Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00050

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00050
 # Mt 3:2
    \\Repent ye.\\ The great rite of John was baptism, the great
 duty commanded was repentance. Repentance is more than a sorrow for
 sin; it is a change of direction and a new life.
 # 2Co 7:10
    \\The kingdom of heaven.\\ The long awaited kingdom ruled by
 the Messiah King, predicted by the prophets, especially Daniel.
 # Da 2:44
 The proclamation of this kingdom thrilled all Judea.
    \\Is at hand.\\ It is noted:
 (1) That the kingdom to which he referred was in the near future.
 (2) It is the \\kingdom of heaven\\, not an earthly kingdom, and
     hence, must have a heavenly King.  That King was not yet
     proclaimed by name to the general public, but one announced by
     angels at Bethlehem was to be the King. John was the herald of
     the King.
 (PNT 26 edited)
00051
 # Mt 3:3
    \\The voice of one crying in the wilderness.\\ John was
 called a \\voice\\,
 (1) because the whole man was a sermon;
 (2) because he would call not attention to himself as a person,
     but only to the Saviour, whose way he had come to prepare.
     For the prophecy see
 # Isa 40:3
    \\Prepare ye the way of the Lord.\\ The messengers sent
 before the eastern kings prepared the way for the chariots and
 armies of their monarchs. A "king's highway" had to be carried
 through the open land of the wilderness, valleys filled up, and
 hills levelled. Interpreted in its spiritual application, the
 wilderness was the world lying in evil.
    \\Make his paths straight.\\ Roads that have not been
 properly directed at the beginning. So are the ways of men when
 no preparation has been made for the GREAT KING. When John
 cried, "Make his paths straight," he means, "Stop your crooked
 ways."
 (PNT 27)
00052
 # Mt 3:4
    \\Raiment of camel's hair.\\ Not the camel's skin with hair
 on it, but a garment made of the shaggier camel's hair, woven in
 a coarse fabric. It was recognized as a garb of the prophets,
 and is still worn in the East by the poor.
 # 2Ki 1:8 Zec 13:4
    \\A leather waistband about his loins.\\ The "leather
 waistband" may be seen around the body of the common labourer. It
 fastens the loose raiment of the East about the waist.
    \\Locusts.\\ Permitted to the Jews as an article of food, and
 still used by the poorer classes in Arabia, Egypt and Nubia.
 They are a large, voracious insect, much like the Rocky Mountain
 grasshopper.
 # Le 11:22
    \\Wild honey.\\ Honey deposited by wild swarms of bees in the
 rocks. So abundant was it that Palestine was described as
 "flowing with milk and honey." John was no epicure, and used
 such food as the wilderness provided.
 (PNT 27)
00053
 # Mt 3:5
    \\There went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea.\\ These
 expressions must be taken, not as meaning every individual, but
 as showing the wonderful impression produced by his preaching.
 All Judea, and among the rest, the people of Jerusalem came.
 (PNT 27)
00054
 # Mt 3:6
    \\And were baptized of him in the Jordan.\\ Note that the
 baptism took place not at, but \\in\\, the Jordan. The
 Jordan, the principal stream of Palestine, rises in the
 mountains of Lebanon, runs south into the sea of Galilee, leaves
 it and descends southward along Galilee, Samaria and Judea, to
 the Dead Sea. In many places the stream is fordable, and
 furnishes good facilities for baptizing.
    \\Confessing their sins.\\ Baptism itself, a burial in water, a
 "baptism into death," a symbol of the burial of one who dies to the
 old life, is a public renunciation of sins. There was, perhaps, also
 a verbal confession of sin.  Confession, repentance and immersion in
 water are prescribed.
 (PNT 27 edited)
00055
 # Mt 3:7
    \\When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\\ The two
 principal religious sects.
 (1) The first originated in the time of the Maccabees, and were
     a kind of Jewish Puritans, but had in the Saviour's time
     degenerated into a set of formalists, who paid far more
     attention to outward forms than to inner life. They were
     scrupulous in observing ceremonies, very orthodox, but were
     filled with spiritual pride. From an early period of
     Christ's ministry they opposed him.
 (2) The other principal sect of the Jews, the Sadducees, derived
     their name from Sadduc, the founder of the sect; were
     irreligious, sensual and sceptical. They were materialists,
     and denied "angel, spirit, or the resurrection of the dead."
     Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests, were Sadducees.
    \\Generation of vipers.\\ The guilty corrupted race had
 become a generation of vipers; not only poisonous, hateful to
 God, hating one another. The viper is hateful, full of hate, and
 dangerous.
    \\Who hath warned you?\\ Malachi had predicted the wrath to
 come. John's question expresses doubt of their sincerity.
 # Mal 3:2 4:5
 (PNT 27-28)
00056
 # Mt 3:8
    \\Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.\\ There
 is no repentance whatever unless there is a change of life as
 the result. The change of life is the proof of the change of
 heart.
 (PNT 28)
00057
 # Mt 3:9
    \\Think not to say . . . We have Abraham for [our] father.\\
 They believed that Abraham;s race was to be saved, if all else
 were destroyed. John destroys the refuge of sin.
    \\Of these stones.\\ Pointing, perhaps, to the stones of the
 Jordan. In thus sinking the higher claims of Judaism, John
 points to the Gentiles, who were to become Abraham's children by
 faith.
 # Ga 3:29
 (PNT 28)
00058
 # Mt 3:10
    \\The axe is laid to the root of the tree.\\ A sign that the
 tree is to be cut down. The tree meant is the Jewish nation.
    \\Every tree.\\ A fruitless fig-tree was afterward made by
 our Lord the representative of the whole Jewish nation, but here
 John declares a universal law. What does not bear fruit shall
 finally be destroyed.
 # Lu 13:6-9
    \\Cast into the fire.\\ When the tree is not fruitful, or
 bears useless fruit, it is fit for nothing but to be burned.
 (PNT 28)
00059
 # Mt 3:11
    \\I indeed baptize you with water to repentance.\\ His
 baptism was only a water baptism. The King could send the Holy
 Spirit, and give a mightier baptism, in addition to the outward
 baptism.
    \\Mightier than I.\\ In that he can perform all that I only
 promise.
    \\Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.\\ The duty of a slave,
 or one greatly inferior in rank. In the Orient sandals are
 generally removed on entering a house, and left in charge of a
 servant, who brings them again when needed. So humble was John,
 compared with the King, that he was hardly worthy to be his
 servant.
    \\He shall baptize with the Holy Spirit.\\ In order to know
 what is meant we must refer to the fulfilment. On the day of
 Pentecost occurred such a baptism, the first so recognized in
 the New Testament. Then the spirits of the apostles were
 overwhelmed by the Divine Spirit, so that they spoke as he gave
 them utterance. It was Christ who "shed forth" the baptism of
 that occasion. This would be plainer had the Greek \\en\\, here
 rendered "with," has been rendered "in," after the word
 "baptize." Of the 2,600 occurrences of \\en\\ in the Greek New
 Testament, it is rendered "in" in the KJV 2,045 times. The ASV
 so renders it in connection with the word "baptize," and is
 doubtless right. These great scholars, mostly learned
 Pedo-baptists, would say, "Baptize \\in\\ water," "Baptize
 \\in\\ the Holy Spirit."
    \\And [with] fire.\\ The term "fire" is used in verse 10, and
 there means a destroying agency; it is used again in verse 12 in
 the same sense; it is used in verse 11, also, the intervening
 verse, and must be used in exactly the same sense as in the
 other two verses. It cannot mean a curse in verses 10 and 12,
 and a blessing in verse 11, without a word of explanation. It is
 strange, therefore, that all commentators should not agree that
 the baptism of fire is a baptism of trial and suffering. There
 were two classes before John. Some would repent and be baptized
 finally in the Holy Spirit; there were others who would remain
 impenitent, and be baptized in the awful trials that would come
 upon Israel. The next verse explains this. John says in it that
 there is the wheat and the chaff; one shall be gathered into the
 garner and the other burned.
 # 3:10-12
 (PNT 28)
00060
 # Mt 3:12
    \\Fan [is] in his hand.\\ Rather the winnowing shovel, by
 which the wheat and chaff were tossed together into the air, so
 that the wind would blow the chaff away. In Palestine grain was
 threshed on an outdoor threshing floor, either by hand or the
 treading of cattle, and winnowed by casting it up to the wind.
    \\Gather his wheat into the barn.\\ Granary, or grain
 depository.
    \\Unquenchable fire.\\ A reference is here made to the
 practice of burning the chaff under process of winnowing. The
 wheat is the righteous, the chaff is the wicked, and Christ is
 the winnower; the granary is heaven, the unquenchable fire is
 hell.
 (PNT 28-29)
00061
 # Mt 3:13
    \\Then cometh Jesus.\\ Not named by Matthew since he was
 taken to Nazareth in childhood. From Luke we learn that he was
 subject to his parents, at twelve years of age astonished the
 doctors in the temple by his wisdom, and was now thirty years of
 age. He had worked in Nazareth as a carpenter.
    \\Galilee.\\ The northern part of Palestine, containing at
 this time, according at this time, according to Josephus, 240
 towns and villages and an immense population.
    \\To be baptized.\\ He came for this purpose. He sought the
 rite.
 (PNT 29)
00062
 # Mt 3:14
    \\John forbad him.\\ The objection that John made to the
 baptism of Christ implies some knowledge of him. Their mothers
 were cousins, but there is no evidence that Jesus and John had
 ever met. The Spirit had told John to proclaim the Redeemer and
 had given him a sign by which he should know him. When Jesus
 came before him, he perhaps knew, by the Spirit, his purity, and
 may have believed that he was the Messiah, but as yet he "knew
 him not." He could not be certain until he saw the Divine sign.
 # Joh 1:33
    \\I have need to be baptized by thee.\\ These words were
 uttered under the conviction, not certainty, that Jesus was the
 Christ.
 (PNT 29)
00063
 # Mt 3:15
    \\Permit [it to be so] now.\\ The term "now" implies that the
 relation of Jesus to his work made it proper that now he should
 be baptized. It is true that baptism was for sinners; Jesus was
 sinless; but he humbled himself, accepted the burden of human
 duties, and must set a perfect example to men. He obeyed the
 Jewish law, and it was needful also that he obey the Divine rite
 that John had inaugurated.
    \\Thus it is fitting for us.\\ In order to fulfil all
 righteousness, show forth a perfect obedience, set a perfect
 example, it became him to submit to the institution of baptism,
 and it became John to administer it to him. "Us" refers to Jesus
 and John.
 (PNT 29)
00064
 # Mt 3:16
    \\And Jesus, when he was baptized.\\ The baptism took place
 in the river Jordan, and was doubtless by immersion. Dr.
 Whitney, of the Church of England, on this passage, says: "The
 observation of the Greek Church is this, that he who ascended
 out of the water must first descend into it. Baptism is
 therefore to be performed, not by sprinkling, but by washing the
 body." Dr. Schaff, the great Pedo-baptist scholar, says: "While
 the validity of baptism does not depend on the quantity or
 quality of water, or the mode of its application, yet immersion
 and emersion is the primitive and expressive mode to symbolize
 the idea of entire spiritual purification and renovation." Dr.
 Schaff also says: "The Greek word \\baptize\\ is derived from a
 root that means 'to dip,' 'to immerse.'" These views are
 endorsed by all the great Pedo-baptist scholars.
    \\Went up immediately out of the water.\\ The ASV says "from
 the water," which is correct, as the preposition is \\apo\\; yet
 Mark [1:10] uses \\ek\\ in giving the same account, which the
 ASV correctly renders "out of." He went up, praying, as we learn
 from
 # Mr 1:10 Lu 3:21
    \\Lo, the heavens were opened to him.\\ The skies were
 parted, rolled back, so as to reveal, as it were, the throne of
 God.
    \\Spirit of God descending like a dove.\\ In form, and not,
 as some suppose, in motion merely, which would convey no
 definite idea. It descended to anoint him to be Christ.

 (PNT 29)
00065
 # Mt 3:17
    \\A voice from heaven.\\ Three times God speaks from heaven
 in connection with the ministry of Christ--at his baptism, his
 transfiguration, and in the temple just before his suffering.
    \\This is my beloved Son.\\ The very words addressed to the
 Messiah in
 # Ps 2:7
 and from which the \\Son of God\\ became one of his standing
 appellations.
    Thus the baptism of Christ was the occasion of his public
 recognition. No reader should fail to observe the significance
 of the \\time\\ chosen by God for the acknowledgment of the Son.
 It is just after he has humbled himself in an act of obedience,
 in baptism, that the Holy Spirit anoints him as the Christ, and
 God formally acknowledges him as his Son. No more forcible
 expression of the estimate set by God on this institution could
 be given.
    This example and the New Testament harmonizes in teaching
 (1) That we must be baptized if we would follow Christ.
 (2) That it is when we repent and are baptized that we receive
     the Holy Spirit.
     # Ac 2:38
 (3) That when we have obeyed the Lord he will recognize us as
     his children.
 (PNT (29-30)
00066
 # Mt 4:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 4
  \\The Temptation, and Christ's Ministry in Galilee\\

  Jesus in the Wilderness
  The Tempter
  The Temptation to Convert Stones into Bread
  The Temptation to Cast Himself from the Temple
  The Offer of Worldly Power and Glory
  Ministering Angels
  The Galilean Ministry
  Disciples Called
  Preaching and Healing
  The Fame of Christ

    \\Then was Jesus led by the Spirit.\\ Mark says he was
 driven by the Spirit, a phrase that indicates a sudden and
 forcible impulsion. See
 # Mr 1:12
    \\Into the wilderness.\\ Tradition has placed the scene of
 Christ's temptation in that part of the wilderness of Judea
 which lies between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, and particularly
 in the mountain called Quarantania, from this forty days' fast.
    \\To be tempted.\\ Christ must be tempted
 (1) Because it was impossible that one who came to overthrow
     the kingdom of Satan should not be attacked by the great
     adversary at the very threshold.
 (2) It was to test him.
 (3) It was to prepare him, by being tempted like as we are, and
     yet gaining the victory, to "succour them that are tempted."
 # Heb 2:18
 (4) It was to set an example for us when we are tempted.
    The three great temptations mentioned by Matthew are the
 three great classes of temptations to which men are now exposed.
    \\By the devil.\\ Here the existence and personality of Satan
 are placed before us in the most distinct language. The devil is
 (1) A person
 # Eph 2:2 6:12 Heb 2:14 Jude 1:6
 (2) A fallen angel
 # Joh 8:44 2Pe 2:4 Jude 1:6
 The word "devil" means false accuser.
 (PNT 30)
00067
 # Mt 4:2
    \\When he had fasted forty days and forty nights.\\ Moses and
 Elijah each fasted for the same length of time. It was a period
 of spiritual exaltation, of meditation and prayer, of
 preparation for his work, and it is hardly probable that he felt
 the need of food.
    \\He was afterward hungry.\\ At the close of this period
 nature began to assert her demands, and hunger was keenly felt.
 (PNT 30)
00068
 # Mt 4:3
    \\The tempter came to him.\\ The devil. He chose his time
 craftily, as he always does when he assails man. Whether he came
 in a personal form or as the whisper of the evil spirit is
 uncertain.
    \\If thou art the Son of God.\\ "If" suggests a doubt, and,
 perhaps, a taunt. It is a cunning appeal to Christ to work a
 miracle to satisfy his hunger and to display his power. It would
 seem an innocent thing for Christ to make bread when he was
 hungry, for himself, as he afterwards did for the five thousand.
 Why not? Because if he had availed himself of his Divine power
 to escape the discomforts and sufferings of humanity he would
 have failed to suffer as we do, to set us an example in all
 things, to be tempted in all points as we are; and besides, he
 "came to minister," never to use his Divine power for their own
 benefit. To have so exerted it for selfish and vainglorious
 purposes would have been sinful, and a distrust of God. Christ
 came to save others, not himself. Self-denial was the law of his
 mission.
 # 20:28 Mr 10:45
 (PNT 30)
00069
 # Mt 4:4
    \\But he answered and said, It is written.\\ The Lord uses
 the sword of the Spirit in his reply. The word quoted should be
 used in its connection, in order to comprehend its force.
 # De 8:3
    \\But by every word,\\ etc. The meaning is: If it pleases God
 to sustain by other means than bread, it will be done. His word
 can be trusted. God fed Israel with manna, sent by his word, and
 we can trust his promises.
 (PNT 30-31)
00070
 # Mt 4:5
    \\Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city.\\ What way
 the devil took him, whether bodily or in spirit, we are not
 told.
    \\On a pinnacle of the temple.\\ The only portion of the
 temple that seems to answer to the context was the lofty porch
 overhanging the valley of Kidron. Josephus says that from the
 roof to the valley below at this point was 300 feet.
 (PNT 31)
00071
 # Mt 4:6
    \\If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down.\\ Again the
 doubt is implied and the taunt uttered. Jesus had expressed his
 trust in the word of God. The devil now asks him to go from the
 extreme of distrust to that of rashly tempting God. It was,
 perhaps, the demand so often repeated and always refused, "to
 show a sign from heaven," to make a display of his power to
 secure popular applause.
 # 16:1 Mr 8:11 Lu 11:16
    Perhaps the evil spirit whispered to him to perform one
 stupendous miracle in Jerusalem, in the presence of all people,
 and to secure such fame that he would reach the throne without
 treading the thorny way of the cross. To have done so would
 have robbed the world of its Saviour. "It behoved him to die,
 and to rise again."
    \\He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.\\ The
 enemy, like a false adviser, quotes from
 # Ps 91:11
 to justify his request, but he garbled the Scripture, leaving
 out "to keep thee in all thy ways," which follows the first
 clause. The promise is limited to those who walk in the way
 appointed to them.
 (PNT 31)
00072
 # Mt 4:7
    \\Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.\\ Again the Saviour
 replies in the words of Scripture, this time quoting from
 # De 6:16
 There is no argument, but a simple reply that shows what is
 asked is forbidden.
 (PNT 31)
00073
 # Mt 4:8
    \\Taketh him up upon into an exceeding high mountain.\\ From a
 lofty location he spreads before Jesus a panorama of the kingdoms of
 this world with all their glory. We do not suppose that all the
 kingdoms were literally visible, but perhaps even past and future
 kingdoms were portrayed so as to tempt him.
 (PNT 31 edited)
00074
 # Mt 4:9
    \\All these things will I give thee.\\ All disguise is laid
 aside. Satan claims to be the Prince of the world and the
 disposer of human kingdoms. Jesus came to be a King, but the
 pathway to the crown is weary, painful, beset with thorns and
 blood. Satan proposes an easier way. He will rally the Jewish
 nation around him, set him on the throne of David, make him the
 Messiah King of the world, if he will only consent to give up
 his idea of a spiritual kingdom, "not of this world" and worship
 the god of this world by conforming his kingdom to the worldly
 ideas of Israel. The temptation is to turn away from the path of
 self-denial, the cross and the tomb, and to establish an
 outward, worldly domain.
 # Joh 18:36
 (PNT 31)
00075
 # Mt 4:10
    \\Be gone, Satan.\\ As the tempter was revealed Jesus rebukes
 him. The word, "Get thee hence," "begone," expresses abhorrence.
 The adversary is called by name and bidden to depart. Then his
 reason is added, in the words of Scripture, found in
 # De 6:13
    \\Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt\\
 \\thou serve.\\ This passage forbids every kind of religious
 adoration to any other object than Jehovah, whether it be idols,
 false gods, popes, Virgin Mary, saints, or angels. The three
 temptations had been met: three times the tempter had been
 baffled, three times the victory had been won. The first assault
 had been made through the door of appetite, "the lust of the
 flesh"; the second through vain glory, "the lust of the eyes";
 the third through ambition, "the pride of life."
 # 1Jo 2:16
 All had appealed to Jesus to turn away from the pathway of
 self-denial and suffering marked out for him. All had been met
 by the shield of faith, and the tempter beaten back by the word
 of the Spirit.
 (PNT 31-32)
00076
 # Mt 4:11
    \\Then the devil leaveth him.\\ Luke adds, "for a season."
 # Lu 4:13
 When the devil is resisted he always flees.
    \\Angels came and ministered to him.\\ I suppose this
 ministry was to supply him with food, but they also would afford
 spiritual sympathy.
 (PNT 32)
00077
 # Mt 4:12
    \\Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison.\\
 A long period lapses between the temptation and the next event
 recorded. Matthew does not try to follow the order of events,
 and he now passes over more than a year. This year had been
 actively employed. The intervening events are,
 (1) the return of Jesus from the wilderness to Bethabara, where
     the first disciples are called;
 # Joh 1:15-37
 (2) the return to Galilee and the miracle at Cana;
 # Joh 2:1-11
 (3) the first passover of the Lord's ministry in Jerusalem and
     the temple cleansed;
 # Joh 2:14-25
 (4) interview with Nicodemus;
 # Joh 3:1-21
 (5) ministry in Judea;
 # Joh 4:3
 (6) leaves for Galilee, passes through Samaria, conversation at
     Sychar;
 # Joh 4:4-42
 (7) heals nobleman's son;
 # Joh 4:46-54
 (8) a period of retirement in Galilee, John imprisoned;
 # 4:12
 (9) attends feast in Jerusalem, miracle at pool of Bethesda;
 # Joh 5:1-47
 (10) returns to Galilee, April A.D. 28.
 We thus see that an interval of more than a year elapsed
 between the temptation and the imprisonment of John. John was
 thrown into prison because he rebuked Herod.
 # 14:4 Mr 6:17
    \\Departed into Galilee.\\ From prudence. Christ had been
 teaching in Judea.
 # Joh 4:1,2
 (PNT 32)
00078
 # Mt 4:13
    \\Leaving Nazareth.\\ Because rejected there.
 # Lu 4:16-30
    \\Dwelt in Capernaum.\\ At that time a city of 30,000
 inhabitants on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was
 one of the chief cities of Galilee, had a synagogue, a Roman
 garrison, and a customs station, with Matthew as the tax
 gatherer. It has long since disappeared. It was called "Christ's
 own city" because he made it an earthly home. It was on the
 border between the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.
 (PNT 32)
00079
 # Mt 4:14
    \\That it might be fulfilled.\\ Matthew's way of saying:
 "Thus was fulfilled." The passage quoted is found in
 # Isa 9:1,2
 (PNT 32)
00080
 # Mt 4:15
    \\[By] the way of the sea.\\ The Sea of Galilee is meant.
 (PNT 32)
00081
 # Mt 4:16
    \\The people.\\ Those of the region just described.
    \\Who sat in darkness.\\ In religious ignorance.
    \\Saw a great light.\\ Christ, the Light of the world. In the
 teaching of Jesus in the region described by the prophet there
 was a remarkable fulfilment of the prediction.
 (PNT 32)
00082
 # Mt 4:17
    \\From that time.\\ Probably from the time Jesus settled in
 Capernaum.
    \\Jesus began to preach.\\ Beginning the Galilean ministry.
    \\And to say, Repent,\\ etc. The message that Jesus now
 preaches is identical with that of John the Baptist. See
 # 3:2
 He commands repentance, and declares the kingdom of heaven is at
 hand--not yet come, but near. Jesus showed his heavenly powers, but
 did not openly declare himself as the Messiah.
 (PNT 32-33 edited)
00083
 # Mt 4:18
    \\Walking by the sea of Galilee.\\ So named from the province
 of Galilee on its western side. It is about thirteen miles long
 and six miles wide in the widest place. The Jordan runs through
 it. On its borders Jesus lived, taught, and did most of his
 miracles.
    \\Saw two brethren.\\ These two brethren, Peter and Andrew,
 were already disciples. Simon was the name of the first until
 Christ changed it to Cephas, or Peter. Their home was at
 Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. They had been John's disciples,
 but he directed them to Jesus.
 # Joh 1:29-42,44
    \\They were fishermen.\\ A humble, but honourable, occupation.
 (PNT 33)
00084
 # Mt 4:19
    \\Follow me.\\ Already disciples, they were now called to
 preparation for apostleship.
 (PNT 33)
00085
 # Mt 4:20
    \\Immediately left [their] nets.\\ They obeyed at once. Thus
 Christ ought always to be obeyed. No excuses for delay were
 offered, or should ever be.
 (PNT 33)
00086
 # Mt 4:21
    \\Saw other two brethren.\\ James and John, the sons of
 Zebedee. They were fishermen also, are supposed to have been
 cousins of Jesus, probably were already disciples, but were now
 called to preparation for their great work.
 # Joh 1:29-42
    \\In a boat.\\ A small fishing vessel.
 (PNT 33)
00087
 # Mt 4:22
    \\They immediately left . . . their father.\\ At once. They
 had received a higher call. No earthly preference can excuse a
 rejection of the call of Christ.
 (PNT 34)
00088
 # Mt 4:23
    \\Jesus went about all Galilee.\\ In the next three verses are
 condensed the labours and teaching of a long period.
    \\Teaching in their synagogues.\\ The synagogues, where the Jews
 met to worship every Sabbath, furnished Jesus with listeners.  It was
 customary to read the Old Testament, and after the reading a teacher
 was usually called on to speak.  The custom gave Jesus, and his
 apostles after him, a fine opportunity to declare the New Covenant.
    \\Preaching the gospel of the kingdom.\\ Gospel means "good news."
 He announced the good news of the speedy advent of the long expected
 kingdom of the Messiah. He did not publicly claim to be the Messiah.
 His miracles and teaching caused many to conclude he was.
    \\Healing all manner of sickness.\\ He sympathized with all human
 affliction and healed the body as well as the soul.
 (PNT 34 edited)
00089
 # Mt 4:24
    \\His fame spread through all Syria.\\ The great Roman
 province north and east of Palestine, and, at the time of our
 Saviour, including the latter. The cities of Damascus and Antioch
 were in the province.
    \\Possessed with demons.\\ Evil spirit. Persons were actually
 subject to the control of demons. Of this there is the following
 proof:
 (1) Supernatural strength;
 # Mr 5:4
 (2) Mind is not the source of blindness;
 # 12:22
 (3) Insanity cannot divine;
 # Ac 16:17
 (4) Demons knew Jesus;
 # Mr 1:24
 (5) Jesus addresses the demons;
 # 8:32
 (6) Demoniacs confess this control;
 # Mr 5:9
 (7) Apostles assert it;
 # Lu 10:17
 (8) Jesus admitted it;
 # 12:28
 (9) Peter assures use of it.
 # Ac 10:38
    \\Lunatics.\\ "Epileptics" (ASV).
 (PNT 34)
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 # Mt 4:25
    \\Great multitudes of people from Galilee.\\ The fame of his
 teaching and miracles cause great multitudes to gather from all
 Palestine.
    \\Decapolis.\\ A district containing ten cities east of the
 Jordan and the Sea of Galilee.
    Notice, in the ministry of Jesus,
 (1) He was active;
 (2) He went where people were;
 (3) He went where the busiest people were--fisherman, those at
     work, Simon and Andrew--those preparing to work, James and
     John;
 (4) He went where worshipping people were;
 (5) He went where needy people were.
 (PNT 34)
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 # Mt 5:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 5
  \\The Sermon on the Mount\\

  The Beatitudes
  The Salt of the Earth
  The Light of the World
  The Relation of Christ to the World
  The Law Not to Be Disregarded
  The Law Modified
  The Law of Murder
  The Law of Adultery
  The Law of Divorce
  The Law of Oaths
  The Law of Retaliation
  The Law of Love

    \\Seeing the multitudes.\\ We gather from Luke, chapter 6,
 that the Lord passed the night in the mountain in prayer; in the
 morning he chose and ordained the twelve; he then came down to
 the plain, where he found a vast multitude, whom he taught.
    \\He ascended a mountain.\\ Thought to be the "Horns of
 Hattin," a mountain about seven miles south of Capernaum, near
 the Sea of Galilee.
    \\When he was seated.\\ Eastern teachers usually sat while
 teaching.
    \\His disciples came to him.\\ Not the apostles only, but all
 anxious to learn and follow him. Disciple means a learner.
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:2
    \\Opened his mouth, and taught.\\ This wonderful discourse of
 three chapters is to the New Dispensation what the law given
 from Sinai was to the Old. That was the moral law of Judaism,
 this is the moral law of Christianity; that was given from "the
 Mount that could not be touched," this from the Mount of
 blessing. Compare
 # Lu 6:20-49
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:3
    \\Blessed.\\ Nine beatitudes pronounce blessings upon those who
 have certain characteristics. The word "blessed" is first applied to
 God, and means more than "happy." Happiness may come from earthly
 things; blessedness comes from God.  A description of God's blessing
 follows each beatitude.
    \\The poor in spirit.\\ The humble, in contrast with the haughty;
 those aware of spiritual poverty.  He speaks elsewhere of a contrite
 and broken spirit.
    \\Is the kingdom of heaven.\\ Such shall become members of the
 kingdom that Christ will establish. Some Jews were opposed to this
 kingdom on account of their spiritual pride.
 (PNT 35 edited)
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 # Mt 5:4
    \\Blessed [are] they that mourn.\\ Not all mourners, for
 there is "a sorrow of this world that worketh death." Godly
 sorrow is meant, a mourning over sinfulness. See
 # 2Co 7:10
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:5
    \\Blessed [are] the meek.\\ The mild, the gentle, opposed to
 the proud and ambitious, the kind who succeed in such a kingdom
 as the Jews expected.
    \\Shall inherit the earth.\\ The land; Canaan as the type of
 all blessings. It is the heavenly land especially that is
 inherited. The especial reference is to the Messiah's kingdom,
 of which "the land" of Canaan was a type.
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:6
    \\Blessed [are] they who hunger\\, etc. This implies the same
 sense of spiritual needs as verses 3 and 4. Hunger is a felt
 want, in this case a want of righteousness before God, the
 righteousness that comes from the forgiveness of sins. See
 # Lu 15:17 Mt 5:3,4
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:7
    \\Blessed [are] the merciful.\\ The merciful, those who,
 instead of resenting injury, are ready to forgive, shall obtain
 the divine mercy. The fifth petition of the Lord's prayer
 implies that we must forgive if we expect to be forgiven.
 # 6:12
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:8
    \\Blessed [are] the pure in heart.\\ The Jew, under the
 tuition of the Pharisees, cared little for the state of the
 heart, so that outward forms were duly kept. Jesus, however,
 demands that the heart, the affections, the mind, shall be
 purified, as the fountain from whence flows the moral and
 religious life. A pure heart begets a pure life; an impure
 heart, a corrupt life.
    \\They shall see God.\\ Not with the natural eye, but the
 spiritual vision; by faith. In the pure heart the Lord will
 dwell and his presence will be recognized. See
 # Joh 14:23
 (PNT 35)
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 # Mt 5:9
    \\Blessed [are] the peacemakers.\\ Not the soldiers of a
 warrior king, such as the Jews expected but the men who, in the
 name of the Prince of Peace, go forth to proclaim peace and good
 will among men. Christ is the great Peacemaker.
 (PNT 35-36)