Sermon Tone Analysis

Review

During our last time together we looked at verses 18-22.

In those verses we saw Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee and calling out to Peter and his brother Andrew and saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

And shortly thereafter, from that same place, Jesus encounters James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in a boat with their father mending their nets, and in similar fashion calls them to himself..

In both cases the men immediately leave their boats and nets to follow Jesus.

They’re willing follow Jesus at the cost of their own careers and even their own family.

We also read Luke chapter 5 and took a closer look at Jesus’ interaction with these men.

There were crowds that had followed Jesus while he was at the Sea of Galilee and they were pressing hard against him, so Jesus continued teaching them from the vantage point of Peter’s boat.

We were told that after speaking Jesus instructed Simon Peter to “Put out into the deep and let down [his] nets for a catch.”

Simon is reluctant at first but after letting down his net he’s astonished to find it overflowing with fish.

So much so that he calls to James and John, his partners, to help him and his brother Andrew with the catch.

Peter is overwhelmingly humbled by this event and Jesus says to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

And it was at this point we saw the connection between this verse and Matthew chapter 4 verse 19 which reads, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

We observed first that Jesus’ call was effectual, in other words his call accomplished what he intended it to accomplish.

Just like our own salvation story God’s internal call was effectual, it did not fail.

By His mercy he brought each one of us to repentance and faith in his Son.

And for Jesus’ disciples this meant forsaking everything for Christ’s sake, leaving everything behind to follow him.

So we were left with the question, “Are we also willing to leave everything behind to follow Christ?” and “Is Jesus at the center of our dreams and our ambitions?”

“Is Jesus worth following?”

Secondly, we observed that it was Jesus who filled Peter’s nets with fish.

As Christians we are called to do the work of an evangelist, to share the gospel with those around us (our coworkers, our family, our friends, the person in line at the grocery store, or the person at our dinner table) .

However, we learned here in Luke that while it is our responsibility to let down our nets, it is Jesus’ responsibility to fill those nets.

That it is the Holy Spirit’s job to bring men and women to repentance and faith in the Son of God.

That we can take great comfort and have great assurance that ultimately we will be successful in our evangelistic endeavors, because God is unfailingly at work in others as we share the good news of his Son.

Jesus’ Words & Works

This week we turn our attention to verses 23-25 here in Matthew chapter 4. Let’s read it again together,

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

In these passages we see at least two major themes that will become the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry.

The first is what we’re going to call Jesus’ words, and the second is what we’re going to call Jesus’ works.

Jesus’ Words

Jesus’ message

In verse 23 we see Jesus traveling throughout all of Galilee and he’s “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.”

Jesus’ ministry was first and foremost a message, so he travels from place to place teaching and proclaiming this message.

Even in verses 18-22 when Jesus called his disciples to himself the immediate setting is him teaching a large crowd from a boat on the Sea of Galilee.

The gospel of the kingdom

And the message that he proclaims is, as Matthew puts it, “the gospel of the kingdom”, or in other words his message is the good news of the kingdom of God.

In fact, it’s here we find Matthew’s first use of the word gospel, or in the Bible’s original language ‘evangelion’ [a-van-gellion] which is where we get the word evangelical from.

So when Christians describe themselves as evangelical what they are saying is that we have a common belief in the good news of God’s kingdom, which is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

The good news boils down to this, salvation from God’s just wrath toward sinners through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we may enter the kingdom of God and live with him forever.

When Jesus speaks of the good news of the kingdom of God he is making reference to God’s reigning and ruling, so

Transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son

There are times when the G

When Jesus speaks of the good news of the kingdom of God he is making reference to God’s reigning and ruling.

Now you might wonder what does this good news of salvation have to do with God’s kingdom.

Well, the good news is that this salvation not only saves us from something (the wrath of God), but saves us to to something (namely, to God himself).

We become children of God, we are born again.

We become citizens of heaven, and as sons and daughters of God we inherit his kingdom.

Jesus’ proclamation is a calling into this kingdom of which he is the King.

The writer of Colossians describes it like this, “[God the Father] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus the king of this kingdom

Do you remember what the thrust of Matthew’s Gospel during these first 4 chapters was?

It was to show us that Jesus is not only the son of David but David’s Lord, Immanuel, or God with us, that Jesus is the Messiah and true king of Israel.

This is why John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Again, why?

Because the king had come!

Jesus had come.

And ultimately the good news of the kingdom is that the king of that kingdom had come.

And Matthew tells us that this king “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and affliction among the people.”

Synagogues

Now, I want to point something out back in verse 23,

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Jesus teaches largely inside of synagogues

Let me ask you something.

Where is one of Jesus’ primary platforms for ministry?

Where does this text say that he regularly teaches?

He’s teaching from inside the synagogues, and it’s also the same place from which the Apostle Paul would go and preach the gospel as recorded in the Book of Acts.

Jewish house of worship

Now synagogues are essentially a Jewish house of worship.

My father-in-law actually spent a portion of his career working at a synagogue in Dayton, OH called Beth Jacob.

It’s important to note though that a synagogue is different than the Jewish Temple, there is only one Temple but there can be countless synagogues.

One of the primary differences is that sacrifices are to be performed at the Temple but not at synagogues.

Jesus’ miracles

Worship format

The format of worship within a synagogue is typically threefold, 1) prayer, 2) the reading of Scripture, and 3) the exposition or teaching of that Scripture.

And while priests as setup by Moses had historically been the teachers of God’s law, over time, scribes, or what we might call lawyers today, became the teachers of God’s law throughout most Jewish houses of worship.

The origin of the synagogue

And what I find particularly interesting is that the synagogue appears to have come into existence only a few hundred years before Christ.

In fact, many historians and theologians believe that the synagogue came into existence as a result of Israel’s return from exile around 400 BC.

And more specifically, as a result of Ezra’s reading of the Torah.

Now Ezra was both a priest and a scribe and he was instrumental in leading the Israelites out of the land of Babylon.

When the Israelites arrive back in their native land Ezra begins reading the God’s law to them.

says this,

8 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate.

And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.

And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.

And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand.

5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood.

6 And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands.

And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places.

8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

So what we have here is what appears to be an infantile model of what would later be used for synagogues all across Israel and anywhere a large enough population of Jewish men could gather for worship.

Those who were proficient in God’s law, namely scribes or rabbis would teach weekly on the Sabbath and do just as Ezra did and read from God’s Law while giving the meaning, or sense of the text, so that the people understood what was being read.

It’s what we would call biblical exposition.

And within synagogues during Jesus’ day it was customary, and even expected, for visiting rabbis to teach at the local synagogue which would have likely made it a natural platform for Jesus to teach and preach this good news of the kingdom.

And interestingly enough it’s in a similar place of worship, namely the local church, that a minister continues Jesus’ work to teach and proclaim that very same message.