Paper 169 Overview: Last Teaching at Pella

Jesus and the ten apostles arrived at the Pella camp on March 6 for Jesus' final week there. He was very active in teaching the crowds every afternoon and answering questions from the apostles each night. The camp was excited because they had heard about the resurrection of Lazarus two days before Jesus arrived.

The Pharisees and chief priests were forming charges against Jesus. They objected to his teachings because they thought he was a friend of sinners, a blasphemer who claimed to be equal with God, a lawbreaker who healed on the Sabbath, and someone who worked with devils to perform miracles.

Jesus and the ten apostles arrived at the Pella camp on Monday evening, March 6. This was the last week of Jesus' time there, and he was very busy teaching the crowds and instructing his followers. He preached to the crowds every afternoon and answered questions from the apostles and advanced disciples every night.

News about Lazarus being raised from the dead had reached the camp two days before Jesus arrived. This news excited the people more than anything since the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus was at the peak of the second phase of his ministry and planned to teach at Pella for one week before touring southern Perea, which would lead to his final week in Jerusalem.

On Thursday afternoon, Jesus taught the multitude about the "Grace of Salvation." During this sermon, he told the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin, then added his favorite parable of the prodigal son. Jesus explained that just as prophets told people to seek God, he came to show that God is also seeking them.

In the parable, Jesus described a father with two sons - one who left home with his inheritance and wasted it, then returned home humbled and was welcomed with celebration by his father. The older brother who stayed home was angry at this welcome, but the father explained that they should celebrate because the lost son had returned. Jesus often told these three stories together to show how God seeks those who are lost and fully welcomes them back when they return.

One evening, Simon Zelotes asked Jesus about his statement that children of the world are sometimes wiser than children of the kingdom when making friends with wealth. Jesus answered with a parable about a dishonest steward who, when about to lose his job, reduced what people owed his master to gain their favor for his future.

Jesus used this story to teach that believers should be as wise in preparing for their spiritual future as worldly people are in preparing for their material future. He taught that those faithful in small things will be faithful in important things, and that no one can serve both God and wealth. When Pharisees who heard this began to argue, Jesus left for the night.

When the meeting became too noisy after Jesus left, Simon Peter took charge. He reminded them not to argue and told them an old parable from John the Baptist about a rich man and a beggar. Peter noted that this story was not exactly the new gospel they preached, but still contained good lessons.

In the parable, a rich man named Dives lived in luxury while a beggar named Lazarus suffered at his gate. When both died, Lazarus went to Abraham's side while the rich man suffered in Hades. The rich man begged for relief and for someone to warn his brothers, but Abraham said that if they didn't listen to Moses and the prophets, they wouldn't listen even to someone who rose from the dead.

Jesus always had difficulty explaining to his apostles that while they were proclaiming the kingdom of God, the Father in heaven was not a king. People at that time mostly knew about kings and emperors, and Jews had long expected the coming of God's kingdom. Jesus thought it was best to call the spiritual brotherhood of man the kingdom of heaven and its leader the Father in heaven.

Jesus never gave his apostles systematic lessons about God's personality and qualities. He never asked people to believe in his Father because he assumed they already did. His teaching about the Father centered on saying that he and the Father are one, and whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father, showing their closeness and shared purpose.

This section summarizes what happened to Jesus' teachings about the kingdom of heaven after his death. It explains how his original ideas changed as they spread from Jewish to non-Jewish cultures. The concept of the kingdom underwent major changes over time.

The biggest change came when the Messiah of the kingdom became the Redeemer of the church, which grew from Paul's work. The original idea of Jesus nearly disappeared as his followers created a different system of beliefs about him. Two main trends changed Jesus' concept: Jewish believers still saw him as the Messiah who would return to establish a material kingdom, while non-Jewish Christians accepted Paul's teaching that Jesus was the Redeemer of the church rather than of a spiritual brotherhood.