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BOOK 40 OF 66 · GOSPELS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Matthew 4

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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Matthew 4 Overview

After His baptism Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness and tempted by the devil. He answers each temptation with Scripture and refuses shortcuts involving appetite, spectacle, or worship of Satan. Returning to Galilee after John’s imprisonment, He begins preaching the kingdom, calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and ministers throughout Galilee with teaching, preaching, and healing.

MatthewBook
4Chapter
25Verses
GospelsDivision

Before you read Matthew 4

Coming from

Matthew 3 established the immediate context: John the Baptist appears in the wilderness preaching repentance because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In this chapter

Matthew 4 moves from the tested Son’s victory over Satan into the opening of public ministry and the calling of disciples.

Leads into

Matthew 5 continues the account: Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, calls His disciples salt and light, explains His relationship to the law, and repeatedly moves from external righteousness to the heart.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The temptations echo Israel’s wilderness history, but Jesus succeeds where Israel failed. His Scripture quotations all come from Deuteronomy’s wilderness context.

The kingdom message is not presented as a new self-help ethic; it announces God’s royal action centered in the Messiah.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Jesus resists temptation without compromising worship

He refuses to use divine sonship as permission for self-serving shortcuts.

Scripture is handled in context, not as magic words

Satan can cite Scripture too; Jesus answers false use with faithful obedience to God.

The kingdom light reaches Galilee

Matthew connects Jesus’ Galilean ministry with Isaiah’s promise of light in darkness.

Discipleship means following the Person of Christ

The fishermen leave their ordinary work because Jesus calls them to follow Him.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Deuteronomy 6–8

Jesus’ three replies come from Israel’s wilderness instruction.

Isaiah 9:1–2

Matthew explicitly connects Galilee’s light with Jesus’ ministry.

Hebrews 4:15

Jesus is later described as tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.

Mark 1:12–20

Mark gives a briefer parallel of the temptation and disciple call.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not assume every temptation will be defeated merely by quoting an isolated verse

Jesus knows and obeys Scripture faithfully; Satan also misuses Scripture.

Do not infer that temptation itself is sin

Jesus is tempted yet remains sinless.

Do not confuse the call to discipleship with the condition for receiving eternal life

Following in service can be costly; eternal life is received by faith in Christ.

Read Matthew 4 watching for…

How each temptation attacks Jesus’ identity or mission.

The Old Testament passages Jesus uses.

The shift after John is imprisoned.

The fulfillment connected to Galilee.

What the first disciples leave and whom they follow.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline4 sections
1-11Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness and answers with Scripture12-17Jesus begins preaching in Galilee and calls people to repent because the kingdom is at hand18-22Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow him23-25Jesus teaches, preaches, heals, and draws great multitudes
1

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

5

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

7

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

8

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

11

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

12

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

13

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

14

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

15

The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

16

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

17

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

18

And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

19

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

20

And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

21

And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

22

And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

23

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

25

And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

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