Galilee of the Gentiles / Light Has Dawned (Matthew 4)

Matthew 4 and the Light That Has Dawned in Galilee

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. We're going to continue our study of the gospel of Matthew.

Christ's Public Ministry and the Call to Repentance

So we're going to see the beginning of Christ's public ministry. And we're also going to see what his message was. Because Jesus came preaching the same thing that John the Baptist preached. Same message.

And in a sense, it's really the same message that we have today. Just a few things have been added to it. But look at Matthew chapter 4, verses 12 through 17. Because where Jesus is, wherever Jesus goes, wherever the gospel goes, there is the light.

Matthew 4, starting in verse 12. Now when Jesus heard that John, that is John the Baptist, had been put in prison, he departed to Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali.

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.

And upon those who sat in the region, in shadow of death, light has dawned. Verse 17 says,. And from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Let's open in a word of prayer.

Lord, I'm thankful for this opportunity to be able to hear from your word and the wisdom that is contained in it. That this same message of repentance should be brought, not only as it was in the land of Naphtali and Zebulun and throughout Israel, and throughout the known world at that time, that this message of repentance and turning to God is still being declared 2 ,000 years later.

Lord, I just ask that if somebody here has never given their heart to you, given their life to you, they would heed this message. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Lord, we know it's at hand because the King is at hand.

As the New Testament tells us, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is at hand. And Lord, we realize, and I pray that everyone listening will realize, that any generation could be that generation that sees the return of Christ.

Lord, help us to be ready, we pray in his name. Amen. So, this was the message that Jesus preached. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, it's right there. It's right at the door.

It's imminent. So, theoretically, because we know this isn't what happened, but if Israel had received their King, Israel would have received what?

The kingdom.

So, in order to receive the kingdom, they had to receive the King. Likewise, if people today receive Christ, they also, we also, will receive the kingdom. And we know that the kingdom is coming. What do we pray every Sunday?

Pray, thy kingdom come. See, there's a lot of people who, they're not really looking for the kingdom of God to come, but we're praying, thy kingdom come, thy will be done where? On earth, as it is in heaven.

So, the kingdom is coming, and according to Scripture, according to the prayer that Jesus told his disciples to pray, the kingdom is coming here. It's coming to the earth. So, it's just a matter of whether or not people are ready for it.

So, were the Jews ready? Well, they weren't, because John the Baptist preached what? Repent, for the kingdom is at hand. When John was put in prison, and then Jesus started to preach, what did he preach?

Same thing, repent, get ready, for the kingdom is at hand. They didn't know when it was coming, but it was coming any generation. It could have been that time to see it. And that's still true today. So, this is a relevant message.

It's a timely message. Same thing applies to us today. So, if a person would receive Christ as King and as Lord, they will, when it comes, they will receive the kingdom. So, the kingdom is at hand. Nobody really knows when it's going to happen.

When does the kingdom come? Well, it's pretty simple, when the King comes. So, when Jesus comes back, that's when the kingdom is established. Now, does anybody know when Jesus will return? Well, I think we, if you're a student of Scripture, if you know, if you've read through the Gospel of Matthew, you know that people had asked, His disciples had asked the question of Jesus, when will these things be?

And Jesus said, what? No man knows the day or the hour. So, we don't know when it's going to happen, just that it will happen. But when Jesus comes, He brings with Him the kingdom. So, back here in the first century, the Jews were certainly hoping for it.

Many were actually buried in Jerusalem, hoping that when the King came and the resurrection happened, they'd be right there, and they'd be resurrected, and they'd just be right in the center of the kingdom.

But there was great anticipation of the coming King, and the coming kingdom. But nobody really knew. So, that's a time they were looking forward to. But as of this moment here, when Jesus is doing these things, and preaching these things, this was actually a very dark time in Israel's history.

One of the reasons is that they were living under Roman occupation. See, this is something, as Americans, we don't really know anything about. I mean, maybe there's somebody here who has been in that environment, but can you imagine what it would be like for an invading army to conquer our nation, and to take over, and we have to just serve them, and do whatever they say.

And we're living under constant oppression from another empire. Well, that's what the Jews were experiencing. They were experiencing the occupation and oppression that came from Rome. So, this is a very dark time.

Darkness was all around them. The world seemed dark. And the light that they're looking for is what? It's the light that the Messiah would bring. It's the light that Jesus brought. And the light gives what?

It gives hope. We live in a world right now where people, you know this is true, people are losing hope. Well, people were losing hope in Israel. They've been waiting. God had been silent 400 years. They were starting to wonder, is it ever going to happen?

Are things ever going to change? That's the way a lot of people are feeling now. Is it just going to be like this forever? Are things ever going to get better? Or maybe for me, are things going to change?

People need hope. And that's what the message of Jesus does. It brings hope. Hope for a better life. Hope for eternal life. And hope of reconciliation and the forgiveness of God. Now, the only question here in the first century is how is Israel going to respond?

Of course, most of you know how Israel responded, don't you? The nation as a whole rejected him. But there were still many who received the message. So many believed, many didn't. But as a whole, they rejected the Lord.

So how do people respond? It's the same issue right now. How do you respond to the message of the gospel? I just want to go through a little background information. Before we go through verse by verse, this region is called what?

What is it called? Galilee of what? Right, Galilee of the Gentiles. That kind of strikes you as odd, doesn't it? Like, I thought this is Israel. I thought this is where the Jews lived. And yet, it's called Galilee of the Gentiles.

What does that tell you? Yeah, a lot of Gentiles there. And the Gentiles really were running the show. It was even called that going back. We see this in the text. It was called Galilee of the Gentiles going all the way back to the prophet Isaiah.

So that's something like 800 years before the time of Christ. So it was known as Galilee of the Gentiles.

Why?

Because this was the route that the Gentiles would use whenever they would go into Israel, go through Israel, come out of Israel. The Gentiles usually would go through Galilee. And of course, many of the Gentiles settled in this region of Galilee.

And again, it's under Roman occupation. So it became known as Galilee of the Gentiles. And we know how the Jews viewed the Gentiles, don't we? They didn't really like them very much, as you can imagine.

They had reason. The Gentiles basically, what it boiled down to, other than the Roman oppression, the way the Gentiles lived, right? If you were brought up in a Jewish home in the first century, you were brought up with a certain culture, the way of life.

There was the Ten Commandments. You were religious. You went to synagogue. Well, how did the Gentiles live? They were irreligious. Their behavior, their language, their lifestyle was just opposed to everything that the Jews stood for.

So there's this great divide, and obviously the Jews didn't think all that highly of the Gentiles, and the Gentiles didn't like the Jews. It was just a really bad, bad situation. So life was very hard.

And because of all of this, that's why you get this language that it was a dark time, that they're living in the land of the shadow of death. That's just the way it seemed. There wasn't very much hope.

But the expectation that the Messiah would come, what did that give them? That was the light. That was what they were looking for. That was the hope. So being such a dark land filled with Gentiles, Galilee of the Gentiles, really the bottom line is this is the last place people would expect for Jesus to begin his ministry.

I mean, why would the Messiah go here? This was a bad place. It wasn't a religious place. You know, just try to unlearn a few things for a moment of what you know to be true. If you were expecting the Messiah to show up here in the United States somewhere, where would you expect him to go?

Or where would the people of this country expect him to show up?

Where?

Northfield.

Northfield.

Come on.

I don't think people wouldn't expect him to show up in Leverett or Northfield. People would expect where? Where are some places? Washington, D .C. I mean, that would make sense, right, if he really wants to have an impact.

I mean, we kind of know better. Like, no, he wouldn't go there. I mean, who knows. But, yeah, you would expect him to go somewhere where the powerful people are, where the important people are. He would show up in Washington.

He would show up in New York City. He would do something like that. Same thing with the Israelites. When the Messiah comes, where is he going to come?

Jerusalem.

Of course.

He's going to show up in Jerusalem. He's going to show up where all the important people were. And the Jews believed that when the Messiah did show up, he would take the throne, and his job, his mission, would be to drive out the Romans.

They believed he would be a warrior king. So these are the details and the expectations surrounding this whole passage. Okay, so the section starts out with the statement that Jesus heard that John the Baptist, who was Jesus' cousin and his prophet who laid the groundwork for his ministry, Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been what?

Arrested. Okay, so if things were dark, things are only getting darker. This is bad news for the religious Jews, and the average person regarded John as a prophet. So Jesus hears that John has been put in prison.

John was loved by the people, but those in Jerusalem didn't really care for him. You know, the leaders, the important people didn't like John the Baptist, so his followers would have been discouraged hearing that he had been put in prison.

Now, why was John put in prison? John was put in prison because he spoke against one of the rulers of that time. People call him King Harry. He technically wasn't the king, but John spoke against Herod.

Do you remember why? Yeah, Herod took his brother's wife to be his own. So this was really a scandalous type of thing. I know it happens all the time in 2023 in the United States maybe. Actually, it probably doesn't even happen all the time, but this was a scandalous thing in Israel, and John was preaching against the king or against the political ruler.

You know, that's a risky thing to do. You know, we have rights in this country. We have liberties. Back then, not really. You know, if a preacher started speaking against one of the rulers, what could happen to him?

Well, he'd get arrested or, yeah, worse. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornickChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.