Matthew 4
4
The Test
1-3Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”
4Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.”
5-6For the second test the Devil took him to the Holy City. He sat him on top of the Temple and said, “Since you are God’s Son, jump.” The Devil goaded him by quoting Psalm 91: “He has placed you in the care of angels. They will catch you so that you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone.”
7Jesus countered with another citation from Deuteronomy: “Don’t you dare test the Lord your God.”
8-9For the third test, the Devil took him to the peak of a huge mountain. He gestured expansively, pointing out all the earth’s kingdoms, how glorious they all were. Then he said, “They’re yours—lock, stock, and barrel. Just go down on your knees and worship me, and they’re yours.”
10Jesus’ refusal was curt: “Beat it, Satan!” He backed his rebuke with a third quotation from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God, and only him. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”
11The Test was over. The Devil left. And in his place, angels! Angels came and took care of Jesus’ needs.
Teaching and Healing
12-17When Jesus got word that John had been arrested, he returned to Galilee. He moved from his hometown, Nazareth, to the lakeside village Capernaum, nestled at the base of the Zebulun and Naphtali hills. This move completed Isaiah’s revelation:
Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
road to the sea, over Jordan,
Galilee, crossroads for the nations.
People sitting out their lives in the dark
saw a huge light;
Sitting in that dark, dark country of death,
they watched the sun come up.
This Isaiah-prophesied revelation came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started preaching. He picked up where John left off: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
18-20Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
21-22A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.
23-25From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with a sickness, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
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Matthew 4: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Matthew 4
4
The devil tried to trick Jesus
1Then the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the bush, and the devil, the boss over the bad spirits, tested him there, trying to trick him.#Hebrews 2:18; 4:15 2Jesus was there for 40 days, and he didn’t eat anything, so he got very hungry.
3At that time the devil came to him and said, “If you are the son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves of bread.”
4But Jesus told him, “No. I will not do that. You know what God says. These words are in his book,
‘People don’t live just by eating bread,
but they live by every word that God says.’ ”#Deuteronomy 8:3
5Then the devil took Jesus to God’s special city, called Jerusalem, and he took him up to the top of the big ceremony house there. 6The devil said, “If you are the son of God, jump off. You know, these words are in God’s book too,
‘God will tell his angel messengers to look after you,
and they will hold you up with their hands,
so you will not even hurt your foot on a stone.’ ”#Psalm 91:11-12
7Jesus said, “No. I will not do that. You see, God says this too. These words are in his book,
‘Don’t do something stupid just to test God.’ ”#Deuteronomy 6:16
8Then the devil took Jesus up to the top of a very high mountain. From there the devil showed him all the people of the world, in all their countries, with all their great things. 9And the devil said, “If you will get down on your knees and show respect to me, then I will give you all of this, all of these people and all of these things.”
10Jesus said to the devil, “No. I will not do that either. Satan, you go away from me now. This is what God says in his book,
‘You have to show respect to God.
He is the only God, so just do what he says.’ ”#Deuteronomy 6:13
11Then the devil went away, and God’s angel messengers came and took care of Jesus.
Jesus started his work
12After that, Jesus heard that some soldiers grabbed John and put him in jail. So Jesus left Judea country and went back to Galilee country.#Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17; Luke 3:19-20 13He went to the town called Nazareth, and then he left that town and went to live in the town called Capernium. It was beside the big lake called Lake Galilee. It was in the country where the Zebulun tribe and the Naphtali tribe used to live.#John 2:12 14All that happened just like God says in his book. Isaiah was a man that told everyone God’s words, and a long time ago, he wrote this in God’s book,
15“It will happen in the country that belongs to the Zebulun tribe and the Naphtali tribe.
It is beside the sea, past the Jordan River,
in Galilee country, where there are a lot of people that are not Jews.
16The people there don’t know much about God.
It is like they are in the dark,
but they will see a big bright light.
They thought they were going to die,
but a light will start to shine for them.”#Isaiah 9:1-2
17Then Jesus started to tell everybody, “Listen. God is going to show everyone how they can be in his family. So you have to stop doing bad things. You have to turn around and live God’s way.”#Matthew 3:2
The first followers of Jesus
18One day, Jesus walked along next to Lake Galilee, and he saw 2 men throwing a net into the water to catch fish. That was their job. One man was called Simon. He was also called Peter. And the other man was his brother Andrew.
19Jesus said, “I want you 2 to come and follow me. I want you to stop catching fish. I’ll give you another job. You will catch people for me.” 20And straight away, they left their nets and followed him.
21Then Jesus kept walking along next to the water, and he saw an old man called Zebedee and his 2 sons, James and John. They were getting their nets ready to catch fish. Like before, Jesus called out to James and John to stop their work and follow him. 22They got up straight away. They left their father, and the boat, and they followed Jesus.
A lot of people followed Jesus
23After that, Jesus went through all of Galilee country. He taught people in the Jewish meeting houses, and he told them the good news about God’s family. And he made a lot of sick people better. They had all sorts of sickness.#Matthew 9:35; Mark 1:39 24Then people started to tell other people about Jesus, so that people as far away as Syria country heard about the things he did, and they all started to bring lots of sick people to Jesus. And Jesus made them all better, no matter what sort of sickness they had. Some of them used to fall down and shake a lot, and some of them couldn’t move their arms or legs, and some of them had bad spirits in them. But Jesus made them all better.
25A big mob of people followed him everywhere he went. These people were from Galilee country, and from the country called Ten Towns, and from Jerusalem city, and from all over Judea country, and from the country east of the Jordan River.
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