Matthew 4 | The Upward Way | Bible Study with A. Z. Adams — Transcript

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1. 0:00Jesus, open our eyes to see, our ears to
2. 0:05hear, and our hearts to [music] receive
3. 0:08and obey your word. In your name we
4. 0:12pray. Amen.
5. 0:15Then Jesus was led by the spirit into
6. 0:18the wilderness to be tempted by the
7. 0:19devil.
8. 0:21And after he had fasted 40 [music] days
9. 0:23and 40 nights, he then became hungry.
10. 0:27And the tempter came and said to him,
11. 0:30"If you are the son of God, command that
12. 0:33these stones become bread."
13. 0:36But he answered and said, "It is
14. 0:38written, man shall not live on bread
15. 0:41alone, but on every word that proceeds
16. 0:44out of the mouth of God."
17. 0:47Then the devil took him into the holy
18. 0:49city and had him stand on the pinnacle
19. 0:52of the temple and said to him, "If you
20. 0:55are the son of God, throw yourself down.
21. 0:58For it is written, he will command
22. 1:00[music] his angels concerning you. And
23. 1:03again, on their hands they will bear you
24. 1:06up so that you will not strike your foot
25. 1:08against a stone."
26. 1:10Jesus said to him, "On the other hand,
27. 1:14it is written, you shall not put the
28. 1:17Lord your God to the test." Again, the
29. 1:20devil took him to a very high mountain
30. 1:22and showed him all the kingdoms of the
31. 1:25world and their glory. And he said to
32. 1:29him, "All these things I will give to
33. 1:32you if you fall down and worship me."
34. 1:36Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan, for
35. 1:40it [music] is written, you shall worship
36. 1:43the Lord your God and serve him only."
37. 1:48Then the devil left him, and behold,
38. 1:51angels came and began to minister to
39. 1:54him. In these first verses of Matthew
40. 1:58chapter 4, we see some very important
41. 2:01things. One, Jesus was tempted by the
42. 2:05devil immediately after his baptism.
43. 2:11Immediately, the very first thing that
44. 2:14happened after his public confession,
45. 2:18his public commitment was temptation.
46. 2:22And that's a caution and encouragement
47. 2:24to all of us that God has given us the
48. 2:28grace to handle the temptations of the
49. 2:31enemy that are going to come immediately
50. 2:34after we've made that commitment.
51. 2:37Second, we see that Jesus does not argue
52. 2:41with the devil on his own strength or
53. 2:44even his own wisdom. Instead, he
54. 2:47confronts the devil with scripture every
55. 2:50single time.
56. 2:52And after the first time that Jesus uses
57. 2:54scripture, the devil clues in and he
58. 2:56uses scripture also. He quotes two
59. 2:59scriptures,
60. 3:01but he quotes them in a way that allows
61. 3:03for a contradiction.
62. 3:05So Jesus gives us this powerful key for
63. 3:08how to interpret scripture. He says, "On
64. 3:10the other hand," and he quotes a
65. 3:13scripture that makes the devil's
66. 3:15interpretation of the Bible impossible,
67. 3:20or else the Bible's contradicting
68. 3:22itself. And right there, Jesus is
69. 3:24saying, "God's word cannot be broken."
70. 3:26He's going to say that again in John 10.
71. 3:29Right there, he's saying, "Whatever
72. 3:30interpretation you have that allows for
73. 3:34contradiction, it's from the devil." and
74. 3:36he finally tells him to go. He quotes
75. 3:41these scriptures to him. He stands firm
76. 3:43in his faith and he tells him to go.
77. 3:46Another insight that we can get from
78. 3:48this temptation is that the devil is
79. 3:52enticing Jesus to use his gifts and
80. 3:57power in a way that he never used them
81. 4:01his entire ministry for himself.
82. 4:05Jesus is hungry and the devil wants him
83. 4:08to make bread for himself.
84. 4:12Jesus is on the pinnacle of the temple
85. 4:14and the devil wants him to put God to
86. 4:17the test and cause the angels
87. 4:20to come in and help himself.
88. 4:24Jesus used his power for the glory of
89. 4:27God and for the love of others, but he
90. 4:30never used it for himself.
91. 4:33But the way the devil tempts him and us
92. 4:36is enticing us to use the gifts God gave
93. 4:40us to serve others instead to serve
94. 4:43ourselves. And Jesus refuses.
95. 4:47Now when Jesus heard that John had been
96. 4:51taken into custody,
97. 4:53he withdrew into Galilee.
98. 4:57And leaving Nazareth, he came and
99. 4:59settled in Capernaum, which is by the
100. 5:01sea, in the region of Zebulon and
101. 5:04Naftali.
102. 5:06This was to fulfill what was spoken
103. 5:08through Isaiah the prophet, the land of
104. 5:11Zebulon, and the land of Naftali,
105. 5:14by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan,
106. 5:17Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who
107. 5:21were sitting in darkness saw a great
108. 5:24light. And those who were sitting in the
109. 5:27land and shadow of death, upon them a
110. 5:31light has dawned. From that time Jesus
111. 5:35began to preach and say, "Repent, for
112. 5:39the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
113. 5:43Jesus sees that John has been taken
114. 5:45prisoner and he pulls out of the place
115. 5:50where the tension is heating up with the
116. 5:53Romans and he moves over into the area
117. 5:58right by the Sea of Galilee. Capernium
118. 6:01is a small fishing village right on the
119. 6:03shores of the the great lake the the
120. 6:06freshwater sea of Galilee. And Matthew
121. 6:10is again telling us that this is to
122. 6:11fulfill prophecy. Matthew wants us to
123. 6:14understand that when Jesus fights the
124. 6:17devil, it's with the scripture. That
125. 6:19when Jesus makes a a move in his life,
126. 6:22it's to fulfill scripture. That Jesus is
127. 6:25totally and absolutely submitted to what
128. 6:28has come before in the Holy Scripture.
129. 6:31He's trying to tell his readers, "This
130. 6:33is not a contradiction." That's what the
131. 6:36devil does. This is a fulfillment of
132. 6:38what has already come in the covenant
133. 6:41that God made with Israel. And Jesus
134. 6:44begins to preach the same thing John was
135. 6:46preaching. Repent for the kingdom of God
136. 6:49is at hand. Jesus uses the word repent.
137. 6:53The very first message he preached
138. 6:55started with one word, repent. Be
139. 6:59uprooted.
140. 7:00Be totally
141. 7:02turned around. Experience the
142. 7:05revolution. The word revolution means to
143. 7:08turn completely. And that's what repent
144. 7:10means. Revolution. Have a revolution
145. 7:14that turns you from the pursuit and
146. 7:16interest of self and toward the pursuit
147. 7:20and commitment to God and his kingdom.
148. 7:23Now, as Jesus was walking by the Sea of
149. 7:26Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who
150. 7:28was called Peter, and Andrew, his
151. 7:30brother, casting a net into the sea, for
152. 7:33they were fishermen.
153. 7:35And he said to them, "Follow me, and I
154. 7:39will make you fishers of men."
155. 7:42Immediately they left their nets and
156. 7:45followed him. Going on from there, he
157. 7:48saw two other disciples, James, the son
158. 7:50of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the
159. 7:54boat with Zebedee, their father, mending
160. 7:56their nets. And he called to them.
161. 7:59Immediately they left the boat and their
162. 8:02father and followed him.
163. 8:05Jesus was going throughout all Galilee
164. 8:08teaching in their synagogues and
165. 8:10proclaiming the gospel
166. 8:14of the kingdom
167. 8:16and healing every kind of disease and
168. 8:18every kind of sickness among the people.
169. 8:21The news about him spread throughout all
170. 8:24Syria. And they brought to him all who
171. 8:26were ill, those suffering with various
172. 8:29diseases and pains, demoniacs,
173. 8:33epileptics, paralytics, and he healed
174. 8:36them. Large crowds followed him from
175. 8:39Galilee and the Dopolis and Jerusalem
176. 8:42and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. In
177. 8:46these last verses of chapter 4, we see
178. 8:49[music] Jesus calling people. And the
179. 8:52very calling is a fulfillment [music]
180. 8:55of his command to repent. They are
181. 8:58having a personal revolution. They are
182. 9:01turning from a life centered in themsel
183. 9:04in their economy of fishing in even in
184. 9:08their family and father and they are
185. 9:10turning to chase [music] after and
186. 9:12follow somebody else. So he says,"Follow
187. 9:16me." And [music] Matthew uses this
188. 9:19operative word. He says, "Immediately."
189. 9:24Immediately. In the Greek, this means as
190. 9:27soon as or forth with or straight away.
191. 9:33It means that there was no lag, no gap
192. 9:37from when the word came and the action
193. 9:40followed. They were ready. They knew the
194. 9:44voice of God and they weren't going to
195. 9:46be left behind.
196. 9:48And then we're told that Jesus is going
197. 9:51throughout Galilee teaching and
198. 9:53preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
199. 9:58This is Matthew's first mention of the
200. 10:01word [music] gospel. And that word
201. 10:03gospel, it meant like campaign or
202. 10:06revolutionary message was actually a
203. 10:09word that Caesar had [music] used to
204. 10:11announce his own platform and political
205. 10:14campaign to save the whole world. Well,
206. 10:16now [music] Jesus has stolen it from
207. 10:19Caesar and he's preaching the good news,
208. 10:21the gospel, the message. But it's not a
209. 10:24message of individualism.
210. 10:26It's the message [music] of a kingdom.
211. 10:29But the kingdom is not entered through
212. 10:33revolt, rioting,
213. 10:35taking up arms, staging a coup. It's
214. 10:39entered through repentance. Repent for
215. 10:41the kingdom of God is at hand. Because
216. 10:44the enemy isn't Rome and the enemy isn't
217. 10:46the Sanhedrin. And the enemy
218. 10:50is self. It's sin. It's each and every
219. 10:53one of us that that defiance against God
220. 10:56that self-ruule. Heat. Heat. [music]
221. 11:10[music]