All signs point to Jesus: A journey through the book of Matthew, week 4.

 

      So far, in the gospel of Matthew, we’ve seen a God who was born in a manger, feeding trough for his bed no less.  We see a promised King takes on a posture of repentance and get baptized and now in the first part of Chapter 4, after 40 days of fasting, he will be tempted.  I can’t help but think of Jesus as someone who comes to us, a God who comes down to our level, who really wants to identify with us.    I see a savior King who meets us where we are at.  

For so long, raised in the church, I had this image of God or Jesus as this far away diety.  I never thought that Jesus is someone I can have a personal relationship with.  Here in the second part chapter 4, we see the beginnings of Jesus first relationships. I mean besides with his parents, and God and his cousin John the Baptist. Ok so first relationships outside his relatives. 

Why did Jesus get tempted? 

Gods plan for our salvation included Jesus conquering sin and temptation by enduring and conquering that temptation himself.  He fasted forty days so He could feel the true pull of temptation yet submit to God’s will so He could be a spotless sacrifice and offer Himself on the cross for us. 

Moreover, Jesus is revealed as the new Adam who resists temptation and conquered sin, but it is also revealed how he does this. He does this by relying on the word of God.  With every thing the devil throws at him, Jesus comes back with the truth of scripture.  Wow, convicts me to work on my memory verses every time. 

If you want to go deeper, you will notice that each temptation reveals ways that we can be tempted by satan as well. 

Verse 3: self gratification: we are tempted to fulfill our wants apart from God’s will. 

Verse 5-7: self protection: We are tempted to question Gods presence and manipulate his promises asking for proof. But we see Jesus resting in the shelter of the Fathers unshakeable security. 

Verse: 8 self exaltation: we are tempted to assert ourselves in the world while we rob God of his worship. 

In this chapter of Matthew we see two pictures of Jesus-as the new man and the true son. 

Jesus is the new man. He stepped into the universal human story, resisting temptation. 

Jesus is the true Son. Both Jesus and Israel were tested in the wilderness.  Jesus uses scripture from that time.. the devil was attacking the relationship between the son and the father

Does God tempt us?  It is important to note that when satan tempts us, he tempts us for evil. God is always in control.  God can tempt us too, but only for good. God uses statan’s temptations of evil in order to bring about good in your life (Romans 8:28) .  I was recently at a holiday work party dinner and there was 6 of us at the dinner table. Four of those people joined in sharing a bottle of wine.  I’m almost 8 years sober and I was not one of those four.  I would be lying if I said I was not affected by the pouring of the wine in those elegant glasses, hearing the wine filling the glass,  smelling the intoxicating aroma of the wine throughout the whole dinner. Was I tempted? Maybe, but I knew for a fact I wasn’t going to drink. If it was satan trying to tempt me, he was unsuccessful and if it was God who was tempting me, it was only so I can trust him, and all those years of recovery and recalling all the wildernesses he already took be through to get me through that dinner.  What was the good that came out of that?  Well, my sobriety never came up in the conversation, but I went home sober. What can be greater than that? 

Could Jesus have sinned?  Jesus was fully man and he was fully tempted. Jesus is fully God. God can not be tempted. Physically he was capable of sin. Spiritually, he was incapable. 

I’m so grateful to see that in the end God did not leave Jesus hanging and sent his angels to care for him.  God still cares for our physical needs! 

Jesus begins His ministry in Galilee.

Jesus calls his first disciples and after calling out to Peter and Andrew who were fishing, ‘Come follow me’ they just left their nets at once and followed him.  I have SO many questions!  Now the gospel of Luke and John lends a little more to this story here.  But if you’re just reading this, I immediately have to ask, why did they immediately just go with this person they just met? Did they know who he was? why immediately? Did they know what they were getting into?  Well some of these questions get answered as I go onto read this gospel so they won’t all be answered here.  One of the reasons why I like the show ,the chosen’ is because they entertain these fill in the blank questions for me. 

But like any good bible student, we must look at the information of what we are given now.  We know that the old testament points to Jesus Christ.  What did we learn about Jesus so far in just these first 3 chapters? In Matthew chapter 1 we see that Jesus is the savior, the Messiah, the son of King David, son of Abraham, father of Israel. He is fully human and divine. In chapter 2 we learn that Jesus is sovereign over the wise and shepard to the weak. He inaugurates the new exodus. 

In chapter 3, we see Jesus is the Savior King and righteous judge here and NOW and coming to save. Jesus is filled by the spirit and loved by the father.  In this first part of chapter 4, we see Jesus as the new Adam who resisted temptation and fully conquered sin.  

Everybody’s journey or story of when they came to follow Jesus is different.  We don’t get to see Jesus as Peter and Andrew did at that shore, but brothers and sisters, doesn’t  knowing what has already been revealed make you want to respond to Jesus as someone who is worthy of our total surrender and abandonment? 

They left their nets at once and followed him.  Jesus is worthy of total abandonment and supreme adoration.  The early disciples left everything  that was familiar to them. They exchanged comfort for uncertainty.  Jesus is worthy more of casual association.  This is our call as Christ followers today.   We might not know all the details of where Christ is leading but we know WHO we’re following. We are called to repent, abandon sin.  Hold loosely to all that is familiar and comfortable and cling tightly to Jesus.  We celebrate the birth of Christ, but our we living the life of Christ? 

God directed Jesus north to Galilee to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. Jesus faced less intense persecution in Galilee, allowing him to preach more freely.

Jesus officially begins His public ministry , sharing the good news of Gods love for all people 

Jesus begins ministry to Israel (4:17)

The news spreads about Jesus, and large crowds begin to gather around Him. 

Why did Jesus’ miracles draw crowds?

Just as today, there were many suffering from a variety of diseases, injuries, and illnesses in Jesus’ day. But unlike today, medicine had little to offer, Jesus was healing all sorts of diseases and restoring people to health. These miracles remind us just how badly sin has infected our world, but when Christ comes to restore His creation, He will make all things right and illness and death will be no more. 

We’ll learn and discuss more about the healings of Jesus in the coming chapters.