The Second Preaching Tour 

Jesus led three preaching tours of the Galilee region. The second tour spanned the last three months of 28 CE. The participants were Jesus, his twelve apostles, and a newly recruited corps of evangelists. They departed from their encampment at Bethsaida in early October. The tour included visits to Gadara, Ptolemais, Japhia, Dabaritta, Megiddo, Jezreel, Scythopolis, Tarichea, Hippos, Gamala, Bethsaida-Julias, and many other cities and villages.

This second public preaching tour was principally to provide practical experience for the 117 new evangelists. About seventy-five survived this test of actual experience and were on hand to be assigned to service for continued preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. The tour ended on December 30, 28 CE, when the participants were recalled to Bethsaida.

Toward the end of 28 CE, Jesus and his friends were camped at Bethsaida on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. On Sunday morning, October 3, the Master, his apostles, and 117 newly trained evangelists were set to begin the second of three preaching tours in the Galilee region. Before leaving, Jesus said to the evangelists: “Go now forth to do the work as you have been charged, and later on, when you have shown yourselves competent and faithful, I will ordain you to preach the gospel of the kingdom.”

The plan was for the brothers James and John Zebedee to travel with Jesus. Peter and each of the other apostles would each take with them about one dozen of the evangelists. Thanks to David Zebedee and his messenger service, they could maintain close contact. At that time, David employed forty to fifty messengers primarily to keep Jesus, the apostles, and the evangelists apprised of each other’s movements and the welfare of their families.

This preaching tour was meant primarily to provide practical experience for the evangelists. Before departing, they agreed to administer baptism as fast as believers were ready to enter the kingdom. Jesus, James, and John traveled extensively during these three months, often visiting two cities in one day to observe the evangelists' work and encourage them in their efforts to establish the kingdom.

Even before this tour began, Jesus' fame, particularly as a healer, had spread to all parts of Palestine and the surrounding countries. There was an unexplained series of healings throughout the remainder of Jesus’ life on earth. Over one hundred men, women, and children were healed during this three-month tour alone.

Healings could occur in the personal presence of Jesus and certain creative forces and personalities who were at that time intimately associated with the Son of Man, in combination with the ailing person’s faith. The Master never explained to his apostles how these spontaneous healings were effected other than that on several occasions, he merely said, “I perceive that power has gone forth from me.”

When this tour began, the fame of Jesus rested chiefly on his reputation as a healer. But, as time passed, he was increasingly sought out for spiritual help by victims of moral enslavement and mental anxiety. Fathers asked for his advice regarding managing their sons, and mothers came for help in the guidance of their daughters. Those who sat in darkness came to him, and he revealed the light of life to them. His ear was ever open to the sorrows of others, and he always helped those who sought his ministry.

Jesus received the obedience of his followers without demanding it. He exercised a peculiar drawing power over people, but he was not dictatorial. He commanded confidence, and no one ever resented his giving a command. He assumed absolute authority over his disciples, but no one ever objected.

The Master was admired by all who met him except those who entertained deep-seated religious prejudices or those who thought they discerned political dangers in his teachings. People were astonished at the originality and authoritativeness of his teaching. They marveled at his patience in dealing with backward and troublesome inquirers. He inspired hope and confidence in the hearts of all who came under his ministry.

On both friends and foes, he exercised a strong and peculiarly fascinating influence. Multitudes would follow him for weeks just to hear his gracious words and behold his simple life. Devoted men and women loved Jesus with an almost superhuman affection. The better they knew him, the more they loved him. And all this is still true; even today and in all future ages, the more people come to know this God-man, the more they will love and follow him.

Aside from the favorable reception of Jesus by the common people, the religious leaders in Jerusalem became more alarmed and antagonistic. They were increasingly blinded by fear and prejudice, while their hearts were hardened by their continued rejection of the gospel of the kingdom.

Not all, but many of the Jerusalem leaders had closed the doors of their hearts to the spiritual appeal of the gospel, and they planned to stop Jesus even if it meant his death. They were convinced that Jesus must be apprehended, convicted, and executed as a religious offender, a violator of the cardinal teachings of the Jewish sacred law. But he evaded capture for more than a year after this second tour thanks to his wise movements around the region and his popularity among the people.

Jesus did very little public work during this preaching tour, but he conducted many evening classes with the believers in most of the cities and villages he visited. At one, he spoke about the dangers of excessive courage and unbalanced faith and how they can lead unthinking souls into recklessness and presumption. He also taught his hearers how prudence and discretion, when carried too far, lead to cowardice and failure. He exhorted his hearers to strive for originality while they shunned all tendency toward eccentricity. He taught his students sympathy without sentimentality, piety without sanctimoniousness. He taught reverence free from fear and superstition.

However, it was not so much what Jesus taught about a balanced character that impressed his associates as the fact that his own life was such an eloquent example of his teachings. He lived amid stress and storm, but he never wavered. His enemies continually laid snares for him, but they never entrapped him. The wise and learned endeavored to trip him, but he did not stumble. They tried to embroil him in debate, but his answers were always enlightening, dignified, and final. When he was interrupted in his discourses with countless questions, his answers were always significant and conclusive. He never used ignoble tactics to meet the continuous pressure of his enemies, who did not hesitate to employ every sort of false, unfair, and unrighteous mode of attack upon him.

At one stop on the tour, the apostle Simon Zelotes asked the Master: “Why are some persons so much more happy and contented than others? Is contentment a matter of religious experience?” Among other things, Jesus said in answer to Simon’s question:

“Simon, some persons are naturally more happy than others. Much, very much, depends upon the willingness of man to be led and directed by the Father’s spirit which lives within him… Recall the scriptures that say: ‘A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance and is a continual feast… ‘Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred therewith… ‘A merry heart does good like a medicine.’

“Seek not, then, for false peace and transient joy but rather for the assurance of faith and the sureties of divine sonship which yield composure, contentment, and supreme joy in the spirit.”

Jesus hardly regarded this world as a “vale of tears.” He rather looked upon it as the birthplace of the eternal soul, a “vale of soul-making.”

It was at Gamala that the apostle Philip asked Jesus: “Master, why is it that the Scriptures instruct us to ‘fear the Lord,’ while you would have us look to the Father in heaven without fear? How are we to harmonize these teachings?” Jesus replied, in part:

“…I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, joy in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service and appreciative worship in the place of slavish bondage and meaningless ceremonies. But it is still true of those who sit in darkness that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ But when the light has more fully come, the children of God are led to praise God for what he is rather than to fear him for what he does.

“In the kingdom of heaven, which I have come to declare, there is no high and mighty king; this kingdom is a divine family. God sits at the head of the table; he is my Father and your Father. Therefore, it is eternally true that you and I are brethren in the heavenly estate. Cease, then, to fear God as a king or serve him as a master; learn to reverence him as the Creator; honor and love him as a merciful defender. Worship God as the loving and all-wise Father.

“…I have come to give you a new and higher commandment. I would teach you to love God and learn to do his will, for that is the highest privilege of the liberated sons of God. Your fathers were taught to fear God—the Almighty King. I teach you, Love God—the all-merciful Father.”

The apostle Andrew, with the approval of Jesus, asked David to dispatch messengers to the various preaching groups with instructions to terminate the tour and return to Bethsaida sometime on Thursday, December 30. By supper time on that rainy day, all the apostles and evangelists had arrived at the Zebedee home, Jesus’ Galilee headquarters.

The group remained together over the Sabbath. These three days were exhilarating and inspiring; even the older teachers were edified by the young preachers as they related their experiences during the preaching tour. On Sunday, the entire party was granted a two-week recess to go home to their families, visit their friends, or go fishing.

Of the 117 evangelists who participated in this second preaching tour of Galilee, seventy-five survived the test of actual experience and were on hand to be assigned to service at the end of the two weeks’ recess. During that recess, Jesus, Andrew, Peter, James, and John remained at the Zebedee home and spent much time in conference regarding the welfare and extension of the kingdom.