The Way - Day 236 (Matthew 4)

Pastor Tom's Journal on Today's Reading:
Matthew 4:1-11
Immediately following one of the highlights of Jesus’ life (His baptism), He experiences one of the lowest points in His life.  Matthew writes that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (4:1).  Adding to the severity of the temptation was the fact that Jesus fasted 40 days and nights before His encounter with Satan, which obviously brought Him to an extreme state of hunger (4:2).  The tempter, Satan, brought three specific temptations against Jesus (4:3; 4:5-6; 4:8-9) and each one was designed to cause Jesus to ignore the plan of God the Father by using the divine power He had willingly set aside to become like man (Philippians 2:7).  At the heart of every temptation is the desire to act independent of God, so in order to resist, Jesus had to be more desirous for God’s way than the ways of the devil.  At the beginning of human history, Adam and Eve failed miserably at this and chose to live independently of God and their disobedience ultimately threw the entire human race into sin (Romans 5:12).  Jesus also faced this same direct pressure from Satan, but He successfully resisted each time through remembrance of and perfect obedience to God’s words (4:4; 4:7; 4:10).  At the core of resisting temptation is seeing God’s ways as good and worthy to be obeyed.  If we cannot find worth or relevance in God’s way of living, we will never be able to resist temptation.  Paul provides great comfort to the church at Corinth regarding temptation when he writes, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NLT).  God’s presence accompanies those who are His and He has equipped them to handle any temptation which comes their way.

Matthew 4:12-25
Matthew has been following some major pints in the life of Jesus, whom He passionately believed was the long-awaited Messiah.  He was primarily writing to a Jewish audience in order to prove that Jesus Christ was God’s Son and therefore worthy of their worship.  In the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, the writer extensively covered the genealogy of Jesus right back to David and ultimately, Abraham (1:1-17).  Matthew also recounted the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ (1:18-25), including the visit of the wise men and His family’s escape from the hands of Herod, who was attempting to exterminate Jesus (2:1-23).  Although Matthew skips most of the narrative of Jesus’ youth, He introduces his readers to John the Baptist who prepared the hearts of the people for the arrival of the Messiah (3:1-11).  Matthew documents Jesus’ baptism (3:13-17) and His face to face encounter with Satan, who unsuccessfully tempted Him in the wilderness (4:1-11).

After His baptism and temptation, Jesus begins His public ministry in Galilee where he preaches, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:12-17).  Jesus’ message was identical to the one John preached (3:1-2) and was a call for people to turn from their sin and embrace the forgiveness of God.  When Jesus referred to the “kingdom of heaven,” he was pointing to a present rule of God in the heart of those who repent, but He also had a future kingdom in mind.  In the midst of His public ministry, Jesus called out several disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew (later James and John), who left their jobs as fishermen in order to follow Jesus (4:18-22).  Jesus promised them that if they followed, He would make them “fishers of men.”  Making them fishers of men meant that He would equip them to “catch” men through the preaching of truth and persuading them to repent and have faith in Jesus.  Ultimately, Jesus invested in these disciples because they would be the ones to carry on the message long after Jesus had died, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.  These men would ensure that the message of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ would be passed to the next generation.  Every generation has men and women who faithfully proclaim this same message to ensure that everyone has the privilege to experience the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

Dear God, make me a fisher of men.