Read and Believe in Jesus.

“Now when He heard that John had been arrested…” Matthew 4:12

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REVIEW – Immediately after Jesus was baptized, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be TESTED. Jesus fasted from food (and comfort) for 40 days, no doubt spending much of the time communing with His Father. At the end of the 40 days, when He was weak with hunger (but spiritually strong), the devil came to Him with three temptations.

These tested Jesus’ determination to deny Himself and to love and serve His Father only.

1. Would Jesus INDULGE His flesh and use His power to assuage His hunger?
2. Would a desire to IMPRESS His people make Him, by “flying off the temple roof,” gain glory without the cross?
3. And would He be so eager in His humanity to ACQUIRE all the kingdoms of the world (before the right time) that He would bow and worship the devil?

The answer? A resounding NO. After Jesus resisted these temptations so common to mankind,quoting the powerful Word of God that eventually made the devil flee, angels came and ministered to Him.

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Matthew 4:12.

Some time after Jesus’s baptism and time in the wilderness of Judea, He heard that John had been arrested, so He withdrew north into Galilee.

Matthew 14:3-5 briefly tells us who arrested John and why.

“Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’ And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held John to be a prophet.”

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This is Herod Antipas, son of that wicked Herod the Great and brother to the late Archelaus and to Philip, who reigned north of Galilee. Herod had lured away Philip’s wife (and daughter) and married his sister-in-law Herodias.

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Matthew 4:13-16.

Instead of settling in Nazareth, where there was very little faith and much ridicule of Him, Jesus went a little ways northeast to busy Capernaum, situated by the Sea, and established His ministry there. Matthew tells us this fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy in 9:1-2 and 42:6-7.

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles” – “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.”

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(NOTE: See if your Bible map – maybe back in Joshua – shows these regions: Naphtali covering most of western Galilee and the sea coast, and Zebulun around the areas of Nazareth and Nain.)

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Matthew 4:17.

And Jesus began to preach.

It’s almost as if John handed off the baton to Jesus. Even Jesus’ message was the same: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repentance is the main emphasis of Jesus’ public ministry from start to finish. After His death and resurrection and before He returned to heaven, Luke tells us what He said to His disciples in Luke 24:46-48:

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that REPENTANCE and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. YOU are witnesses of these things.”

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(NOTE: Let’s look for this as we read through Matthew, and see where and how Jesus urges people to repent. And let us also humble ourselves before him, repenting and confessing our own sins. He has promised – on the basis of His death and resurrection – to forgive them… and even FORGET them. Hallelujah!)