Where and How It All Began, Part 2

The Bible tells us very little about Jesus' teenage or young adult years.

In fact, for the better part of His life, Jesus was virtually unrecognized. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Matthew chapter 4 beginning at verse 12. In this passage, Jesus begins to declare His deity in ways He had never done before.

Chuck begins his message with prayer. Every tongue shall speak of Him. It's quite possible that you're among those who have not bowed a knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. I learned this past week from a very reputable source that one out of three people will live their entire lives without ever hearing the name of Jesus.

I was stunned when I heard that. One out of every three people will live their entire lives and never once hear the name Jesus. But there's a tragedy equally sad and that is those who hear the name often but never respond to Him, never receive Him, never take Him into their lives.

Jesus does not force His way in. Circumstances in life will arise, sometimes very painful circumstances that break us and begin to bend us. Those are teachable moments designed to make us aware that there is a life beyond ourselves. There's a strength outside of our own. For you to know that life and for you to have that strength you must come to know the One who gave Himself for you when He bowed to the Father's will and died for you. I'd like to lead us in prayer and during that time maybe your moment to bow your knee and open your heart to Christ.

Bow with me will you? Our Father we come to today in simple words, we come because you have answers to our questions, you have hope for our despair, you have reasons for things which we cannot explain, you have a plan beyond our ability to grasp. It is profound, it is limitless, it includes us. From eternity past you planned it this Sunday, long before we were born you made arrangements in our life for us to be here.

Not a person sits in this place by accident or because of random circumstances. You have brought us together, you have a reason for doing so. For some it is to be reproved for lingering sins in the life even though that individual has trusted in Christ. Compromise is going on which has no business in that life and you brought that person here to confront that compromise and to cease that activity and to turn away from it. For others it is a time for comfort because peace has fled from them.

They are troubled, they are struggling, they're dealing with issues that they cannot understand and they cannot tolerate much longer. You have peace to offer, you have comfort to give, you have love and understanding, mercy and great grace. May that occur in the lives of those who struggle this day and wrestle with life circumstances? For some you have the gift of salvation to provide. I pray that not one person who came into this room without Christ will leave without him. I pray that you will bring to that individual's awareness his or her need for the Savior. Take away all rationalization, all attempt to ignore or deny the presence of sin in our lives. We come acknowledging that we are born wrong with you, not right.

And until there is a new birth we cannot know a relationship with you. I pray the new birth will become a reality for those who have never trusted in your son. I want to thank you Father for those who wear the uniform of our day, our nation, our country. How grateful we are for each one, each man or woman regardless of rank is serving for the purpose of sustaining our freedom and maintaining our liberty.

Encourage them and their parents, their spouses, their family members. I pray that you will protect them even though our country is awash without keen and careful leadership. You are able to step in Father and guide us as a people.

You are able to provide wise counselors for those who make decisions in high places. I pray that you will guide through your spirit in our country and in our future. Now Lord in a simple way we place ourselves before you.

We would be as Peter and his brother Andrew as James or John who were there at the water fishing and they heard a voice and they made a decision that was life-changing. Today we await your message. May you speak clearly and understandably so that we do not miss it.

May we leave with an understanding of what you were saying and a willingness to obey. These are our gifts which we give to you simply because we love you. My Jesus I love you. I know that you're mine for the all the foolishness of sin I'll resign. Precious Redeemer our Savior you are.

If ever we loved you it is now. Accept our gifts we pray through Christ whom we love. This we ask in the name of the Savior and everyone said amen.

You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message we started with on Friday's program titled where and how it all began. Now we're into Matthew chapter 4 Jesus is just beginning his ministry Matthew takes the time to tell us where he went. Please observe that he settled in Galilee where he returned verse 15 in the land of Zebulun as Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9 1 & 2. The land of Zebulun Naphtali beside the sea that's the Sea of Galilee beyond the Jordan River in Galilee where so many Gentiles live and don't stop reading. Way back in the days of Isaiah the prophecy is stated the people who set in darkness have seen a great light. Who is the great light?

Jesus. When he comes into that region the Gentiles and Jews who live there are living in darkness spiritual darkness and with Christ coming they see a great light look at the next phrase and those who lived in the land where death cast its shadow a light has shine again a reference to Jesus. Galilee was not large only 50 miles from north to south and 25 miles east to west but small as it was Galilee was densely populated. Galilee for its size had an enormous population so then Jesus began his mission in that part of Israel where there were most people to hear him he began his work in that area teeming with men and women to whom the gospel proclamation might be made. Please observe it is the land where Gentiles also lived not simply Jews.

They too would be in need of the gospel. The full name of the area was Galilee of the Gentiles. The phrase comes from the fact that Galilee was literally surrounded by Gentiles on the west Venetians on the north and east the Syrians and to the south the territory of the Samaritans. I want to say a word about the darkness. Again it mentions the death that cast its shadow and the people who sat in darkness. If you travel enough you have been to areas that are dark. They may be densely populated but you sense the darkness.

If you flew there you step off the plane and you find yourself enveloped in a thick darkness. You look around and you see signs of idolatry, witchcraft, demonism, the presence of demonic individuals. You can see this with your own eyes temples devoted to that and all of this creates an atmosphere of darkness.

It has an effect on you. Jesus knew that for his message to penetrate the maximum number of people he needed to go were it was dark. Many people are called to serve in places of gross darkness.

We should faithfully remember them in prayer. Doesn't mean they're not modern places. It doesn't mean there are not a lot of people. It means there is little spiritual truth. A gathering like the size of this church would be unheard of in those places of darkness.

The truth would not be taught, would not be preached, would not be proclaimed in some places you would be killed for declaring a truth that would differ from those who are in the leadership of the darkness. He's led to those places because it was there there would be the most response to his message. And you notice his message? Verse 17, change your mind regarding sin. The word repent, metanoe, has to do with the change of the mind. Turn your thinking around. You've been moving in one direction. Turn around as you trust in me and go in the other direction. Change your mind.

Change the direction of your life. Repent of your sins. Last time we were together I gave you a three-part statement related to sin. I want to repeat it. I told you we'd come back to it.

It's this. Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

And sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Don't think that those who live in darkness enjoy the darkness. Oh, they may act like they do. They may think or they may they may desire to leave you with that thinking, but deep down inside there is a lack of peace. There is an absence of inner harmony. There is a sense of emptiness and decay. There is the frustration of knowing they can never please the gods that they worship. There is never the assurance of eternal life among those who follow idols. You are forever trying to placate the gods. Forever trying to give enough money or give enough of your worship or give enough of your energy or sacrifice enough of your body to please the gods that you're worshiping. All of that creates a context of deep darkness. Also in places like that there is frequently a sense of resistance to the truth.

Let me give you a little personal example. When when we were led to leave the great state of California where we had lived for 23 years, Cynthia and I gave thought to settling in another city. I would lead the seminary by commuting to the school and here I would be for the week Monday through Friday maybe even into Saturday then I would go back and we would we would live in this community where we would start a church. We thought it might be good to have the two separate from one another so there wouldn't be any confusion. Also it was a great place we thought to cultivate a family life.

There were less people than those living in the metroplex. I'm deliberately not naming the place for obvious reasons and so we began to visit there in hopes of creating an interest among people who might want to help start a church. We tried and tried. We tried a number of different things. We even met in a hotel on one occasion, rented a room, let people know we were meeting there, we wanted to meet for that purpose.

I think on a good day we got nine. Not really overwhelming number of people, maybe eleven, three or four of whom slept through the meeting so it wasn't the kind of electric gathering that you could start a church. So we said to each other you know what the Lord's closing this door that's not what he wants. We need to think about doing it right there in the metroplex.

We don't know where to start, we don't know how to go about that and through the help of a friend or a couple of friends we chose Frisco and we met in the country club over here. First time we were just going to have a little Bible study I thought and word got out and I got there that Wednesday evening 14th of October 1998 and I walked by a room that was bustling with people, 300 people. The room was electric. I thought boy that looks like a party so I said to the manager I need to go in there he says you better they're waiting for you and I said for me and there he said yeah they've been here quite a while and and I walked in there was applause that immediately told me they didn't know me and so I I walked up front and I said welcome everybody and there was further applause. The excitement was over the top. The next week we met there were 450. I mean a little different from the nine when we had met in the other place. Why?

Because there was the beginning of the work of the Spirit to do something significant. I didn't design it. I didn't even know those people or you people. Some of you are still here. I I didn't know what to say.

I've never seen anything like it. Maybe Jesus felt like that when he opened his mouth and began to talk about repenting of their sins. Maybe there were those who climbed out of the darkness and said I've been waiting all my life to hear of something like this. I long to know what it is to have peace within to have the assurance of eternal life. I long to know what it is to be a part of the kingdom of heaven.

To have a kingdom life lived on this earth so that I could please the one that I'm worshiping knowing by his grace he's accepted me into his family. What a privilege Jesus said. Don't miss the fact that we read in verse 17 Jesus began to preach. Familiar to all of us.

Not familiar to them. They had never heard preaching like this in their life. They've sat through the monotonous lectures of the scribes and the demands and legalism of the Pharisees. They'd gone through the schools of the synagogue and been bored through much of that but now they're listening to an individual who has a magnetic supernatural appeal and he's preaching the importance of repentant. The word is caruso.

K-A-R-U-S-S-O. It's the work of a herald in a street as he's involved in a bold clear authoritative message that comes from the king. It's a proclamation of certainties not a suggestion of possibilities. We read in Matthew 7 29 that Jesus spoke with authority not as the scribes. Preaching has an arresting quality to it. It goes far beyond the personality of the preacher.

You find yourself unable to go to sleep. You find yourself riveted to the truth as it's revealed in the print on the page of the scriptures and you wonder what it is. I remember sitting in a gathering at a Billy Graham crusade many of you have done the same.

It's in a stadium happened to be the angel stadium in Anaheim California. Cynthia and I are sitting there with I think I recall 85,000 other people and I looked around and I watched people in this and there stood one man one man at the platform one microphone TV cameras all around of whatever and he stood up with a Bible and began to carousel began to preach. People were riveted to his message and when he stopped at the end of a about 27 minute message brief message of the gospel he said I'm now going to ask you to come forward.

I'm going to ask you to give your heart to Jesus Christ. We saw people climbing over chairs in that stadium pushing one another around to get down into the and before long the entire infield was covered with souls that were ready to give their heart to Christ. Remarkable.

Remarkable scene. I don't believe the response was quite like that in the case of Jesus but I believe the response of interest was that keen. They'd never heard anything like it there in Galilee for they had been on a shroud of darkness and in the grip of sin and here comes one who says there's a better way to live than that and he preaches the good news to them. Now it gets fascinating when you get to verse 18 because in the midst of this itinerary preaching where he goes from one place to another there is no church formed there is no pulpit he does all of his work for the most part outside except when he preaches in the synagogue usually there he's teaching and there's a difference when you preach you preach to the will for the purpose of bringing a change in the mind and heart of the listener when you teach you're giving information to feed the mind so that there's an understanding of what the truth means but now he comes to the shore of the Sea of Galilee we've already seen it on our map and he's walking along the shoreline and he sees two brothers Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. If you read in John's Gospel you'll read where they first encounter Jesus so this this is not the first they've heard him before but he's never offered this invitation before look at the calling imagine it they were throwing their net into the water for they fished for a living don't know if you've ever fished with a casting net I have when we fished in the bay down south near Palacios you would you hold a circular net which has wet lead weights at the bottom and you sling it into the water it lands and you let it drop to the bottom and then you pull it with a drawstring as the bottom comes under it and you bring it up and whatever that net covered in that body of water you're able to bring up in the net that's the way they fished back then he sees them with their nets and he takes advantage of that visual by saying follow me and I will show you how to fish for people you're good at fishing for fish I want to cultivate within you an understanding of how to attract people into the net of salvation please observe they left their nets at once and followed it it was a remarkable expression of trust as the fishermen immediately dropped their nets their livelihood and follow Jesus you're listening to insight for living Chuck's Wendell titled his message where and how it all began it's the ninth study in a verse by verse series through the book of Matthew called the Kings arrival and to learn more about this ministry visit us online at insight world org it's possible you're feeling God's calling you in a new direction today perhaps it's your career maybe a ministry opportunity taking those first steps can be scary well Chuck wrote a book about relinquishing our control and giving our future and our misgivings to God it's called perfect trust to cultivate a stronger more trusting relationship with Jesus we highly recommend this book to purchase a copy of perfect trust go to insight org slash offer in addition Chuck has written a brand new commentary that complements our year-long study in Matthew in fact because of its scope it comes in two hardbound volumes it's called Swindoll's living insights commentary on Matthew these two books include verse by verse insight from Chuck along with charts maps photos key terms and articles as well it's a must-have for pastors teachers really anyone who wants to know more about the Bible to make your purchase of Swindoll's living insights commentary on Matthew or Chuck's popular book perfect trust just visit us online or call us if you're listening in the United States dial 1-800-772-8888 these daily programs are made possible because people like you give generous gifts and through your support people all over the country and even around the world are learning to place their trust in God to give a donation today call us if you're listening in the u.s. dial 1-800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org I'm Dave Spiker tomorrow Chuck Swindoll describes the earliest days of Jesus public ministry listen Tuesday to insight for living the preceding message where and how it all began was copyrighted in 2015 and 2021 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R Swindoll Inc all rights are reserved worldwide duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited