Enduring Word Matthew 4 (2024)

FAQs

What is the main point of Matthew chapter 4? ›

Matthew 4 has four main sections: the temptation of Christ, the beginning of Christ's ministry, calling the disciples, and healing and teaching. The temptation of Christ is important to the Gospels because it that Jesus is the Son of God (Hagner 61). He went through the temptations and passed the test.

Matthew 4:1–11 describes Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. After 40 days and nights of fasting, Jesus faces three temptations from Satan. Each one attempts to lure Christ into abusing His power; to take immediately what God the Father has promised to provide later.

Satan is tempting Jesus to use His power and authority to act independently of God the Father, to do things His own way. The devil isn't suggesting Jesus commit suicide. Rather, by jumping from such a great height, He would be using His authority over angels to dramatically save Himself.

In the call of Simon Peter and Andrew, we see Jesus initiating His ministry with a profound and transformative invitation. He encountered these fishermen by the Sea of Galilee and commanded them to follow Him. This call exemplifies His authority and the immediate nature of their response.

Share. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

God Himself will never tempt us and He has also promised to never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. At the same time He may allow Satan to tempt us, but then use those temptations as a trial to teach us to rely on Him more.

Satan's temptations of Jesus are progressive. He starts by appealing to Jesus' physical appetite. He knows Jesus is hungry, literally starving, after a 40–day fast. The first temptation was to turn stones to bread if He was the Son of God.

Satan's third temptation to Jesus was enormous. As the "ruler of the world" (John 12:31), Satan had offered to give all the kingdoms of the earth to Jesus in exchange for Jesus falling down before Satan in worship. It's an audacious offer.

For the third temptation of Jesus, Satan has taken Christ to a high mountain top. This seems to have been chosen simply for the sake of drama; no mountain can literally see the entire world. On this peak, Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.

This was Jesus' initial invitation to four disciples. Simon, also called Peter, Andrew, his brother, and then after that James, and John. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And in this picture, we see Jesus' invitation to every single one of us.

What was the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4? ›

Matthew 4:1-11

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.

The verse is referring to the Assyrian invasion of Northern Israel and predicting that after this dark period a new light would shine. Matthew implies that this is the messiah, France notes that the traditional view was that Isaiah was referring to events immediately after the departure of the Assyrians.

The Lord has said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25). A great lesson to be learned in life is to live in harmony with others. Where there is disharmony, unhappiness and tragedy result.

And the aim of fasting is that we come to rely less on food and more on God himself. That's the meaning of the words in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Every time we fast, we are saying with Jesus, "Not bread alone. But you, Lord.

It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people (the Jews) but is rejected by them and how, after his resurrection, he sends the disciples to the gentiles instead. Matthew wishes to emphasize that the Jewish tradition should not be lost in a church that was increasingly becoming gentile.

In Matthew 4:4 Jesus said that man cannot live by bread alone but they need the Words of God, just like you couldn't eat this slice of bread on its own. There is a trick though, would you like to try it again? (Hand them a glass of water and tell them that they can drink it as often as they need.)