Matthew 4:23-25 – The Ministry of Jesus

John Carter – November 19, 2017

²³ And he went throughout all Galilee,

• Galilee of the Nations
• Galilee is area that was previously under the control of the northern tribes of Israel
• Acts 10:34-39 – (Peter) 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

teaching in their synagogues and

• John 18:37 – This is why I came, to bear witness to the truth
• Luke 24:25-27 – 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and

• Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15
• Acts 10:39-43 – (Peter) They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
• 2 Timothy 2:8-13 – 8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The saying is trustworthy, for:
  If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
  12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
  if we deny him, he also will deny us;
  13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
  for he cannot deny himself.

healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

• A Gospel of salvation without a work of charity is dead faith
• James 2:17 – 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
  • You don’t really believe if you don’t do something in accordance with that belief
• Social Gospel – Works without faith, you save limbs but you damn souls. You feed bellies but you burn bodies.

²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria,

• Syria is the region north of Galilee
• What Jesus was doing far outweighed the ministry of John the Baptist.
• His fame and work spread very far, and very wide

and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

• Demons, Disease, & Sin
  • There is a difference between demons, disease, and sin. If we remove any of those elements from the theological discussion then we will end up with a broken theology.
    • No demons = ignorant (flesh only) fighting & no prayer
    • No disease = no helping the afflicted
    • No sin = no need for savior
  • Health, Wealth, and Prosperity
    • Prosperity Gospel (Definition): “A teaching that emphasizes God’s aim to make believers healthy and wealthy in this life, while it overlooks or minimizes the danger of wealth, the biblical call to a wartime mindset (wartime austerity), and the necessity and purposes of suffering.”[1]
    • Over-realized eschatology results in a false teaching that the full benefits of the kingdom of heaven are in effects in this age. But this is not true or an accurate understanding of the biblical
  • Dangerous
    • It is subtle
    • Usually comes wrapped with accurate theological language, but with different meanings
    • It shifts security of salvation from Holy Spirit and truth to fleeting riches
    • Introduces works-based salvation (Galatians) – I must not be doing something right, therefore, I need to do more to earn/secure my salvation
  • Examples of the PG failing
    • Jesus Dies oo a cross
    • We are called to pick up our cross – mechanism of death – (Matthew 16:24-26)
    • Paul still suffered – (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)
    • The rich man was financially well off but lacked saving faith (Mark 10:21)
    • The poor woman at the well. (Luke 21:1-4)
    • Poverty defined the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 8:20)
    • It is more blessed to give than to receive – the command in the NT is to give sacrificially to the poor with no promise of earthly reward. (Acts 20:35)
  • Warnings
    • Poverty (asceticism) (Colossians 2:16-19) or Riches are not guaranteed signs of faithfulness (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
    • If Jesus is your plan for earthly financial security then you have not found Jesus but a false Gospel.
    • Happiness is derived from Jesus, not the fringe benefits of being in his presence. Meaning, if you hang around with the king you will enjoy the benefits of what he enjoys. But our greatest joy should be in the king himself and not the crumbs that fall from his table.
  • QUESTION:
    • If nothing, in this life, ever changed would you still serve God?
    • If it stayed this difficult would you endure?
    • Or, rather, would you chose to endure (because Scripture is clear that the faithful will endure)?
  • Cost of Following Jesus
    • Matthew 9:29 – 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
    • Mark 10:29-30 – 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
    • Following Jesus does merit salvation: Parable: 4 Seeds (soils)

²⁵ And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

• Galilee of the Nations
• The 10 Cities (important to Jews)
• Homeland of Jews
• Those exiled or living as if still in exile
• John 6:60-71 – Following Jesus doesn’t mean you are saved

COMMUNION

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” ²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” ²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰ So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ³² Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— ⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹ Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

⁶⁰ When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ⁶⁵ And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁶⁶ After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” ⁷¹ He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Word became Flesh & Blood is the life(the way, the truth, the life)

[1] P.19 – John Piper Let the Nations Be Glad