Life Project Blog

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

Matthew 4:23-25

This interesting piece of text provides a transition into the next scene that covers chapters 5-7; the Sermon on the Mount, as it is commonly called. As we consider these verses,  we have a device that Matthew uses several times in the his book, that of a generalized summation of events that leads into the next scene which in turn, provides a more specific look at what has been generalized (cf. 8:16; 9:35; 12:15; 14:35-36; 15:30-31; 19:1-2).

In this particular case, we have a generalization in 4:23 that has a parallel in 9:35 that describes Jesus’ early ministry in very messianic terms, providing a sort of literary book ends to the content in between. As we move into chapters 5-7, we will have a very specific example of one of His teaching sections; the kind of teaching the people of Galilee were hearing as Jesus traveled from place to place. Then, in chapters 8-9 we will shift the focus onto the miracles He was performing in their midst, and when you put the two sections together into Matthew’s messianic context, we can see not only what was going on at the time, but what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about.

Notice verse 23 where we see that Jesus is moving through the region teaching and proclaiming the Kingdom, and healing the sick from every sort of sickness. Then in the remaining verses we find that the news of Jesus’ activities spread throughout Israel and into neighboring Syria to Jew and non-Jew alike. Then we discover that Jesus isn’t only healing illnesses, He is making the lame walk, giving sight to the blind and chasing out demons as well.

People come from every region to hear Him, to see Him and to be healed.

Before we move on, let’s pause just a moment to consider what was happening: The long awaited Messiah had come to Israel. He went out into the countryside preaching the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whenever He did this, people heard God’s Truth and were healed of whatever consequence of sin that afflicted them; that is what the Kingdom of Heaven does when it is filled with the power of grace and truth, for grace and truth bring with them love, and love builds community, and community brings fellowship and healing.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,  and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Matthew 4:18-22

As we continue with Matthew’s account of Jesus, we come to the time when He began calling disciples, and no matter how many times I read these accounts whether it be here in Matthew or in one of the other Gospels, I am always struck by the fact that Jesus called and they came immediately. No excuses, no arguments, nobody had to “pray about it” (so they could avoid saying no): Jesus called, they responded.

This short account begins with the calling of Peter and Andrew, two fishermen who were out on the Sea of Galilee fishing. Jesus calls them and says that He will make them fishers of men. Notice they had nets in the water at that moment and they just left them there and went with Jesus. Let’s be clear, they were fishermen, not sportsmen; fishing wasn’t their hobby, it was their livelihood. When they just left everything and followed Jesus, they lost their business. They also left their boat behind… they sacrificed greatly to follow Jesus, and they did it without hesitation.

Next, Jesus called John and James who were fishing with their father, and once again, without hesitation, they left not only their profession but they left their father to follow Him. If walking away from your livelihood is big, turning your back on your family is bigger still. There is a cost to following Jesus; we may not like to talk about it, but it is true nevertheless.

So to recap, these four disciples responded to Jesus immediately, and in doing so, they gave up everything they had in this world to follow Him. In our day, what do we give up to follow Him? Cussing? An hour a week?

Yet often we say following Him is too hard!

Next time, we’ll see how His early ministry was doing; see you then!

Matthew 4:1-11

After His baptism by John, Jesus heads out to the Wilderness (desert) to be tempted by Satan. In this narrative, we see once again Matthew’s fondness for connecting his story about Jesus with the history of Israel, in this case, with the 40 years of wandering. I truly doubt that God was, as some might suggest, testing Jesus to make sure that He could be fully trusted; it was a little late for that. Instead, it seems to me that God was drawing a contrast between the faithfulness of Jesus His Son, and the people who for forty years wandered in the Wilderness because of their lack of faithfulness to God. In fact, we will see this tendency in Jesus all through the story of His life.

Satan plays an interesting role in all of this, but then he played a behind the scenes role in the original story as well, as seen by the constant grumbling and complaining of the Israelites. In our story, Satan interacts with Jesus in the role of tempter; yes, he seems focused on pulling Jesus away from his Father and into Satan’s orbit and service. I can’t say whether or not Satan really thought he could succeed in this; he must have known it was a long shot, but he tried.

The drama begins after Jesus has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Now that Jesus is really hungry and physically weak, Satan drops in to taunt Him saying “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  Jesus replies by quoting Deut. 8:3: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

If Jesus can quote the Scriptures, it might interest us to know that Satan can as well, and in his second taunt, that is exactly what he did, after transporting the scene to the highest point of the Temple:  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (cf. Psalm 91:11-12)

Jesus isn’t buying Satan’s twisting of the Word of God, this time quoting Deut. 6:16: Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

At this stage in the story, Satan is about to get to his actual point; it was never his mission to test Jesus to see if He was really the Son of God; he knew exactly who Jesus was, after all, why else would old Herod have been so anxious to kill Jesus as an infant? No sir, Satan knew exactly who he was talking to, and his whole reason for being there was to try and “turn” Jesus, to gain His worship, just the way he had “turned” Adam and Eve, and so he comes to his point:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (4:8-9)

When we think about this, it seems a little strange for Satan to make such an offer as though he actually held the power to deliver on his promise, but then he is a liar and the father of lies. Jesus, as God’s Son is heir to the entire universe and beyond, but His path to His destiny is not by stealing or betrayal, it is the path of service, a path that, as we will see, leads to the cross. This is the path that Matthew is leading us on through the rest of His account of Jesus’ story, but even more than that, it is our path as disciples of Jesus today, for we too have become co-heirs with Christ to everything, but our path to inheriting everything is not through stealing, scheming or conquest, but by the path of service.

At this point in the story, Jesus is done with Satan:

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. (4:10-11)

Quoting Deut. 6:13, Jesus equates Satan’s “offer” with idolatry and dismisses him. An obvious, but often overlooked aspect of this is that even in His weakened condition, Jesus told Satan to leave, and Satan obeyed.

Interesting isn’t it?

So here we are, followers of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we think we have so many problems and that the devil is so strong, unstoppable and alluring, but all of that is the devil’s lie! What did James say about this?

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

Matthew 3:13-15

So far, we have seen John’s ministry and teaching, and we have seen the response of so many people to his work. Then Jesus bursts onto the stage. It is abundantly clear in verse 13 that Jesus departed from Galilee for the express purpose of receiving John’s baptism during the time that he was preaching in the wilderness, and it is also clear that the work of John is linked strategically with the arrival of Jesus.

John’s reaction to this does him considerable credit; he seemed to be surprised that one so much greater than he would want to submit to his baptism. Rather, John knew that he needed what Jesus could offer; not the other way around. That is when Jesus speaks for the very first time in Matthew’s Gospel; for the time being anyway, it was right and proper that Jesus submit Himself to John’s preparatory baptism so that all righteousness could be fulfilled.

It seems clear, at least to me, that Jesus wasn’t making any sort of legal argument, for there was no Jewish Law that said He had to be baptized, there wasn’t any specific prophecy that had to be fulfilled or anything like that, rather it was righteous for Jesus to submit to the baptism of John to prepare Him to step forth from the shadows into the bright lights of His own ministry as the Messiah, the Son of God, for you see, Jesus was not there to do His own will, but to submit to the Father’s will and purpose. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus in obedience submitted to John, John immediately submits to His request to be baptized?

So then, why did God want this little scene to happen?

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:16-17

Jesus submits to John’s baptism, John submits to Jesus’ request to be baptized, Jesus is immersed… and as soon as He comes up out of the water, heaven was opened. It seems to me that this is one of those “wow” moments…

“Heaven was opened” is used several times in Scripture to signal a divine revelation (cf. Ezek. 1:1; Is. 63:19; Acts 7:56; Rev. 4:1) and this time is no different; God has a little announcement to make. First, the Spirit descends upon Jesus “like a dove” and alights on him. Some have suggested that this is when Jesus actually became God’s son, but to me that seems unlikely, particularly considering the great pains Matthew has gone to already to show the Sonship of Jesus from the time of His conception. What seems more likely to me is that this anointing of the Holy Spirit is done in conjunction with His commissioning, which follows immediately when the voice of God speaks forth from Heaven pronouncing His pleasure with His Son.

It isn’t every day that you see all three Persons of the Godhead manifested together in one place at the same time; thus began the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Messiah.

Matthew 3:1-12

Matthew skips over nearly 30 years between 2:23 and 3:1 and in so doing he has emphasized for us his priority on the identity and role of Jesus over that of providing mere biographical information. This is further emphasized for us in that Matthew picks up all these years later not with Jesus, but with John, for John’s story serves to underscore the messianic role and function that Jesus will fulfill.

A common form of Jewish messianic hope is represented by the notion that Elijah would return as a precursor to the arrival of the Messiah (cf. Matt. 11:14; 17:10-13; Mal. 3:23-24; 4:5-6). Matthew takes care to present John in this light to underscore ultimately, the identity of Jesus, for in presenting John as he did, Matthew shows that John’s emergence upon the scene marks the beginning of a whole new paradigm in Israel. Consider the fact that John has come to the territory of David (3:1) in the spirit of Elijah (cf. 3:4; 2Kings 1:8) preaching a message of repentance (3:2, 7-10; cf. Mal. 3:1-5; 4:5-6), in the context of the nearness of the Kingdom (3:2) and the ultimate judgment of the “mightier one” to come (3:11-12).  As Matthew’s story continues to unfold in the chapters that follow, John’s work will continue to give us focus on the character and mission of Jesus (cf. 3:14; 11:1-19; 14:1-12; 16:14-20; 17:9-13; 21:23-27). Matthew breaks his description of John the Baptist into two parts: 3:1-6 highlight John’s ministry, and 3:7-12 his message.

3:1-6: There is no coincidence in the fact that John appears in the “wilderness of Judea” (or “desert”) for it had long been expected that the precursor to messiah’s arrival would come from the Wilderness (Is. 40:3-4; 42:14-55:13; Ezek. 20:33-44; Hos. 2:14-15). This also provides us with a connection between Moses in the Wilderness and the story of Jesus. The Kingdom of Heaven (mentioned by Matthew 33 times in his Gospel) was near; there was urgency in John, an urgency that came from the very nature of his calling, as seen in the quotation from Isaiah 40:3.

John is further connected to the prophets of old in Matthew’s description of his wardrobe and menu. His dress is associated with that of Elijah (2Kings 1:8; cf. Zech. 13:4). His menu is that of a prophet fully consecrated to God. The impact of John’s ministry out in the desert was profound indeed; people came from all around to hear his message. They not only heard it, but they responded to it as well, confessing their sins and repenting, being baptized in the Jordan River.

3:7-12: Yes indeed, John’s ministry was having quite an impact, and when a radical message has a significant impact upon the people, the authorities will be looking into the situation, and that is what happens in these verses. Matthew tends to present the Pharisees and Sadducees as a united front throughout his Gospel, but to be sure, they would have only been united if they felt threatened, for they were rival factions that didn’t usually see eye-to-eye on very much. John, as Jesus would later, saw right through their façade.

In verses 7-10, John essentially launches a broadside at them; his message, crafted in apocalyptic terms they would understand was simply that they must repent of their unrighteousness like everyone else, or face judgment. This is made even clearer in vv. 11-12 where John clearly tells them that his baptism is all about repentance, but there will shortly appear one who is far greater than he, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. There are various interpretations of the issue of “Holy Spirit” and “fire” that John speaks of here and whichever you prefer is fine by me. As for me, as simple-minded as I am, I simply see a very tight context here that is illustrated in verse 12:

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Using a simple agricultural metaphor that would be understood by most anyone in that day, John is telling the religious leaders that they will soon be able to repent and receive Jesus’ baptism and the Holy Spirit, or they can refuse and face the consequences; it would be their choice, just like it is our choice. This same tension will come up time and again in Matthew’s story.

In the next scene, John will have an entirely different kind of visit; see you there!