Nazareth, a city in Galilee. Just before the time of His birth, a census took place, which forced Mary and her husband, Joseph, to go to Bethlehem. While they were in Bethlehem, Jesus was born. Bethlehem, which is near Jerusalem, was the city of King David. Christ was conceived in the despised city of Nazareth, but He was delivered in Bethlehem, close to Jerusalem. After a short time, His parents were forced to flee to Egypt, and later they returned to Nazareth. Thus, although Christ was born in Bethlehem, He was raised in Galilee. When He was twelve years of age, He was brought to Jerusalem for a feast (Luke 2:42). According to Deuteronomy 16:16, all the males of Israel were required to go to Jerusalem three times a year for the ordained feasts. Thus, from the age of twelve or younger, the Lord probably went three times a year to Jerusalem to keep the feasts. But after the feasts, He went back to Galilee.
According to God’s ordination, a priest began his ministry when he was thirty years of age (Num. 4:3). The Lord Jesus began His ministry at that age (Luke 3:23), and John the Baptist also began his ministry at about thirty. John ministered in the wilderness of Judea, outside of Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem had fallen to become the center of a traditional religion, the Lord could not initiate the testimony of God there. When the Lord was about to begin His ministry, He first went not to Jerusalem but to John the Baptist in the wilderness (Matt. 3:13).
The first disciples were brought to Christ in the wilderness by the testimony of John the Baptist. When John saw Jesus coming, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). Some of the disciples of John heard this and followed the Lord (v. 37). One of these disciples was Andrew, who then brought his brother Simon to the Lord (vv. 40-42). At that time, the Lord immediately changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which is interpreted, Peter, meaning “a stone.” Peter was first brought to the Lord and had his name changed not in Jerusalem or Galilee but in the wilderness. Then Peter returned to Galilee. The Lord also returned to Galilee, and while He was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Peter fishing with his brother (Matt. 4:18). The Lord said, “Come after Me,” and Peter immediately followed (vv. 19-20). Thus, Peter was called not in Jerusalem or in the wilderness but in Galilee.
Galilee was a training center. The Lord trained His disciples mostly in Galilee, but when the feasts came, three times a year, the Lord and the disciples went to Jerusalem. Their time in Jerusalem was a training to the disciples because there they witnessed how the Lord handled opposition, argument, and attack from the Pharisees, scribes, chief priests, and elders.
After the Lord had trained His disciples for some time, He brought them to Caesarea Philippi, which is near the border of the Holy Land, at the foot of Mount Hermon (16:13). The Lord purposely brought them there, far from the religious atmosphere of Jerusalem, to give them the revelation of Christ and the church (vv. 16-18). Afterwards, the Lord brought three disciples up to Mount Hermon, where He was transfigured before them (17:1-2). When the Lord was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared (v. 3). Peter was excited and foolishly said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah” (v. 4). Immediately a voice from heaven stopped Peter (v. 5).
At that time the Lord began to tell His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem to be crucified (16:21). Eventually, He went to Jerusalem at the time of the Feast of Passover (John 12:1, 12). This shows that the Lord is the real passover lamb. The Lord was in Jerusalem for the last six days of His life on the earth. In those days He was continually attacked and opposed. The disciples saw all of this because they were with the Lord.
The Lord went day after day to Jerusalem to fight the battle with the Jewish religionists, but in the night He left Jerusalem to lodge in Bethany (Matt. 21:17). It was in Bethany that the Lord spoke what is recorded in John 14—17, telling His followers that He was one with the Father (14:7-11) and that He was going to become the Spirit so that He could abide in them and they in Him (vv. 16-20). He prayed that all His believers would be one in the Triune God (17:6-24). This oneness is the church, and it is the living of the vine, the organism of God’s economy on the earth (15:1, 4-5). Through baptism we are put into the Triune God to be members of the organism of the divine economy on the earth. In John 18 the Lord went to the garden of Gethsemane, where He prepared to hand Himself over to His opposers. He was judged, sentenced to death, and crucified. Peter and the other disciples followed and saw everything.
After the Feast of Passover, on the first day of the week, when the firstfruits were offered to God, Christ was resurrected (20:1). That night the disciples did not go back to Galilee but stayed in Jerusalem. They had shut all the doors for fear of the Jews, but the resurrected Christ was suddenly in their midst (v. 19). We cannot comprehend how He could have entered with His physical body, but He was there. “He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (v. 22). At that time the Lord entered into His disciples. They returned to Galilee (21:1; cf. 6:1), but something had happened to make them different. Previously, the Lord had been among them outwardly, but now He was within them. From that point on, wherever the disciples went, the Lord was there. When they were in the house again, the Lord suddenly appeared (20:26). When they were fishing, the Lord suddenly appeared (21:3-4). They could not get away from the Lord. The Lord was always with them because He was in them. After His resurrection, He trained His disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3).
After these forty days, the Lord brought the disciples to the Mount of Olives and charged them to stay in Jerusalem (v. 4). Then He ascended (v. 9). While they were looking at this, two angels appeared, saying, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven” (v. 11).
These one hundred twenty Galilean men and women stayed in Jerusalem, as the Lord had charged, and prayed for ten days (vv. 14-15; 2:1). Then the Holy Spirit was poured upon them. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the promised coming of Christ (John 14:18). Christ came back to the disciples in another form—as the Holy Spirit. Christ had entered into them already, and now He was pouring Himself upon them. They were anointed with and baptized into the Holy Spirit. In this way, they became the first expression of the church on the earth, the church in Jerusalem. Although the physical temple with the priests, scribes, and elders was still in Jerusalem, God was now dwelling in the church.