Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Chapter Four

Please read and refer to the Gospel of Matthew chapter four.

Verses 1-11... Read... The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted but He does not do the tempting, the Devil is the tempter. James 1:13 says... "Let no one saywhen he is tempted 'I am tempted by God' for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He Himself tempt any one." The Spirit may lead you in some way or somewhere to allow you to be tempted but He does not do the tempting. God allows the enemy to do what they [by their nature] want to within the limits that He sets. And it is for the purpose of showing you where you are at in your walk or to show other people. Even possibly the angels may need to see something. But it will always be for the purpose of teaching and growth in you or others.

Another thing on this is that before you are tempted God will prepare you for the battle if you let him. If you are walking in the spirit and you are in His word. As Ephesians 6:11 says, you will have... "puton the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the wiles of the Devil." The thing I notice here is that the Father affirms Jesus to be His son. That is very important to know that God is on our side and He's with us. Are you secure in the fact that you are God's child and have been born of Him? If you are in His word you will know His promises and your faith will be increased and you will have that assurance. Romans 10:17 says... "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Verse 2... Fasting is something that is lacking in Christianity and in our culture in general. There are to reasons to fast. One is for health purposes and the other spiritual. Letting your body clean out every once in a while is very beneficial to your health. Fasting for spiritual reasons is for the purpose of suppressing some of the physical senses we are constantly dealing with which in turn can open us up more to God's Spirit. It is also a good exercise in self denial and controlling the flesh which we are called to do. Romans 8:13says... "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put todeath the deeds of the body, you will live."

Now we come to the temptation. Let us try to imagine ourselves in this place. First we need to get the complete picture. If we look in Mark 1:12-13 and Luke 4:1-13 we will find that the temptation went on through out the entire forty days. Also His setting is the wilderness among the wild beast Mark tells us. I had always thought that temptation was just the one incident at the end of His fast when the hunger pains returned, but Satan had been working him over the entire time. And some of you know what I am talking about. The enemy can be relentless at times. Verse 3... "Now when the tempter came..." That is one thing you can be sure of is that the tempters will come if you are walking with the LORD and doing what He has calledyou to do. In our case however it is probably not Satan who comes after us but some lesser evil spirit who is assigned to people who are having a positive effect for Gods kingdom.

But do not let that stop you from serving Him. Step out in faith and do what He has called you to do. That is where you will really see the power of God moving, when you line up with what He wants to do. If you are a Christian and you are miserable and depressed it is probably because you are listening to the enemy and not in God's will. But that is where the joy is and where the blessings come! You do not have to worry about the enemy, God will see you through his attacks just trust Him. 1^st John 4:4 says... "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

In Satan's final onslaught of attacks he comes at Jesus from three different angles. The first is that he challenges Gods goodness. Satan says "If you are the Son of God..." The use of the word "if" here is in the subjunctive which means it would be better rendered since. Since you are the son of God he says, "... command that these stones become bread." Hoping that Jesus would act impulsively with a fleshy motivation apart from the Father's guidance to prove that He is the Son of God. Satan is also probably trying to get Jesus to doubt who He is [in the flesh] and in turn to question why God would put the "Son of God" in such dire straits if God is so good and loving. The Bible says that doubt and fear are sin and that alonewould be enough to disqualify Jesus from being the Messiah. Romans 14:23b says, "... for whatever is not fromfaith is sin." So it is a good thing that Jesus does succeed in His mission because we would all be in big trouble if He did not.And although Satan knows who Jesus is he does not know how the LORD will attain salvation for mankind. No one knows that at this point not even the angels nor is it clearthat Jesus [the man] knew at this point. If the religious leaders of that time knew the plan they would have known Jesus was their Messiah and accepted Him as such. But Satan does know that Jesus is the Messiah and if he can get Jesus to sin He would no longer be fit to be the Savior because God requires perfection. With all that being said, notice how the LORD responded to this temptation.

Verse 4...Read... He said, "It is written...", that is how we need to respond when the enemy is bothering us we need to know what the bible says about our particular situation and remind ourselves who we are in Christ and to tell the enemy to take a walk. Then by faith we need to act according to God's word. That is why it is so vital that you are always in the Word. In order to respond in this way you have to know the Word. Never trade what you do know about God for what the enemy is trying to feed you. Believe God!, not the father of lies and the accuser of the brethren. ref. (Revelation 12:10)

Now we come to the second angle; Satan wants Jesus to force Gods hand and to presume upon his power.

Verses 5-7...Read... And notice that Jesus goes along willingly. It does not say that he was dragged there against His own will. He did this for our sake, being tempted as a man and dealing with Satan as a man and not with divine power. Hebrews 4:15says... "For we do not have a High priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." The next thing that the LORD showed me is that the enemy transforms himself into an angel of light. This is one of his best tactics. "If you can't beat them, join them", or at least make them think you are one of them. ref. (2^nd Corinthians 11:13-15).

Jesus used Scripture to correct Satan's lies and so then Satan comes back with more Scripture. However he will always twist it's meaning at some point. He will give you enough truth to draw you in, then he begins to twist the meaning of God's word to appeal to our sin nature and the various lust of our flesh. That is why all these charlatans on T.V. can take peoples money and they gladly give it to them. And I am not saying that everyone on T.V. is a thief, there are some very reputable ministries there as well. But if they spend most of their time appealing for money it should trigger a little red flag to go up.

Now Jesus again comes back with Scripture but He puts it back in context. In this case the context comes from knowing the Bible in it's totality. What Satan said was true but in context with the rest of the Bible it is clear that what he was asking Jesus to do was wrong. If we do not get the entire counsel of God's word we will not know when the enemy is twisting the Scriptures. You can make the Bible say just about anything you want if you take things out of context. That is also why these cults can prosper because people are Word poor.

Let us take a look at Acts 20:26-31 for a minute. Paul says he is innocent of the blood of all men because he has declared "...the whole counsel of God" to them. If you are going to be, or are a teacher of the Word you need to teach the whole Bible not just topical "sermonetts." A shepherd is responsible for his flock and must be sure to thoroughly equip them. There is also a flip side to this and that can be found in Philippians 2:12 it says, "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." You in turn are also responsible for your walk with God, that is what this is saying, not that your works save you. You need to be in the Word making sure that what people tell you about Scripture is accurate and properly interpreted. And if you think that you are not qualified ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and He will give it to you. Just look up these verses later, (James 1:5) and (1^s John 2:20-21).

Here now we come to the third and last temptation of the final thrust at Jesus to see if Satan can break Him and render him disqualified as the Savior.

Verses 8-11...Read... So Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Now we know you cannot see all the kingdoms of the world from any one place on earth no matter how high. This would appear to be a supernatural vision of sorts. And then Satan offers them to Jesus if He would only bow down and worship him. Jesus does not argue with Satan because at this point the world is in Satan's control. The world was forfeited to Satan through Adam and Eve's act of disobedience when they listened to Satan's lies and took of the forbidden fruit. They in effect sold out to Satan. In the Tanakh [Old Testament], Leviticus 25:25 there are laws about owning land and the right of a kinsman to redeem any land that had for whatever reason changed ownership. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer and the book of Ruth is a beautiful picture of Jesus as such. That is why in the book of Revelation 5:2 the angel asks, "...Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals?" The scroll here is the title deed to the earth and at this point in the prophetic writings Jesus is about to take it back; probably in the not to distant future. (Revelations 11:15) "...the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ,..."

Now comes the final blow to Satan's attacks and it once again is thwarted with Scripture. Jesus does not use supernatural powers. All that it takes to defeat Satan is truth, standing on God's word. The only power Satan and his followers have over us is what we choose to give them. They are all smoke and mirrors; deception is their only weapon. The Scripture says in James 4:7-8... "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Sometimes the enemy does not flee because we are not submitted to God. We need to line up with His will and His way and then the devil will flee. Because Jesus was in Gods will and He resisted Satan he does flee. This is our example on how to fight the enemy; all that it takes is being in God's will and standing on His word.

And finally God sends in the angels to minister to Jesus now that He has finished this critical test. This test however was more for you and me. To show us that we too can have victory over the enemy if we would just believe God and stand on His word.

Verses 12-16...Read... Now Jesus heard that John was in prison and from then on He began to preach repentance. But before John was put in prison some other events took place. If we look in the other Gospels we can put together the whole story. In the Gospel of John [son of Zebedee and Salome] it fills in some of the blanks between the time of the temptation and Jesus' arrival in Capernaum. This is again a fulfillment of prophecy as Matthew makes sure to point out so that there is no question that Jesus is the Messiah. If you do a study on all the prophecies concerning the Messiah [well over three hundred], and how Jesus did fulfill each one to the "T" you can only come to one conclusion; Jesus is the Messiah promised to Israel and the world. It is mathematically impossible for anyone to be able to fulfill the prophecies concerning the Messiah if they are not Him. Many of the conditions of the prophecies are totally out of an individuals ability to control. For example, who your parents are or where and when you are born, or when, where, and how you will die. The only thing that could stop one from believing that Jesus is the Messiah is their own pride because they will not admit that they are a sinner and need the Savior. They want to run their own lives and do not want to follow anyone nor submit to anyone.

Getting back to Capernaum, this was an area that was pretty populated for it's day. Archeologist tell us that it was made up of about two hundred and four different communities each having an average of fifteen thousand residents. This gave the area a population of about three million. It was for the most part an agricultural center. But as it is with most places they sit in darkness waiting for someone to bring them light which is where we are supposed to come in, we are all called to share the good news.

Verse 17... Jesus is now picking up where John the Baptist had left off; (chapter 3:2)saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." I like what the definition in the concordance reads for "is at hand" It says...

1) to bring near, to join one thing to another.

2) to draw or come near to, to approach.

Jesus came to make it personal again. Something few people ever grasp is that God wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. As in the time when Jesus came the religious leaders had lost the real meaning of what God had intended and it is no different today. People think that all they have to do is to do their time, go to church, and perform a few rituals. They think that it is enough to placate God. But they are missing the point completely. God wants to be a part of our everyday lives and draw near to us. He wants to transform us into His image thereby preparing us to live in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Verses 18-22... So here we have the beginning of the call of Jesus' Apostles, two pairs of brothers. The first, Peter and Andrew, who were fishing by casting a net into the sea of Galilee. Their form of fishing was not using a pole with line and putting bait on a hook, it was by casting a net. Jesus said, "...I will make you fishers of men." In this case the net is like the Gospel. As in another example Jesus gave us about sowing seed, we are to just throw it out there and let God tend to it. When fishing in this way you can catch just about anything. Some of what gets caught will wind up being thrown back. And so it is when we share the word of God with people and invite them to church or a Bible study not all of them belong in the net. Those who do not belong usually go away from the fellowship on their own. The reason for that is as it says in 1^st John 2:19, "They went out from us, but theywere not of us; for if theyhad been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."

Others though are not so easy to tell apart so we must rely on the Spirit to reveal them in His time. They may look like sheep, but they are around for only one reason, trouble. They are wolves in sheep's clothing and will try to disrupt the spread of the truth of God's word and implant false doctrines. These types, we will want to persuade them to leave of their own accord. It is important that if you ever hear anything that you think is not lining up with the Bible that you tell a pastor or someone in ministry, so it can be dealt with before they lead anyone astray.

Getting back to our text we find that these two immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Now as they are going along the shore of Galilee they come across the next pair of brothers mending their nets and Jesus ask them to follow Him and they also immediately dropped what they were doing to follow Jesus.

Now these four were John the Baptist's disciples and from reading the other Gospels we know that they were at the very least acquainted with Jesus already. They did not at this time fully understand what was going to transpire in Jesus' ministry. At least two of them had heard John the Baptist say of Him "Behold the Lamb of God." ref. John 1:36. Also in verse 41 Andrew says to Simon [Peter] "We have found the Messiah." Well they thought they had found their version of the Messiah. As I said back in the beginning of this study on the book of Matthew, no one really had any idea that the Messiah would have to suffer and die for our sins. They were for the most part expecting the Messiah to bring about a political and military revolt to restore Israel to a self governing nation and re-establish the throne of King David. So these guys knew and believed that Jesus was on a mission from God but their idea of how it would unfold was quite different from what really happens.They were not just following Him on a whim either; I am sure that the Holy Spirit had been stirring their hearts leading up to this time when Jesus asked them to join Him. The Spirit may be stirring some of your hearts to get involved in a ministry or maybe to receive Him as your Messiah for the first time. Please do not ignore Him, answer the call and you will be blessed.

Verses 23... Let us try to imagine this and put ourselves in the scene here. Jesus is going around preaching the good news, that your sins will be forgiven if you only repent and believe and healing hundreds of people of all kinds of sickness and diseases. Nothing is to hard for the LORD, it is no harder for Him to cure cancer than the common cold. When the Red Sox won the World Series it was pretty exciting but imagine what it was like seeing everyone you know being healed. If it were today it would be as though He emptied out the hospitals in our area. Man the talk going around, the euphoria; the Red Sox winning the World Series does not even compare, although it was pretty exciting.

Verses 24... Here it says that his fame went about all Galilee. Jesus obviously was not doing this to be famous however He did want to attract a crowd. But this was for the purpose of being able to teach them and make disciples. The miracles that He did were for a twofold purpose. The first was obviously to restore people to health which is part of what it will be like in the kingdom that is "coming soon to a planet near you." Jesus here is giving us a taste of the kingdom that is to come in which He is the good shepherd and our King. It was never Gods intention for man to have sickness and decease but the fall of man ushered in this condition. And the second, was to demonstrate that He has power over creation and the authority to say the things He is saying. It is one thing to talk about the Kingdom of God, repentance, and faith, but you need to back it up with actions. As James 2:26 says, "for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." When I went to Mexico with the adult missions group we had a wonderful response from the people. The reason for this was because they knew that we had taken of our time and used our own resources to get there and that it cost us something to go there and reach out to them. They could tell that we believed what we were saying because we brought them food and clothing. We also helped build a home for a family who really needed it. Their living room was made out of pallets, plywood and plastic and their kitchen was outside. There were four kids plus the parents and they slept in a twenty foot broken down camper and they were fairly content it seemed.

But our words were backed up by our actions. This is what gets people's attention and opens their hearts to the Gospel, genuine interest in them and their well-being, not just preaching at them. I would highly recommend that you go on a mission trip sometime. Allow God to stretch you and use you. Do not be satisfied with the status quo. God has so much more for us if we would just trust Him and get involved in ministering to people. There are so many needs in your own church and the area out side of those four walls not just off in Mexico somewhere. Pray about how God wants to use you.

Verse 25... So the crowds are following Jesus from all over the region and as I said this was what the LORD wanted so he could spread the good news to all. Back in verse 23 it says He taught "in all their synagogues." Today in our society we have been deceived by the enemy into thinking that we cannot talk about religion. I think this is one of the reasons why the world is so messed up, because the church stopped talking about the truth; we are afraid of being rejected or experiencing a little persecution. 2^nd Timothy 3:12 says, "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." Jesus is going to touch on this coming up in the sermon on the mount. But I think we "the Church" have been silent to long. We really need to start "speaking the truthin love" ref. (Ephesians 4:15) to those around us. The enemy certainly has not been quiet in voicing his agenda. Just look how far our society has fallen just in the past fifty years. The crime rates have gone up tremendously and along with that the perpetrators have become more violent. The wholesale murder of millions of babies from the womb so that man can worship the god of sexual pleasure and not have to deal with the consequences of it.

However I would like to say that if you have had an abortion or caused someone to have one; there is forgiveness in Jesus if you will turn to Him. He wants to forgive you and take away the hurt that has been caused by it. Matthew 12:31 says, "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, ..." .

But our society is very sick, everywhere you look it is sex in your face. It is a never ending temptation for people and is leading astray the masses from what God intended for relationships and perverting it. The peddlers of pornography rake in billions of dollars a year. Now I am sorry, I do not care what your credentials are, you cannot tell me that pornography and the overall openness of sexuality in our media and society does not contribute to the increase in sexual crimes and to the overall promiscuity of teenagers.

God is not against sex, He invented it. But it is to be in the marriage bed and only between one man and one women. Any other combination is sin and the Bible is very clear on this subject. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Fornication is any sexual practice outside of marriage. Now let us look at Romans 1:24-32 that says... "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; [they are] whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." Based on these scriptures; if you have been taught that God condones homosexuality you have been deceived. But if you or anyone you know is caught up in sexual sin God can deliver you from it. Sexual sin, is sexual sin whether it is heterosexuality or homosexuality. I do not hate homosexuals and neither does God. As Christians we are called to love everyone no matter what their sin is. When I see things on the news surrounding the topic of homosexuality and these supposed Christians holding up signs that say "God hates homosexuals", it makes me angry that they would misrepresent God this way and He is grieved as well.

Sex is not just for making babies either. Let us take a look at 1^st Corinthians 7:1-9... "Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband [does]. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife [does]. 5 Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment. 7 For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. 8 But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; 9 but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn [with passion]."

So I think it is pretty obvious that Paul through the Holy Spirit is saying that we are to fulfill our spouses sexual desires, [provided that you both agree on the "how to"] not to just make babies. However that is a good way for God to add to His church.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the (NKJV)

New King James Version, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All rights reserved. Used by permission.