Matthew 4:12-25

[0:00] Father, I certainly found the study for today challenging and also I realise looking forward that it's going to get more challenging. So I do pray that you'll keep my mind sharp as I teach things and also that you'll cause to rise up in the mind of others things that I miss so that overall we don't miss.

[0:18] I'm not foolish enough to think that you couldn't do this without me being here. And so please, I just ask you to use others in the congregation to fill in the gaps. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[0:30] So we're in Matthew's Gospel and we're at chapter 4. And if you recall, we have done the first part of Matthew chapter 4, which was the temptation of Jesus.

[0:47] And today we start in verse 12, which is the beginning of Jesus' ministry after the temptation. What I would just want to say before this is, and I probably should have said it at the start, is Matthew's Gospel as a whole has a structure.

[1:10] And the structure is that the first four chapters talk about stuff that gives credibility to Jesus. It's all historical fact. Jesus did this, Jesus did that, Jesus went here, Jesus went there.

[1:22] So there's very little in the first four chapters of anything that Jesus said. When we come next week, we're going to begin chapter 5. And from the beginning of chapter 5 to the end of chapter 7, if you've got one of these red letter editions, you'll find it's all red, or virtually all red.

[1:41] So next week, we'll get into stuff that Jesus taught. And so what you have is, you have these first four chapters of discourse. You then have, sorry, first four chapters of historical fact.

[1:56] You then have a discourse. Then you have examples of Jesus' ministry and miracles. And then another discourse. And then you have more examples of Jesus' ministry and miracles. And then another discourse.

[2:07] And so it goes on. And I think there are five, but I might have miscounted. There might just be four. But that's the pattern of the gospel. So we're coming to the end of this period of Matthew delivering historical facts to us.

[2:26] And up to now, you may recall that he's been into the wilderness and been tempted.

[2:36] And we learn that that temptation was, firstly, it was a real temptation.

[2:48] He had stuff thrown at him that could have, if he had responded, on the face of it, could have saved him from going to the cross, saved him from suffering, that could have fed him when he was on the brink of starvation.

[3:03] And these were real temptations to a human being who was trying to follow the will of the Father. And mercifully for all of us, he succeeded in making his stand against the devil.

[3:18] And we looked at the fact that he responded to each of those temptations with the word of God, taken from the very word of God that was spoken to the children of Israel when they were about to be released from the land, released from slavery.

[3:34] He quoted from Exodus chapter 8, sorry, Deuteronomy chapter 8 and Deuteronomy chapter 6, where Israel was in the same heart position.

[3:49] They were having their hearts tested when they were going into the wilderness. And so Israel, who was marked out as God's firstborn son, went through testing in the wilderness, just as the real firstborn son of Jesus went through testing before he started his ministry.

[4:09] So I think that's all the introduction we need for the moment. We did also spend some time learning about John the Baptist, didn't we?

[4:25] And so what we're told next, and we'll read it, is that Jesus discovered that John the Baptist had been taken into custody.

[4:37] And I just want to say, John the Baptist was one of God's prophets, Jesus' forerunner, and he was a relative of Jesus, and Jesus would have loved him greatly.

[4:49] And this whole scenario, because he was taken into custody at this point, but we later learn in the Gospels that he was executed when he upset Herodias.

[5:02] So, Psalm 116 verse 15 tells us, Precious unto the Lord is the death of his saints. Unfortunately, the Bible gives no time to this, other than to say Jesus found out that he'd been taken into custody.

[5:22] But that must have been heart-wrenching for Jesus. And I think we should realise that Jesus is beginning his ministry immediately after John has been taken off the scene.

[5:34] John was the forerunner. And John ran ahead of Jesus up to this point where he was taken into custody. And immediately after he was taken into custody, Jesus began his ministry.

[5:46] So there was a separation, as you would expect from the prophetic readings, there was a separation between the man who came in, the man who came, John the Baptist, who came in the power and strength of Elijah, proclaiming Jesus the minute he's taken out of the way, about three and a half years into John the Baptist's ministry, Jesus' ministry of a further three and a half years begins.

[6:14] And so we've got this seven-year period where Israel is blessed by John the Baptist followed by Jesus. Let's read some. So we're going to read from verse 12 to the end of the chapter.

[6:29] Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

[6:44] This was to fulfil what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

[6:56] The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and the shadow of death upon them, a light dawned.

[7:07] From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

[7:26] And he said to them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

[7:43] And he called them. Immediately they left their boat and their father, and followed him. Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

[8:01] The news about him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them.

[8:14] Large crowds followed him from Galilee, and from the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. So, there's a very dynamic kicking off of Jesus' ministry, where, after what seems to be the shortest of periods of grief, after what he heard about John the Baptist, he just gets on with the job.

[8:41] It says he withdrew into Galilee, and then left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum.

[8:57] Just allow me to do this. There we go. Whoops. And I seem to have...

[9:11] Oh, come on. Right. So, what you find is, when Jesus settled in...

[9:25] You know that Jesus was taken into Egypt, came back, and he and his family settled in Nazareth, which was where he grew up. What we learn now is, he leaves Nazareth, which is...

[9:37] Well, my pointer's not working. All right. That could be because I didn't turn it on. Oh. Perhaps it's... There we go. There's Nazareth, down there.

[9:50] Right. But he leaves Nazareth, and he goes to Capernaum, which is up here. And what you notice about Capernaum is that this is on...

[10:01] I think the dotted line here represented is a trade route. So these are trade routes. And so the Sea of Galilee, which is an inland sea, a freshwater sea, we call it a lake, is a very, very busy, busy bit of fishing industry.

[10:22] But you also have, as far as I recall, up here off the map is Phoenicia, and you've got, I believe, the Arabic areas off the map this way, and you've got trade routes.

[10:37] And so this is a busy area, a much more sensible area to begin a gospel mission. So what this indicates is real purpose.

[10:48] Jesus has grown up. He's come to this point where he's been baptised. He's been tempted in the wilderness, and he has said to himself, now is the time to move to somewhere where I can have effective outreach to all sorts.

[11:00] Now the other point I would make about this is Galilee was known as Galilee of the Gentiles. And the word Gentiles means the nations. Galilee of the nations. Galilee of the nations. Now what we know from our Bibles, and I think I do have a scripture reference somewhere, but not there.

[11:24] Oh, Isaiah 42 verse 6. God's firstborn son Israel was called to take the oracles of God to the nations, to be a light unto the Gentiles.

[11:42] Jesus, when he comes and begins his ministry, starts in Galilee of the Gentiles or Galilee of the nations. His first focus was not solely on the Jews. His first focus was where he could also be heard by the nations.

[11:59] And I think there's a significance in that, that he was actually doing what Israel was supposed to have been doing all these years, but because Israel was an unfaithful son, Israel was unfaithful to its calling to give a light to the Gentiles, Jesus immediately began by giving a light to Gentiles as well as Jews, of course.

[12:24] Now we also know, and I've got more maps in a minute, or have I? Yes. In that first bit that we read, there's a prophetic reference, isn't there, where it says, the land of Zebulun, this is verses 15 and 16, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

[12:54] The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.

[13:07] So, Capernaum, Capernaum was about there where my red spot is. Strangely, I couldn't find a map with, well, there's a big arrow there, but it was kind of just on the inside of the lake there.

[13:22] So the nearest Jewish area for them is Naphtali, and immediately adjacent is Zebulun. And prophetically speaking, now the whole of Israel at this time was in under a cloud of darkness.

[13:35] They were under the jackboot of the Romans. They were very much oppressed. And what that prophetic scripture indicates is the light would dawn from Naphtali and Zebulun.

[13:54] So the fact that Jesus, the fact that Matthew recalls that Jesus' ministry started with Naphtali and Zebulun, and he tells us it's a fulfilment of this verse from Isaiah chapter 9, carries on Matthew's purpose of telling us that Jesus this was fulfilling scripture wherever he went.

[14:18] If we turn to Isaiah chapter 9. And the quotation begins in verse 2, really.

[14:37] Well, no, we'll read verse 1 because Zebulun is mentioned there and so is Naphtali. But there will be no more gloom for her. So this suggests that at a time when everything was gloomy for Zebulun and Naphtali, which is like the time when Jesus landed on earth, he was born, he grew up, and began his ministry.

[14:56] At that time, Naphtali and Zebulun were in gloom. But there will be no more gloom for her, who was in anguish. In earlier times, he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt.

[15:13] But later on, he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea. On the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.

[15:28] And it goes on, you shall multiply the nation, etc. The only point I'm making is that even in the choice of beginning the ministry, the fact that he moved to Capernaum, which was right on the edge of Naphtali and, I guess, Aramea.

[15:48] Because we see there the land of the Arameans. And Naphtali's border is right there. So Capernaum's right on that border.

[15:58] And so the first people to be exposed to this blinding light of Jesus' ministry were the very people Isaiah said would be.

[16:13] So it's an important fulfilment of scripture. Now I'm going to take the print off the screen because it can be a distraction.

[16:28] I just wish I was quicker with this mouse. So then you've got this really curious description of the beginning of what appears to be his ministry.

[16:45] The first thing is he started preaching. It says verse 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say so from the time of the incarceration of John the Baptist and from the time that he then moved to Capernaum he began to preach.

[17:15] And what he was preaching was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does that actually mean? And that's a question I've asked myself quite a lot.

[17:25] What does it mean to say the kingdom of heaven was at hand? Because if you lived in the land in those days you would think it was the kingdom of Rome that was at hand. You would be living under Roman rule or alternatively if you were a Jew you'd be living under both the kingdom of Rome and you'd be living under the oppressive rule of the religious leaders.

[17:46] but nothing had changed. There was no evidence that you were in a new kingdom. But the kingdom the evidence of the kingdom is that the king has turned up.

[18:03] Now whilst they wouldn't have immediately noticed a change obviously there's going to be a local change if Jesus starts healing people everywhere and casting out demons and preaching the gospel and taking charge and showing himself to be really superior to the religious leaders but there's no outward evidence that a kingdom has arrived apart from the fact that the king has now turned up.

[18:29] So Jesus' message was your king is now with you. That is that is the thing that determines whether there is a kingdom or not. Is the king present?

[18:40] So what Jesus was saying is the king is present. And one of the first things he does and we're going to have to read from Luke's gospel in a moment because there's another account there but let's deal with this first.

[18:58] Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Verse 18 Now as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men and immediately they left their nets and followed him.

[19:18] Now that sounds really random. If you didn't know more why would two guys go whilst their mending nets go okay and immediately get up and leave the boat and walk away from their father.

[19:37] and from their family and from their trade fishing we must understand was quite a prosperous living around Galilee. They would have been reasonably well off they wouldn't have been paupers the fish that they produced would have been sold locally and would have been exported far and wide was a lucrative business to be a part of so there was significant I mean if we read on to the he's called he's called Simon and Andrew or Peter and Andrew verse 21 going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him so you've got these two boats two sets of sons leave their family leave their trade out of nowhere and go yep we're coming we'll follow you it seems so random and the cost involved was massive you walk away from not just a nitty bitty business but a prosperous business it seems that the two well all four of these brothers had some share in working together so together they had built businesses that were really prosperous so there was a financial cost there was also they'd done something that wasn't socially acceptable in that culture they'd left their father as a son as a loyal son you were supposed to stay with your father and help him develop the business but they left so there was a cultural cost many of their contemporaries would have said horrible things about them for what they did they also left families behind and so there was an emotional cost these men left what they were doing at massive personal cost and to do that because some random chap comes past and says come with me and

[21:56] I'll make you fishers of men seems ridiculous and it is if that's all you know but if we turn to Luke's gospel chapter four and start reading at verse 14 you've got the same story given by Luke with some extra detail Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirit and the news about him spread through all the surrounding districts so that's the first point the news about Jesus had already spread throughout the district so what Jesus was doing would not have been a surprise to these fishermen and he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all and he came to

[23:05] Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and he opened the book and found the place where it is written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the favourable year of the Lord and he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing now although that happened in Nazareth the news of that event would have got about because what then happened and all were speaking well of him and were wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips and they were saying is this not Joseph's son you know this is Joe's boy what's Joe's boy doing doing this and he said to them no doubt you will quote this proverb to me physician heal yourself whatever we heard whatever we heard was done at

[24:17] Capernaum do here in your hometown as well so at this stage Jesus has already been to Capernaum and he's already widely known when he returns to Nazareth verse 24 truly I say to you no prophet is welcome in his hometown but I say to you in truth there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was shut up for three years and six months when a great famine came over the land and yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow and there were many lepers in Israel at the time of Elijah the prophet and none of them was cleansed but only Naaman the Syrian and all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things and they got up and drove him out of the city and led him to the brow of a hill on which their city had been built in order to throw him down a cliff why have I gone through all that well Jesus had gone to some Jews in Nazareth and what he had sent to them in this pointing out that

[25:21] Elijah wasn't sent to any of the widows of Israel but only to this widow in Zarephath he was saying you Jews you think you're the bee's knees you think you're it but actually you're not all that really I'll read you something that I took from an article on the subject and it says the people thought that because their nation Israel was the chosen nation of God that Israelites should be treated specially by God's prophets in the same way they thought Nazareth should be treated specially because they knew more about Jesus than the other towns in which he had done miracles in Luke 4 Jesus responds to this expectation by giving examples of prophets who did not do mighty works in their own town or even in the nation of Israel Elijah went to the widow in Zarephath rather than one in Israel Elisha healed a foreign general named

[26:22] Naaman rather than healing Israelite lepers Jesus was giving examples where the inferior so called Gentiles had been shown miracles that the chosen people of Israel had not been shown he was putting Israel in its place he was putting Nazarenes in their place saying you really aren't as wonderful as you think you are for those of you who studied the book of Romans the first three chapters says to three different sections of society one of which is Israel you really aren't who you think you are you need saving and what he was saying to the Nazarenes was you need saving and instead of the Nazarenes falling on their knees in repentance they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff very much the same spirit that you get today when you preach the gospel in a lot of places so if we turn to

[27:25] John's gospel and I need a reference I may have shot myself a little bit in the foot here no John chapter one I think this is right and if we start looking at from verse 35 this is John's account of the same time and it's talking about John the Baptist ministry again the next day

[28:29] John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said behold the Lamb of God two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them what do you see and they said to him Rabbi which translated means teacher where are you staying now apparently if you were a Jew who wanted to learn to be a rabbi you would find a practicing rabbi and you'd hang around and when the rabbi eventually noticed you he would say what do you seek what are you looking for why are you following me and your response if you wanted to be taken under that rabbi's tutelage would be to reply where are you staying so they had they had seen something in these guys these guys had seen something in Jesus and they wanted him to be their rabbi verse 19 he said to them come and you will see which is the standard rabbinical response when somebody expresses an interest so they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour one of the two who heard

[29:53] John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother he found first his own brother Simon and said to him we have found Messiah which translated means Christ and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked to him and said you are Simon the son of John you shall be called Cephas which is translated Peter so my point in going through all this is this was no random event at all they were in the boat mending nets Andrew had already been with John the Baptist when John the Baptist pointed out Jesus and said behold the Lamb of God he had gone back to his brother and said we found Messiah come and meet him before the event in Matthew's gospel Jesus has already renamed Peter renamed him from Simon to Peter so when he turned up at the boat and said come and follow me there was history already is my point this wasn't a mindless faith action this was faith built on some history with

[31:02] Jesus I would contend that all of us need faith that's built on interaction with Jesus otherwise we tend to make things up and you get the weirdest of doctrines that come out particularly just now in the period of history we're in now what is then said going back to Matthew I think the last slide that I'm going to look at today I think there are lots of points of application and I'll try and deal with them all at the end because I think there's a lot to learn from the way the disciples got hooked into Jesus and the way they followed him and also when we're dealing with unsaved people there's a lot for us to learn from the way Jesus handled unsaved people what we learn is going to verse 23 Jesus going throughout all

[32:06] Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people so the first thing is this is extreme and dramatic this isn't you know somebody turned up with a headache and went away without a headache and this isn't it isn't you know I prayed for 65 odd people to get healed and one of them did this was everybody was coming to him from all over the place with every kind of sickness every kind of disease every kind of possession and he dealt with all of them those people who finished up around Jesus saw an end of sickness and disability it wasn't just it wasn't even here and there it was a blanket movement of transition from ill health to health from possession to freedom hence it was remarkable and word spread what we then read in verse 24 the news about him spread throughout all Syria now Syria is a long way from the sea of Galilee and Capernaum they brought to him all who were ill those suffering with various diseases and pains demoniacs epileptics paralytics and he healed them so the first thing is Jesus was not discriminatory whoever turned up with sick people he healed them there is a tendency for us to have a mentality that we pray for people in the church but we don't necessarily are not quite so rigorous in our prayer for those who we know aren't saved whereas I think it's a great tool for evangelism to pray for the people who have come all the way from Syria and you find out they're sick and you pray for them because when you tell them I'm praying for you and then they get well you have you have a toe in the door for evangelism he was indiscriminate about his application of both the gospel and the healing that went with it he preached to everyone and in that last verse it says large crowds followed him from Galilee and the

[34:44] Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan now let me do this again and I probably is it gonna it looks as if it might yes so people disagree about this list if you go on the internet and type in what were the towns of the Decapolis you will get lists that broadly agree but every now and again you'll find they differ on one town or the other but you've got this list of towns now the only reason I put it up there is to show that these were real towns when it says the Decapolis the Decapolis was a group of ten towns in the area now oh that wasn't supposed to happen okay that screen comes on and that one goes off it doesn't matter

[36:03] I need to get rid of that just click that's it fantastic so now it's stopped click on the powerpoint you say so those towns are in black on this map so if you happen to live in hippos you had about a six mile walk to see Jesus but if you lived in Philadelphia it was something like a 50 mile walk to see Jesus so these people walked word spread and they were sick and ill and desperate and they walked up to 50 miles plus they also it says came from

[37:14] Jerusalem which is down here which is getting on for 100 miles away and they didn't have cars or helicopters or you know they trudged in sandals across the desert that far because they'd heard that Jesus was ministering in Capernaum and so they set off and in their desperation and you can imagine some of them carrying sick children and the like it was a desperate state of affairs for people who saw Jesus as a potential release we do the same thing today and often we are misled if you think of the thousands upon thousands that went that took planes across to Florida to listen to a rather ridiculous character whose name has gone out of my head Bentley Todd Bentley preaching a false gospel a man who was not

[38:15] Christ like in the least was not preaching a true gospel and was faking the miraculous as a result of which thousands of people got on airplanes and got totally duped these people had Jesus turned out to be a charlatan they would have made that journey because of the reputation he had and they would have got there and found that they stayed sick but the testimony of the nation at the time was one of healing we walked 55 miles we saw Jesus and he healed us and then we listened to his gospel and I think I'm always one to say look to those who might wonder could this possibly really be true the number of witnesses to these events were such and had travelled so far and were from such varied backgrounds so it couldn't have been a ganging up of the Jews where the Jews were against

[39:15] Jesus anyway so they wouldn't have done so it couldn't have been a ganging up of the locals to try and pump Jesus up with a reputation he didn't really deserve these people came from all over and all gave the same testimony Jesus healed many of all diseases and all demon possession and paralysis and you name it he healed it and then he gave us this gospel of the kingdom the gospel that says the king is here and he proved the king is here by doing what the old testament said the king would do when he arrived and I guess that's my that's my connected trail of evidence he did what the old testament said he would do when he got there so how long so how long have I got left perfect unusual for me points of application these are just things that I came up with off the top of my head as I reviewed that in my mind and thought what are we supposed to take away from this what can we how can our lives change as a result of reading this and the first one was

[40:26] Jesus doesn't usually call people because of their qualifications but because of their obedience right Peter and Andrew and John and whoever the other one was was it James they they weren't the people you would go into a forum and pick out as the best evangelists in the room because of their qualifications they were just ready to run with it they had been gripped by Jesus and if you've been gripped by Jesus and you're prepared to obey that's all God needs he did it with Moses despite a terrible stammer because he gave him a sidekick to help him people church history shows Paul the apostle Paul you know apparently he was a very unimpressive man he didn't have great stature he wasn't handsome and he wasn't even a good public speaker so they say but look what God did with him so it's not down to your qualification how good you are at speaking how long your prayers are or any of those things it's just are you prepared to obey the next point of application expect there to be a cost to following

[41:42] Jesus it's likely to cost you financially and in terms of time and in terms of heartache sometimes when you have to leave your family to do things another point of application it's not common for Jesus to launch people immediately into ministry one of the reasons I belaboured the point that these disciples didn't just leave the boat based on no background knowledge they'd had exposure to Jesus and to his teaching and personal contact Peter had even been renamed Peter if we read I can't remember which gospel it's in but if you recall Jesus went to Peter's house and healed his mother-in-law there was a lot of interaction before discipleship started and certainly before it reached a point where they were out preaching Jesus showed immense love and compassion and so should we and I have to confess

[42:44] I have a weakness here because there are some people who get right up my nose and I need to be compassionate for them I'm sure there must have been so many people when you think the unrighteous bunch he was presented with who were into all kinds of stuff they must have been offensive to him and yet he showed them love and compassion and it's very important that when people come to us they find the love and compassion of God we love because he first loved us we're reading I think it's 1 John and I can't remember the chapter we love because he first loved us so if he has loved us we should pass that on the next point is really a nightmare Jesus healed the sick and delivered the demon possessed I don't find many people with a healing ministry these days if I had a healing ministry

[43:48] I wouldn't be here I'd be up at the hospital clearing out the wards which is what Jesus did with his healing ministry here I mean he just got rid of sickness if I had a healing ministry I'd be getting rid of sickness wherever I went most people today have the same ministry that I do which is they pray for the sick I don't have a gift of healing I can pray for the sick and sometimes God will heal the sick I'm not saying by that that there is no such thing as a gift of healing anymore I just don't come across it very often I come across lots of people who claim to have it and don't produce the goods I'll take a moment to share a testimony where somebody visited my church when I

[45:00] Matthew's gospel continually refers to Jesus fulfilment of prophecy and we should expect this to continue there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled and we should be watching for the fulfilment of them Matthew has told us pointed out to us all these prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus we need to understand our own times and look at what's happening politically and in nations and with groups of people and be discerning as to where we are in the state of prophecy hence the little departure we had a few weeks ago so Father thank you for this word in one sense I love it in another sense I hate it when I feel inadequate to the task of delivering a study but Lord none of this depends upon me and I pray!

[45:56] it never will I just ask that you will sow into our minds and our hearts the things we need to retain and if anything I've spoken is rubbish that you would erase it from people's memories Father we thank you for your word and we thank you that it prepares us for the life we have yet to finish living in Jesus name Amen