Scripture: Matthew 4:12-25
Introduction
- We have just celebrated Jesus’ birth only four weeks ago.
- And then last week, we celebrated a significant event in His development at 2 years old.
- For the next 10 years of His life, He would grow and mature as the oldest of 7 children.
- The next event in Jesus’ life that we know about is only found in Luke 2:41-49:
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
- Then, from verse 51, we know that: “He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.”
- Where our story picks up today is 18 years later and Jesus is now 30 years old.
- Sometime during these 18 years, Joseph died leaving Jesus as the eldest son and provider.
- It is assumed that Jesus learned the carpentry trade from His earthly father Joseph.
- And so, Jesus has been working as a carpenter to support the family leading up to now.
- Jesus is no stranger to work, but today begins with a career change for Jesus.
- The pivotal point is John the Baptist has been imprisoned and so, John’s work is done.
- Three things happen that trigger the beginning of Jesus’ new ministry career:
- Jesus Begins to Preach
- Jesus Calls His First Disciples
- Jesus Heals the Sick
1. Jesus Begins to Preach
- Perhaps one of the keys to why this is so pivotal is what Matthew tells us Jesus preached.
- Recall back to what John the Baptist was preaching. What was it? Matthew 3:1-2
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
- And so, in Matthew 4:17, after John can no longer freely preach,
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
- The torch has been passed from the “voice of one calling in the wilderness”, John the Baptist, to the One who’s path has been foretold since the prophet Isaiah.
- Jesus will preach this message for the next three years until His death opens the door to heaven.
- There is more to this first part of the story then WHAT He preached; there is also the WHERE He preached
- In Matthews Gospel, today’s text is preceded by the 40 days of temptation story.
- But, in Luke’s Gospel, he sticks in a little more information about what happens just before.
- Luke talks about Jesus trying to get started in His own neighborhood in 4:16-21:
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
- Well, you can guess how well that went over.
- People were saying “wait a minute, isn’t that the carpenter’s son talking?” “Who does he think he is?” Verses 28 and 29 pretty much sums it up:
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
- That kind of gives you the motivation behind the next steps in verse 13:
Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali
- Matthew points out that this choice fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, but now you know WHY.
- I can personally relate to this story based on my ministry journey.
- For years, I preached a message of reaching outside the church at Hunton to no avail.
- I needed to leave and move on and now, years later, through Biltmore I am finally reaching them at Hunton – go figure!
- God gives us work to do, but sometimes He closes a door – just to open a window.
2. Jesus Calls His First Disciples
- Jesus knew He was on a 3-year plan to get everything He came to do done.
- The next thing He did was to recruit the least likely people to be the most effective witness ever created.
- Again, I can personally relate because I am the LEAST LIKELY person I know that I would have pick to do this job, yet somehow, God made it work
- Think about these “religious leaders” that Jesus picked.
- Were they the most educated and pious men in Jewish religious society? NO
- Were they the most politically correct men in land of Israel? NO
- Well, who were they then? FISHERMEN
- Two sets of brothers; all four were fishermen.
- Some of the roughest, crudest, toughest, most worldly people around
- Maybe I can relate after all?!?; because if its rough, crude, tough and worldly you want, then I’m your guy.
- If you throw in web developer, network engineer and computer geek, I’m a total package.
- Here’s what Jesus told them in His recruiting speech in verse 19:
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
- What an amazing skillset to recruit for
- Jesus was here to find and save as many people as He could in three years.
- What better way to reach masses of people than to think of them as fish and catch them??
- When I first got here and saw the work that needed to be done, I was worried.
- Then God gave me FISH and FISHERMEN.
- The fish are the people that our missions reach, and the fishermen are all of you.
- Another skillset that Jesus was looking for is passion for their work.
- James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were the second two chosen after brothers Simon and Andrew.
- They were the sons of Zebedee, but also referred to as the “sons of thunder.”
- Probably because of their zeal for life and everything they would do.
- I think of some of the different challenges that come up here at Biltmore from time to time and I am reminded of just how PASSIONATE and hard working you folks here are.
3. Jesus Heals the Sick
- What do you think is more important: preaching, teaching, or healing?
- Verse 23: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
- I think if you asked Jesus, He would say that all three are equally
- When we talk about the healing Jesus did, it included a variety of afflictions:
- people who were ill with various diseases
- people who were suffering from severe pain
- people who were demon-possessed
- people who were having seizures
- people who were paralyzed.
- Certainly, number one would include the most unclean amongst them, those suffering from leprosy.
- Word got around fast that Jesus was helping so many people and He was very effective.
- As a result of all the healing work Jesus was doing, verse 25 tells us:
Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him.
- I told you last week that something big is coming and I think the Spirit has given me the first installment.
- The secret to my success and this church’s success seems to come down to three things:
- We need to pick up the message from Jesus and preach a consistent message:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
- I need to continue to surround myself and this church needs to continue to recruit disciples using the same recruiting approach:
“Come, follow Jesus and He will send you out to fish for people.”
- We need to continue to grow our healing ministry by finding more and more ways to help people.
- Consider this the framework for what is to come and expect the Holy Spirit to fill in the blanks.