Matthew 4:1 The record of our Lord's temptation, which is specially commended to our consideration in Lent, must needs be momentous, first, in its import for the comprehension of the spirit of His ministry, and secondly in its example to ourselves. I. Consider especially the first temptation, to tu... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:1 I. One cannot help thinking and wondering why this temptation should take place, and though all the reasons cannot be known, some of them we think we can see. We know there is a devil. Perhaps the most clever of all Satanic schemes is that in which he persuades men that he does not exis... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:1 I. When the first Adam fell, by temptation, from a garden to a wilderness, from abundance to want, from empire to slavery, from heaven to hell; and when by the same steps as he descended, our Lord ascended, the first and second Adam were not individuals; each was a representative man; e... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:2 Observe: I. the depth of the intention of Satan's question. It opens at once a dilemma. Canst Thou be thus without bread, and yet be the Son of God? Nay, the thing is contradictory. "Give up the thought of Thy Sonship." Satan's great aim is to cut off the sense of sonship, for he knows... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:3 I. The first recorded trial of our Saviour connects itself no doubt with His recent fast or extreme abstemiousness of forty days. He was afterwards an hungred. "If Thou be the Son of God," said the tempter, "command that these stones be made bread." "Devote," in other words, "the first e... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:4 I. God has appointed, under all ordinary circumstances, that we should sustain life by the secondary means of earthly food; but where He has placed man under special bonds of duty, and pointed out before him a course of action higher and nobler than the mere sustaining of the body, He ca... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:5 I. Our Lord was carried from the wilderness to the holy city. Understand by this how all our circumstances in the world may be changed, and yet the tempter be with us still. Hundreds of men have gone out into the desert thinking that in that way they should escape temptation, but it has... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:5 I. It was a master-piece of Satan to take Christ to the Temple. There was the spot which God loved best in the whole earth, that He had fenced around with most special and jealous care. It had been the scene of the most glorious manifestation of Jehovah. And because of all this Satan bo... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:7 I. In this temptation, as in the last, our Lord's situation is ours. Placed here to do God's work, we are assured, while in that work, of His gracious protection. No danger can assail the servant of God of which he need be afraid. His bodily frame is in the gracious charge of His Heaven... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:8 I. The root of the third temptation lay in the thought that the kingdoms of the world were the devil's kingdoms, and that it was he who could dispose of them. If our Lord had believed this, if He had acknowledged this claim, He would have been falling down and worshipping the evil spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:8 I. There is no falsehood on the face of the earth so dangerous as truth when that truth comes distorted, placed in wrong order, or laid in false proportions. This was exactly the character of the last temptation. All the kingdoms of the would, and all the glory of them, were Christ's; a... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:10 It was by this time evident that our blessed Lord was not to be tempted to either distrust or presumption. But what if He were once more tried, with a temptation which should coincide with the direction of that path itself? How if He could be induced, in the fulfilment of His mission o... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:11 The final repulse of the tempter was accompanied by a command, "Get thee hence, Satan." And we may well conceive that this command was to the enemy a word of power, which he might not disobey. He who henceforth cast out the evil spirits with a word here proved His authority on their ch... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:17 The text invites us to look at two things: I. The Preacher. "Jesus began to preach." Jesus was the Son of man and the Son of God. Who, then, can equal Him in sympathy and in wisdom? It should be understood that very much depends upon the preacher as well as upon the doctrine preached.... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:18 Jesus and the Fishermen. Observe here I. Jesus called the Galilean fishermen. There was nothing novel in the calling of men from a lowly condition to the performance of a high and holy task. The men who were to stand at the head of this great movement were men of the people, men who... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:19 Christ's Training of the Ministers of the Word. I. Who are they that are chosen by our Lord to receive the signal benefit of training in His school? Not one of the twelve is a priest or a priest's son. There is not a man with Pharisaic relationship among them. They were all "provincia... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:19 The Attractive Force of Jesus. I. The Lord had but one method with all classes. He could only bless the rich by making them feel that a man's heart was beating, and a man's needs were crying to God, under their purple. And He had no other means of blessing the poor. It was the common... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:21 I. St. James may be regarded as affording an example and encouragement to those who follow Christ, in two sorts of trials, more particularly those which arise from a thriving condition in the world, and those which attend, sometimes, on a quiet and comfortable home. To obey our Lord's... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 4:23 I. Christ was dispensing, then, the gift of healing, marvellously, for an example to all who should believe on Him thereafter, for ever, as long as the world should stand. Healer of the diseases of the body, as he was Healer of the diseases of the soul, Jesus Christ, anointed Saviour,... [ Continue Reading ]