A verse-by-verse explanation of these chapter
An overview of the principles and applications these chapters.
Melding these chapters to life.
Tying these chapters to life with God.
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
Suggested step-by-step group study of these
Zeroing these chapters in on daily life.
“You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late”
Thomas Fuller
In chapter 3, Matthew jumped from the events of Jesus' birth to his adult life. Preaching a message of repentance, John the Baptizer prepared the hearts of the people for the coming of the Messiah-King. In chapter 4, following his baptism, the Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness where he fasted for forty days and nights before being tempted by the devil. Chapter 4 also marks the calling of the first disciples and the beginning of Jesus' ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing.
It was the shortest of nights. No sleep. It was the longest of nights. Hardest work. At least for his mother. Births are like that!
Ever since the doctor confirmed my wife's suspicions (“You are pregnant!”), we had been making preparations. We calculated the arrival date and converted the extra bedroom to a nursery. We collected diaper bags, bottles, sheets, receiving blankets, and a great deal of paraphernalia. We journaled our doctor appointments.
Linda studied volume after volume about the physical aspects of her pregnancy. I reviewed the route to the hospital time and again. There would be no wrong turns on this thirty-five-mile dash! We were ready—sort of.
One can never be truly ready. The event is simply too big. Mind-boggling. Eye-brimming. Lip-quivering. Simply overwhelming. How could something so common be so indescribable! Our son was here!
When he arrived, we drew incredible pleasure from announcing his birth. Nothing we had ever accomplished in either of our lives compared to giving birth to our child. We were going to let the world know! We nearly exhausted our next month's budget with telegrams, phone calls, and specially designed and printed birth announcements to our friends. This was our son! A unique human being, a very special child—with both a heritage and a destiny.
Somehow, with every child, parents believe with all their hearts this is so much more than a baby. This was a man of difference in the making. He would be the first of a new branch of our little Weber clan in this big world. He was the beginning of a new generation and an anchor in a continuing lineage. His birth just shouted to be announced. That is why it was hard for us to control ourselves and why we spared no expense in announcing his arrival.
Now multiply our feeble efforts by infinity. Multiply our son's birth by the birth of God's only Son! Can you imagine how the Father must have felt?
The Father had made all the preparations. The angels had been readied. The stars were arranged. The census was established to get the key players in position. His celestial light show was an extravaganza. And wise men came. The birth of Jesus Christ was no ordinary event. This was God's Son. And to cap off the announcement process, God arranged for a special trumpeter—a herald of prophetic proportions—John the Baptizer. John was the forerunner, the king's ambassador, sent ahead to lay out the red carpet and prepare the way. Messiah's arrival screamed to be announced. Everyone needed to respond to his arrival. And the appropriate response was, in a word, repentance. John's message was contained in that single word, Repent, which means “to change one's thinking and behavior.” The Messiah is here!
The King Is Introduced
MAIN IDEA: God exercised great care in preparing Jesus way Jesus' character, and the foundations of Jesus' ministry.
The King's Forerunner (3:1-12)SUPPORTING IDEA: God prepared Jesus' way through John the Baptizer
3:1-2. For four hundred years, heaven had been silent. No more! Now to center stage strode a lone but powerful figure. Looking a lot like Elijah with his rough, camel-haired garment and leather belt, John the Baptizer was the first prophet of God to speak in four centuries, and his voice and message were loud and clear. According to Luke, both of John the Baptizer's parents were descended from Aaron (Luke 1:5-10), and his father Zechariah served as a priest. So John himself was qualified to serve as a priest after his father.
John was a miracle child, born of a barren womb to elderly parents (Luke 1:7). John was somehow related to Jesus through their mothers (Luke 1:36), so it is probably safe to call them cousins. Mary had such a strong relationship with Elizabeth that she traveled from Nazareth to Judea for a visit during Elizabeth's pregnancy (Luke 1:39-40). Thus, it is likely that Jesus and John had contact during their childhood and early adulthood. John would have been six months older than Jesus (Luke 1:36), so the two were probably friends (see Jesus' grief at John's death in Matt. 14:12-13).
John's message was like Elijah's. Both demanded change—repentance! Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (3:2). Jesus preached this same message when he began his public ministry after John's imprisonment (4:17). John fulfilled the role predicted by Isaiah to prepare Messiah's way (Isa. 40:3-5). John's message was very pointed. He confronted the false Jewish religious practices of his day. The Jews presumed they were God's children simply because they were descendants of Abraham. On the contrary, though the nation of Israel was indeed the recipient of the Abrahamic Covenant (and its subordinate Mosaic Covenant), the covenant people had abandoned the provisions of the covenant.
The condition of God's covenant people in Jesus' day was dismal. The priests who were supposed to represent the people to God were crooks! They were the wicked men that Isaiah (Isa. 28:1-29) had prophesied about. Completely out of touch with God and his covenant, they were a nation in need of repentance. The apostle Peter, who was close to Matthew, also acknowledged the nation's apostasy. Peter quoted Isaiah in describing Jesus' first coming to earth: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (1 Pet. 2:6). The apostle Paul, in describing Israel's rejection of Jesus' ministry (Rom. 9:32-33), noted that the Jewish people “stumbled” over this same cornerstone. This was another reference to Isaiah's messianic prophecy: “And he will be a sanctuary; but for … Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and … make them fall” (Isa. 8:14).
The nation could not walk with God if they were out of fellowship with him. They needed to change. That was precisely the message of the Old Testament prophet Amos: “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (Amos 3:3). When John the Baptizer was speaking out, God and the nation of Israel were moving in two different directions. The “kingdom of heaven was at hand,” the king was on the scene, but the people would have to change their direction (repent!) if the kingdom was to be realized.
Unfortunately, they had become so worldly they were spiritually blind. In fact, as John the apostle reported in his Gospel, Jesus “came to that which was his own [people], but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those wo believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God … born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God” (John 1:11-13).
It is precisely this question—How could the Jewish people reject their own Messiah-King?—that Matthew's Gospel answers. The covenant with Israel is not forgotten, but, as we shall see in the course of Matthew's Gospel, it will not be fulfilled in this first-century generation. A later generation of Jews (cf. Rom. 11:25-27) will respond to Jesus, and the unconditional covenant promise to Abraham and his seed will be fulfilled. But Matthew's Gospel will explain how the Jews of the first century missed it.
“Repent” was the first word of the ministry of both John and Jesus. If the kingdom of heaven was to be realized, some changes would have to be made. The people of Israel had been thinking wrongly about God, themselves, their sin, their righteousness, and the nature of the kingdom.
The word “repent” (metanoeo) literally means “to change the mind.” However, a change of mind is suspect if it does not result in a change of behavior, as John made clear to the hypocrites in 3:8. This same principle is echoed in James 2:14-26. Just as “faith” without works is not faith at all, so “repentance” without its fruit is not authentic. Repentance in Scripture refers to a decision to turn from one's sins because of an inward “mind-change” which involves how we look at God as well as how we look at sin.
John the Baptizer was not so much calling individuals to eternal salvation as he was calling the nation to turn from its sins and back to God so the kingdom might come to Israel. The Bible insists that the Messiah-King will not set up his kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” until the nation of Israel has come to faith in Messiah and turned from their sinful ways. The day will come when Israel will do both, but that will be during the “day of Jacob's trouble” (the Tribulation) yet to come. That great day of biblical covenant fulfillment will be followed by the Messiah-King's millennial kingdom on this earth.
The phrase kingdom of heaven (3:2) is found thirty-three times in Matthew. Matthew also uses the phrase “kingdom of God” a few times. Some scholars draw a distinction between the two phrases. However, practically speaking, “kingdom of heaven” is interchangeable with “kingdom of God” (also used in 12:28; 19:24; 21:31,43), as Jesus demonstrated in 19:23-24. Matthew preferred “kingdom of heaven,” while the other Gospel writers preferred “kingdom of God.” Matthew's preference reflects his writing for a Jewish audience. For centuries before Jesus' day, the Jewish superstition prohibiting the pronunciation of the name Yahweh had become firmly entrenched, to the point that even pronunciation of titles such as “God” were kept to a minimum. So “kingdom of heaven” is a euphemism in which heaven, the home of God, refers to God himself.
“Kingdom of heaven” is a comprehensive concept. Within this broad concept, we can see at least three distinct referents.
First, John the Baptizer referred to the kingdom of heaven as being “at hand” because of the earthly presence of its king, and because Jesus was about to present the kingdom to Israel and the world.
Second, following Israel's failure to repent and their opposition to him, Jesus in Matthew 13 revealed the kingdom as a reality perceived by some people but hidden from others. The kingdom, in this sense, exists between the first and second comings of its king. During this current “Christian era” (A.D./C.E.) prior to Christ's second coming, the kingdom is represented as the rule of God in the hearts of believers while the king is absent. This kingdom form (church) is a mystery in the sense that prior to Jesus' day it had not been revealed to the Old Testament prophets (Matt. 13:11). Before Jesus revealed these truths, they had been “hidden since the creation of the world” (Matt. 13:35).
Third, there is the kingdom in its comprehensive climax. Upon a day yet future—in fulfillment of Daniel's prophecies and innumerable other Old Testament prophetic passages which picture a grand and golden age of righteousness and peace on earth—the Son of David will reign over the entire world. Truly, that day will see his “kingdom come, [his] will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10).
The Bible informs us (Rev. 20:3) that Christ's earthly kingdom reign will last a thousand years (a millennium). Certainly this earth has never yet experienced such peace and righteousness, and it never will until Christ sets foot on the earth as the Lion of Judah and ruling king.
3:3. The quote in 3:3 is from Isaiah 40:3. In Isaiah, this passage falls at the beginning of Isaiah's lengthy prophecy (chaps. 40-66) concerning the end-times restoration of Israel. In the Old Testament context, this message is one of comfort for those anticipating or experiencing the exile, assuring them that they would be restored to their land. But God went beyond the restoration of Israel to their land and foretold the complete scope of the end-times restoration of his kingdom throughout the world. This covers the time from the coming of his Son to die (Isa. 52-53) to the new heaven and the new earth (Isa. 66).
In Matthew, the verse is shown to apply to John the Baptizer as the person crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the Lord. The Jewish reader, familiar with Isaiah, would understand Matthew to be saying, “All that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 40-66 is now available to you. If you choose to recognize your king, this is the beginning of the glorious end.”
3:4. John's unusual clothing is intended to remind the reader of Elijah (2 Kgs. 1:8). As Elijah's ministry did, John addressed a spiritual crisis in Israel. Garments of hair were apparently a common type of garb for a prophet (Zech. 13:4). John is later identified more explicitly with Elijah in Matthew 11:14 and 17:12-13. In Malachi 4:5 we are told that Elijah will be the prophet sent “before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes,” that is, before Israel's tribulation and Daniel's seventieth week (Dan. 9:24-27). The Jews of Jesus' day were aware of the prophetic silence since Malachi (four hundred years), and the coming of John heralded the coming of God's voice out of silence. John was unconventional in his wardrobe and in his diet (cf. with Elijah in 1 Kgs. 17:1-6).
3:5. Notice that Matthew did not say, “Many people came out from Jerusalem.” Rather, he said, People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. This is obviously hyperbole, but Matthew's point is that John was a major attraction. Some scholars argue that John's audience was in the six-figure range. When God chooses to move in a people, there is an enthusiasm or conviction that spreads through the hearts of many people. This can only be explained by the work of the Holy Spirit. Without a doubt, much of this sudden movement was motivated sincerely. However, we know by the presence of the Pharisees and Sadducees that there was some measure of hypocrisy in the crowd.
3:6. For centuries baptism had been one of the four steps necessary for a Gentile to become a Jew (the other three were sacrifice, circumcision, and memorization of portions of Moses' Law).
The word baptize means “to dip or to immerse.” Ritual immersion for the purpose of converting proselytes and for other purposes was only one of many types of ritual washing in the centuries before Christ's advent. Nor was immersion or washing a ritual unique to the Jews. It was practiced in various forms in many cultures. The underlying theme behind ritual immersion was some kind of new identification.
The people of Israel were familiar with this change of identity because of the dyer's trade in the region. As a piece of cloth dipped into dye takes on the identifying color of the dye, so the immersion of new believers symbolized their taking on the identifying marks of Christ. When a Gentile was converted to the Jewish religion, from that point on he was identified no longer with the nationality of his birth, but with the Jewish nation. (Of course, the imagery of spiritual cleansing would also be a natural part of the significance of baptism in almost any setting.)
Just what did John's baptism mean? It signified a person's willingness to turn from his or her sins and from the false belief that being born a Jew automatically put a person in right relationship with God. John announced Israel was in spiritual crisis and about to be judged. When John came with the first prophetic message in four centuries, it was only natural that as people repented, they demonstrated the sincerity of their repentance by submitting to baptism, thus publicly identifying themselves with the faithful among God's people.
To confess (homologeo) is literally to “speak the same,” meaning to acknowledge reality, or to agree with the truth (which means agreeing with God). A necessary part of the repentance process was to acknowledge before God what it was in one's life that needed to change (“repent” = “change the mind”). Confession required the penitent person to take his or her well-intentioned desire to do better, and focus it in on the specific sins that needed addressing in his or her life.
3:7. John noticed that many of the Pharisees (legalistic Jews) and the Sadducees (liberalized Jews) were coming out to the baptism. The presence of these hypocrites revealed that there were some among the crowds who were insincere in their participation. The NIV is probably accurate in translating this passage, coming to where he was baptizing (the phrase is literally, “coming to the baptism”).
For the most part, these religious leaders were present only to observe (or possibly to confront John). John chose to confront the source of hypocrisy in Israel, in hopes that their true repentance might make them the leaders they should be, leading many others of Israel to true repentance. Or, possibly, John hoped that bystanders would take warning from his confrontation and be wary of the hypocritical leaders.
We may draw a practical lesson from John's example—he spoke the truth, even though it resulted in his arrest (4:12) and eventual death (14:1-12).
By addressing the religious hypocrites as you brood of vipers (see also Jesus' use of this insult in 12:34 and 23:33), John was warning others of their danger. Hypocrisy, especially among leadership, is not a victimless crime. The image of a poisonous snake connotes danger as well as stealth. The danger of the religious leaders was a subtle one that caught most people off guard. As to how specifically the hypocrites endangered their followers, see Jesus' confrontation in chapter 23.
3:8-10. John was not implying that the hypocrites had come to the baptism to show their own repentance. But he was confronting their consistent hypocrisy. They claimed one thing (to be repentant of the sins of which they acknowledged everyone to be guilty), but they lived another (continuance in sins of which they denied their guilt).
The religious leaders assumed they were “hereditarily holy”; that is, that their identification by blood with Abraham automatically brought them under the safety of God's covenant (3:8). John pointed out that mere Jewishness or nationality was not enough to make a person a true follower of God. In fact, he claimed that these hypocrites had no more in common with God's people than a rock does.
John continued to use the language of imminent judgment (already in 3:10). The ax of judgment was ready to cut them off. He was warning the hypocrites that the danger facing them was a very present danger, but that they were blind to it. John also returned to the imagery of fruit. He had already accused them of being fruitless, implying the insincerity of their repentance. He warned that their fruitlessness was an indication of their impending judgment (a judgment Jesus will discuss in 23:31-38 as well as chaps. 24-25).
3:10-12. In these verses, John used the imagery of fire as a means of judgment. The fruitless tree will be burned (3:10). The Messiah-King to come will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (3:11). He will separate the wheat from the chaff, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (3:12). Later in the New Testament we will see fire as a means of separating the eternal from the temporal (1 Cor. 3:12-15; 1 Pet. 1:6-7), thus testing the genuineness of such qualities as truth and faith. The fire here clearly refers to judgment.
3:11-12. The climax of John's powerful ministry was to point to Christ. With appropriate humility, John understood his place in the bigger picture. John's job was to serve as a marker, directing people's eyes past himself to the coming Messiah-King. John was indeed a great man (11:11-14), but he derived his greatness from the even greater One whom he served. To illustrate the contrast between himself and the Messiah, John thought of the lowest of all tasks (removal of another person's sandals), and then said he was even below that. He was voicing the impossibility of comparison between his humanity and the Messiah-King's deity.
Two elements of the Messiah's ministry are mentioned in 3:11-12, both in contrast with John's ministry of water baptism. The Messiah-King would baptize in two different elements (the Holy Spirit and fire). Fire is clearly associated with judgment and burning. The Holy Spirit is something else altogether. John stated that the king would identify (baptize) some people in the life of the Holy Spirit and others in the fire of judgment. For those who knew the Old Testament, this baptism in the Holy Spirit had to mean more than the temporary resting of the Holy Spirit's power on selected people of faith for a specific task of leadership (e.g., Judg. 14:6).
The concept of baptism in the Holy Spirit was much more than that. It had everything to do with God's promise of the new covenant age in Ezekiel 36:26-27, where God makes a promise of the permanent gift of his Spirit in the believer. John was referring to the coming identification of believers (the church) in the baptism and indwelling of the Spirit.
Second, the Messiah would baptize others in fire. The Messiah was coming as both a Savior and a judge. Anyone who overemphasized one of those two qualities at the expense of the other was seriously mistaken. The reason John emphasized the Messiah's role as judge in this passage was because those to whom he spoke had a warped view about this role that they needed to correct.
We conclude that baptizing in fire and the Holy Spirit are two separate and distinct baptisms. The baptism in the Spirit relates to the king's first coming, and the baptism in fire relates to his second coming. The baptism of the Spirit is mentioned only seven times in the Bible (four times in the Gospels as here, also in Acts 1:8; 11:16, 1 Cor. 12:13). Each reference views the baptism of the Spirit as a once-for-all historical corporate event, not an ongoing personal phenomenon for individual believers.
We now know that: (1) the baptism in the Holy Spirit was fulfilled at Pentecost after the king's ascension, and (2) that the baptism of fire, while foreshadowed in Israel's destruction in A.D. 70 with the leveling of Jerusalem by the Roman legions, will be ultimately fulfilled in final judgment at the king's second advent.
The winnowing fork (3:12) was used on a windy day to toss the trampled grain and chaff mixture into the air, allowing the wind to blow away the lighter chaff, and keeping the grain on the winnowing floor. The language of 3:12 indicates this is a thorough judgment that no one will be able to escape. The judge will make no mistakes in sorting the believer from the unbeliever.
SUPPORTING IDEA: God prepared Jesus' character through personal affirmation at his baptism.
3:13-15. When we last saw Jesus at the end of Matthew 2, he was still a child, settling into the home of his upbringing in Nazareth. The placement of Jesus' name and the connecting word then immediately following John's description of the Messiah's ministry of judgment (and salvation) identifies Jesus as that very same Messiah, judge, and Savior. It also indicates that the messianic era characterized by judgment and salvation is now beginning, even as we watch Jesus walk up to John in the River Jordan.
To this point, Jesus has spent his nearly three decades of earthly life in quiet obscurity. Galilee was the backwater of Israel, so Matthew's choice of wording here implies a “coming out,” and a readiness to begin public ministry.
The need for Jesus to be baptized, and thereby to serve as our representative and model, was not optional for him. It was important to the fulfillment of his mission on earth, in identifying with the “righteous remnant” of Israel. He said it was a necessary step in order to fulfill all righteousness (3:15). So Jesus' baptism was unique. It was not a “baptism of repentance” (as John's was) nor was it a “Christian baptism” (as ours is today). But it was an identifying step of obedience at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus would not have been fully obedient if he had bypassed this step that seemed to John to be unnecessary for the Holy One (3:14).
3:16-17. When Jesus came up out of the water from being baptized by John, he received an immediate confirmation from his family. He saw the Spirit of God, and he heard his Father's approval. It was like having your family come and cheer for you at your graduation.
This scene is something like a family reunion—all three members of the Trinity manifesting their presence in such a way that bystanders could see or hear them. This was a testimony to human witnesses about the identity of Jesus, the Messiah. It serves as one of hundreds of exhibits in Matthew's Gospel for Jesus as the Messiah.
It was also a personal affirmation from the first and third members of the Trinity to the Son. This fact reminds us of the emotional-relational side of the Godhead, a side we often forget. Even God the Son enjoyed personal affirmation from his family. And certainly the people needed to hear from the Father (cf. John 11:42).
Twice in Matthew the Father speaks from heaven. In both cases he speaks in third person, addressing listeners other than Jesus (compare the second-person “you are” in Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; and the third-person “this is” in Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35). The second instance is in Matthew 17, on the Mount of Transfiguration. The wording in this warm, fatherly statement is reminiscent of the threefold emphasis on Isaac's uniqueness and value to Abraham in Genesis 22:2. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a prouder father in all the universe than God the Father.
The King's Testing (4:1-11)SUPPORTING IDEA: God prepared the foundations of Jesus' ministry with the right message, the right men, and the right methods.
4:1. These verses describe the moral testing of the king. High moral character is essential to effective leadership. We perform much the same testing of people who present themselves for leadership positions. Unfortunately, our culture has lost its bearings in this regard. This is a foreshadowing of our ultimate fall and judgment if we do not repent. But Jesus' testing here is more of a powerful demonstration of his capacity than an “I-wonder-if-he will-pass” kind of test. God himself has recognized such testing as a necessary part of Messiah's ministry.
Jesus' preparation for ministry involved a combination of pleasant experiences (the affirmation at his baptism) and unpleasant experiences (his fasting and temptation). God uses the same pattern in our lives, and we should be surprised at neither great outward blessing nor great trials in our lives. Jesus faced forty days of direct confrontation with the archenemy whom his messianic ministry would destroy. Satan, the adversary, is always seeking to usurp God's place and oppose God's will.
One practical implication we may draw from this passage is that temptation itself is not a sin. Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Heb. 4:15; see also 2 Cor. 5:21). A misunderstanding of this defeats many people before they begin resisting temptation. A false (devilish) guilt grips them, and they begin to lose the battle before they begin to fight it. Jesus' temptation was a test not so much to see if he would fail (he could not!) but a “test” (much like the test drive of a new automobile) to demonstrate just how powerful the Son of God was, even in the face of the devil himself.
4:2. It is possible to fast forty days without food, but not without water, especially in an arid, hot climate like the Judean wilderness. The understatement about Jesus' hunger is intended to show that Jesus fought his battle with a serious handicap but still came out victorious.
4:3-4. Satan's words in Jesus' first temptation indicate that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, and Satan acknowledged the fact. This might be better translated, “Since you are the Son of God.” See exactly the same wording used with sarcasm in 27:40. Satan was not questioning the fact of Jesus' son-ship, but he was tempting him to misuse it.
In this first temptation Satan was tempting Jesus to rely on his own self-provision, rather than on the provision of God. Jesus often insisted he would do nothing of his own will. He came to do the Father's will only. This would have been a departure from the mission on which the Father had sent him. Jesus would have been exercising improper independence.
Satan's temptations follow the familiar pattern he used in Eden and which he has used ever since—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:6). “Try this good food (flesh).” “It looks good (lust of the eyes).” “It will make you wise and in charge like God (pride of life).”
In a similar manner, Israel was tempted by their hunger in the desert to seek ways to provide for themselves. When they found they had no resources, they grumbled. God demonstrated their need to depend on him by providing manna. Even then they were tempted to take care of themselves by hoarding the food. But the extra manna was always spoiled the next day, so they were once again dependent on God's provision for that day. Through this concrete demonstration, God taught Israel to be dependent on him, in hopes that they would apply the same lesson concerning their dependence on God for truth, wisdom, and instruction.
Because of this parallel between Jesus and Israel, it is appropriate that Jesus quoted Moses' words from Deuteronomy 8:3. In the larger context of Deuteronomy 8, Moses was reminding Israel of their need to depend on God's provision. Jesus brought this truth to bear in his personal battle. Rather than launch out in independent self-provision, he entrusted his well-being to his Father. He refused to be improperly independent.
4:5-7. The highest point in Satan's second temptation refers to the high southeast corner of the temple platform that overlooked the great depth of the Kidron Valley. This was a temptation to be “showy,” to do miraculous works to draw attention.
Again Satan used a conditional statement, If you are the Son of God (see 4:3). Again, he was not challenging Jesus' sonship, but he was using it as a basis to argue to a false conclusion—that it is appropriate to “force” God into supernatural demonstrations of his faithfulness to intervene for our good. In this temptation Jesus was tempted to exercise improper dependence to “force” divine intervention. That is sin.
Satan, in quoting Psalm 91:11-12, misused Scripture in his attempt to deceive and mislead. It was a subtle challenge to Jesus to prove his deity.
In response to Satan's second challenge, Jesus took the matter back to Scripture and quoted Moses from Deuteronomy 6:16, which prohibited testing God in this way. Jesus refused improper dependence.
4:8-10. The third temptation may have been the most appealing of the three to Jesus, not because of the anticipation of ruling the earth—that was already part of God's plan—but because Satan's offer would allow him to rule the earth without going through the sacrifice of the cross. God the Father had a plan for the certainty of the restored kingdom and great glory for Jesus. Satan offered an “even better” plan (both deceptive and impossible)—a kingdom and all its glory, minus the suffering. Satan tempted Jesus to believe that someone else could provide for him in a better way than God could. That is always the satanic appeal, whether it involves work, power, money, success, or some personal interest.
Again Jesus reached into Scripture, interpreted it accurately, and sent Satan on his way. We see a personal lesson here. The Bible is our only authority for right living. Old Testament Israel had bought the lie that God had competition. Jesus did not. He would be mastered by nothing and no one except the true God.
4:11. Satan's departure from Jesus followed the king's authoritative command, Away from me, Satan! (4:10). It is ironic that Satan had just offered to be the benevolent master to Jesus, but Jesus' authoritative response and Satan's cowering obedience demonstrated who was the real Master.
Thus the battle has begun. The rest of Matthew demonstrates its further development. Never again in this book do we see Satan openly engaging the king in warfare. But he has not gone away. From time to time Satan will try to turn Christ from the Father's will and the route to the cross. But we will also see the wisdom and moral courage of the king as he dodges every blow, even taking the offensive at times, and ultimately finishing with the decisive victory.
The King's Early Ministry (4:12-25)SUPPORTING IDEA: God prepared the foundations of Jesus ministry with the right message, the right men, and the right methods.
4:12. John had publicly challenged Herod the tetrarch's adultery and was jailed for it. The atmosphere in Jerusalem became increasingly hostile to the prophetic message of repentance, and Jesus moved north to the countryside of Galilee.
There is both a continuity and a discontinuity between the ministries of John and Jesus. Matthew portrayed Jesus as picking up the baton from John when John was imprisoned (see 14:1—12 for more on John's imprisonment and death), preaching exactly the same message of repentance (4:17; cf. 3:2). But there is also a clear distinction between the ministries of John and Jesus. John himself described this distinction (3:11-12). And Matthew brings to bear the testimony of Isaiah in 4:15-16 to describe the beginning of a new era. Jesus moved into Galilee in fulfillment of a centuries-old prophecy (Isa. 9), which prophesied that the northern country so trampled by pagan armies and living in gloomy, depressed darkness, will now enjoy the messianic light!
4:12-13. Galilee was the region of Jesus' early ministry, contrasting significantly with the locations of his later ministry. The geographical flow of Jesus' ministry as portrayed in Matthew is very distinctly north-to-south, from Galilee to Jerusalem. Beginning with 4:12, and extending through chapter 18, Jesus' ministry takes place in the region around the Sea of Galilee, with two late ventures even farther north into the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon (15:21-28) and Caesarea Philippi (16:13-20.).
Beginning with chapter 19, Jesus moved resolutely south toward Jerusalem and his appointment with the cross. In the north, far from the center of religious power (John 4:1), the “little people” would hear and respond more readily to the Messiah. Zebulun and Naphtali were the two tribes whose territory was bordered by the Sea of Galilee—Zebulun to the south (including Nazareth), and Naphtali to the north (including Capernaum). Capernaum was the home of several of Jesus' disciples.
4:14-16. The quote is from Isaiah 9:1-2. Jesus' ministry in the north was anticipated by the prophet Isaiah, whom Matthew quoted here to stifle any criticism that Jesus was an uncivilized Galilean. Isaiah 9 is part of a larger prophetic statement concerning the coming of the Messiah. Matthew has already quoted from this portion. In the latter portion of Isaiah 8, Isaiah emphasized the Lord's judgment on errant Israel: “Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness” (8:22). Israel was in trouble.
The first word of Isaiah 9 is “nevertheless,” introducing the contrasting light and hope brought to Israel by the Messiah. The portion quoted by Matthew is a carefully selected segment of the larger message of hope for Israel. Any Jew familiar with his Bible would have recognized Matthew's quote and would have made the connection to the remaining, unquoted portions (Isa. 9:3-7). Among the promises made here are the renewed covenant blessing on Israel; the removal of the oppressor's yoke; the birth of the promised child, whose name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace”; and his reign on David's throne injustice and righteousness. There was no doubt who this Jesus is. Matthew clearly identified Jesus' move to Capernaum as the “official” beginning of his public ministry and as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.
“Galilee of the Gentiles” was a common designation for this region. It was Galilee, bordering on the Gentile nations, where the “light” shone. Although it is clear that Jesus' earthly ministry would be mainly to the Jews, Matthew went to great lengths to show the long-term implications of Jesus' coming for all nations. In Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus was portrayed as the faithful Son, paralleling Israel as the unfaithful son. It is clear from the Old Testament (e.g., Gen. 12:3) that Israel's purpose was to minister to all nations. They had failed, but the faithful Son would succeed.
4:17. Some scholars believe that the phrase From that time and an identical phrase in 16:21 provide the fundamental structure of Matthew, dividing the book into three portions. While this seems overstated, these key verses do indicate critical turning points in the ministry of Jesus, particularly regarding the themes of his preaching and teaching. The theme Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (4:17) underlies virtually everything Jesus taught in 4:17-16:20. The king made a legitimate offer of the long-promised kingdom to the long-promised people—Israel. By contrast, from 16:21 on, Jesus' teaching dealt predominantly with the preparation of his disciples for his coming death, resurrection, and ascension.
Jesus' preaching ministry here is one message: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (4:17; cf. 3:2). This quotation, reflecting the essence of Jesus' message—“turn from your sins; the long-promised king is in your midst”—is identical to that of John the Baptizer in 3:2. The kingdom is at hand because its king is, and the potential for its full realization is near.
4:18-22. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen (all involved in a family business) living in Capernaum or nearby Bethsaida (see John 1:44). This was apparently also the home of Matthew at the time of his calling (9:1,9), and of Philip and possibly Nathanael (John 1:43-45). The fishing profession in that day probably carried with it the same kind of social stigma that “common laborer” does today. Three of the four (Peter, James, and John) would become Jesus' closest earthly friends. And Andrew played a significant role in his ministry more than once (Mark 13:3; John 1:40; 6:8; 12:22).
Matthew left his readers with the impression that this was Jesus' first encounter with these four men. However, John recorded that some of the Twelve (at least Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael) had been with Jesus during his earlier ministry (John 1:35-51; 2:2,12,17; 3:22; 4:1-2,27-33). Jesus had known his disciples for some time and had even seen them in ministry situations. Thus, their decision to follow him was not hastily made.
However, this does not decrease the significance of their commitment. In fact, quite the opposite. These men, in well-reasoned decisions, left both career and family to follow Jesus. And their confidence in him was such that, when he called, they all came at once (4:20) or immediately (4:22). They literally dropped their nets and left the boats in which they were standing. James and John left their father standing with his boats.
When Jesus said, Come, follow me (4:19), he was calling these men to a new career. In keeping with his skill as a teacher, he used terminology that would inspire them because of its relationship to their life experience. These men knew how to fish—for fish. So they had some concept of the task to which he was calling them. However, even though they had some familiarity with the concept of fishing, Jesus would still need to transform them into fishers of men. And that is the point of most of the teaching that follows, including the Sermon on the Mount—Jesus taught his disciples! He trained the Twelve whose names would one day mark the foundation “stones” (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20; Rev. 21:14) of the New Jerusalem!
You will notice as Matthew's Gospel unfolds that, while Jesus did not ignore the crowds, he was primarily engaged in teaching the Twelve. Even when he ministered to the thousands, it was in the context of teaching the Twelve. For example, the feeding of the five thousand, while compassionately providing food for thousands, was about his attempt to impact the Twelve (Mark 6:30-44). (See discussion at Matthew 5:1-2.)
The one condition necessary to their becoming fishers of men was to follow me. Packed into this two-word command are many implications. Jesus was saying, “Live with me and learn by watching me. Own my values and priorities. Learn to become passionate for the things I live for. And follow my example by doing the ministry I have come to do.”
4:23. A slight shift takes place, as Jesus took his new disciples and showed that following him meant serving the needs of others. Galilee was small but it had over two hundred villages, each with hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of people. This preaching tour throughout Galilee probably lasted several months.
We may summarize Jesus' ministry with three words: teaching, proclaiming or preaching, and healing. These words help us understand Jesus' threefold approach to ministry in Matthew's Gospel. He was always teaching the Twelve, often proclaiming to the people, and performing miraculous healing as a teaching and proclaiming tactic.
While there is much overlap between preaching and teaching, there is also a distinction. Preaching is the banner flying atop the castle (seen far and wide), and teaching is the body of bricks and mortar that supports it (sought out by the followers). Teaching fills out the proclamation, explaining both its support and its implications.
Furthermore, Jesus' healing ministry was subordinate to his preaching and teaching ministries. Throughout the Bible, the purpose of miracles is primarily to attest to the authority of the messenger and his message. The benefit to the person healed is secondary. Jesus' miracles validated his claim to be the Messiah, and they validated the message he preached.
Throughout the four Gospels, Jesus is shown frequenting the synagogues as a routine part of his teaching ministry (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 12:9; 13:54). He used the platform available in Jewish culture to teach the true meaning of God's Word. Because of the respect he enjoyed among the people (even Jewish leaders referred to him as “Rabbi”), he often was given the place of the teacher.
The word synagogue is derived from a combination of words meaning “to lead together,” and it literally means “meeting place.” The synagogue's origin is a bit sketchy, but it was probably begun during the Exile several centuries before Christ. It became a central institution in Jewish society during the period between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.
Jesus' activity was ceaseless as he went from one village and synagogue to the next, conducting his primary ministry of preaching. The phrase the good news of the kingdom is interchangeable with several other phrases used throughout the four Gospels (e.g., “the gospel,” “the gospel of Christ,” “the gospel of God”). In keeping with his emphasis on the kingdom and the king, Matthew used this terminology. Jesus' message is good news because it focuses on the forgiveness and restoration of God as opposed to the “bad news” or impossibility of “law-keeping.”
4:23-24. Verse 23 tells us that Jesus went throughout Galilee healing every disease and sickness among the people. There was no illness too difficult for Jesus to heal. The list in 4:24 illustrates the breadth of Jesus' healing ministry. He healed “lesser” or trivial diseases, but he also faced off with the incurables. None were beyond his healing touch. His miracles were verifiable, not vague. The king's sovereignty was complete. Jesus' healing ministry was moving toward its climax in Matthew 8:17 where Isaiah 53:4 is quoted, indicating the Messiah-King's healing is only an outward symbol of the inner healing based on forgiveness of sins.
4:25. The people heard the king's message. They came not only from Galilee, but also from Jerusalem to the south and the Decapolis to the east. While we are unsure of precisely what Syria means in 4:24, any territory it might cover is likely included in the list of regions in 4:25. Matthew's point is that Jesus' teaching and miracles were so amazing that word spread fast and far. People came from hundreds of miles around to see him. In particular, the mention of Galilee and the region across the Jordan remind the reader of Isaiah's prophecy (Isa. 9:1) quoted in Matthew 4:15. Although the multitudes came, the king kept leaving them to spend quality time with his disciples.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: God exercised great care in preparing Jesus'way, Jesus'character, and the foundation of Jesus' ministry.
Jesus took responsibility for making his disciples “fishers of men.” He did not say “Follow me, and make yourselves fishers of men.” This is instructive to us in our witness today. Jesus promises to superintend the process of our growth into full-fledged fishers of men. But we have to take a small, yet significant, risk in order to initiate the process. We have to love and speak to unbelievers. We have to tell the Good News to others. As we tell the Good News, we must look to Jesus as our model for significant ministry. We should expect God to use both pleasant (affirming) experiences and unpleasant (stretching) experiences to prepare us for ministry. We must combat temptation by memorizing God's Word and by relying on God's total sufficiency. Our words and our deeds must be consistent to impact the lives of others.
PRINCIPLES
APPLICATIONS
The scene was Yosemite National Park. The hiker was a midwesterner from Chicago. His backpack was light, he wore excellent hiking boots, and he carried a full canteen of water. His goal was the summit of Half Dome. He was game for the eight-and-a-half mile hike up Mist Trail, past Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, and the steep, final ascent to the Half Dome summit.
The hike started with an effortless pace in the valley floor, but soon became a steep and arduous climb. Then, after several miles into the hike, things started to go wrong. Because of the summer heat, the water supply was taking a hit. The air was becoming rarefied, forcing a slower pace. Each step became a chore and was accompanied by muscle cramps in both legs. A sign appeared ahead on the trail: “Half Dome - 2 mi.” The hiker looked up through the pine treetops and could see the Dome summit and what appeared to be specks moving up the mountainside. These “specks” were other hikers using a cable system that aided their climb up the final 900-foot granite face to the summit. Two more miles? No way. It was evident that this hiker's legs were spent. It was inevitable that this hiker would need to abort the hike and return to the valley floor. He had not properly prepared his body for the task.
This story does have a happy ending. After several months of exercise and conditioning, the Chicago hiker returned to Yosemite. After a couple of days of higher-elevation camping for acclimation, the man successfully made it to the summit of Half Dome. Hard work and preparation had paid off.
Never underestimate the value of preparation. We see God's method of preparing men and women for service throughout Scripture. Moses spent many years of character-building in the desert before God called him to lead his people out of Egypt. Daniel and Joseph similarly spent long periods of time in preparation for their God-given missions. Our ultimate example is Jesus, who invested the first thirty years of his life in preparation for three years of effective ministry. God is always more interested in development of the person into the image of Christ.
God prepares us for what he has prepared for us. Always submit to his leading and timing.
Dear Father, thank you for sending John the Baptizer as the forerunner for your Son. Make me a forerunner in the lives of others to help prepare their hearts for receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Amen.
A. The Kingdom
The kingdom is a key concept throughout Matthew. Simply put, the kingdom means “God's reign.” In his model prayer (6:9-13), Jesus indicated that God's reign is complete in heaven, but that it is not yet complete on earth. The prophets foretold a time when everything and everyone on earth would submit to the will of God. To date, this has not happened. This world's present mess is Satan's doing. Christ is allowing this testing to prepare his followers for the ultimate realization of the kingdom and to share in his reign. Speaking to Christians, he states it bluntly in Revelation 3:21: “He who overcomes, I will give him the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
God chose to allow this current period of time during which the archenemy of Jesus Christ, Satan, is the energizing force behind our current world system. Opposition to Christ is the result of people falling victim to Satan's dark schemes (John 8:44). First John refers to the fact that this “whole world is under the control of the evil one” (5:19). Human beings have been allowed the freedom to demonstrate what happens when the world goes its own way. The results of this experiment in rebellion have been disastrous, and we live with them today.
The larger reality is that God's reign over earth has always been absolute. Nothing happens that he in his sovereignty does not allow. But with the first coming (advent) of Jesus, another dimension of God's kingdom began on earth. This was the development of God's sovereign reign in and through his believing people, the church. To some people who expected the ultimate manifestation of God's reign on earth when Christ came the first time, this manifestation was a disappointment. Jesus confronted this misconception in Luke 17:21: “Because the kingdom of God is within you.”
Before Jesus was born, died, and rose from the dead, this less visible kingdom manifestation was not possible, because there was not yet the means for God to enter and abide in the individual human. With the ratification of the new covenant through the blood of Jesus, the human heart was made a cleansed dwelling place for God, and he was able to sit enthroned in the human heart. The external law that people had been attempting to fulfill in the flesh was written on the hearts of all who believed, so that God's reign was brought to bear from within the individual, rather than from without (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26-27). But the best is yet to come.
The full reality of the message of John and Jesus, “The kingdom of heaven is near,” does not stop with this inward manifestation. They were warning people that the ultimate manifestation of God's kingdom was coming with all certainty. We know now that the final advent of the kingdom is at least two thousand years removed from their warning, but its certainty makes the time span inconsequential. God does reign and he will reign, and there can be no doubt that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the lordship of Jesus.
This current age serves as a time of preparation for a large army of God's soldiers who will reign with Christ (Rev. 19:7-16; 20:4-6). Therefore, this current, less-than-final manifestation of God's kingdom through Christ and his body of believers is far from a disappointment. It is the Christian's salvation and reward—the reason we will be allowed to be a part of reigning with him when his kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. In one sense, the kingdom is here already; and in another sense, it is not yet here.
B. Why Did Jesus Need to Be Baptized (3:13-15)?
Baptism is a rite of identification for us. It was also a step of identification for Jesus, but Jesus' baptism was not a Christian baptism per se. Jesus served in two roles during his earthly ministry.
First, he served as a representative for humanity This was why he had to be fully human, so he could stand before God as one of us. He served as our representative when he took the full weight of God's wrath on the cross on our behalf, and he still serves as our representative today, interceding on our behalf at the Father's right hand (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). By submitting to baptism, Jesus expressed his identification with the family of the faithful, thus further validating his role as our representative.
Second, Jesus served as a model for believers. He did not expect his followers to do anything he had not already done himself, including submission to the rite of baptism. By so doing, he clarified the definition of a leader—one who leads not merely by instructing others, but by going before them as an obedient example. Such leadership requires deep, authentic humility. The leaders of God's people and the leaders of believing families would do well to heed this lesson about leadership. Jesus is identified with the “faithful remnant” who are coming out of religiously hypocritical Israel and into the righteousness of repentance as preached by both John the Baptizer and Jesus.
C. The Devil
While three different Greek words are used of the devil in Matthew 4, four times (4:1,5,8,11) he is called diabolos, meaning “slanderer, false accuser.” This title reveals that Satan's goal in a person's life is not simply to make that person do evil, but to tempt the individual in order to accuse the person before the judge. He is more concerned with how God sees us than with what we actually do. If he can bring even an unsubstantiated charge against us (slander us) to achieve that end, he will do so.
D. Jesus' Pattern of Response to Temptation
One of the most obvious lessons from this passage is the example Jesus sets for us in response to temptation. Long before Jesus fought this battle, he spent years preparing for it by studying and memorizing God's Word. If he, being the God-Man, had to spend three decades in preparation, why should we expect to win our battles with temptation without any effort? Satan uses this world system to approach us through our sin nature (capacity for sin) to do his will. At any moment, as believers, we are either following the will of Satan or the will of the Spirit of God. There is no in-between. Notice how Peter pinpointed this in Acts 5:1-11.
It is what we absorb and apply during the uneventful periods of our lives that strengthens and equips us for spiritual warfare. Jesus, even though he was the author of Scripture, fell back on Scripture to answer Satan's attacks. He modeled for us how to use the authority of written Scripture rather than our own cleverness to combat temptation.
E. Summary
Matthew 1-4 serve as a unit to set the stage for the body of Matthew's work, which begins with chapter 5. In chapter 3, John the Baptizer prepared the hearts of Israel for the king. He also brought to the forefront the conflict with the hypocritical religious leaders that would continue throughout Matthew's Gospel. The baptism of Jesus is important in order for the reader to see Jesus' identification with us throughout the rest of the book. Jesus' baptism is also the setting for the Father's public affirmation of his Son before launching him into further testing and his public ministry.
In chapter 4, Jesus' testing provides a model for us to follow in resisting temptation. It is also a glimpse of the true battle that will be waged throughout Matthew's book. And it portrays the Jesus of Matthew as the faithful Son of God (contrasted with unfaithful Israel) who will now fulfill the twofold plan (redeem and reclaim) that Israel failed to implement.
We see that the launching of Jesus' public ministry in Capernaum is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about the Messiah (4:12-16). We learn the underlying theme of Jesus' teaching and ministry through the events of chapter 16 (4:17). We catch a glimpse of the relationship of authority and faith between Jesus and his disciples (4:18-22) And we see, in summary form (4:23-25), the ministry context in which the words and works of Jesus throughout the rest of the book are to be understood.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. COMMENTARY
C. CONCLUSION
Just as Jesus was announced, ratified, and reaffirmed by others in that day, so we need to be a people today who announce, ratify, and reaffirm that Jesus is our Savior and Lord.
