Matthew 4:12-17
Jesus
Begins His Ministry And Preaches In
Galilee
4:12
Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into
custody, He withdrew into Galilee;
13 and leaving Nazareth,
He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the
sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.
14 This was to fulfill
what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
15 "THE LAND OF ZEBULUN
AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI,
BY THE WAY OF THE SEA,
BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES--
16 "THE PEOPLE WHO WERE
SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT
LIGHT,
AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING
IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH,
UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED."
17 From that time Jesus
began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand."
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It is meant to change
the way that we think, and the way that we live.
Commentary
by Bob Pardue
Jesus Begins His Ministry
In Galilee
Can you imagine going to
church this Sunday and seeing Jesus in the pulpit?
What an amazing thing that must have been to be in
the congregation while the Savior
preached!
Zebulun and Naphtali as
mentioned in the prophesy were two of the original
12 tribes of Israel located in the same region of
Galilee as Capernaum thus fulfilling the sayings of
Isaiah 9:1. This verse says that the Messiah will
go to these places and people of darkness would see
a "great light" which is Christ.
The "kingdom of heaven" Jesus
mentions in verse 17 has the same meaning as the
"kingdom of God" used by Luke and Mark. At any
rate, Christ preached repentance just as John The
Baptist did before Him and proclaimed that the
"kingdom of heaven is at hand".
That was then but what about
now? Is the kingdom of God still near?
In a word, yes. The reason?
Through Christ, the kingdom of God now resides in
our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit placed
within us when we accept Jesus as personal
Savior.
Have you accepted Christ as
your Savior? Today is a good day to let Him change
your life forever.
Love in Christ
- Bob
If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment to
go
here and take the
first
steps to salvation.
More Verses
to Study from the Bible
Matthew
4:5-11 -
Temptation
of Christ -
This world
is full of temptation and we have to really be
aware to avoid situations which might put us in
compromising postions. In the time of Christ,
temptation also abounded as we will see in this
Scripture
study of Matthew.
Verses for learning about the teaching and
preaching ministry of Christ are from New
American Standard Bible
Comments are welcome. Please email
me with any questions or comments you
may have.
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