Episode 63 Matthew 4:12-25 At the Crossroads

Dan: (00:00)
Hi, everyone. And welcome to training for life redeemed. I’m your host, Dan. And I’m joined by my father, David Jackson. We are working our way through the book of Matthew. Today. We are looking at Matthew chapter four versus 12 to the end of the chapter, which is verse 25. We’ve already seen Jesus begin into, start his ministry, a little bits. We’ve kind of had his birth and Herod chasing him and him coming back and going up into Nazareth. Now, verse 12, Dad begins with Herod killing John the Baptist. Oh, sorry. Being arrested. Sorry, not quite killed John. The Baptist he’s arrested. Yep. Which then makes Jesus say he withdrew into Galilee kind of like he’s trying to escape being arrested himself, possibly. and then he moves from Nazareth. He doesn’t stay there. He heads down to caper. Now I really like Capernaum, it’s this beautiful little city that’s on the lake.

Dan: (01:01)
It’s on the sea of lake of Galilee or the sea of Galilee. It’s a kind of a port city there. It is also quite central for traffic for be it foot traffic, but still traffic. Like everyone who’s traveling to Jerusalem or up from Egypt through to Asia or to Europe down from Africa, vice versa. Right. They are all going through Capernaum on their travels because it’s kind of that little, it’s a little hub in that area, at least. and I, I see this move of Jesus, partly as him coming and actually telling like, like, that’s time for his ministry, to spread that’s, that’s kind of the picture I get. He’s going into caper. A lot of his ministry is gonna be in Capernaum and a couple of other cities around Capernaum. And constantly we’re gonna get told that people are spreading the news of Jesus and that his fame is, you know, spreading everywhere and he can’t into places. Can you tell me a bit about why you see Jesus moving into Capernaum at this point in time

David: (02:05)
Capernaum, as you say, caper is beautiful. and the synagogue in cap caper, you walk out the front door of the synagogue Capernaum, and you’re on the beach that got church buildings that, um, and as you look across the beach, uh, well, as soon as you in a boat, you’re outside of the territory, um, that Herod can arrest you. So he’s, he’s not only he’s landed in the crossroads of all this, the, the main highway sort of route, as you’re saying in and out of the country, but he’s also right on the border so that if the cops come chasing him, he literally just steps across. It’s sort of like Tweed Heads in Brisbane. or the, yeah, the Gold Coast up there, you can just cross the border and you’re outta trouble maybe, but it that’s a, it’s a key location for him. one of the things that I, I, and it also it’s right on the border of Gentile territory. So he’s, he’s almost at the limit of Jewish occupation. Uh, and if he goes to the way, you know, he’s in the Decapolis he’s in Gaulanitis. If he goes to the no Northwest, sorry, he goes east he’s in Gaulanitis. If he goes Northwest, he’s in Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician territory, and he keeps bobbing across those borders all the time. so clearly this is a strategic place for him.

Dan: (03:42)
Yeah. So this is also gonna be the place where Jesus starts to call his disciples. So he’s gonna start by calling Simon or Peter and Andrew, and begin to flow from there. Why is Jesus beginning to get disciples at this point? Yeah,

David: (03:58)
He’s gonna have three years. And I think he knows that he’s only got three years to train up a group of guys who are going to launch the kingdom of God, after his resurrection and Ascension. So three years is, you know, what’s, it, it takes three years to do a master of divinity full time. he’s grinning. yeah, this is a, a fairly intense program that Jesus is going to embark on to train these guys up and have ’em ready. it says something that your first year out of Jesus Bible college suddenly the whole, thing’s your responsibility, all of the global mission, but that’s what he’s got a cream into those three years. I think we, because we talk about Christians as disciples of Jesus. I think we miss the point of what a disciple is. so Jesus is at the synagogue in Capernaum as his base, he’s operating as a rabbi and he has full-time trainees, who would’ve been in the normal course, paying him, providing his financial wherewithal, to be their Bible teacher.

David: (05:14)
So that’s how rabbis made a living. it’s how, you know, the Pharisees made a living. It’s how Jesus is effectively now making a living. and these are serious students. They’re not, you know, they’re not just, you know, I follow Jesus as a hobby and the rest of them, my week, I’m busy. they they’re serious students. And I think we’ve missed that. We imagine just a, a gaggle of people following Jesus around listening to what he says, you know, and having the ancient equivalent of a cup of coffee discussion and call it quits. there’s, it’s much more than that that’s going on here.

Dan: (05:50)
So then once Jesus begins to get his disciples to follow him, he then really hits into his, his mission, right? His ministry, he starts traveling around, he starts going from synagogue to synagogue, starts teaching. He starts healing. Lots of people, people start bringing people to him to be healed. And it then talks about his fame spreading and it spreads through all, all throughout Syria. But then also mentions that the Decapolis, all of Galilee, Jerusalem Judea, and even beyond the Jordan, his fame is spreading everywhere. So, you, I see this is kind of a cap to, you know, he’s moved to caper, he’s beginning his ministry. It’s on those crossroads. He’s traveling around into those cities that are just around Capernaum. You, you can cross the sea of Galilee, go, find another city, come back, walk up the road. Yeah. And find another city down there. He’s really doing a lot of mission or essentially in that area, as he travels around healing people and teaching. Is there any significance to this? Just kind of summary? Like why, why is the summary here?

David: (06:55)
Yeah. So if, if you put John’s Gospel next to Matthews, I did this little interesting exercise for my own benefit. Uh, in the beginning chapters of John John describes the first week of Jesus’s ministry and it’s all happening down. What’s not all happening. It’s mainly happening down around the, the baptismal site. So he is down at the Jordan river, he’s around the area of, of, the Juda, wilderness, Jerusalem. He pops up to Cana for a wedding, and he’s, you know, he’s in that area around Jerusalem for that first week, then he heads north and that’s where Matthew picks him up. And when, when you do the, you know, line it up with John’s gospel, I got a bit of a surprise. John tells the story of what Jesus did when he was in Jerusalem. And it looks like Matthew totally ignores that.

David: (07:53)
And he’s focusing on what Jesus did in Galilee. And it just so happens that Matthew comes from Galilee. He’s a, he’s a Capernaum boy. He’s just down the road at the toll booth, possibly the toll booth on the lake, right out the front of the synagogue. you know, taking taxes off all the boats as they arrive. So this is hometown base, for most of Jesus disciples and he’s traveling ministry. I reckon he would’ve walked like half, you know, a couple of hours to one site done his preaching and teaching that that’s synagogue and then walked back to Capernaum. It’s not like he’s, he’s disappeared and he’s gone. some of this is just, you know, a day trip. and he’s, at the shock is everybody who comes to him gets healed. So we’re gonna those prophecies in Isaiah that when Yahweh comes, the eyes of the blind will be open, the lane will leap, like Loonies, you know, all this exciting they’re they’re for gonna hear all this exciting stuff’s gonna happen.

David: (09:02)
Uh, they’ve heard about John, the Baptist herd’s arrested him. Now. Jesus turns up. And every single person that comes to him gets healed. And the Roman capital, that governs all of, you know, Israel, Syria, all the way down to Egypt is in Damascus. So this news is gonna spread. The Romans are really superstitious. You got a big healer, you know, half of Damascus is gonna be coming down to hear him, Syria Phoenicia, same story. you may imagine if somebody walked through, you know, somewhere like Sydney and just walked into Nepean hospital and cleaned it out, um, they’re all healed. They’re gone, no problem. it would be big news, and that’s now gonna create a problem for Jesus because big news may means Jerusalem gets involved, means Herod gets involved, means jump in the boat, go to for a boat ride and get away,

Dan: (10:05)
Which he’s gonna do quite a lot. Just jump in boats and, and travel across the sea of galley. I think he likes to sea of galley. Uh, dunno if it’s just the water. Maybe it’s a really nice flight. It is a nice place. Haven is. He’s a really nice place. She go and hang out. It’s warm.

David: (10:18)
And how handy, how handy that four of your disciples happen to be fishermen who own boats?

Dan: (10:23)
That’s Right. We’ll just go hang on the boat guys, eat fish all day and we’ll be fine. Yeah, but that brings us to the end of this episode. If you would like to come and grab the study notes for this episode, please head to trainingforliferedeemed.com/63. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a review. And of course, as always make sure that you subscribe and come back and join us. Next week, when we start looking at Matthew five, the sermon on the Mount.