Chapter 4

Matthew chapter four is probably one of the most important passages in the Word of God from the standpoint of Christology. The first ten verses are crucial to understanding not only the gospel but the ministry of Jesus Christ in the first advent.

We saw last time the baptism of Jesus and the fact that Christ dedicated Himself through the baptism to go to the cross. This led to the account which we have in chapter four. Whenever you make any kind of a decision which is going to glorify God or is honouring to God, immediately that decision is tested. Jesus Christ expressed positive volition through submission to baptism, the water represented the plan of God for His life, the plan of God for the first advent, and therefore He said in effect He would go to the cross through the ritual of baptism. In saying that, immediately this fact was challenged by Satan himself. Jesus Christ is willing to do the Father’s will and Satan is now going to seek to hinder the Father’s will, namely the cross.

The doctrine of the hypostatic union

Briefly this doctrine says that Jesus Christ has two natures. He is God and He is man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. So we have the uniqueness of the person of Christ in that He is God, equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit; and He is also true humanity, which makes Him equal to and superior to all members of the human race, and at the same time different from the Father and different from the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the impeccability of Christ

We have to analyse impeccability under two concepts here. The deity of Christ is not temptable and it is not peccable. The concept of peccability means liable to sin or able to sin. The deity of Christ is not able to sin and the deity of Christ is not temptable. From the standpoint of His deity Jesus Christ is impeccable and non-temptable; from the standpoint of His humanity Jesus Christ is temptable but not peccable. And then when you put it all together — hypostatic union — the person of Christ is temptable but not peccable, and this again contributes to the uniqueness of the person of Christ.

The doctrine of the temptability of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ did not have an old sin nature and in this way He was exactly like the first Adam. The first Adam came into the world without an old sin nature; Jesus Christ came into the world without an old sin nature through the virgin birth. It was the virgin birth that separated Jesus Christ from all members of the human race, before or since. In the history of the human race only one person is virgin-born and only one person therefore is without an old sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin. So Jesus Christ, the last Adam, and the first Adam started out in exactly the same way and were tempted under the same concept. They were truly tempted, the temptation was bona fide, but it did not come from the old sin nature. Both the first and the last Adam’s were tempted by Satan himself, using every wile and everything in his great genius to cause them to act independently of God. With the first Adam Satan was successful, with the last Adam Satan was totally unsuccessful — one sinned, one did not. This is the story of Romans 5:12.

Christ was temptable, it was possible for His humanity to be tempted, but at no point did He personally succumb to any temptation — Hebrews 4:15. It should also be remembered that Jesus Christ was not only tempted but in His humanity He was tempted far beyond anything that anyone in the human race has ever known. The temptations of Christ were very real and much more difficult than anything we have faced. In fact, some temptations were put in His way which we will never face.

From that particular point we not only have a unique person but we have a person who faced some temptations that are unique, and the three temptations of Matthew four are temptations which no one else in the human race has faced in the same manner that Jesus Christ did. While each one of these temptations establishes a principle which we face in temptation the actual temptations of Jesus Christ which are recorded here in Matthew four are the unique ones.

The doctrine of Kenosis

This doctrine says that the Holy Spirit sustained the humanity of Christ during His earthly ministry. This means that when Christ walked on this earth in His human body before the cross He voluntarily restricted the independent use of His divine attributes — that is, some of them. When it came to miracles He performed His miracles in the power of the Spirit; when it came to delineation of doctrine He did so in the power of the Spirit. He did not use His own divine attributes to operate independently of God. This is one of the great issues in the temptations of Matthew chapter four. So during the period of the incarnation He relied upon the power of the Spirit rather than the independent use of His attributes.

His attributes were functional. For example, He knew what the Pharisees were thinking — omniscience; omnipotence: He had power to do certain things Himself but He did not use His omnipotence independently of the Father’s plan. So the humanity of Christ depended upon the Holy Spirit.

Verse 1 — “Then” — the Greek word is a particle for chronology — tote — and this means that what we have in this passage will be in chronological sequence. The first tote, translated “then,” refers to the fact that immediately after the baptism of Jesus Christ this particular event occurred. In other words, the decision of Jesus Christ will be put to the challenge by Satan himself. And notice that Jesus Christ was led to the testing ground by the Holy Spirit — “was Jesus led up of [under the authority of] the Spirit” — this means that He was filled with the Spirit and the Holy Spirit led Him to the place where He would go forty days without food and afterward would be hungry — “into the desert to be tempted [tested] by [from the source of] the devil.” “To be tempted” is an aorist passive infinitive. The aorist tense means every point of time when Jesus was tempted during the forty days. The tests will last for forty days and during that time Jesus was constantly tempted by the devil. Only three of the temptations are going to be extracted and recorded because they are unique. The person is unique and the temptations are unique. Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2 tell us that He was tempted many many times apart from the three we will study. The humanity of Christ received the pressure and it came directly from Satan and was quite concentrated. The infinitive indicates that it was Satan’s purpose to hinder Jesus Christ from going to the cross.

The principle of verse one: After victory Jesus comes to the place of testing and by application the believer is always tested after a great victory, after any kind of a great decision. The believer is always most vulnerable to a defeat immediately after a great victory.

Verse 2 — the background of the temptation: the fact that Jesus Christ is exceedingly hungry. “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights” — the fast here is not simply dieting. Dieting is not fasting. It means to spend the time that ordinarily would be used for normal function in life in contemplating doctrine and prayer. In other words, the Bible study and prayer is the true concept of fasting. So the humanity of Christ spent this time ordinarily devoted to eating and normal surviving living in prayer and meditating on the Word. This is an aorist participle and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb — “he was hungry” .First of all he had the period of prayer and Bible study, minus food — three factors in fasting.

In verses 3-11 we have the three temptations.

The first recorded temptation

1. The temptation dealt with the problem of relationship with the indwelling Spirit.

2. Jesus was tempted to operate independently of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

3. The temptation was designed by Satan to force Christ to violate the Kenosis principle, i.e., to force Christ into relying upon His omnipotence rather than on the Holy Spirit.

4. This temptation was unique because it involved the power to convert stones into bread.

5. The principle of this temptation is one that the believer faces every day. The believer is constantly tempted to rely upon his old sin nature rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. We are tempted to substitute human good for divine good. That is the application.

Verse 3 — “And when the tempter came.” The word “tempter” is a present active participle, linear aktionsart, and it should be translated: “the one who is constantly tempting.” It is a reference to Satan who lives to exalt self and to oppose God. Satan’s greatest push is to get man to operate independently of God and since there are two kinds of men there are two ways in which we can operate independently of God: operation phase one deals with the unbeliever and it is Satan’s objective to get the unbeliever to stay away from the cross and to reject Jesus Christ as saviour; in phase two we have the believer, and Satan’s temptation to the believer is to get the believer to operate in his old sin nature rather than in the power of the Spirit so that the old sin nature will crank out human good. Satan isn’t interested in your cranking out sin; this hurts his cause. He is interested in your cranking out human good. The devil is not the one who tries to get people to sin; the devil can use people who do not sin, people who are full of human good — do-gooders, religious people. These are the ones that Satan can use. Religion is the greatest system for getting people to act independently of God; this is the whole purpose behind religion, behind legalism. That is why since the cross all the devil can do is try to keep the unbeliever from seeing the gospel — he no longer can keep Christ from going to the cross, it is an historical fact, In addition to this, as far as the Christian is concerned, Satan also has an objective and that is not to get the Christian to sin but rather to get the Christian to become self-righteous and religious, and to crank out human good from his old sin nature. Satan himself is not anxious for believers to sin and the fact that sin occurs is not the devil’s idea for the way the universe should get cranked up. He would like to prove to God that he can establish an order on this earth which is very moral and very self-righteous and totally independent of God.

Matthew is the gospel of the King, therefore the temptation is given in its chronological order. We also have the temptation given in Luke but Luke is the gospel of the Son of man and so we have logical order in Luke. John is the gospel of the Son of God and since deity cannot be tempted we don’t even find it in John.

“he said, if [first class condition] thou be [if you are always] the Son of God [and you are].” Satan, of course, recognises that Jesus is the Son of God. Satan is a fallen angel, all fallen angels are in eternity. As far as they are concerned the angelic creation is divided and we have the two categories: the elect angels and the fallen angels. Satan is the leader of the fallen angels and they have already consolidated for eternity, so Satan recognises that Jesus is the Son of God — but obviously it does not save him. He is already in his category for eternity, he has had his chance and he is out of the picture now, but it should be noticed that angels recognise the deity of Christ.

Satan recognises that if he can get Jesus to turn stones into bread, even though He is deity [the Son of God], and act independently of the Holy Spirit (there is an appeal to pride, just like there was to the first Adam) the plan of the incarnation collapses. So at this particular point the issue of whether salvation would be a reality or not hung upon this particular temptation.

“command” — tell the stones to become bread; “be made” [become, ginomai].

Some points on this temptation

1. Jesus is hungry — this is His humanity. To turn stones into bread would be very simple for the Son of God.

2. But to turn stones into bread would mean depending upon His own volition and upon His own divine power rather than the power of the indwelling Spirit and the volition and plan of the Father.

3. Hence the relationship of the humanity of Jesus to the indwelling Holy Spirit is under test.

4. Furthermore, Jesus is being tempted to obtain a lawful thing in an unlawful way — apart from the power of the Spirit.

5. Furthermore, Jesus is being tempted as to the sufficiency of the grace of the Father for daily needs. We face the same issue today. The Father’s provision is grace. The issue is grace versus legalism.

6. Must Jesus grab for Himself by turning stones into bread or can He wait for the Father. He knows that the Father’s purpose for Him is to go to the cross and even though He has gone without food for forty days he knows that He will not die until He goes to the cross; that is the Father’s plan. The point is: does He have the patience to wait for the Father’s pan to operate or is He going to jump out ahead? Issue to us: do we have the patience to wait for the Father’s plan to develop in our lives or do we jump out ahead of it?

7. This introduces the faith-rest issue: are we going to trust the Father or are we going to do it ourselves?

8. The Father will not permit the humanity of Christ to starve to death. The scriptures of the Old Testament are loaded with exactly how Christ is going to die — the whole 53rd chapter of Isaiah, Genesis 3:15, and all of the Levitical offerings. Jesus Christ knows the Old Testament. He has been fasting, which means He has been thinking about the Old testament scriptures, and He knows that there is no scripture that says that Messiah will starve to death. Will He believe it or not?

This has tremendous application to us: Can we depend upon the plan of the Father for our lives or do we have to jump out ahead with human viewpoint?

There is just one hitch. If we do not know doctrine you have nothing to believe and you do not have enough faith to operate the faith-rest technique. This temptation, of course, brings out a tremendous factor: if God doesn’t open the door for you tomorrow so that you can see daylight, are you going to fall apart? If you do not see the end from the beginning all you need is to know what the Word has to say and God will provide your daily needs, just as He provided the biggest need you ever had, i.e. salvation. All that it requires on your part is the operation of the faith-rest technique and you can have a life of perfect peace and blessing in the midst of the pressures and testings and trials of life. There is no command for you to fall apart through anxiety.

Verse 4 — “But he answered and said” — “he answered” is an aorist active participle, “said” is an aorist active indicative, and when you put them together you have an idiom which means he told him off. He not only gave him an answer but He gave him a dogmatic answer, an answer which couldn’t have had greater power. He simply gave him scripture. For forty days He had been living on the Word and now He is ready for the devil. Apparently in His mind He went through Deuteronomy because He quotes from Deuteronomy. He gave Satan a dogmatic answer: “It is written” — perfect tense, it is written in the past with the result that it goes on forever. The Word of God “liveth and abideth forever.” Passive voice: the Bible receives writing, the thought content of the Bible comes from God.

Principle: Victory comes through the Word. The Word is the object of the faith-rest technique; the Word is the basis for true spirituality; the Word delineates rebound; living in the Word is maximum knowledge of doctrine and occupation with Christ can only comes through the Word. If you do not know the Word you do not know Christ.

“Man shall not live by bread alone” — remember that Deuteronomy is the book that describes the walk of the people in the land. “Man shall not live” indicates that it takes more than mere survival to be alive, and to be truly alive is to be alive unto God. Our life relationship with God on this earth is through the indwelling Spirit. When Jesus Christ set up the pattern He had the indwelling Spirit, He had the filling of the Spirit, and consequently He indicated that just having food, shelter and clothing and the necessities of life isn’t living. Man is not living apart from relationship to God and so man is not going to live by bread alone. But the word “alone” also adds that with the spiritual you must also have the material and, in this case, the corporeal, and this means that you must also eat to survive. Relationship with the Lord must come first, however. Food is necessary to sustain physical life but the sustaining of physical life is meaningless without spiritual life.

Principles

1. Bread or physical food is necessary for physical life but bread is a mere detail in man’s dependence upon God.

2. It isn’t the food but the promise which guarantees the food that counts.

3. While bread is necessary to sustain life it is a mere detail in survival.

4. What really sustains the believer in phase to is the promises of the Word. (Food and shelter can be taken away from us in a moment of time but we keep on having the promises of God. However, when the time of testing comes it isn’t what is in the Bible that counts, it is what you have taken out of the Bible and transferred into your frontal lobe)

“but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” — “proceedeth out” is a present active participle, it keeps on coming out. It is dative case, dative of advantage; it is to our advantage to have the Word of God.

Notice that in the resistance of temptation on the part of our Lord Jesus did not rely upon His deity, He relied upon the Word of God and He resisted this great temptation through the Word of God. This is the principle of divine versus human viewpoint. So this leads to the concept that all spiritual victory is directly related to the Word of God, and your ability to have spiritual victory is based upon your understanding of the Word.

Principles

1. Reliance on the Word of God rather than the word of man is the pattern of this victory.

2. All spiritual victory is related to the Word.

3. Jesus never put His own power or His own works above or on a level with obedience to the Father’s plan. To rely on the power of the Spirit was the Father’s plan for the incarnate Christ, therefore in obedience to the Father’s plan He relied upon the power of the Spirit when he used the Word.

4. Jesus found strength, not in performing a miracle, but in the Word of God.

5. Reliance upon God and fulfilling the plan of God depends upon knowing the Word of God. The believer can only become spiritually self-sustaining by feeding on the Word and converting the Word into strength. Just as physical food goes in and is converted into energy so doctrine in the frontal lobe is converted into divine power — orientation to the plan of God.

Verse 5-7, the second recorded temptation. This has to do with the Word, the reason being that Satan had been defeated the first time by the Word and since the power is in the Word and since Jesus Christ in His humanity is relying on the Word Satan tried to pull the power out from under Him. He tried to undermine Him by destroying the Word as the norm.

The principle of the second temptation

1. The second temptation deals with the believer’s relationship with the Word.

2. Since Jesus resisted the temptation to act independently of the indwelling Spirit and the power of the Word Satan attacks the source of resistance, i.e. the Word itself.

3. Satan attacks the Word by quoting the Word, distorting the Word, and using a passage which is not pertinent to the situation.

4. To distort the Word by removing it from its context and interpretation has led astray many sincere and ignorant believers. (Sometimes the more sincere the believer the more stupid the believer!)

Verse 5 —the location of the second temptation. “Then,” a temporal adverb referring to a chronological sequence, so these temptations are in chronological order; “the devil taketh him up into the holy city” — “taketh him up,” some system of transportation was employed. The “holy city” always refers to Jerusalem in the Bible; “and setteth [places] him on a pinnacle.” The word “pinnacle” is a porch, and the pinnacle of the temple is a wing of the temple which was constructed by Herod the Great. This particular porch is actually 450 feet over the valley of Kidron so they are standing and looking over a cliff which was 450 feet straight down.

Verse 6 — the temptation. “And he saith unto him” — the devil is speaking; “If thou be the Son of God” — first class condition [and you are]; “cast thyself down.” First of all, Son of God is a title of deity and has nothing to do with the issue. Satan is talking to Jesus Christ and he says now to His deity: “Jump.” But deity can’t jump because deity is omnipresent — everywhere. So it can be seen how the devil is trying to distort things. The command is an aorist active imperative, he commands Him to jump. Jesus had said previously that He would live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. He has declared Himself upon the principle that in His humanity He will rely entirely upon the Word of God. This will be the pattern for His incarnation. So the devil says in effect that if He is going to rely upon the Word of God there is no reason why He can’t jump off this cliff and he now quotes a portion of scripture to prove the fact that He ought to jump just to demonstrate that He would live by the Word.

“for it is written” — Satan is now quoting scripture, Psalm 91:11,12. He rationalises that because the deity of Christ can’t jump he will go back to the humanity of Christ. The humanity of Christ is going to rely on the Word of God and Satan quotes scripture to imply that He can jump.

Satan’s distortions

1. To jump into the valley would violate the law of gravity, a divine law. Jesus Christ, of course, is living under divine law.

2. God does not protect the operation of negative volition in defiance of divine law.

3. If someone pushes the Lord over the cliff then the scripture which the devil quotes might apply.

4. No protection for the one who acts independently of the Word, even when using the Word in a distorted fashion.

“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.” Dashing the foot against a stone is an idiom for falling. But it should be noticed that the devil added three words that are not found in the original text of Psalm 91:11,12. These are the words: “at any time.” There are times that you could be falling and having been pushed God would protect. But this is a case of where you do it of your own volition and this passage does not cover suicide.

“Lest at any time”

1. The words were added by Satan.

2. Satan added to distort. He could not completely distort this passage without a subtle addition to it.

3. There are times when God’s protection are definitely promised.

4. When the believer uses his own volition to operate independently of God’s plan, God’s Word, or God’s law then he is outside of divine protection.

5. Illustration: suicide. God does not protect from death that believer who tries to commit suicide. Suicide is the superimposition of human volition over divine volition.

6. For Jesus to jump into the valley of Kidron would have meant certain death for His humanity.

7. It was not the Father’s will for Jesus to jump. It was the Father’s will for Jesus to die some three years later on the cross.

There is a principle behind all this: Nothing is more insidious or subtle than the use of God’s Word to get someone to act independently of God, and that is the way the woman fell. Back in the garden the woman fell because she added to the Word of God. This goes on all the time and people are constantly misusing the Word of God in order to act independently of the will of God and the plan of God. This is pseudo-spirituality.

Satan has used a scripture here that is true but it is not pertinent to the situation.

Verse 7 — “Jesus said unto him, It is written again” — now He quotes the pertinent passage of scripture, Deuteronomy 6:16. What is the true issue? — “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” .So he knocked all the props out from under Satan.

“Thou shalt not tempt”

1. Jesus turns the first class condition of verse 6 back on Satan. The pertinent thing is what Satan said at first, “If thou be the Son of God [and you are].”

2. The issue is not to jump when Satan commands, this is tempting the Lord to take Him right out of this life. Satan is tempting the Father to let His humanity die.

3. Satan quoted scripture which did not apply whereas Jesus quoted scripture that did apply. Principle: Not all scripture applies to one situation. The more mature you become and the more doctrine you understand the better qualified you are to apply the pertinent scripture to a pertinent situation.

4. To all believers who are tempted to commit suicide this temptation is both worldliness and Satanic. It is worldliness because of human viewpoint self-pity. No one has ever committed suicide without feeling sorry for himself. It is also Satanic because it is Satan’s objective to get the believer to operate independently of the will of God and it is never the will of God to get the believer to take his own life. So the temptation must be classified as both worldliness and Satanic. (Remember that worldliness is mental attitude human viewpoint)

5. Your departure from the earth must be strictly the sovereignty of God and never a matter of human volition.

Verse 8-10, the third recorded temptation: relationship with the Father’s plan.

Principle of the third temptation

1. The third temptation deals with the believer’s relationship with the Father’s plan.

2. It is the plan of the Father that Jesus Christ should rule the world, but this plan demands the cross before the crown as the basis for establishing an eternal kingdom of regenerate.

3. In the third temptation Satan offers a plan which by-passes the cross and Satan tempts Jesus to accept the crown, by-passing the cross. Satan is the only one who could tempt Jesus this way because he is the ruler of the world.

4. The offer of Satan to give Jesus the kingdoms of the world is a bona fide offer because Satan is the ruler of the world. (Since Satan is the ruler of the world we have certain safeguards to keep Satan from gaining control of the world — the divine institutions)

5. Satan’s plan always ignores, distorts, obscures, or rejects the cross.

6. This temptation, rejected by Christ, will be accepted in the Tribulation by the beast of Revelation 13:1-10.

Verse 8 — the location of the third temptation — “an exceeding high mountain.” We can speculate all we want as to the high mountain but it is unknown. Remember, the kingdoms of the world are ruled by Satan — John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Ephesians 2:2. The title in Ephesians 2:2, “the prince of the power of the air,” actually deals with the earth, it is a title for his rulership of the world.

“shewed him the kingdoms of the world, and the glory [glamour] of them” — so there are two sides to this temptation. First of all the temptation is to try to get Jesus to avoid the cross which is repugnant to Him anyway, illustrated by the scene of Gethsemane where Jesus Said: “If it be thy will let this cup pass from me.” Jesus did not want to go to the cross in His humanity. He went because it was the Father’s will, He went joyfully because He had us in mind, but the cross and bearing the sins of the world was repugnant to Him and this is a temptation to avoid the cross. Secondly, the word “glamour” here casts some light on this temptation. Jesus didn’t see the kingdoms in some of their dirt and filth. These kingdoms are presented in their glamour, which means only the nice side is seen by Jesus in His humanity. So this makes the temptation very attractive.

Verse 9 — “all these things will I give thee, if” — second class condition (if, but you wont) — “you will fall down and worship me.” In this manner Jesus would have received the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross and this would have constituted a deviation from the Father’s plan. God is eternal and His plans are eternal. And since God is eternal the only kingdom that Jesus can rule forever and ever must be an eternal kingdom. The only eternal kingdom will be composed of members of the human race who are in union with Christ, who have eternal life and are eternally saved, and therefore they will be a part of this eternal kingdom. So Jesus Christ could have taken the kingdoms of the world without going to the cross but He refused it.

Verse 10 — the victory. “Get thee hence, Satan” — in the Greek this is very dramatic, like: “Get out of here” .Jesus gave him an order. It is a present active imperative.

“for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” — this is the issue. The object of Satan is to hinder Christ from going to the cross.

Verse 11 — “Then,” chronologically, “the devil leaveth him” — Satan obeyed the order. The word “leave” means to depart quickly; “and, behold, angels came.” In Hebrews 2:3,9,14 we have the reason why the angels came. The angelic conflict is ultimately resolved by the cross and since Jesus has just stood up under the greatest pressures and again by His actions declared that He will go to the cross the angels come and they minister to Him. After 40 days without food Jesus Christ eats again.

As a result of this great victory Jesus Christ enters into a marvellous period of ministry. In verses 12-25 we have the ministry of the King. He is prepared for this ministry because He has faced the greatest possible temptations and testings. He has endured pressure and His ministry is based on the decision made at His baptism. Remember that the water represented the plan of the Father, i.e. the cross, and at the baptism Jesus made His decision. You cannot operate in a ministry apart from decision, there have to be decisions along the way. In effect the temptations of Jesus became a series of decisions.

Verse 12 — the removal of John. John is cast into prison and he will not get out again. The principle is this: when one person in the Lord’s service is removed another takes his place. Jesus takes the place of John. Many servants but one message is the concept. However, in verse 12-17 we see the perpetuation of John’s message.

Verse 13 — we have the activity of our Lord. Capernaum was a very large city and the Lord set up His base there.

Verse 14-16 — this fulfils prophecy from the Old Testament (Isaiah 9:1-2). “The people which sat in darkness” — the people in the northern part of Israel (verse 15 gives a geographical description of northern Israel). To sit in darkness means two things: firstly, these Jews in the northern part of Israel are under the fourth cycle of discipline. This 4th cycle began in 63 BC when Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar were operating a triumvirate. The Jews are controlled by a military power. Under the fifth cycle, during the reign of Vespasian, they will be taken out of their land and scattered. Secondly, it refers to being in a hopeless situation, i.e. being under the penalty of sin.

“saw great light” — great light refers to Jesus Christ, John 8:12, “the light has sprung up” — sprung up refers to the first advent, it refers to operation phase one, it refers to the cross, and this describes the ministry of our Lord. The “light sprung up” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ the saviour is there. He will fulfil the plan of God and this announcement of it is the beginning of that operation.

Verse 17 — the perpetuation of John’s message. “From that time,” the time of the imprisonment of John, “Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Verses 18-22, Jesus has begun His ministry and He must have staff, so He enlists for service. In verses 18-20 we have the call of Peter and Andrew.

Verse 18 — “saw,” aorist tense, suddenly saw; “two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting” — linear aktionsart. They were constantly casting “a net into the sea: for they were fishers.” Jesus noticed that they were working and doing their job.

Verse 19 — And He saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He is pointing out to them that there is something more important than fishing for fish and that is fishing for men. At the same time, of course, He establishes an analogy for witnessing.

Witnessing

1. A fisherman must have a desire to fish. This is the first principle in witnessing for Christ, you must be enthusiastic about the Lord and about seeing men saved.

2. A fisherman must be equipped to fish. You cannot fish without some sort of equipment. To be a fisher of men you must know pertinent doctrine.

3. A fisherman has to go where the fish are located.

4. A fisherman must know how to bait a hook. There are different ways of baiting different categories of fish. There are many ways to approach people with the gospel.

5. A fisherman has to keep out of sight. If he doesn’t he frightens the fish. Casting a shadow over the water can frighten the fish. The principle as far as we are concerned is that the issue must be the gospel, not our personality. 6. A fisherman will be rewarded. A good fisherman is patient, he never gives up.

Verse 20 — the response. “And they straightway [immediately] left their nets, and followed him.”

Verse 21-22, the calling of James and John. This is the organisation of a staff. No one can go it alone is the principle here. Representing God on this earth ambassadors for Jesus Christ are all members of the same team, and all of us are necessary for the team. Jesus is now assembling His team. Verses 23-25 — the ministry.

Verse 23 — it included a message. Notice the three words: preaching, teaching, healing; they are all present linear aktionsart. Notice what is first on the list. He taught first. You cannot preach until you teach first because you must understand doctrine before you can become the recipient of preaching. So “teaching in their synagogues … preaching the gospel … healing all manner of sickness … “ It should be noted that the purpose of healing was not to alleviate suffering, although this was accomplished, it was to focus attention upon the message of our Lord and to give our Lord a hearing. He healed so that he could teach and preach. The reason He was invited into the synagogues to preach the gospel is because of the ministry of healing.

Verse 24 — He presents His credentials. Here is the amplification of His healing ministry — “torments” and “lunatick” refer to mental illnesses.

Verse 25 — the healing plus the teaching and preaching brought Him a crowd. “Galilee,” Gentiles primarily; “Decapolis,” Greeks; “Jerusalem,” Jews; “Judaea,” more Jews; “beyond the Jordan,” Arabs. Most of these people followed Him because of the miracles, many of them stayed to hear His message, and as a result many were saved from all parts of that part of the world.

In chapter five he is going to leave all of this multitude and train His disciples. The crowd is so great that Jesus Christ in His humanity cannot speak to all of them and therefore He must have help. He is going to train His disciples but His disciples, even though they are sincere, are not ready to teach and preach because they do not have any doctrine. They will get their doctrine from the sermon on the mount.