Matthew 4:12–25
Action
Jesus’ special public work began. He taught and he healed people. These things showed who he was. We shall think about what people’s reactions to him should have been.
John’s work ended. Then, Jesus’ work began (verse 12). He worked mostly from a small town. It was called Capernaum. It was a special place in Galilee. It was important to Matthew. This was because of the
This place was in the north of Israel. For centuries, the people who lived there had had very hard times. They had suffered much. There had been political trouble. There had been military trouble too. There were constant attacks from their enemies in the north. The words of Isaiah’s
The Bible often uses the word ‘light’ as a picture. It makes us think about laughter. We think about living a great life. But, there are two other special uses for the word. It reminds us about the knowledge of God. It also reminds us about the fact that God is present. Matthew believed that this
Jesus’ words are in verse 17. They are like John’s words. Jesus made it clear which people had hope. They were people who knew something. They knew that they had
The first disciples
At this time, Jesus asked 4 men to join him. They were Peter, Andrew, James and John. There was a custom in Israel at that time.
But Jesus was not like a teacher who is at school. He was not giving information to students. They followed him. This meant that they were joining him in the work. That work was to call men and women to
Now we come to the last three verses of the chapter. They are an introduction to 5:1–9:34. They describe the nature of Jesus’ special public work. Jesus did three things.
- He taught the truths of the Bible. He would go as a visitor to the synagogue. (This was the
Jews ’ special building in which theyworshipped God.) Priests would invite him to speak. - He declared the good news. It was about the
kingdom of heaven. (Read verse 17 too.) - He healed many people. These actions taught three things. Matthew 8:1–9:34 shows them.
- They confirmed Jesus’ message (Compare John 14:11).
- They showed that he was the
Messiah . Theprophets had spoken about him (Read Isaiah 35:5; 53:4–5; 61:1 and Matthew 11:2–6). - They proved that God’s
kingdom had begun to arrive.
The life and the work of Jesus disturbed many people. It also caused excitement. That was in Galilee. But it was true about other places too. This is not a surprise.
Questions
- Jesus invited the first 4
disciples to follow him. Study their reactions to Jesus. What do you think that you should learn from thesedisciples ? They left their jobs and their families. Does Jesus usually expect us to do the same? If not, how do we know when we should do this? - Christians should bring people to Jesus. They should then teach them how to follow Jesus. Read this passage again. What can we learn about how we could do these things?
- Verse 16 describes certain people. Where might we find them today? Other people think that religion is something bad. To them, it is like going into the dark. How can we help them to find Jesus as the ‘light’?