01.02 - Section 02. Mat_3:1-17; Mat_4:1-25.
Section 02. Matthew 3:1-17; Matthew 4:1-25. The Forerunner Introducing the King; and the Kingdom Presented The second section of our Gospel begins with the Message of the Baptist. A convenient synopsis, round which other thoughts can be gathered, will be: —
1 The warning of John.
2 The work of Christ.
3 The witness of the Father. A full generation has passed away since the close of Matthew 2:1-23. King Archelaus, after a wicked reign of ten or eleven years, had been banished by the Romans. Judea had ceased to retain even the semblance of a monarchy, and is now under Roman procurators, of whom Pilate is the fifth, in a descending scale of wickedness.
Doubtless the Visit of the Wise Men, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Glory Song, and the Virgin Birth had been long forgotten. The glint of the glory had died from the plains of Bethlehem: the angels had long since gone away again into heaven, and so far there seemed little promise of that "peace on earth" of which they had so sweetly spoken. But Heaven again breaks the silence. "In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ’Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’"
Apart from the imperial glory of the world, as seen at Rome, apart from the religious system of men, as seen at Jerusalem — John was found in the wilderness; that arid tract of desert land on the west of the Dead Sea, extending northwards to the Jordan. His food and his raiment marked him out as one apart from common men.
Luke has given us his previous history.
John has given us his testimony to the Messiah. Matthew here gives us his message. The warning words of John reach even the lifeless professors at Jerusalem. Pharisees, and even Sadducees, come to his baptism. The message he brought was the nearness of the long-expected. Kingdom, and the importance of a moral preparation for entrance thereinto.
Every instructed Jew knew what the prophet Daniel had said as to the Kingdom to be set up by the God of Heaven, but they had little knowledge of the condition of heart which entrance into that Kingdom demanded. Even Nicodemus (John 3:1-36) failed to see more in it than a mere paradise regained for man, as man, upon the earth. The new birth, the essential qualification for even the Jew to enter into and enjoy the promises of God for His earthly people (Ezekiel 36:26) had evidently been totally lost sight of, since even one of their best-instructed rulers was ignorant of it. And so the Lord has to say to him, "Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things?" (John 3:10). Hence the importance of John’s warning word, "Repent" — a total change of heart and mind was imperative if men would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
We shall find this term — Kingdom of Heaven — about thirty-three times in this Gospel, and nowhere else in the New Testament. Five times we get "Kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 19:24; Matthew 21:31; Matthew 21:43), where "Kingdom of Heaven" would not convey the intended meaning. Other Scriptures speak of "the Kingdom of the Father" (Matthew 13:43); "the Kingdom of the Son of Man" (Daniel 7:1-28); "the Kingdom of the Son of His love" (Colossians 1:13); "the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11).
All, of course, refer to the rule of God; but why these varied designations? As we have already noticed, Matthew alone uses the term, "Kingdom of Heaven." Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he was writing as a Jew to Jews. Any hope of an earthly kingdom was fast passing, if it had not already passed, away. The little gleam of royalty, manifested for a moment, under the king of nonnative stock — Herod — had faded, and a deeper bondage still, all thinking men saw before them.
Under these conditions, the coming Kingdom is announced as the Kingdom of Heaven, for the kingdom on earth is in hopeless ruin. And it is striking to notice that in no other book of the Bible do we read so often about Heaven as in Matthew. We are forcibly reminded that, in spite of the failure of His people and the enmity of His foes, yet the God of Heaven has taken up the question of the earth, and that He will, even here, work out, in His own time and way, His gracious purposes of blessing for His redeemed people, and glory for His beloved Son. The Rule of God, then, under this title, was familiar to the Jew. It was spoken of in the Law. Had that law been obeyed from the heart, the promise was that their days would be multiplied and be "as the days of Heaven upon the Earth" (Deuteronomy 11:21). The Psalms bore witness to it. The Seed of David would endure for ever, and "his throne as the days of Heaven" (Psalms 89:29). The prophets, in more definite language still, describe Him, who became the Son of Man, receiving that Kingdom and glory which should never pass away (Daniel 2:7). This Kingdom John announced as being "at hand." The King was here; but, the King being rejected, it assumed the "mystery" form (John 13:11) which it still bears in the absence of the King. By comparing Matthew 11:11 with Matthew 16:19, we learn that the Kingdom of Heaven had not then commenced, and, indeed, it did not do so until the Lord had taken His seat on high. Then Peter, having received "the keys" (Matthew 16:19), unlocked the door to both Jew and Gentile, and although the favoured nation refused their King, and with Him, the "days of Heaven upon the earth," yet it is now given to the believer to know, in a deeper and fuller way than Israel ever will, the Rejected One; and every day may, to the Christian, be as the days of Heaven upon the earth. May our hearts enter into it more and more, and be more engaged with Himself, while we wait for His Coming.
"The Kingdom of God" occurs five times in our Gospel. It clearly expresses a different idea from the above. It has been described as "the exhibition of the ruling power of God under any circumstances." It was thus manifested when the Lord was here. So He could say (Luke 17:21), when unbelievingly asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God was coming, "the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you." It was there represented in His Own Person. At the day of Pentecost, and afterwards, those born from above, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit’s power, exemplified in themselves the same blessed character of that heavenly rule, as seen by its fruits of "righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). This is the divine aspect. But this term is also applied to the human side, or the Kingdom as seen in the hands of men, as Luke 13:19-21 shows: "It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it;" and again he said, "Whereunto shall I liken the Kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Here we get its external appearance and internal condition: an overgrown abortion, sheltering much that is evil. An adulterated mass permeating much that is good. Such is Christendom to-day. Evil men allowed, and evil doctrines accepted, have produced the condition so vividly pictured in the above Scripture. The Kingdom of the Father and the Kingdom of the Son of Man will be a development of the Kingdom of Heaven, and will be seen when the present mystery form is at an end. The Kingdom of the Son of Man will be the rule of God, seen in the hands of His Son, in the coming day, when the Kingdom is set up in power in the earth. Then the redeemed people will say, "Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth" (Psalms 8:1). He will assume the Lordship lost by Adam, and it will be exercised by Him in righteousness, both in blessing to the godly and in judgment upon the transgressors. The Father’s Kingdom, on the other hand, applies to the heavenly side. It refers to things above, as the other refers to things below. The Kingdom of the Son of His love is our present place in grace: that circle of which Christ is the centre, as He is the centre of the Father’s affections, and the One around whom the Father delights to gather the objects of His love — even us who were once in the Kingdom and under the power of darkness.
If the last is our present place in grace, the Everlasting Kingdom is our future place in glory. The Apostle there (2 Peter 1:11) is giving instruction as to the future glory of the Kingdom manifested before the eyes of men. They — the Apostles — had seen His glory in the holy mount. Peter prays that believers may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom in which that glory will be displayed. So the Kingdom was announced as being "at hand," but there was something else. The "axe" was at the root of the tree of Jewish profession. Very soon the Master of the vineyard would have to say, "These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13:7). Barren for many a long year, the final test was now presented. Messiah rejected would mean the nation cut off. Nevertheless, there was blessing for all who truly repented, for He baptized with the Holy Ghost — grace and salvation: as well as with fire — judgment and condemnation.
It is of the utmost importance to be clear as to the meaning of these two statements. They define, what we might call, the two extremes of the Lord’s ministry, and everything connected with the present day of grace lies between. The presence of the Holy Spirit is that which marks the present age. He is with and in the believer. He has been pleased to take up His dwelling, and make our bodies His temple (1 Corinthians 6:19), and the sanctifying influence of His presence should be seen in our daily lives (Galatians 5:25). He dwells in the Church; and His presence here is also a proof of the world’s guilt, for He is here because Christ is absent (John 16:10), and Christ is absent because men slew and hanged Him on a tree (Acts 10:39). But the "Age of the Spirit" will pass: the day of grace will come to a close, and when the Lord comes the second time, His dealings with the wicked and the oppressor will be with "fire" — the stern and unsparing, righteous judgment of God. So it will be then. "They shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:41-42). It is the certain result of rejecting the Gospel, and it would be well if every Gospel preacher had this solemn truth deep in his heart as he proclaims the grace of God. For in proportion as grace is known, so surely will judgment be executed, if the offered grace be rejected. There can be nothing else. The threshing floor is purged, the wheat and the chaff each assigned to its proper place.
But, further, there is the Witness of the Father, and this is very beautiful. The Lord enters upon His public ministry, and His first action is to come from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized of John. No wonder John "urgently forbade" Him. Just a short time before (John 1:27) John had declared himself unworthy to do the meanest office for that Wonderful Person whom he was announcing, and lo! here was that same Person taking His place among those who had gone down figuratively into the waters of death, confessing their sins. The Spirit’s first work in the heart of the sinner is Repentance — self-judgment and confession of what we are. This brought the remnant to John’s baptism, and thereby separated them from the guilty mass of the nation. It was no question of confessing sin that brought Him there. God forbid. Something else He instructs us in. "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Righteousness brought Him, where sin brought the people. He, the only righteous One upon the earth, associates with Himself those who sought after a moral preparedness for Messiah’s Kingdom. "And, lo! the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him: and, lo! a voice from heaven saying, ’This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’"
Beautiful testimony from Heaven of the only One upon the earth who was the Object of Heaven’s delight. In Genesis 6:1-22 God looked down and dealt in judgment. Here God was come down in grace. In a coming day He would lay down His life for the sheep. But now, after the Anointing and Sealing of the Holy Spirit, the first step on His pathway to the Cross was to meet and overcome the one whose great object was to turn Him aside from that pathway.
Scripture is silent as to what took place during the "forty days" — period of perfect testing. It was clearly something that we could not enter into; therefore it is not revealed. But the three forms of temptation at the close of that period, and the way in which our Lord overcame the tempter, are written for our instruction. For we, too, are called upon to "overcome" even as He overcame (Revelation 21:1-27), and the promise to the overcomer is that he will sit with the Faithful and True Witness upon His throne. The two weapons the Lord used — the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit — we may use also. Indeed, we are instructed to lay hold of them in order that we may "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked" (Ephesians 6:16). The first temptation is a question of circumstances. Can we trust God for daily need? In Matthew 6:1-34 the disciples are led on to realise that they can rest in a Father’s love and knowledge of their daily needs. Here the Lord exemplifies this principle of simple dependence. He would wait on His Father’s guidance, and — using the "Sword of the Spirit" — He chose the right word to meet the enemy. "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8:3).
If the first temptation was a testing of self, the second would lead to a testing of God. Cast Thyself down and see if God will be true to His word or not. This was to instil doubt into the mind, instead of unwavering trust in God. Just what Satan succeeded in doing in Eden. The whole point of the argument in Romans 8:1-39 is that God is for us. To test or question it would be to show our own faithlessness. Israel did so in the wilderness, and said, "Is the Lord among us or not?" (Exodus 17:7). But the Lord again replies in the very words of Scripture, and uses a plain word to confute what Satan had misquoted and misapplied. In the third temptation it was a question whether the things of this world are to be received from Satan or from God. Doubtless Satan had some dim knowledge that the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them would not always be his to give; that, as the first man had lost them by yielding to temptation, so the second Man might be tempted to acquire them by the same easy path. But in this case the kingdoms of the world are presented to the eye of One who has had the testimony of the Kingdom of Heaven, has seen the opened Heaven, and, as a Man upon the earth, listened to the Father’s voice of approval and delight. In proportion as the same heavenly vision fills our souls, so will the things of the world lose their attraction for us also, for our hearts will be where our treasure is, with Christ at God’s right hand.
We have next to consider what the Lord met the tempter with. David of old could say, "By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer" (Psalms 17:4), and here the Lord shows how that same word can be used to foil every device of the enemy. David had five smooth stones in his scrip. Only one was needed to slay the giant — type of him who was here in the presence of David’s greater Son. The Lord might have drawn His arguments from the five books of Moses. He uses only one — Deuteronomy — and from it selects the weapon that both exposes and defeats the foe. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20). And here let us also notice that which is of the utmost importance. The Lord quotes the very Scripture that met the case in hand. So there is guidance and instruction in Scripture for the believer, for every circumstance, or difficulty, that may arise in his pathway, but he must know where to find it. We must make it our business to be so well acquainted with the Holy Word of God as to be able to bring out at the moment the needed truth for the time of need.
"Then the devil leaveth him." Satan was defeated. Thank God, he is a defeated foe. He may roar, but he cannot rend; he may deceive, but he cannot destroy. In closing this section let us notice seven beautiful things, manifesting the grace and power and glory of our blessed Lord: —
1 The voice of the Father points Him out as the Object of Heaven’s delight.
2 The descending Spirit abides upon Him as the Son of God, whom "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto."
3 Angels delight to minister unto Him, as once before they had heralded His birth.
4 Satan flees defeated from the presence of a Man in the wilderness. Four thousand years before he had triumphed, with the same temptations, over a man in a garden.
5 The Lord becomes the light to them that sit in darkness — Galilee of the Gentiles — that part of the outskirts of the nation which was most despised by the religious leaders. There, the Lord, rejected at Jerusalem, goes in grace and gathers to Himself a people who owned His claims and obeyed His Word.
6 He begins His wonderful mission, and its divine character is marked at the very outset by His victory over disease, death, and the devil. It is the powers of the world to come in the hands of the King. Lunacy destroyed the mind; palsy destroyed the body; demon-possession destroyed both; but Jesus healed them all.
7 Then He is seen attracting to Himself the hearts of men. Nets, boats, relations, and calling — all are left to follow the Lord Jesus. The most powerful attraction set before the soul is not "I ought," or "I must"; but the fact that One has gone through this world before us: attracted our hearts out of it to Himself, where He now is on the throne: given us His place before the Father (John 17:14), and now He expects us to fill His place before the world.
We are not of the world. Let us show it more and more in Christ-likeness day by day.
"His Cross behind: His Home before.
Himself to-day, and evermore."