How Do We Follow Jesus (1 of 3)

Matthew 4:12-25

On more than one occasion I’ve gotten lost and being a male of the species, I never ask for direction. But on some of those occasions I have been forced to stop and allowed Paula to ask somebody how to get where I was going. When I was young and on foot sometimes when I asked for directions some people would say to me, why don’t you just follow me? Simple enough, that usually worked very well, they were going near to where I were going to so I just followed them and I arrived at my destination. I don’t think we would do that in this day and age,  When Jesus walked on this earth, he also said, follow me. Now, if he were here, physically present then that might be easy to do, provided we were willing. We could just follow him and when he turned right, we would turn right. When he turns left, we turn left. But he’s not here. So, what does it mean for us today when Jesus tells us to follow him?  What’s involved, what exactly do I have to do? Well, that’s the question I’d like for us to think about these next few days. 

A few weeks ago, we began this series through the Gospel of Matthew, and we’ve made it to Chapter 4. Now let me begin by just reminding you that everything up until this point in the Gospel of Matthew could be called preparation for his ministry. We were given the genealogy. We were given an account of his birth. We were told about the visit of the wise men. We were told that he fled into Egypt and came back from Egypt. We were also told about the Ministry of John the Baptist and his baptism of Jesus, which was unique. Then we were told of the temptation of Jesus by Satan.  Everything we have seen so far , all of it has been prepare Jesus for his ministry. So now beginning at verse 12, it says.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum which was by the lake in the area of Zebulon and Naphtali.

(Matthew 4: 12-13)

We are now told that Jesus launched out on his public ministry. What is not obvious is that between verses 11 and 12 there is a gap, a gap of about a year. If you take the synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke, and correlate them with the Gospel of John, you will see why most bible experts have come to the conclusion that some events that are recorded in John, chapter one, two, and three are events that happened before this departure into Galilee we see here. In other words, we know from across the other gospel accounts that in the intervening year, in the gap between verses 11 and 12, Jesus had made a trip, to Jerusalem, where he met Nicodemus. He had also met Peter and Andrew, and according to John, Chapter one, they had already recognized that he was the Messiah. All of that has taken place before we get to this verse. Now I’m going to treat the rest of this chapter as a unit, and the rest of this chapter does tell us a number of things.

First of all, it tells us that he departed up into Galilee and that that was a fulfilment of prophecy. The second thing it tells us in this passage is that he called these men who were fishermen, people who we now know he had already met. That’s important in that they had already recognized that he was the Messiah, and he calls them and says, follow me.  Then the passage ends with the fact that he goes around Galilee, preaching, teaching, and healing the sick. 

This chapter, this next passage naturally falls into three sections, and I want us to look at each of these. But what is striking is what he said and how it is directed toward the reader where it clearly says in verse 19, follow me. That was directed initially toward the disciples, but obviously applies to us also today. Maybe this coming passage is a helpful indication of what it means for us to follow Christ, because this passage is all about what Christ is doing.  If we can figure out from this passage what he's doing, then we will automatically know what it means to follow him. So, the question is, what is this passage telling us that Christ is doing? 

The first thing it’s telling us is that he went into Galilee and that scripture was fulfilled by Him doing that. To say it another way Jesus willingly conformed his life to what scripture said. Now let me show you a couple of details. 

It says in verse 12 the departed into Galilee and then in verse 13 it says he leaves Nazareth and goes down to the southern part of Israel around Jerusalem. When he got word that John the Baptist had been executed. This passage doesn’t go into that here but we will be given a lot of detail about that later as we progress through the Gospel of Matthew, and we will study it in due course. But the death of John the Baptist is probably the catalyst that sends him out of the South, up to the north into Galilee. 

Verse 13 says that where he went first was Nazareth, now we know he grew up there. But something happened there that Matthew doesn’t go into.  But Luke, Chapter 4 gives us all the details. What happened in Nazareth is that Jesus went to the local synagogue. Now, the synagogue was radically different than the temple. The temple was down in Jerusalem. At the temple, they made sacrifices.  The synagogue was more like what we would recognise as a sort of meeting place or church service. The synagogue served as a teaching centre, and they did a couple of things there. They prayed, they read scripture, and then somebody stood up and explained the meaning of that passage of scripture. A very, simple service, they even had time for question and answers at the end. Very local, very informal and very welcoming. Which lends itself to Jesus being able to go into the synagogue and being able to read scriptures. The first thing he did is he went to Nazareth, and they were reading Isaiah and he stood up and says, this passage is fulfilled in me this day. And what the people of Nazareth heard this they evicted him out of the temple and ran him out of town so to speak. They did not accept what he said.

Matthew doesn’t bother to go into any of that, but we know from the Gospel of Luke that’s what happened. Matthew simply says, “and leaving Nazareth he came to Capernaum”. Now Capernaum is at the very top of the Sea of Galilee and is more inland and further north. So, he left where he grew up, and went up still further north to Capernaum. But don’t miss the significance of Capernaum. Capernaum was Jesus’ headquarters. He was born in Bethlehem, He grew up in Nazareth, but when he really began his ministry, he operated out of Capernaum. And if you read the Synoptic Gospels carefully, you see that a lot of his ministry was in and around Capernaum. He was constantly coming in and out of Capernaum. Therefore, Jesus has left Nazareth, and he has made it too Capernaum at the top of the Sea of Galilee. There’s a great contrast between these two places. Nazareth was more Jewish than Gentile. Capernaum was more gentile than Jewish. As a matter of fact, this whole area was populated, by lots of different groups of Gentiles who lived here. Josephus, who was once the Governor of Galilee, said there were no less than 240 small villages in the area with less up 15,000 people a piece living in them. So, this is a highly populated area. This was much more populated than the South, but at any rate, Jesus goes to Capernaum and at this point Matthew tells us that this was in the region of Zebulon and Naphtali which he says, 

Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—To fulfil what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
     Galilee of the Gentiles 16 the people sitting in darkness
     have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

(Matthew 4 13-16)

Matthew says Jesus does this in order that the words of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, which he quotes from Isaiah 9 verses one and two. At the time Isaiah as written is was talking about the fact that Assyria is going to come and conquer the northern Kingdom and then after that, a great light is going to come, but it's not coming from Jerusalem, it’s going to come up from the Galilee area. Matthew takes that and applies it to Jesus and says that’s why he went to Galilee, because these events today were foreshadowed in Isaiah, Chapter 9. 

Another observation about this message is that it says the people sat in darkness. Actually, Isaiah says they walked in darkness and some commentators have suggested that the situation had deteriorated and now they’re not just walking in darkness, they are now sitting/living in it and furthermore it’s the shadow (the darkness) of death.  In this region, of spiritual darkness and death, Jesus comes and it says, now the people can see a great light, this light has dawned, the light of the world has landed in Galilee. These opening verses are simply telling us that Jesus came to Galilee and that that was the fulfilment of scripture. At this point he’s about to say, follow me, but, where will he go and what will he do? And the answer from Chapter 4, as well as other passages, is that he is seen, right from the beginning, to conform his life to scripture and do what was the will of the father for Him to do. Have you ever thought about the fact that is if you decide to follow Jesus then that means among other things that you are going to have to bend you will in line with what the Bible says, and do what Jesus did, just like he did.

So, how did he do that? Look back at the preceding passage, do you remember the temptation of Jesus? The devil comes and tempts him three times and all three times Jesus quotes the Book of Deuteronomy. What does that tell us,  let me put it like this if you’re tempted tomorrow could pull a verse out of Deuteronomy as a response? Most of us could not do that maybe a better chance of something form the New Testament, but many couldn’t even do that. Jesus, was saturated with the word of God, so that when he needed to know what to do, the scripture was on the tip of his tongue. Right at the forefront of his brain. He knew exactly what to do because his mind was saturated with the word of God. If you want to follow Christ, it begins with saturating your mind with the word of God and simply doing what it says. He conformed to scripture and so should we. But what else does he does we will find out next time.