OUR FATHER WHO GIVES HIS ANGELS CHARGE OVER HIS SONS

The book Matthew chapter 4 captures the events that followed after Jesus' baptism.

The Spirit of God compelled Jesus to go into the deserted places and He fasted for forty days and nights and reaching the end of this period, hunger encroached on Him. 

In this state of physical need, the kingdom of darkness perceived an opportunity to tempt the startling new person who had entered the domain and who had been declared to be the Son of God at John's baptism site. 

The temptation came in the form of a conditional propostion: "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread". Said another way, if Jesus' title was indeed the Son of God, in His state of hunger, He should be able to convert the stones lying around the wilderness to become bread so that he could have something to eat. 

Jesus was being tempted to try out His declared title for its power and as well, to satiate the intense hunger one would feel having not eaten anything for so long. Maybe more accurately, the temptation was using Jesus' desperate need for food as leverage to induce Him to flex His announced status. 

In response to this temptation, Jesus invoked the scriptural principle found in Deutronomy chapter 8 verse 3 which reads: "...man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

This principle instructs human beings that they were not designed to be merely consumers of what sustained their physical bodies but that they would also be sustained by the words that are spoken by God.

Human beings need food to eat but they also need to live by the instructions and guidance of God and what this temptation was doing was negate the spiritual dependence on God and magnify the physical dependence on food. To heed this temptation, Jesus would be acting under His own discretion in this life or death situation and this would have been contrary to the design of man.

To counter the temptation, the Lord Jesus held up the principle of living only by the word of God and deflected the temptation to jump the gun and marshall spiritual power to change the nature of material in the corporeal realm without the guidance of heaven.

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.’ ”

The next temptation aimed at Jesus was that he was taken to the top of the temple in Jerusalem and was told that if He were the Son of God, He should be able to throw himself off the temple because the scriptures clearly said that the One who is designated as the Son of God would have angels watching over of Him and they would reach out their hands to prevent Him from striking His foot upon a stone.

The passage from which the reference was drawn is found in Psalm 91 verses 9 - 12:

9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

    and you make the Most High your dwelling,

10 no harm will overtake you,

    no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you

    to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands,

    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

It is evident why Satan would be concerned about the arrival of a person with the title 'Son of God'. That person is the one who is foretold to have the power to trample the great lion and the serpent as indicated in verse 13. Both these metaphors are linked to Satan. 

In Psalm 22 verse 13, a roaring lion is mentioned that is participating is the tormenting of a servant. The other link to Satan is the serpent that Adam and Eve encountered in the garden of Eden who, after derailing the human race, is cursed by God to crawl on his belly and lick the dust of the earth and that a seed of the woman would crush his head.

So Satan is interested in tempting Jesus to demonstrate His power if he was indeed the Son of God so that Satan would know for sure what he would be dealing with and the bait was that if he were to throw himself of the temple and be publicly seen to have invisible forces breaking his fall, He could gain fame and influence amoung the children of Israel immediately and the mission He was sent on could hit the ground running.

To counter this temptation, Jesus invoked another important principle in the scripture that prohibited the testing the Lord God to force His hand. To request assistance from God and then wait for His decision and live gratefully for whatever that decision ended up being, is the prescribed pattern. 

Conversly, to deliberately create an emergency situation so that God is compelled to intervene is prohibited by the principle established in Deutronomy chapter 6 verse 16 which says: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah." The reference to Massah points to an event that occured when the children of Israel were travelling away from Egypt through barren terrain and when they reached a place called Rephidim, the people were thirsty because there was no water and they angrily demanded that Moses provide water. They grumbled against Moses asking if Moses had brought them out to the desert to die of thirst.

In this crisis, Moses went before God and cried out to Him asking what was to be done with the people. He told God that the people were close to stoning him.

This was the test. The people were about to stone Moses and this deliberate intention to harm God's servant forced God to take an action to prevent an outcome that He did not want.

Jesus saw the parallels between the two situations. In Moses' case, the people were going to undertake the stoning of Moses forcing God to intervene and in Jesus' case, the temptation was to jump off the temple and force God to act. Jesus chose to invoke the scriptural prohibition of taking an action that would force God's hand.

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.’ ”

After the first two temptations, the devil took Jesus up to a high location and from there, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and how weight they carried. He said to Jesus that he would give Him all the kingdoms to Him in exchange for one thing:  That Jesus fall down and worship Him. This offer is a temptation based on luring the target to reach for an easy gain in exchange for a small wrong action. 

The problem that emerges from falling into the temptation of bowing down to the Devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the world are twofold: 

1) The law recorded in Deutronomy chapter 6 verse 13, instructs men to only worship the Lord our God to server only Him would be contravened.

2) Obeying the devil and bowing to him would make him your master and so you may have gained all the kingdoms of the world but you would be rendered into a slave of Satan as written by Paul in Romans chapter 6 verse 16 : Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Jesus instructed Satan to leave because it was a clear violation of the law in Deutronomy  chapter 6 verses 16 and after Jesus' rebuffs, the devil left and angels from heaven came and ministered to Jesus. Without breaking the principles of God or tempting God, Jesus' need for food and medical care were met when the angels of God arrived. 

Often, we are tempted to do things to gain things that we were going to get anyway and an example of this was when Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden and they were tempted to eat the fruit that let them be the ones who determined what was good and what was evil and they believed that in doing so, they would become like God. The tragedy was that they were already made in the image of God anyway and they would be like Him as they grew in deep personal knowledge of Him. They did not need to contravene God's word to attain the privilege of being like 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, 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.

After Jesus emerged from the wilderness, news arrived from Jerusalem that John the aptist was now in prison and with the political environment becoming unfavourable, Jesus traveled back north and moved out of His home in Nazareth and got a dwelling in Capernaum which was (and is) a small fishing town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This move to the north country is pointed out by Matthew to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 - 2. In this passage, we see Isaiah indicate that the area of Isarael in the north country would suffer distress and humilliation but out of that area would come a great light that would displace the darkness they were in.

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.”

With Capernaum as His home base, Jesus began to go from area to area declaring to the people that the awaited kingdom of God was now upon them and in preparation,  they needed to turn away from their sins and forsake them.

Jesus also began gathering a core group of disciples. On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers fishing with their nets. The men were Simon ( later named Peter ) and his brother named Andrew. He gave them a proposition: If they followed Him, He would change them from fishermen into fishers of men and they both dropped their nets and followed Him

Further down, Jesus came across tow other brothers ( James and John ) who were mending fishing nets with their father Zebedee. He called them and they dropped their work and left their father to follow Jesus.

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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 criss-crossed the entire region going from synagogue to synagogue in the areas around Syria, Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and areas east of the River Jordan River. As He went, he taught the good news of the of the coming kingdom of God and Hie message was affirmed by the miraculous healings and deliverences that accompanied Him. 

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.

Amen.

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 OUR FATHER WHO INTRODUCED HIS SON AS HIS BELOVED SON IN WHOM HE WAS WELL PLEASED

The third chapter of the book of Matthew begins with an introduction of a man named John the Baptist who operated in the Judean wilderness preaching a message of imminient arrival of the kingdom of God and that repentance was to prepare for when the eternal kingdom touched down.

John's origin is described in the book of Luke chapter 1 verses 5 - 25. His father was a temple priest named Zechariah and one day, while conducting an incense burning ceremony in the temple, an angel named Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a son who would be a delight to them and who would be great in the sight of the Lord.

Zechariah was skeptical at this news because his wide was barren and they were both advanced in years.

In response to Zechariah's incredulity, the angel struck him mute and he was unable to communicate except by gesticulation and writing. After Zechariah's service in the temple was complete, he returned home and his wife became pregnant as the angel has said and when the child was born, Zechariah's speech was restored.

Matthew's text picks up the narrative of John's life when he was an adult and preaching in the wilderness around Judea to the people who came out to hear him.

He lived an austere life of rough clothing and a crude diet of locusts and honey.

 His message to the people was that the arrival of the Kingdom of God was imminent and that they needed to prepare by repenting which was be signified by the confession of sins and being baptized in water.

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make His paths straight.’ ”

4 Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

John was a very zealous and uncompromising preacher and when members of the religious sects came out to hear him, he castigated them for being a contigent of vipers. He wondered out loud who had warned them to flee from the coming judgment and condemnation. Now they were out there with him, he instructed them to repent in a way that resulted in disearnable changes in their lives. He warned them to stop trusting in their claim of validation based on their descendancy from the patriarch Abraham because that privilege could be conferred on anyone and anything.

John warned that the hour of judgement was coming and anything in the established religious order that did not yield acceptable fruit would be cut down and burned.

John painted a picture of a exeedingly great baptizer to come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire instead of mere water like John did. John foretold the arrival of a  judge who would screen out the members of the religious order who were operating on the threshing floor on which the temple was built. The entire establishment was going to be subjected to scrutiny, verdicts and sentences.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

One day, as John was conducting this rite on the banks of the River Jordan, the Lord Jesus arrived that the location and asked John to baptize Him. John had recognized Jesus as the one for whom his whole ministry was set up point towards and he was rightly reluctant to fulfil Jesus' request because he knew that Jesus was the Son of God sent from heaven to take away the sins of the world and he felt that it was Jesus who should have baptized him and not the other way around.

Jesus gently assured John that it was appropriate for him to baptize Jesus in order that all the tally marks of righteousness could be filled in. 

John then agreed to baptize Jesus and when he had done this, Jesus emerged from the water with heaven opening above Him and the Spirit of God set down on Him. 

Against this backdrop, the voice of the Father spoke from heaven certifying the standing of the Lord Jesus as His beloved Son and certifying that He was approved of for having met the standard of God.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Amen.

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