The King of Hope (Matthew 4:12-17)
The King of Hope
Matthew 4:12-17
So far Matthew has been very systematic
In his choice of how to reveal the king to us.
• We have seen the genealogy
• We have seen the prophetic birth and prophetic birthplace
• We have seen numerous fulfilled prophecies surrounding His early life
• We have seen His coronation (baptism)
• Most recently we have seen His testing and His victory over it.
Matthew has been systematic in regard to showing you the king,
And that does not change this morning.
Here we move on to another aspect of the King
That was obviously very important to Matthew.
Not only was Jesus the prophetic King,
Jesus is also the King that Israel has been waiting for.
They may not have realized that, that is why Matthew includes this incident.
Now, as we read those first two verses it can quickly strike us
As something that is pretty much insignificant.
The event Matthew tells us about is simply; Jesus return to Galilee.
(12) “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew to Galilee;”
Verse 13 says that in order to do this He left “Nazareth”.
And that He specifically “came and settled in Capernaum” which is “in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali”
And it’s not that we would doubt this,
It just seems sort of insignificant to include it.
Some might deduce that Matthew was just a stickler for detail
And wanted us to get every incident of Jesus’ life.
BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE EITHER.
Matthew has just skipped over a large amount of content.
To be exact Matthew just skipped over the first 3 1/2 chapters of John
And Luke 4:16-30.
To fill in the timeline.
After Jesus finished His wilderness temptation,
He returned to the wilderness where John was baptizing.
• John saw Him and said:
John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
• The Second Day
John 1:35-37 “Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”
• The Third Day
John 2:1-2 “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.”
And you know what occurred there.
• In John 3 Jesus had a conversation with Nicodemus about eternal life.
HOW DO WE KNOW THIS ALL HAPPENED
BEFORE OUR STORY IN MATTHEW?
John 3:24 “for John had not yet been thrown into prison.”
• Of course after this event Jesus then traveled through Samaria in John 4 and there encountered the woman at the well.
And it wasn’t until after this that John was imprisoned
And Jesus returned to Galilee.
Of course that is not all that Matthew omits.
Luke 4:16-30 records Jesus going to His hometown of Nazareth
And preaching in their synagogue.
At first the people were amazed at Him,
But after He condemned their hardness of heart,
They tried to throw Him off a cliff.
Luke 4:30-31 “But passing through their midst, He went His way. And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath;”
And so you can see that Matthew was not just a stickler
For including every detail in his gospel account.
Matthew saw this event as a very important incident
And one that clearly made the point he wanted to make.
To Matthew this is a very important piece of His puzzle.
As we look at it, there are 3 things I want you to see
#1 A FUNNY PATH
Matthew 4:12-13
The first thing you must notice is that
All this began according to God’s timing.
“Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee;”
John was the forerunner, he was the herald.
And it is easily understood that the king doesn’t arrive
Until the herald is finished.
Jesus was not to minister alongside of John.
Jesus was to minister after Him.
This is why when His mother sent the servants to Him at the wedding
When they were out of wine, He responded by saying:
John 2:4 “And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”
He was following God’s ordained timetable,
And that included waiting for John to finish His ministry first.
But now John is gone from the scene Jesus publicly begins His ministry.
AND HE DOES SO IN A VERY PECULIAR WAY.
Jesus enters Galilee.
I call this a funny path, because
To most Jews it would have seemed strange
That Jesus would even go to this region, let alone settle there.
If Jesus were king,
There is really only one place He should have wanted to go.
Jerusalem.
Even His unbelieving brothers knew that:
John 7:1-5 “After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”
Even Jesus’ brothers knew that if He wanted to be known as King
He didn’t need to waste time in Galilee, He needed to go to Jerusalem.
No King of Israel had any business settling in Galilee.
And this was the mindset of almost all the Jews.
John 7:41 “Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?”
WHY? Because of Galilee’s history.
“The region of Zebulun and Naphtali” was a region with a history.
It all began back in the days of Joshua.
You may remember that by the time of Joshua’s death
Not all of the tribes of Israel had yet succeeded
In removing the Canaanites from their portion of the Promised Land.
Joshua told them to do this before he died.
However after Joshua died the new leaders sort of dropped the ball
And the Israelites fell away from God.
Instead of destroying the remaining Canaanites
They formed alliances with them.
God was angry.
Judges 2:20-21 “So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,”
What that meant is that those regions were consigned
To forever have foreign and pagan influence.
Not only that, but when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom,
You will remember that he brought in foreigners to live in the land,
And they intermarried with the refugees forming the Samaritan race.
And now, by Jesus day “the region of Zebulun and Naphtali”
Was better known as a Gentile region than a Jewish one.
The Jews who lived there were viewed as
Unorthodox, worldly, and far less than devout.
They were hated and mocked.
If anything, when the King came
He would destroy that region, not settle there.
And so for Matthew to go out of his way
To point that Jesus entered this region to settle there, i
It must have been extremely peculiar to the Jews.
This was indeed “A Funny Path” for Jesus to take.
But it was only funny because they didn’t understand His purpose.
He didn’t come to destroy sinners, He came to save them.
In fact, Matthew actually lived in this region and that is no doubt why Matthew was so clear to understand what Jesus was doing.
Matthew 9:9-13 “As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus had come to save men, not destroy them,
And so it only makes sense that when Jesus began His ministry
He didn’t first go to the righteous, He first went to the wicked.
No physician who approaches a scene of some tragedy
First begins by giving routine check-ups to the people who are fine.
But none the less, Jesus decision to settle first in this region
Would have been peculiar to the Jews.
But Matthew includes this because he wants them to know
That this should have been a great indicator to them.
A Funny Path
#2 A FULFILLED PROPHECY
Matthew 4:14-16
Now we know why Matthew included
This seemingly insignificant event in his gospel.
Matthew saw it as a fulfillment of prophecy.
“This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:”
And then Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:1-2
And so, in order to understand Matthew’s point,
We must turn back there for a moment.
TURN TO ISAIAH 9
(Now I know this is a lot of information,
But please hang with me and we will bring a point out of this)
Isaiah 6-9 is a sort of parenthetical section in the book of Isaiah.
It falls in the middle of a sermon Isaiah gives
Regarding the wrath of God on Israel’s sin.
The sermon begins in Isaiah 5 and ends in Isaiah 12.
Isaiah 5 starts with the parable of the vineyard in which God reveals that Israel is a fruitless vine that He is about to destroy.
And then, based upon that wrath
Isaiah begins issuing a series of WOES to Israel.
5:8 “Woe to those who add house to house” (Greed)
5:11 “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink” (drunkenness)
5:18 “Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood” (mockers)
And you could continue reading all of those woes on their sinfulness.
Even into chapter 10
But it is apparent that as Isaiah delivers this message of wrath,
The people of the day don’t seem to take it serious.
In fact, they don’t really think it is relevant or that it even applies to them.
And that is why Isaiah includes chapters 6-9
He is writing to reveal that this sermon does apply to them.
In fact according to chapter 6
God called him specifically to preach it to them.
• In chapter 7 Isaiah reveals that this sermon perfectly fits their wicked king Ahaz.
• And in chapter 8 Israel reveals that this sermon perfectly fits the wicked people of Israel.
The backdrop of the incident is that
Assyria is about to conquer them
And God wants them to repent and turn to Him
So that this event doesn’t happen.
But instead of seeking God, they are ignoring Him.
READ: Isaiah 8:19-22
Assyria was about to attack, and instead of seeking God and His word, Israel was going to the mediums and spiritists.
And Isaiah tells them what the outcome to their decision will be. (8:21-22)
So Isaiah says that in your refusal to seek God,
You have brought upon yourself a destiny of doom and anguish
In which you will be driven away into darkness.
And that is precisely what DID happen to Israel.
Their first conqueror would be Assyria, followed by Babylon, followed by Media, followed by Persia, followed by Greece, followed by Rome.
It would be one oppressor after another.
It would be the gloom of anguish and a life of utter darkness.
And this is where Israel remained even until the coming of Jesus
But despite the coming darkness,
Isaiah promised an eventual day of relief.
This is where chapter 9 comes into play.
READ ISAIAH 9:1-2
Isaiah had promised that gloom and darkness would definitely come,
But it would only last for a while.
For God would send “a great light” to deliver those who live in darkness
And would subsequently put an end to their gloom.
WHO IS THIS LIGHT?
READ ISAIAH 9:6-7
NOW DO YOU GET IT?
This is why Matthew was so enamored by the fact
That Jesus entered the region of Zebulun and Naphtali
And settled in Capernaum.
As Matthew sat at his tax booth, he was a man living in darkness
Until one day he saw Jesus and for him, the light came on.
And now he is writing of that very incident to the Jews.
He is screaming – “Your time of darkness is over, your time of despair is over, the light has come! I have found the One Isaiah spoke of! The great Light is here! This is the One to put an end to our anguish. This is the One to put an end to our gloom.”
Matthew saw Him and now wants all of Israel to see Him as well.
And so Matthew quotes Isaiah 9:1-2
And points out that Jesus has just fulfilled it.
“THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES — “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”
And it is only wise that we explain this passage a little further.
Isaiah here spoke of two types of people.
1) IGNORANT
“The people who were sitting in darkness”
These were people who were in sin and didn’t even know it.
They were clueless as to how this life was supposed to be lived.
And because they didn’t know how to live,
They continually made the wrong decision
And as a result reaped the consequences of it.
We have all seen people like that.
I talked to a kid the other day who had been baptized in:
The Baptist Church, The Methodist Church, The Church of Christ,
And the Mormon occult.
He has heard so much “truth” he doesn’t have a clue what it is.
And to the ignorant, Jesus is “A GREAT LIGHT”
• He comes to show the truth.
• He comes to expose the flaws in how they are living.
• He comes to reveal the right way to walk and the right things to do.
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
Similar to the woman at the well,
When Jesus exposed not only her shady past,
But also her wrong theology.
He showed her the light of truth and she became a believer.
Jesus reveals the areas of falsehood in our lives
By shining light on our bad decisions
And showing us what needs to change.
But that isn’t the only type of person Isaiah spoke of.
2) HOPELESS
“And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death”
These were not ignorant people.
These people knew all too well how bad their life was.
They knew their life was bad and they didn’t know how to change it.
They were hopeless.
They didn’t see a way out of their despair and misery.
But when Jesus came “upon them a light dawned.”
(I have to think this must have been Matthew)
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Jesus gave hope to the hopeless.
He was the solution to their anguish and gloom
That Isaiah said was coming.
So when Matthew saw Jesus enter that region
It was far from insignificant, it was a huge message of hope.
And let me just say that Jesus is light for your darkness as well.
And that brings us to the third point.
A Funny Path, A Fulfilled Prophecy
#3 A FAITHFUL PREACHER
Matthew 4:17
I’ve always found it extremely interesting and important to note
That when Jesus began His ministry,
His first sermon was not about the mercy of God.
When Jesus began to preach,
He preached the same message as John the Baptist.
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
THERE IS THE LIGHT WE SPOKE OF
Jesus walked into this sin infested region.
• This region that had compromised with the world…
• That region that had copied the world’s religion…
• That region that had intermarried with the world and brought hardship upon themselves.
• That region that Isaiah said consulted mediums and spiritists instead of consulting the Law of God.
And as a result of their sin and disregard for God,
Their lives ended upon the gutter.
And so Jesus comes to shed some light on the subject.
He reveals that the problem that is killing them is sin,
And therefore the solution to the problem is repentance.
“You’ve got to leave the sin if there is to be any relief!”
It’s not a cruel message, instead it’s the message of deliverance.
STOP SINNING
TURN AROUND
GO THE OTHER DIRECTION
Until now, no one had been willing to tell them what their sin was,
And no one had been willing to tell them to leave it.
And as a result their lives were in shambles
And they couldn’t see any way out.
Thank God that Jesus loved enough to reveal the problem and solution.
Jesus is the King of Hope.
He came to put an end to anguish and gloom.
Are you living in sin?
STOP
Are you avoiding God?
STOP
Is your life in shambles?
STOP
This morning I just want to remind you that Jesus is the Savior.
Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of that sin is death.
But Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
And the command to us is simple:
Romans 10:9 says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
This morning I just want to offer that message of hope to you.
If your life is in despair, then run to the king of hope.
Leave your sin behind and find the light at the end of the tunnel.
Acts 3:17-20 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,”
