Matthew 4:23 Commentary and Bible Study

In deliberate fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah already quoted by Matthew, the Lord Jesus went throughout Galilee, that region which before his coming to them was in darkness spiritually. If they had eyes to see, they saw the light, because they heard the glorious words that came from his mouth. The light that was in him was made known to them by his words. He was driven by compassion for the people and by the knowledge that he alone was the remedy for their sin. While he was always under the direction of his Father and would not go anywhere that he had not been sent – which meant that, for now, the gospel would not be preached to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5) – his zeal to reach many meant that he did not spare himself in travelling to all parts of Galilee, and giving himself completely to his commission. Christ came to save his elect, but his compassion was towards all, even those who would not turn to him (Mark 10:21-23). The heart of God is that all should come for salvation, and therefore the gospel invites all without condition, and offers mercy to all. In conformity with this general compassion Christ healed all, and healed many who never believed and never understood the spiritual nature of his message (Luke 17:17). He preached in the open spaces, and he preached in the synagogues, endorsing their Old Testament structures for worship, indeed, he had grown up attending the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16). Christ taught and he preached. The Greek word for ‘preach’ refers to the public proclamation of a herald. A preacher exhorts and communicates with urgency, showing the importance of his message and pressing for a response to it. A teacher on the other hand explains, and conveys knowledge; he gives detail and connects together different ideas into a framework of understanding. Christ did both, and every preacher should also be a teacher. What did Christ preach? He preached ‘the gospel of the kingdom’. Paul defines the essence of the gospel: ‘that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). But before these things took place, what was the gospel? Certainly all these things were revealed in the Old Testament, but even the Twelve did not understand them until after they had happened. The gospel that Christ preached was the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that the kingdom of heaven was near to them, just because the Son of God had come down to earth from heaven and was inviting men and women to enter the kingdom. The parables that Matthew will subsequently relate are about ‘the kingdom of heaven’. They are about its nature, and how to enter it, the danger of being excluded from it. The preaching of Christ showed the people that a door was opened and they could go through it into his kingdom, only they must understand that the kingdom of Israel into which they had been born was not itself that kingdom, but was only a picture of it. There was a step to be taken by everyone who heard Christ’s preaching, and each one must now respond individually in faith.There was nothing that Christ could not heal. His power is unlimited, and there is nothing we cannot bring to him. His healings showed his power to reverse all the effects of the curse. Every sickness and infirmity that was brought to him was healed by him and there was no case that was too hard for him. These things came with the fall following the entrance of sin into the world. Following sin, death too came, along with the curse. Christ’s power to heal every disease and even to raise the dead, gives his people grounds to hope that the entire curse will be removed, but that must await the second coming. For now, we have his sign miracles to assure us he can do this, and we have his promise that in the world to come ‘God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away’ (Revelation 21:4). We have not yet reached that point, and the purpose of Christ’s healing miracles is not to promise his disciples a disease-free life, but to encourage them for the future. Even more importantly, the healings of the body were pictures of the healing of the soul. So many of Christ’s miracles illustrated the work of salvation in the soul, and they are given as miniature sermon outlines for the evangelist. The healing of the soul is vital, but the body is not irrelevant, nevertheless our final bodily deliverance from the effects of sin must await the resurrection at the last day. Of course Jesus’ healings, which, unlike those of the apostles, originated from his own intrinsic power, also testified to his being the Christ.