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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)