Bible Study on: Matthew Chapter 4
by Russell J. Schmidt
Satan Tempts Jesus
1) Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2) And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
3) Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4) But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
5) Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6) and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
7) Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”
8) Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9) And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10) Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you,[d] Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
11) Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
Jesus Begins His Galilean Ministry
12) Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.
13) And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali,
14) that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
15) “ The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:
16) The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.”
17) From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Four Fishermen Called as Disciples
18) And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
19) Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
20) They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
21) Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them,
22) and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Jesus Heals a Great Multitude
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
24) Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
25) Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
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Book of Matthew, Chapter Four
Verses 1-11: Satan Tempts Jesus
As is so often said by those in the ministry, “the Bible is to us, what an automobiles owners manual is to the car owner.” But, unfortunately most car owners never look at the owners manual, which will lead to neglecting necessary maintenance or proper maintenance at the proper time, which will lead to not getting the most out of that automobile.
For example; I had a 1994 Ford pickup truck whose engine seized with just 134,000 miles on the engine. Trucks of this nature, I was always told, should get no less than 200,000 miles. I found out when I purchased a new pickup truck from Ford, that the problem was that I didn’t read the owners manual before doing oil changes.
Again, I was always told that it is a safe and best practice to use a 10W40 weight oil for all year round use. Which I did. Much to my surprised when I mentioned this to a Ford mechanic, he told me that was my problem with my first pickup. He went on to tell me the systems I experienced with the truck leading up to the failure of the engine are the exact type systems of using wrong oil.
If I had only read my pickup’s owners manual, it is clearly stated to use only a particular weight oil, and that any other oil may lead to engine failure. Wow! Was I humbled. Since I always prided myself in my knowledge of how to care for my pickup, I never gave it a thought to read the owners manual to see if I was missing something or doing something wrong.
It is amazing how our ego and pride gets in the way of our gaining true knowledge. If it were not for me thinking that I always know best, just maybe I wouldn’t have had this new expense of a new truck that had come in an inopportune time. I didn’t get the best or the most out of that first truck.
The same goes for your own life. If you are not reading your owners manual that God has established, you will not get God’s best from this life. Then when the engine of your life fails, people wonder where is God? And, why did He let this happen to me?
It’s ignorance! The one thing we know about Satan is that he knows Scripture. The major problem that Satan had was understanding what he knew. There are many theologians who can recite the Bible from cover to cover, yet do not have a clue on what the underlying message is to them from God. They only view the message of the Bible in a literal sense, and not in the spiritual sense.
Here in the beginning of chapter 4, we have Satan, who epitomizes the standard, and although he knows Scripture well, he is not ready to counter someone who understands better than him, what those Scriptures mean.
We start out with an interesting scenario and one that some detractors say is a contradiction in the Bible. In James 1:13, we read, “When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” God does not tempt! Yet, this first verse of chapter 4 reads, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
If this verse is read correctly, it is clear that God did not do the tempting, He is doing the leading. You might ask, “well then, why would God lead someone into temptation?” There is no short answer to that question, but when it comes to Jesus, God had a well devised plan from the beginning of creation. And that included an intricate plan for Jesus’ life on earth in human form, to break the bondage of Satan’s grip on mankind.
This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and the question, did God actually set Adam and Eve up to fail? Many will get angry at this question and say God would never do that. But, I say that He did!
Wooo!! Hold on! Before you click away in anger, let me explain. All Christian’s with knowledge and understanding of God, know that He is all knowing. Meaning, there is nothing that can happen that He doesn’t know, whether it is past, present, or even future. There is plenty of biblical documentation to validate this. But, that is not the purpose of this writing, so I am not going to go into quoting Scripture on that.
So, if we all agree that God is all knowing, and can inspire the writing of prophecy right down to its intricate details, then how could God not have known that Adam and Eve had the potential to sin, and even if He knew they had the potential to sin, how can it be that He wouldn’t be sure if they would or not?
If God wasn’t sure if they would sin or not, how can we trust that what God tells us in the bible about future events, is really going to happen as it says? Well, don’t lose heart, because it is going to happen just as it says, and the proof for that is that much of what it says has already happened!
God knew when he created all things and gave freedom of choice to mankind, that that freedom of choice could be the downfall to His creation. So along with his creation He created a plan to be sure that this freedom of choice, would not be an eternal problem.
You might ask, “well, why then would He create freedom of choice?” Scripture is clear that God created man to fellowship with. And when we read the accounts in Genesis, God communed daily with Adam and Eve. When sin entered the picture, it created a great divide between man and God. This was a necessary step in the plan of God to accomplish His ultimate goal, which is described as a new heaven and new earth in the Book of Revelation.
I know it doesn’t sound like a step forward, but just like in life, sometimes you need to take one step back, to progress two steps forward. You see, if God did not create man with freedom of choice, but just programmed him to abide by every command of God, then what God would have created would be similar to man’s creation of the computer.
As powerful as a computer can be, it is only as powerful as a man can program it and maintain it to be. On its own a computer is useless. Could you imagine if it were just you and a bunch of computers to fellowship with. In you asked the computer a question, it wouldn’t answer until you programmed the answer into it.
That’s what it would be like for God, if He were to just create some people or robots and program them the way He wanted, there would be no intimate fellowship with His creation.
That’s why we are all created with differing personalities. How interesting would life be with a computer as your only form of companionship.
When God created all things, He knew exactly what was going to take place, and that is why He can be patient with His creation, because He knows what the end result is going to be. There are going to be a select people who chose to put their faith in what the Bible says is truth and they will not turn from that truth. Why? Because even though it starts out with faith as described in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” in time that faith, becomes real and is seen by those who believe.
The end result of faith is not necessarily seen in the physical, although answered prayer in the physical is a product of faith, mostly it is seen in the spiritual, through the Holy Spirit who will reside in the hearts of those who put their faith in Jesus. This presence of the Holy Spirit will bring a joy and contentment that can only be experienced by faith in Him.
Now, after being led out into the wilderness by God, Jesus fasted for forty days and Scripture says He was hungry. In verse 3, Satan or as this verse calls him, “the tempter”, came to Jesus and tempted Him. What did he tempt Him with? What else? Food.
Please take note how Satan works; what was Jesus’ weakness here? Jesus was hungry. What’s your weakness? We all have them; some more than others. Whatever your weakness is, be assured that Satan will attack you there. Especially in moments when we may be more vulnerable than other times. In this case Jesus wasn’t just hungry, physically he could have been near death, if it weren’t for the fact that He had the power of God in Him.
It is common knowledge that a human being can’t go much more than 40 days without food. Jesus’ physical body must have been extremely weak and in need of food. If you have ever fasted for a period of time, you know how powerful hunger is. It doesn’t take long before temptation to break the fast becomes a real test.
Satan knew the state Jesus’ physical body was in, he knew that any food that was presented to Jesus in His condition, would have been a real temptation. If it were any other human in that condition, Satan probably wouldn’t have had a problem getting them to turn the stone to bread.
But, how did Jesus respond? With Scripture from the Word of God. Yes, this was Jesus, but this is an example for us as well. If you dust off your Bible and study it and learn Scripture, you will be ready with the armor of God, when Satan aims his fiery darts of temptation at you.
What did Jesus say to Satan? “It is written…!” What a powerful statement for us when Satan comes at you with temptation. When Satan hears you respond to his temptation with “It is written…,” it has to disappoint him. Those words must give him flashbacks of his defeat at the hands of Jesus. Because what follows that statement is the Word of God, which is the power of God! Jesus followed “It is written” with, “...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Jesus recited Deuteronomy 8:3; what an appropriate verse for this temptation. You can easily see where Jesus’ priority is here. First and foremost is His commitment to the Father. It didn’t matter how hungry He was, He wasn’t going to let hunger stand in the way of His obedience and relationship to the Father.
Next we read that Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and in verse 6, says something very interesting to Jesus. Satan now is going to fight fire with fire, he begins to quote Scripture as well, by saying, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone’ (emphasis mine).”
Satan knows Scripture as well; but not as well as Jesus. Jesus replied, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’” This is the second temptation thwarted. Isn’t it interesting that every time Jesus uses the Word of God to rebut Satan, Satan can do nothing but move on to the next temptation. The Word of God is to powerful for Satan to overcome.
Next, in verse 8, Satan takes Jesus to a high mountain overlooking all the kingdoms of the world. In verse 9, Satan tells Jesus, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Satan knows exactly who Jesus is and the authority that had been given him from above. Yet, he still tries to deceive Jesus by overlooking the fact that all these things he was pointing to were already Jesus’.
Jesus as The Word (John chapter 1), along with the Father, created all these things that now Satan is offering to Him. Satan was trying to deceive the human aspect of Jesus, just as he did to Adam and Eve and every other human whoever lived up to this point. But Jesus would not fall for it.
Why? Because He was allowing the Holy Spirit of the Father to have complete control of His being. Jesus as a human being was not created any different than we are. We have the same human capacity as Jesus. I know that sounds hard to swallow, but it’s true.
If it weren’t true, than Jesus could not have been our Savior and we would still be cursed under the law. Jesus had to be human in every aspect. The huge difference between Jesus and every other human whoever lived, was the fact that He was so in-tuned with the Holy Spirit, that He did not limit the Holy Spirit at all in His physical being.
We on the other-hand, are more in-tuned with the spirit of this world; the complete opposite of the Holy Spirit of God. What came natural for Jesus, is extremely difficult and foreign to us. As a believer in Christ we need to work very hard on transforming our way of thinking. How do we do that? By submitting yourself totally over to God; studying His Word night and day. Putting God first in your life.
We will never be able to live up to the standards of Jesus in this life, but by doing all this we can allow Jesus to live though us, and although at times we will still get in our own way, Jesus can shine brightly through us and we can be the light of Jesus to those who we interact with, by reflecting, not only the love of Jesus, but also the power and authority of Jesus.
We will also be able to defend ourselves against temptation just as Jesus did. And say as Jesus did in verse 10, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” At that point Satan left Jesus, now that’s power and authority over Satan! And that is just what we can do if you strengthen your knowledge and understanding of God’s truths, and stand up to Satan’s temptations with boldness.
James 4:7, says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” In order to submit to God, you need to give up all your own authority in your life to Jesus. When you do that, in return Jesus will give you His authority which is much more powerful than your own authority could ever possible imagine.
Your own authority could never match up to Satan. Satan will defeat you ever time. But, when you release your own authority and take on that of Jesus, then there is nothing that will be impossible to you, both in the physical and spiritual worlds. Satan will have no choice but to respond to you as he did to Jesus, and that was no response at all, his only option was to move on to plan B.
As we end this section of Chapter 4, verse 11 ends with the angel’s of God coming to minister to Jesus. Remember Jesus was a physical man at this point. He just completed a forty day fast and a bout of serious temptation at the hand of Satan. The angel’s, no doubt, came to minister to Jesus’ physical needs of food and water and probably some much needed rest for His physical body.
Verses 12-17: Jesus Begins His Galilean Ministry
As we continue in verses 12 through 17, Jesus first finds out about the arrest of John the Baptist and decides to leave Nazareth and head for Capernaum, which is located on the northern fringes of the Sea of Galilee. Although a minor one, Jesus fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-2, which reads:
1) Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. 2) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
Jesus had fulfilled the first portion of this prophecy with his arrival in this area of Zebulun and Naphtali. It was here that Jesus called His disciples and began His ministry, which fulfilled the second portion of this prophecy, “those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.”
Jesus called this land the “land of the shadow of death” because of the immorality that must have been prevalent in this region. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus refers to Bethsaida as worse than Sodom in its immoral behavior. In Matthew 11:24, referring to Bethsaida, He says, “But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” I mention Bethsaida because it is a town in Galilee very near Capernaum where Jesus started His ministry.
As Jesus starts His ministry here in Galilee, He begins to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This was a significant statement, because even non-Jews were aware that the Jews were waiting for their long anticipated Messiah who would usher in a unified Godly rule in the land and restore the nation of Israel.
This had to be eye opening, even for the ruling Roman government, because it would mean the end to their rule of the land. We know it was a concern for king Herod at the time of Jesus’ birth, but this is now some thirty years removed from that.
Verses 18-22: Four Fishermen Called as Disciples
These next five verses we see Jesus choosing His first disciples in Simon, called Peter, and Peter’s brother Andrew. Now, the Scripture doesn’t go into much detail on how Jesus may have approached them both to convince them to leave their livelihood and families to follow Him, but it does say that at some point in their conversation Jesus said in verse 19, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Whatever Jesus had said prior to this statement, if anything, must have made this a powerful statement, because it follows in verse 20, “They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” Of course, I do believe that somehow God had spoken to the hearts of all twelve of these men who dropped everything to follow Jesus and prepared them to accept this calling when it came.
As with so many other situations in the Bible, God does not give us all the details on the events as they transpired, but we do have biblical evidence elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments to reasonably assume that God had placed in these men, the idea that someone was going to approach them in reference to this calling.
Just maybe God inspired them to listen for this particular phrase, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,” because it says they left “immediately.” The word “immediately” gives an indication of urgency or suddenness. Now remember, many of these men had wives and possibly children that they were leaving behind. We assume this because of the statement Jesus makes in Matthew 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”
Jesus said this after Peter asked Him in verse 27, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” This was all said to reassure the disciples that they had done the right thing, by following Jesus. As I discussed earlier in this chapter, Satan will attack your most vulnerable and weakest areas to try and break you down.
One of the disciples most vulnerable areas at this point, had to be whether leaving their families behind to follow this man was the right decision or were they joining some sort of cult movement. I am sure that Satan pounded them with doubt and insecurity in this area.
Jesus had the same effect that He did on Peter and Andrew, on two more brothers, James and John, Sons of Zebedee, who were in a fishing boat with their father. Upon Jesus’ prompting, they also “immediately” left their father alone in the boat to go with Jesus. I believe this is more evidence of these men being aware that this call was on them and to be prepared at a moments notice to accept it.
Verses 23-25: Jesus Heals a Great Multitude
In these last three verses of Matthew chapter 4, we read of the powerful ministry that Jesus suddenly burst onto the scene with. Oh sure, Jesus was known and talked about because of all the controversy surrounding His birth and the questions against His mother and the accusations of adultery leading up to His birth. And the questions surrounding this promised Messiah of the Jews.
But, that was many years before. Biblically, the last time Jesus was referred to, was when He was twelve years old. Many of the people of this day probably forgot about this sensational birth or didn’t know to relate it to this current day Jesus.
We could safely assume this, because when Jesus returned to Nazareth, where He grew up, the people of the town did not recognize Him at first until one of the townsmen asked the question, in Matthew 13:55, “55) Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56) And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” They must have forgotten the story of why He was born; to be King of the Jews.
As we complete chapter 4, we see the magnitude of the power of Jesus as He goes throughout the region and heals the sick, those with torment, the demon possessed, the handicapped. With all this Jesus’ ministry quickly grew in number of those who followed Him to what is described in verse 25 as a “great multitude.”
This concludes our study of Matthew chapter 4.
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