4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

 

Having been baptised with the Holy Spirit of God, Jesus was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness of Judea to "be tempted of the devil". God's purpose was for His Son to take on Satan head on. Satan knew who Christ was, the seed of the woman who would come to destroy him, and so in various ways attempted to cause Jesus to fail in his mission. 

We may find it difficult to understand how Christ was tempted, for whereas we are sinful ,and prone to fall into temptation, Christ was without sin. But it is because our Lord Jesus Christ overcame all sin and went to the cross spotless for us that we can be forgiven. His word says "If we cnnfess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrightoeusness." That means to make us right with himself again, just as he did when we first received Christ as Saviour and Lord. Christ also has the power to enable us to overcome tempations which once we were helpless to resist - but only when we learn that it is not we who can win against temptation, but He who has won on our behalf.

4:2 After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished.

 

Christ was not only led into the wilderness, but to fast and pray for foryt days and nights. The similar fasts of Moses and Elijah merely point foward to this event. Concentrating on that which was spiriutal, Jesus deliberately starved the natural life. This is the princilpe of fasting, to allow the spiriutal to overcome the natural, but it must be ponited out that it is only when led by the Spirit of God to fast that it should be attempted. Ill advised fasting will lead to health problems, rather than spiritual blessing.

4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread."

 

Another name is used for the devil is employed in this verse, describing his nature, as being the tempter. He is the one who opposes and resists all that is of God or is godly. Satan's tempting of Christ was more than a temptation to the weak human nature which Jesus shared in. Satan first tempts Christ's divinity. "If" you are the Son of God, he says. The devil knew very well that Jesus was the son of God, and yet rebelliously resists and mockingly opposes him. The devil is a liar from the beginning, and it appears that since he is confident of his own power, he must be lying to himself also. To ask God for a demonstartion of his power to prove that he is, is to test him in a sinful way. To allure a hungry man witht food is to appeal to human weakness. Yet on both points, Jesus is victorious, The sin of Adam and Eve was to obey Satan rather than God. Jesus did not fail to remain faithful and obedient to his Father.

4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

 

Jesus turns the word of God to effect against the devil. The same word which Satan asks Jesus to use to prove his divinity, he uses to justify his obedience, and resist the temptation of the devil. The feeding of the human soul is accomplished by something more than the bread, which only feeds the body. The body cannot live without the soul, but the soul lives eternally even without the body. It is the word of God which feeds the soul, and gives life. It is his word that brought us life, keeps us in life, and presevers us to eternal life. Jesus successfuly resists the temptation.

4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

 

The power of the devil may here be seen. By his power he bodily took Jesus, without the need of time or tranpsort, to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is perhaps strange that Jesus allowed this to be done to him, but he wished to face Satan fully in all his evil power for our sakes. Christ's was no half hearted battle or mock war. The Word of God does not diminish the power of our enemy, but it assures us that the infinitely greater power of God is within us (1 John 4:4).

4:6 And said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you' and 'with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "

 

Again Satan tempts Christ's divinty. "If" you are the son of God, prove your indestructablity and godhead. Throw yourself down, and experience the fulfillment of scripture. God will not allow you to be hurt. But Christ had voluntarily humbled himself to become a servant and was committed to doing God's will, not forcing God's hand with impetuous actions of his own. Once again the lies of Satan fall on deaf ears. Someone has said that Christ was such a stranger to evil, and the ways of the devil, that he could pass sin by on the street without so much as a fimiliar look of recognition. He was without sin.

4:7 Jesus said to him, "Once again it is written: 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.' "

 

Jesus knew that the devil was asking him to do exactly what he had been doing, test God. He refuses to do so, in obedience to the word of God, which once again he uses liek a sword to defeat the purposes of Satan. The Bibel says that as believers we too have acces to the sword of the spirit which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17) to overcome all the works of the devil. It is because Christ has overcome that we can (Rev. 12:11).

4:8-9. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur. And he said to him, "I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship me."

 

In a similar way to verse 5, the devil transported Jesus to a very high mountain and in a single instant showed him all the kingdoms of the wrold and their glory. This may at first sight be regarded as a temmpataion to the pride of the hman heart, but since Christ was absolutely without pride, such a temptaion would have proved useless. Rather, the tempting again of Christ's divinity was that all which is of man, human suppsoed glory, when God should be man's glory, and offering the creator his own world, on condition of his abdicating his throne and bowing dowwn to Satan, was a temptaion of his divinti y, and a repeat of the erlier sin which Satan has committed in heaven, when he sought to take God's place upon his throne.

4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Go away, Satan! For it is written: 'You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.' "

 

On this occasion, Jesus orders Satan away, and uphiolds the very first commandement, to worship God and have no other gods before Him.

4:11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and began ministering to his needs.

 

The hollowness of the devils conceit becoems apparent, in that whilst he offers Christ all the world's glory, and puts himself forweard as his superior and God, he has no choice but to obey the command of Jesus to leave him. Christ's victory over Satan is overwhelming, but it is by no means complete. Jesus could no doubt carry on defaeting the devil in this way forevermore, even as one day he shall order him to be cast ointo the lake of fire. But it was in order to save us that he took Satan on, and only by conqueirng him who had the power of death through death could Christ release all those hwo were held captive of the devil. SO Christ continues his victorious march to the cross (Heb 2:14).

Following the rigours of fasting alone in the desert, and of expending spiriutal power in resiting Satan, Christ receives the minsitry of angels to strengthen and renew his body and mind. It is thought by some that the angels brought food and water, as they did in the case of Elijah, but perhaps they also brought a more spiritual minsitry, resulting in the supernatural quickening of Christ's mind and body.

4:12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, he went into Galilee.

 

From scripture we discern that both John and Jesus realised that the diminishing of the one would lead to the public ministry of the other, and were content in this. Knowing that now Is the time to begin his earthly ministry, Jesus returns from Judea to Galilee.

4:13 While in Galilee, he moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

 

He left his home town of Nazareth to take a house in Capernaum near the sea of Galillee.

4:14-16 So that what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light: and on those who sit in the region and shadow of death a light has dawned."

 

By this action, Matthew is keen to point out that the Scripture was again fulfilled. Galilee of the NT was the inheritacne of the tribes of Zebulan and Napthali, and Isiah predicted the day in which the people living there, in the darkness of sin and death, might come face to face with him who brings us out of spiritual darkness and death to eternal light and life (Col. 1:13 and Acts 26:18).

4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach this message: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

 

The beginning of the minsitry of him who came to seek and to save the lost was to call men to repent that is return to God.. But they were not to repent in vain, for God was at this time offering full amnesty, pardon and forgiveness to guilty sinners, reconcilaiton of his enemies to himself, and the making them his children who were once children of wrath. All this and more is implied by the words "the kingdom of heaven". The kingdom was near in as much as the King who brought it was standing among them.

4:18-19 As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishermen). He said to them, "Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of people."

 

The call of Peter Andrew James and John is referred to in various ways in all four gospels. Christ knew his men before he met them, and caled them first to follow him. The Christin life is a persoanl walk and relationship with Jesus Christ. God has a will for every individual llife, and our responsibility is to seek to do his will. It is to be remembered that the will of God for the indiviudal coincides with his will fo rhte whole church, so that God's will is for us to be active as his servants through the medium of his church, not out on our own.

 

This meeting with Peter and Andrew was certianly not the first. But this is the point at which, possibly just after the miraculous catch of fish, that they forsook all to follow him. Christ's purpose for their life call was made clear from the start - they would be fishers of men, leading others to Jesus Christ.

4:20-22 They left their nets immediately and followed him. Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then he called them. They immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.

 

Having been prepaerd by eariler encounters with Christ, and having rec

eived such a meaningful purposeful and personal call, Peter, John, James and Andrew did not hesitate to give up their jobs, and all things, to follow him.

 

4:23 Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people.

 

This was the beginning of Jesus ministry. His discilpes accompanying him, he set out on an itinerant ministry across the region of Galillee, preaching the gospel in both synagoues and in the open, and healing not only every kind of sickness and malady, but also everyone that was brought to him. Matthew later refers to this healing minsitry of Christ as being in fulfillment of Scripture (Matt. 8:17).

4:24 So a report about him spread throughout Syria. People brought to him all who suffered with various illnesses and afflictions, those who had seizures, paralytics, and those possessed by demons, and he healed them.

Such a message accompanied by such demostration of authority over sickness, spread Christ's fame all over the region of Syria, so that throught that province all the sick and suffering were brought ot Jesus and all were healed.

 

4:25 And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan River.

 

This first year of Jesus' ministry is often refered to by commentators as the year of popularity. For
huge crowds followed Christ, perhaps more becaue of his ability to heal them, than his message which would challenge and save their souls. Wesley remarks that this region mentioned includes the whole of Palestine except Samaria.

 

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