Matthew 4:12-25 – Some Kingdom Basics

One of my favorite elements of the earth’s landscapes is the mountain. If I could, I’d have a house far enough away from mountains so I could see them clearly, but close enough so I could climb them daily. While I enjoy looking at mountain peaks, I don’t often study the valley between them. That is unless through the valley I can see the sun rising or setting, then the valley becomes glorious.

The verses this week sit between two mountainous events in Jesus’s life: his preparations for preaching the kingdom — baptism, temptations, and the ministry of angels — and the Sermon on the Mount, his first kingdom message. Those two peaks are so glorious that we rarely look at the valley in between, but this valley holds some beautiful basic truths that any kingdom citizen must see. If we take the time to study Matthew 4:12-25, we may just see the glorious light of the kingdom shining through. Matthew wrote,

12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested,

Matthew 4:12

Matthew uses references to John the Baptist as a framework supporting the words and works of Jesus. Matthew’s first reference to John — John’s preaching and baptism — marked the transition from Jesus’s childhood to Jesus’s preparation for ministry. His second reference to John — John’s arrest — marks the transition from Jesus’s preparation for the kingdom to the beginning of his public ministry, particularly his teaching about the kingdom of heaven in the Sermon on the Mount. But, before we move on to Jesus, let’s gaze for a moment at John.

John’s arrest, for all practical purposes, marked the end of his ministry. This event in John’s life reminds me of the last few verses in the book of Daniel. Daniel had asked for a prophecy to be explained and a man clothed in linen — presumably Jesus, but if not, then definitely an angel from God — told him “Go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:13). With these words, Daniel’s ministry was over. He no longer received further explanations; the Lord was sending him off the stage for the last time. In like manner, John found that his work was over when he was arrested; God no longer needed “The voice of one crying in the wilderness.”

This reveals something about the kingdom of heaven that we don’t often discuss. While God’s plan continues, our part in it will come to a conclusion. This sometimes happens while we are yet alive, but it always happens upon our death. The end of our work doesn’t signal the end of God’s plan, however. He continues working even after those playing minor roles — each of us — are no longer needed.

he withdrew into Galilee.

Matthew 4:12

If Matthew had written, “Jesus went to Galilee” the focus of this statement would have been placed on Galilee. Instead, Matthew wrote that Jesus “withdrew into Galilee,” thus placing the emphasis on the reason why he went to Galilee. Jesus’s move to Galilee signals a shift of the stage for his ministry away from a place of confrontation and danger and to a place of obscurity and relative safety. Jesus’s time had not yet come. And even though he was grieving over John’s arrest (an inference made based on Jesus’s response to John’s death in Matthew 14), Jesus knew his ministry was just beginning. Unlike nearly every other king in human history, this king grieved for his subjects even while continuing his greater work. Also, unlike every other king in human history, the stage for the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry was not the sort of place one might expect a newly revealed king to have gone. Matthew writes,

13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15  “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16  the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”

Matthew 4:13-16

Jesus went to Capernaum, not to visit but to live. Instead of taking up residence in the city of David, the city of kings, he chose Capernaum, a small fishing village and, interestingly enough, the town where a certain tax collector by the name of Matthew resided. Jesus came from humble beginnings — born in a manger in the small town of Bethlehem — and lived in an even smaller fishing town on the northern shore of the Galilee. When Matthew wrote that Jesus “withdrew” he really meant it. Jesus chose one of the most obscure towns in which to live.

But there is something else here of which we should take note. The locations mentioned by Matthew and Isaiah — Zebulun, Naphtali, Galilee of the Gentiles — were not part of the land of Judah, the Southern Kingdom; remember your Old Testament kings? The line of David ran through the Southern Kingdom, but Jesus chose the distant Northern Kingdom for the start of his ministry. Doesn’t this seem to be consistent with what we already know about the kingdom of heaven? Heaven’s kingdom comes through the lowly and despised for the lowly and despised. Jesus did not go to the marbled halls of Herod. Rather, the light of the gospel of the kingdom first dawned in a region Isaiah called “the region and shadow of death.”

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

Matthew 4:17

Did you notice Jesus began by preaching the same message John preached?

How often have we heard politicians promise one thing but deliver something else? How often have we ordered food one way, only to receive it cooked differently? How often have we counted on the Browns to win, when they…well, never mind. But you get the idea. Reality is almost always different from our expectations. But with Jesus — with the kingdom of heaven — the promise and the practice of the kingdom are consistent; there are no surprises.

The kingdom begins with repentance — John began his preaching with repentance; Jesus began his preaching with repentance — it’s that simple. But does the preaching of the kingdom today begin in the same way? How many times have we heard a “new” gospel being preached; a gospel in which there is seemingly no repentance? I would humbly suggest that it is far too often. For this false gospel we must be on our guard. Certainly, the gospel makes all things new, but the gospel is the same one preached 2,000 years ago by John and Jesus. Repentance still lies between us and the kingdom. Repentance is the most contemporary and relevant introduction to the gospel that can be preached.

But the preaching of the gospel did not end with John and Jesus. Matthew writes,

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And 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, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Matthew 4:18-22

You probably noticed that Jesus called his first four disciples, right? Right. Is there anything more to say? Well, we could move on, but then we would miss another important aspect of the kingdom. Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John, not the other way around. Jesus called them.

Okay, I get it.

No, I don’t think you do. During Jesus’s time it was the disciple who approached the Rabbi; rarely, if ever, did a Rabbi seek out new disciples. This was also true in the Hellenistic world; the student approached the teacher or philosopher, not the other way around. Even Plato, though he lived about 400 years before Christ, did not run around looking for students; they found him.

But Jesus was different. Jesus called his disciples, and he called them by name.

I suppose our friends enamored with election and predestination are chomping at the bit with this point, but I don’t believe that is the point this passage is making. Jesus’s gospel is one of inclusion, not exclusion. The kingdom of heaven reaches out; it is not passive. It does not sit around hoping that others will find it. Jesus actively sought out his disciples. He did not merely live a good life and passively hope that people would take notice and ask him questions. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and in the absence of John and Jesus, the disciples in the kingdom are to become like their king and do the same.

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus went to the synagogues in Galilee — to the lost sheep of Israel. Later, Jesus would tell his disciples to only go to the lost sheep of Israel, not the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5-6). Jesus was very specific with regard to the work of his kingdom. But, wait. Before you draw an erroneous conclusion, remember that Jesus later expanded the scope of the kingdom to “all nations” (Matthew 28:18). What we learn here is not ministry as exclusion, but that Jesus’s ministry went to the places where his audience was living.

Synagogues were the gathering places for Jews in every little town and village. It was their place of worship and it helped them sustain their identity. Jesus didn’t erect an elaborate building and hope for the lost to find him. No. Jesus went to the towns and places where the lost gathered and there preached the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven does not sit still and hope for the lost to find it; it reaches out, it goes, it engages, and it finds the lost where they live.

But when Jesus went to the lost, he did not just proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, he also healed the people of their diseases and afflictions. We often separate what some call the “spiritual gospel” from the “social gospel,” but for Jesus, they were one and the same gospel. Jesus’s disciples — citizens of the kingdom of heaven — must preach the gospel of the kingdom by ministering to both the spiritual and physical needs of the lost. There is no either-or, there is only both-and.

24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, 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. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Matthew 4:24-25

As a result of Jesus going and preaching the kingdom of heaven, his message spread throughout the world and people came. But if you don’t pay attention to the first part of the sentence you might think that Jesus did actually wait for people to come to him. They did come to him, but only because Jesus first went to them and preached and healed the sick, the diseased, and the pained; he cast out demons, stopped seizures, and freed the paralyzed. They came because they heard, and they heard because he went.

I’ve been alive long enough to see the church go through a number of different versions of what they might call “the gospel.” I’ve often wondered if some PR guys have gotten ahold of pastors and have been telling them that they need to become more relevant; they need to change their product, they need to offer something new. But there really is no new gospel and there really isn’t any new way to share it. The gospel has always begun with repentance and has always spread by someone going. And, when someone goes and preaches the gospel, other people have always come.

But we must remember that the whole gospel of repentance and meeting physical needs must be preached.

The God who introduced the kingdom of heaven with the word, “Repent” is the same God who told his disciple to write, “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (I John 3:17) The kingdom includes both preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins and the healing of infirmities. What God has joined together, let no man tear asunder.

I hope you can see that the light of the kingdom shines clearly through this valley sitting between two mountains. I hope you see that when we pray “your kingdom come” we pray for a kingdom that has a part for each of us to play, that goes to places of lesser reputation, that actively seeks disciples, and that meets both the spiritual and physical needs of the lost. And, I hope you see that when we pray “your kingdom come” we are praying that God shows us, as he did Peter, Andrew, James, and John, how to become active participants in his coming kingdom.

And so we pray, “Your kingdom come.”

• Click HERE to go to the page containing all the posts for this study on The Lord’s Prayer and Matthew’s Gospel