And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.
Matthew 4:23-25
Matthew 4
Jesus Is The Atonement For All Our Sin
And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments: and he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 16:32-34
And He saith unto them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Acts 4:33
Not by Bread Alone
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” But He answered and said,
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'” Matthew 4:1-4
It has been said by many people, “I will do whatever it takes to survive.” I have, sadly, at times lived that way. Is that, however, the response of Jesus as He was tempted in the wilderness; to survive at any cost?
The tempter, who was Satan, trying to get Jesus to take the easy way, challenged Him, by questioning His position with His Father, and questioning His ability to make it to the cross without sinning. Yes! It would have been a sin for Jesus to turn stones into bread.
To do so He would have been falling for the temptation of the “Lust of the flesh”, and would have failed.
Take a note on His answer to the tempter. Jesus used the words of God from Moses’s writings (Deuteronomy 8:3), and noted that His survival would be due to the truth of the word of God; doing the godly and right thing.
Jesus teaches us later in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” These words have much more power and authority to us when we see how Jesus handled His temptation in the wilderness.
Let us commit to Him to live by His word, trusting Him only for life’s needs. Warning: this is not implying sitting back and not working.
Wisdom of Following Jesus
“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them,
‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him.” Matthew 4:18-20
“For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of His saints.
Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.” Proverbs 2:6-9
The Fulfilling of God’s Word
“Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
‘The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.’ ” Matthew 4:12-16
Reading the Gospel of Matthew and the others as well we can see that there is much mention of the fulfilling of the Scriptures. That means all the Old Testament from Genesis through Malachi.
Jesus’s coming at the time He did was according to the plan of God from the beginning. He is the fulfillment of those prophecies and there is much more to come.
My prayer for all who read this is that the word of God be fulfilled in your heart, mind and soul. That you will hear the voice of the Spirit of God through His word, and that you will repent of sin, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross as your Lord and Savior.
Prayer for January 2, 2021
“For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.” Proverbs 2:21
“And going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.” Matthew 4:21-22
Our Father and God, Creator of heaven, earth and all that is; even the seen and the unseen. You have made all things and without You there was nothing made that was made. In You is Life, and the Life is the Light of men.
You have made the land and the air we breath and we are not thankful for Your multitude of blessings. You have given us life and we see human life as cheap and steal, kill and destroy; whether physically or by word and words of hate. Heal our sin sick land.
May we who know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior yield to His Spirit and His words for us in this world. May we put away pride and arrogance which are two abominations You hate. Let us turn away from hateful name calling, and speak the truth in love.
May we as Christians, like the sons of Zebedee leave all and follow Jesus, doing His will, which is doing the will of You, the Father.
May we with passion look expectantly toward that new land You have promised those who know You; but may we with even more passion look forward to living a life that will bring honor and glory to Your name; and seeing You face to face. Amen.
The Temptation
“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ But He answered and said,
‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’
Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’
Jesus said unto him,
‘It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’
Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, ‘All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’
Then saith Jesus unto him,
‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’
Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” Matthew 4:1-11 (KJB)
If we will look at the above encounter Jesus had with Satan we could learn much in dealing with temptation.
First of all we need to understand Jesus had gone into the wilderness and was many days without food and water, so in His flesh He was weak. He needed to survive. He longed to survive. When that old devil presented Him with the idea o turning stones to bread it would have been quite the temptation for Jesus to do so; but He did not
Jesus realized and knew that for Him to do so would be making Himself a pawn of the devil, and would be yielding Himself to the will of the serpent. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” was His answer. The word of God must be our main source of sustenance and survival.
Secondly, the devil tempted Jesus with security by tempting Him to throw Himself off the highest point of the temple to prove He was the Son of God. In doing so, again, He would have been submitting to the devil’s snares.
Security is very important to people of all times and stations of life. Jesus told the devil, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” and to do so would be to lose the greatest security ever given to the redeemed.
The last temptation was one of success and worship. If Jesus would bow down to the devil, then He could have all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus knew that He was going to redeem them unto Himself anyway on the cross some three years later, and He said to the devil these words, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus knew that the only worship He could give is to His father or He could not and would not finish the task the Father gave Him to do.
If Jesus would have yielded to temptation then the world would be lost. When you and I yield to temptation we lose our fellowship with God when we are His children, we lose power with Him, and we lose peace, and feel greatly vexed by our lives.
Let us follow the witness of Jesus’s temptation, and greatly depend on the Holy Spirit and the word of God.
If you do not know Jesus as Your Lord and Savior, then when you realize you are lost in sin, apart from God, then hear that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, was buried and He rose again – then call on His name and He will deliver you from sins condemnation. Call on His name today.
Words of Jesus; Son Of God, God The Son – 071420
“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ But He answered and said,
‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’
Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’
Jesus said unto him,
‘It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’
Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, ‘All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’
Then saith Jesus unto him,
‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’
Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” Matthew 4:1-11 (KJB)
The Message Jesus Preached
Going back to the New Testament today…
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17 (KJB)
The Thoughts of F. B. Meyer…
“Our Lord’s earliest ministry seems to have been centered in Jerusalem and its contiguous villages. See Joh_2:1-25; Joh_3:1-36. But on the news of the Baptist’s imprisonment, He took up His testimony to the hearers of the heavenly kingdom, which is the reign of God over the hearts and lives of men. Someone has said that it is “the universal awareness of God.” Yet there was a difference! At the commencement of His work, the Savior showed a tenderness and a winsomeness which were very inviting to the crowds of harried sheep. See Mat_9:36. His ministry resembled the gentle, holy dawn that breaks over the mountains and dispels the black shadows of the night. The evangelist quotes the prophet’s anticipation of the coming of Him who is called “Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God.” Oh, do not be afraid when Jesus comes to your heart! You may be as far away from goodness and purity as Naphtali and Zebulun from Jerusalem, but Galilee of the Gentiles is included in Joh_3:16.”
The Thoughts of John Gill…
“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,…. Not from the time he dwelt in Capernaum; for he had preached in Nazareth before he came there, Luk_4:16 nor from the time of John’s being cast into prison; for he had preached, and made disciples, who were baptized by his orders, before John’s imprisonment, Joh_3:22 Joh_4:1 but from the time that Satan left tempting him; as soon as that combat was over, immediately he went into Galilee, began to preach, and called his disciples. The words with which he began his ministry are the same with which John begun his; which shows the entire agreement between them, in that they not only preached the same doctrine, but in the same words; See Gill on Mat_3:2.”
The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary…
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand — Thus did our Lord not only take up the strain, but give forth the identical summons of His honored forerunner. Our Lord sometimes speaks of the new kingdom as already come – in His own Person and ministry; but the economy of it was only “at hand” until the blood of the cross was shed, and the Spirit on the day of Pentecost opened the fountain for sin and for uncleanness to the world at large.”
It is time for all who call themselves Christian to turn to Christ, turning away from sin. It is time for you who do not know Jesus to know that He loves you so much He paid the penalty for sin by His death on the cross, He was buried, and He rose again.
Call on His name today.
Fishermen of Men
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, ‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And He saith unto them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him. And going on from thence, He saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him. Matthew 4:17-22 (KJB)
Men, probably fairly young men, who had the trade and business as fishermen with their brothers; and another two with their father, and planning on spending their lives as fishermen are confronted with the decision of their lives.
The man who approached them had been preaching. His message is written above, but I share it with you again…
‘Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
In the day which we live (2019) the message of repentance is not very well heeded, and certainly not desired. It is, however, sorely needed.
Jesus’s message for the four men was one of a calling. In short Jesus’s message for them was “Follow Me”.
That is His message for all who will hear His call. Leave the nets behind. Leave your father behind, and follow Me.
Following Jesus is not an easy calling. It is rewarding in that He blesses with His presence, power, and glory. Following Jesus is not without cost. Your life and mine has been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23).
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. He is very near. His name is Jesus, and He died so that all who come to Him might be saved from sin and its condemnation and shame. Believe Him. Follow Him.
The Fire and Hammer 