Matthew 4:12-25: The Ministry Begins

Introduction

Matthew has guided us through the lead up to Christ’s ministry. First it was His baptism by John. Then it was followed by His temptations by the devil. Having completed both, The Lord will now begin his ministry. This small passage is significant for two reason:

Geography - Matthew is going to draw significant attention to the locations that Jesus is in, and those locations have theological significance.

Message, Miracles, and Men - this section is going to be a prelude to the rest of Matthew’s Gospel. We will see Jesus preach & teach (which is a prelude to the Sermon the Mount and other teaching sections in this Gospel), we’ll see Him heal many (which is a prelude to some of the specific miracle stories in this Gospel), and we’ll first meet the men who play a key role in this story (the disciples).

4:12-17: Making Moves

Matthew chooses to focus on the big picture elements of Christ’s story and in particular how that big picture corresponded with Scripture. In the process however, Matthew skips nearly the first year of Jesus’ ministry!

This is where John’s Gospel really helps us. Church Tradition tells us that the Apostle John had received and read all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and he approved of them! However John’s disciples noticed one small problem...

The synoptics by and large skip the earlier parts of Jesus’ ministry - and John’s disciples wanted to make sure these stories weren’t forgotten. So they ask John, “Will you write your own Gospel that tells us about the beginning?”

It’s no surprise then that John’s Gospel starts with, “In the beginning...” and the first several chapters give us insight into that first year after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

When reading the Gospels, it’s good to view John’s Gospel on top of the others - he fills in some of the gaps that Matthew, Mark, and Luke left. It’s beautiful to see how all four Gospels compliment each other!

Back to Matthew! He tells us that when Jesus heard John the Baptist had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee (northern Palestine).

John was arrested 9-12 months after he baptized Jesus. So what was Jesus doing between verses 11 and 12?

For the most part, he stayed in Judea (southern Palestine).

John tells us several things about this time period:

Almost immediately after his baptism, Jesus actually meets Peter & Andrew, James & John. Andrew (and probably John, though he leaves himself anonymous) were already disciples of John the Baptist. This leads to a domino effect of them telling their own brothers, Peter and James.

John 1:35–42 “The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).”

This is important to note, because Matthew will tell us that Jesus “called” these four men later while they were fishing. There is no issue here - John supplements Matthew (and Mark, Luke) by letting us know that there was a prior relationship. It explains, as we’ll see, why these four men so eagerly and easily dropped everything to follow Jesus.

John also tells us that during this first year Jesus did visit Galilee at least a couple of times.

On one occasion he met Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43-51)

On this same trip he attended the wedding at Cana, which John tells us was Christ’s first miracle. (John 2:1-12). That story ends with Jesus, his family, and the disciples making their way to Capernaum.

Other events that happened in this first year:

Jesus met with Nicodemus.

Jesus cleansed the temple.

Finally, John the Baptist is arrested, and Jesus begins facing increase pressure from the religious leaders and so he leaves Judea and heads back to Galilee (John 4:1–3 “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee.” )

On his way, Jesus meets the woman at the well in Samaria.

First he makes his way back to Cana, and then onward to Capernaum, where John tells us that Jesus healed a centurion’s son.

That brings us back to Matthew 4! It’s worth noting that Matthew says Jesus “left Nazareth” to go live in Capernaum (both were in Galilee). John tells us in John 4:43–45 “After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.”

The Galileans loved Jesus, but those in his hometown of Nazareth weren’t as keen on him (Luke 4).

Now that we’ve established everything that led to Jesus ending up in Capernaum, the place that would be his base of operations for the next 1-2 years - what do we know about this city?

Funnily enough - not a lot! That in and of itself shows its relative insignificance in the grand scheme of things. This fits Matthew’s theme that the Messiah showed up in the most unlikely of places.

Capernaum probably sat on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. Despite its insignificance it was probably on the larger side for a town/city. Galilee as a whole was mixed with Jews and Gentiles, and so Capernaum was probably no different.

The significance for Matthew was that this “base of operations” for the Lord’s ministry happened to be in the ancient territory that belonged to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.

I don’t know about you, but of the twelve tribes of Israel, those are two that I am least familiar with! I think Matthew agreed. The Messiah in Zebulun and Naphtali? Shouldn’t He be somewhere important, like Jerusalem?

Matthew sees Jesus’ choice of locale is not random, but a fulfilment of prophecy. Specifically, he combines two verses:

Isaiah 9:1–2 “But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”

and Isaiah 42:7 “to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

Matthew isn’t the first person to apply this verse to Jesus. In Luke tells us that Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father), quoted the same verse in his prophecy in Luke 1:79 “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””

For Matthew, Jesus’ ministry and message starts in a place that has both Jews and Gentiles. A place, that according to Isaiah had been brought into “contempt” and people that were “sitting in darkness” and “dwelling in the shadow of death”. And yet, it was these people that were receptive to “the Light”. The same Light that had been chased out of Jerusalem and Judea - the “good places”.

And what was the Lord’s message? It was similar to John the Baptist’s: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” With John’s ministry primarily in the south (and now John in prison), Jesus is continuing the message in the north.

4:18-22: Getting the band back together

Now that Matthew has established Jesus in Capernaum, he now turns his attention to the disciples. Now, as we saw above, John tells us that Jesus already knew how these men were.

This may seem strange to us, that John tells us Jesus met these men earlier, while Matthew makes it seem like this is the first time, but we have to remember that the Gospels are drawing our attention to very specific details of these stories for their own reasons.

These stories didn’t take place in a bubble. Matthew doesn’t rule out a prior relationship, he just doesn’t see it as significance to his purpose.

I see it like this - I would say that my best friend Andy and I really became friends in 2015/16. But we actually met in college in 2013/14. We even lived on the same floor in the dorm! And yet, depending on whom I’m telling those details to, they have more or less significance.

Since John tells us that they all went to Galilee together, I think we learn from this that those early disciples weren’t “all in” yet. They may have followed Jesus here, but they ultimately went back to fishing.

Considering the amount of people and crowds who had started following Jesus in Judea and now in Galilee (remember, he’s performing many miracles!), I think up until this point these four men were just “part of the crowd”.

But now, Jesus comes walking down the beach and he basically points at each of them and says, “You, follow me.” This was unique because in Judaism at the time, students actually picked their rabbis. But here the rabbi is picking his students!

And the shock here is that they are fishermen! Of all the people who had met and followed Jesus to this point - he’s going to pick fishermen to be in his “inner circle”? You would think he’d be picking someone like Nicodemus!

He calls these fishermen and says, “I will make you fishers of men.” What did he mean by that?

Scripture often compares the world with a “sea” or “ocean”. These men may not have understood it at the time, but Jesus is saying, “Just like you pull fish up out of the water. One day you’ll be pulling people out of the ‘ocean’ of the world. You will be pulling them out of sin and death.”

Matthew tells us what “immediately” happened: the left and followed!

They left their nets and boats - giving up on their very profession to follow Jesus!

James and John left their father. This would have been very controversial in their culture. But it also made them an example that Jesus would point to when he says his disciples have to “hate their parents” in contrast to their love for Him.

When the man asked Jesus if he could go back and bury his father before following Jesus, Jesus could have pointed to the Sons of Thunder and said, “Be like them.”

This should be our response when Jesus calls us! Many people have passing knowledge of who Jesus is, but very few hear His call and immediately follow after Him!

4:23-25: Getting the party started

The Gospels tell us that Jesus performed many miracles in the area of Capernaum and Cana, but Matthew summarizes it all here by telling us that Jesus taught and healed people all throughout Galilee.

Jesus taught in their synagogues - the people obviously wanted to hear what Jesus had to say in their meeting places.

This did get him in trouble in Nazareth though - his sermon offended the people and they ran him out of town.

Jesus also “proclaimed (preached) the gospel of the kingdom” - what was the Gospel? The King (Messiah) was here and so was the Kingdom! With Him came forgiveness of sins.

He also healed “every disease and every affliction” among the people. I think it’s easy to overlook just how many miracles Jesus performed - but each disease he healed was another miracle. There’s a reason John tells us that “if everything Jesus did were to be written down, there wouldn’t be enough books in the world to contain it.”

This naturally led to Christ’s popularity increasing. Have you ever thought about how large the crowds would be if a man started performing all the miracles Jesus did??

Matthew says that Jesus’ fame spread throughout all Syria - this was the name for the entire Palestine area from Galilee in the north to Judah in the south.

Matthew lists off all the different groups of people Jesus healed: sickness, various diseases, pain, demons, seizures (lunatics), and paralytics.

There is seemingly nothing Jesus can’t heal. It’s also worth noting that Matthew (and the other Gospels) pay little attention how Jesus healed people - He simply did it.

When people start bragging about their new “miracle cures” they always draw attention to how they can cure you. Not so with Jesus. Not only did it not matter how he cured people, but unlike other “healers”, he was batting .1000, demonstrating His complete authority over everything.

Conclusion

I think Jesus knew a thing or two about fishing. He at least knew how to reel people in in order to get them what they really needed. The miracles drew crowds from everywhere - Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

But I think Jesus is doing this on purpose: by treating their physical needs, he’s drawing them in and preparing them in order to treat their spiritual needs which He is going to do with the Sermon the Mount - which is the very next part of Matthew’s Gospel.

This is a blueprint I think we would do well to imitate, and one that James hints at when he says in James 2:15–16 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

If people are going to trust us with their spiritual needs, they need to be able to trust us with their physical needs first. This is how we help plant seeds and prepare people to hear the good news of the Gospel.