The testing of Jesus in the wilderness
4
📚Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 📚and was tempted forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterwards, when they were ended, he became hungry. 4:2 Luke states that Jesus was tempted by the devil throughout the 40 days. Matthew wrote of only the three temptations that came at the end of the 40 days.⚜
3 📚And the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”.
4 📚And Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God”.
5 📚And the devil, having taken him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 📚And the devil said to him, “All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for that has been handed over to me, and I give it to anyone I wish.
4:6 Was Satan speaking the truth here? Jesus did not dispute it, and other verses in the Bible indicate it is true (John 12:31; 14:30; 1 John 5:19; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 6:12). How did Satan receive the authority and glory of the world? See note at Matt 4:9.⚜
7 📚Therefore if you will worship me, all will be yours”.
8 📚And Jesus answered and said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve only him”.
9 📚And he brought him to Jerusalem, set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. 10 📚For it is written,
He will give his angels charge concerning
you to guard you,
11 📚and in their hands they will
bear you up,
so that you will not at any time strike
your foot against a stone”.
12 📚And Jesus answering said to him, “It is said, You shall not test the Lord your God”.
13 📚And when the devil had ended every temptation, he went away from him for a time.
4:13 Satan did not admit defeat, but hoped for another time and better results. So now he will run from believers when they resist him (Jam 4:7), but he will return again and again.⚜
Jesus begins His ministry
14 📚And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and his fame spread throughout the whole surrounding region.
4:14 Jesus had been somewhere in the wilderness of Judea. He now returns to Galilee fully equipped by God’s Spirit for the work that lay before Him.⚜
15 📚And he taught in their synagogues 📖, being honoured by all.
16 📚And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day 📖, and stood up to read. 17 📚And he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the scroll 📖, he found the place where it was written,
18 📚“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor;
he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 📚To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”.
4:18-19 See Isa 61:1-2 and notes there. The Jews regarded these verses as referring to the coming Messiah. Observe here the beautiful work which Jesus came to do.⚜
20 📚And he closed the book, and he gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all those who were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 📚And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.
4:21 Jesus here clearly states that He is the promised Messiah of Israel. Note on Messiah at Matt 1:1.⚜
22 📚And all testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which came from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
4:22 They were amazed but did not believe Him, as the following verses make clear. See also Matt 13:53-58.⚜
23 📚And he said to them, “You will surely tell me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard was done in Capernaum, do also here in your native place.’ ”
24 📚And he said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25 📚But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout the whole land. 26 📚But Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to Zarephath, a city of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 📚And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, but none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian”.
4:27 See 2 Kings 5:1-14. These two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, often suffered great trouble at the hands of the people of Israel, but God used them in great blessing to outsiders. In their days Israel forsook God and behaved worse than the idolatrous peoples around them. Jesus knew that the Jews would continue to be rebellious and unbelieving in His day and that His gospel would spread among non Jewish peoples.⚜
28 📚And all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with rage,
4:28 These Jews looked down on all other people and were angry because Jesus was pointing out their faults as seen in history, and seemed to be putting other people above them.⚜
29 📚and rose up, and pulled him out of the city, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, so that they might throw him down over the cliff.
30 📚But he, walking right through the middle of them, went on his way.
Jesus in Capernaum
31 📚Then he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on Sabbath days. 32 📚And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with power.
33 📚And in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 📚saying, “Let us alone! What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God”. 35 📚And Jesus rebuked it, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him”. And when the demon had thrown him down among them, he came out of him, without hurting him.
36 📚And they were all amazed, and talked among themselves, saying, “What a message this is! For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out”. 37 📚And his fame went out to every place in the surrounding region.
38 📚And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s house. And Simon’s 📖 mother-in-law was sick with a high fever, and they made a request to him on her behalf. 39 📚And he stood over her and rebuked the fever; and it left her, and immediately she got up and served them.
40 📚Now when the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with any of various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on each of them and healed them. 41 📚And also demons came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are Christ the Son of God”. And he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak, for they knew that he was Christ.
42 📚And when day came, he departed and went into a desert place. And the people looked for him, and came to him, and tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 📚And he said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God 📖 to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose”. 44 📚And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.