Jesus' First Message, Disciples, and Ministry -- a study of Matthew 4:12-25 (and the kingdom of God)
- mww
- 21 hours ago
- 17 min read
The kingdom of God has arrived in Jesus Christ.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Matthew 4:12-25
In this introduction to Jesus' ministry, Matthew introduces us to Jesus' message, Jesus' first disciples, and Jesus' actions. John the Baptist's arrest seemingly prompts Jesus to turn his message of repentance into a message of the imminent arrival of God's kingdom and salvation available to the whole world. And we learn some interesting stuff about Galilee.
Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. (4:24)
Advent Check-in
Our church just wrapped up our "Drive-Through Nativity", so that's quite on my mind (it's also why my notes are later than usual) -- but, next week is our "Christmas lesson", so I will hold off on sharing more about it until then.
This week's Advent theme is "joy", and you should have no trouble connecting "joy" with this week's passage. [Tip: John's Gospel gives us a little more detail about the initial interactions between Jesus and His disciples, and it's fun to see their reactions to Jesus.]
Incidentally, I do not have notes on this passage from our last time through the Gospel of Matthew. It would have been the Sunday after Christmas, so I probably took the week off.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Your Most Surprising Job Offer
Look, there is no more surprising "job offer" than Jesus walking up to you and asking you to "leave it all behind" and follow Him. So, establishing that this is not a competition with the disciples, what's the most surprising job offer you've had?
I remember as a junior in college that one of the classes I took had a series of guest lecturers, one of which was the operator of a local radio station. He offered me a job -- there after class -- for a graveyard shift of some kind. I turned him down (for some dumb reason), and I never had an offer like that again. Now, God was in charge of my steps, so everything worked out, but I have oft wondered what other opportunities or skills I might have today if I had said "yes".
How about you? I have heard some very fun and interesting stories from some of you about this, so I know the potential for a good discussion is there . . .
Your Most Memorable OTJ Training
Again, we're not trying to compete with Jesus' disciples. Their "on the job training" is something I would love a time machine to go and watch.
But I've had some slightly interesting OTJ experiences. I spent one summer as the equivalent of a telemarketer, and some of those first phone conversations I had were . . . character building. And of course you've all heard me say "that's something they don't teach you in seminary", which I've been saying for 25 years, so there's a story for each of those utterances.
But for this topic, I'm going back to college when I spent a summer as a stunt performer at Six Flags Astroworld (the Police Academy Stunt Spectacular). I truly, thoroughly enjoyed my time and all of the people I worked with, but you should know that the live performance ecosystem is populated with some very unique personalities and a range of ideas about what a live stunt performer should be able to do (one of my show mates was a backup dancer for Selena, if that tells you anything). I was the comic relief, so that insulated me a bit, but my training involved ATVs, boxing gloves, prop firearms, and a lot of first aid. But let's be honest -- for a college student, it was glorious.
How about you? What OTJ training experience has stuck with you?
What Makes Fishing a Great Analogue of Evangelism?
I know we have a lot of fishing enthusiasts in our local churches, so this topic is throwing them a bone (er, a hook?). This week's passage includes the wonderful call from Jesus, "Follow Me, and I will make you fish for people." (Yes, "fishers of men" rolls off the tongue better.) Why does that call work so well? What's the overlap between fishing and evangelism?
(A related question -- why did Jesus call so many fishermen as His first disciples?)
I know enough fisherman to know that once you get them started, they could talk for hours on the topic, so set a time limit! (I was blessed to give a short message at a local tournament for Christian fishermen, and they have all thought about this topic quite a lot.) It's very interesting to let a practitioner give their insights on biblical truths (like shepherds and potters and farmers . . . and fishermen).
This Week's Big Idea: The Kingdom of Heaven
Okay -- don't jump into this topic willy-nilly. In this week's passage, Jesus preaches His first sermons about "the kingdom of heaven". And in the centuries since, hundreds of books have been written about what exactly that kingdom is supposed to be. My two favorite resources to get summaries of these kinds of theological topics are the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels and the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. And in both of those comprehensive references, the article on "the kingdom" goes for page after page. There's just no simple summary of this topic. But we need to have a good working grasp of what Jesus meant.
Let's start here: in the Gospels, you'll see three phrases: "the kingdom", "the kingdom of God", and "the kingdom of heaven". Matthew tends to use "the kingdom of heaven" (out of reverence for the name of God), but the three phrases are used interchangeably.
Most importantly, you'll also see that no one ever explains what "the kingdom of heaven" means, which implies that the Jews already understood. That would suggest a connection with God's promise to David that there would always be a king on his throne -- that king being a representative of God. But by Jesus' day, after 400 years of foreign rule, Jews were beginning to realize that God's kingdom couldn't be primarily about that.
Enter Jesus.
Here's an amazing summary in an article by C. C. Caragounis: To Jesus,
(1) the kingdom of God was primarily dynamic rather than a geographical entity; (2) it was connected with the destiny of the Son of Man; (3) entrance into it was not based on the covenant or confined to Jewish participation and (4) whereas in apocalypticism it was a vague future hope, in Jesus it is definite and imminent; in fact it demands immediate response.
In short, "The kingdom of God was present in the person, teaching and works of Jesus. By faith in him people receive the kingdom of God and the guarantee of its appearance."
Two key passages:
Matt 12:28 -- "If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."
Luke 17:20-21 -- When he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; 21 no one will say, ‘See here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Summary: "The Synoptics present Jesus from the start as charged with one message, compelling and irresistible, the message that the kingdom of God was at hand. The impression is that the eschaton has drawn near, the long-promised kingdom of God is about to appear, and the hour of decision has some."
Jesus gives conditions for entering and being a part of this kingdom -- repentance, childlike faith, putting everything else behind, being motivated by pure love for God and neighbor, and the like. And that faith is focused on Him, which means that the kingdom of God is inextricably connected with Jesus (thus Jesus is equating Himself with God).
So. Has the kingdom come?
The kingdom falls into the mysterious category of "already but not yet". Because the kingdom was clearly seen in Jesus' own person and works, the kingdom has "entered history". But it won't be fully realized until Jesus returns. Here's a nice summary by G. E. Ladd:
"People may sow the seed by preaching the kingdom; they can persuade others concerning the kingdom, but they cannot build it. It is God's deed. People can receive the kingdom, but they are never said to establish it. People can reject the kingdom and refuse to receive it or enter it, but they cannot destroy it. They can wait for it, pray for its coming, and see it, but they cannot bring it. The kingdom is altogether God's deed although it works in and through humans. People may do things for the sake of the kingdom, suffer for it, but they are not said to act upon the kingdom itself. They can inherit it, but they cannot bestow it upon others."
See how this is mysterious and anything but simple to explain?
Importantly, the kingdom is not the church. There is certainly a relationship between the two -- the church is supposed to be a fellowship of the people who have accepted God's offer of salvation / entrance into His kingdom. Thus the kingdom can work through the church. But as long as the church indulges sin and admits those who are not truly Christian, we had better not claim to "be the kingdom of God".
Final summary -- you'll most often read that the kingdom of God is the dynamic reign of God over his people. And that's true! But it also cannot be separated from the person and work of Jesus, and it also cannot be said to have "arrived". Clear as mud?
Here are some other resources with their own spins on this doctrine:
Where We Are in Matthew's Gospel
Judea vs. Galilee
Matthew 4:12 says that Jesus "returned to Galilee" and seems to suggest that that was the beginning of His ministry. Here's a map I shared last week from generationword.com:
Jesus was baptized in the south (Judea), and then He returned to the north (Galilee).
Let's talk about Galilee -- the large region surrounding the Sea of Galilee (also called Gennesaret, Tiberias, and Kinneret, depending on which government you ask). Josephus said that Galilee had 204 substantial population centers and a total population pushing 3 million. Even if the population is an exaggeration, the number of cities and towns is correct, which means it would have taken three months at minimum of extremely hard travel to visit them all (let alone minister in them).
Importantly, the Greeks had imported a lot of colonists to Galilee during the Maccabean revolt, so half or more of the population of Galilee was not Jewish.
Further north, we get into Syria. From the perspective of the Roman empire, "Syria" referred to all of what we call Syria and Israel -- but not Galilee, which was its own "kingdom" under Herod Antipas.
A Religious Backwater
The main thing to take away from that geography and demographic lesson is that Galilee would have had a reputation similar to Samaria. The "legacy Jews" in Jerusalem and Judea despised Samaritans as half-breeds, and they also looked down on anyone from Galilee as uncouth and "Romanized" ("Hellenized", in truth). This explains some of the tension between Jesus and the religious figures in Jerusalem.
But to Matthew, Jesus' ministry in Galilee was part of fulfillment of prophecy: Jesus' ministry and message to all nations, not just Jews.
An Earlier Judean and Galilean Ministry?
I'll mention the other Gospels when it seems appropriate to do so. This is one of those times! The Gospel of John mentions a bunch of things that take place before our passage in Matthew --
Importantly, John writes (1:35-1:51) that while John the Baptist was baptizing in Bethany by the Jordan, he introduced Andrew (Peter's brother) to Jesus. Andrew then told Peter about Him. And on His way back to Galilee, Jesus found Philip, who then told Nathanael. Andrew, Peter, and Philip were all from Bethsaida in Galilee, and they had come to Judea presumably to listen to John the Baptist. In other words, Jesus already knew at least some of the disciples before our event in Matthew 4.
John also says that Jesus performed a miracle in Cana (2:1-12), which proved to be instrumental in building the disciples' faith in Him.
John then says that Jesus returned to Jerusalem (2:13-36) where He confronted the corrupt Jewish leaders during Passover and had an important conversation with Nicodemus. And then, while John was still baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus and His disciples also began baptizing, causing some arguments among John's followers.
Seemingly to avoid further conflict, John writes that Jesus then returned to Galilee, and on the way there (through Samaria), Jesus had another very important discussion, this time with a Samaritan woman (4:1-42). The result of Jesus' time in Samaria was that many Samaritans came to believe in Him.
And then, after all of that, Jesus finally returned to Galilee where Matthew's Gospel seems to pick up the narrative.
So, why didn't Matthew say anything about any of that?
Of course we don't know for sure, but it seems that Matthew thought of Jesus' ministry beginning in earnest -- publicly -- after John the Baptist was "removed" from the scene. In other words, John's role as the forerunner was complete, and now the attention turned fully to Jesus.
Some scholars wonder if Matthew really wanted to emphasize Galilee because of its direct connect to prophecy (see below).
The point is that Matthew's and John's Gospels are not at odds. The authors just chose to focus on different things for their own reasons. We can "harmonize" the Gospels, but a wonderful teacher I know stresses that we always need to study each Gospel as is because the author had reasons for including and organizing the events as he did.
Part 1: Jesus' Ministry Begins
12 When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 16 The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
As I said above, John's Gospel talks about a lot of things that happened before Matthew's opening "when". Clearly, Matthew wants us to connect Jesus' ministry with His victorious encounter with Satan, but Matthew does not say that Jesus immediately went from His temptations to His preaching. And it really does seem that to Matthew, John's arrest was a key moment for Jesus -- John's ministry as herald was complete, and now it was time for Jesus to "take the stage" (other than the cleansing of the temple, most of what John's Gospel describes is either private or low-key).
According to Luke 4:16-31, Jesus left Nazareth because the townspeople rejected Him violently. Capernaum, where Peter had a house, was a fishing village with enough activity to have a tax collector. It was bigger than Nazareth.
But Matthew wanted to focus on an older reality, that this region of Galilee was also a part of the tribal lands of Naphtali and Zebulun.
Christians love Isaiah 9 at Christmas, but Matthew focused on the "boring" part:
1 Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.
No one has found exactly which version of the Old Testament Matthew cited, but no one has argued that Matthew twisted this verse out of context. The "enlightened" Jews in Judea thought of Galilee as a backwater dominated by foreign thinking (and religion?), but God's plan had always been for the light to shine here first.
Now with a ministry base in Capernaum, Jesus began His public ministry with a familiar message -- see chapter 3:
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
Now wait -- is Jesus just preaching the same thing John already preached? What's the big deal? To answer this, you want to look up what Jesus said about John; in particular:
Matt 11:16 To what should I compare this generation? It’s like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children:
17 We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t mourn!
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
In other words, yes the same message, but not the same message. John's message was rooted in the Old Testament, a repentance of sackcloth and ashes looking forward to the coming kingdom. But Jesus' message was rooted in something new, something nobody yet understood -- the kingdom of heaven was here, in Jesus. [Read what I said above about the kingdom of God!!] To those who heard Jesus, the kingdom has come so near that they could "reach out and touch it".
But the first step toward receiving / entering the kingdom was (and is) personal repentance.
It seems that Matthew's point is that Jesus started with a familiar message; He didn't want to dissociate Himself from His cousin, John. But in very short order, He would explain the true depth of what this meant.
Part 2: The First Disciples (Matthew 4:18-22)
18 As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Please read what I said above about an "earlier Judean ministry". Some people read Matthew's Gospel and assume that Jesus just walked up to some random people and told them to immediately drop everything. He certainly could have done that, but it would be out of character with how He otherwise treats people in the Gospels -- He respects their autonomy and acknowledges their weaknesses (sometimes with exasperation). John's Gospel makes it clear that these men already knew about Jesus and had been introduced to Jesus. Peter had already heard Jesus called the Messiah (John 1:41)! In fact, Jesus had already invited them to join His ministry. They thought about it and came back to Galilee (where they lived) to think about it some more. According to John, the miracle at Cana was a turning point for any hesitation they might have had. And so now, in Matthew 4, when Jesus formally "offers them a position", they are all ready to say yes.
To me, this distinction is very important. Most Christians I know, including many missionaries and pastors, "grew into" their calling. And some of them were told that it was a sign of weakness that they struggled with their calling as they did -- "after all, the disciples just dropped everything and went!" But that's not true. Jesus helped His disciples grow into their calling. The disciples were normal people with normal doubts. Jesus knew their -- and our -- doubts and weaknesses.
And we should all know that it took years for the disciples to grow into the leaders they would eventually need to be. Lots of abject failures along the way.
Anyway, Jesus made Capernaum his home base, which is where Simon and Andrew lived (Mark 1:21), though they were originally from Bethsaida (which basically means "fish town"). Both locations are on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a sea (or lake) that's almost 700 feet below sea level, explaining why the weather can be so unpredictable.
Matthew started with Peter because Peter would have been the first name Matthew's Jewish audience would have likely known about, and Peter was the leader of the disciples.
The Greek phrase "follow me" is physical. In those days, disciples physically followed their teachers around. It's how they learned. The "master" would teach while they walked and demonstrate as appropriate. In other words, Jesus wasn't asking the disciples to join a Sunday School class or get an online degree -- they were to drop everything and follow Him full time. But again, let me point out that He had given them time and opportunity to "warm up" to this offer. And note that He only called 12 men into this capacity! Most of His followers maintained their livelihoods and their homes (and necessarily so -- someone has to pay the bills, so to speak; the disciples would have worked odd jobs as possible, but most of their support came from others).
To me, Jesus' offer to "make you fish for people" suggests that it's something they've talked about before. The imagery is so stark, and there's no parallel for it in the Old Testament (this includes Jer 16:16). And at the end of Matthew's Gospel, in the Great Commission, we finally see the full scope of what Jesus had in mind with this phrase.
Luke gives us a few more details that might explain why Jesus chose this wording --
5:1 As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” 6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” 11 Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.
That account helps us realize that the first disciples had already been introduced to Jesus and His teachings. This miracle might have been a "nudge" to help them make their decision (or, if they had already (just) done so, it was an affirmation). If Peter had any doubts about whether or not they could be successful in reaching large numbers of people, his would have put them to bed.
In any event, this episode easily explains how James and John were "pulled in" to the group. Matthew does not suggest that their father was upset about this decision, again suggesting that they've talked about this. When Jesus said He came to "turn a child against their parent", that's only if the parent has rejected Jesus.
[Note: there are several miraculous catches of fish in the Gospels, and it's possible that any of these refers to this incident or a different one.]
Do remember Matthew 19:27 -- Then Peter responded to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you. So what will there be for us?” -- that Peter still had in mind the "magnitude" of his "sacrifice" for Jesus. Peter's lesson, and the same lesson for any Christian today, was that no sacrifice can even be put on the same page as that which Jesus sacrificed for us.
So, in short order, Matthew has introduced Jesus' message and His first disciples. I said the Gospel writers had to keep things moving!
This might be a good time to talk about your own calling. Yes, Jesus calls us to salvation, but also to so much more. While salvation is a free and invaluable gift, Jesus does expect us to use that gift to further advance His kingdom. What are the ways you are serving Jesus? How are you following Jesus?
Part 3: Immediate Attention (Matthew 4:23-25)
23 Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. 25 Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
This would be a good time to review what I said about Galilee above. This was not McDuffie County to Judea's Columbia County -- there were potentially millions of people in Galilee, including many Romans. It would have taken months of extremely hard work and travel to make just one circuit. From Matthew's perspective, "Syria" would have been the lands further north, meaning that Jesus had received "international" attention.
Matthew is obviously giving a summary of Jesus' ministry, one that foreshadows a lot of things that will happen later in the Gospel. [Note: I read Matthew 9:35-38 to suggest that this ministry had continued throughout these chapters.]
Teaching (usually in a synagogue as a guest)
Preaching (sharing the good news of the kingdom of heaven)
Healing (miraculously)
The healings were miracles of the kingdom -- a foretaste of the kinds of blessings that awaited Jesus' followers in God's eternal kingdom. The phrase "every disease" almost certainly means "every kind of disease", meaning that nothing could thwart Jesus' ministry.
I don't think you need to spend time explaining exactly what kinds of ailments there are -- Matthew's point is that Jesus was sovereign over everything: physical, mental, or spiritual.
The last verse sets up a big future conflict:
you can follow Jesus around, but that doesn't make you Jesus' follower.
What's the difference? Which are you?
This is a rather action-packed introduction to Jesus' ministry, wouldn't you say?