Matthew 3 & 4

Chapter 3

Matthew 3:3 - "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Another prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled. Matthew 3:13 - This verse used to baffle me as to why did Jesus need to get baptized. After study and reflection I have an answer that works for me now. God may reveal more later but for now I'm okay. After we are "saved" it is suggested that we get baptized. I've heard it said that we do this to make public our commitment to Jesus and I agree. But I think there is another reason. When Jesus was baptized He was making public His commitment to His Father, announcing His intention to follow God's will of saving sinners(all of us). He came to save, to "fulfill all righteousness." He was beginning His messianic ministry. That's the part that I think we need to dwell on. Is Baptism necessary for salvation? No. But if we're going to have a relationship with Jesus I think a powerful way to start it is to get baptized as He did. It's our way of announcing that our ministry is now started and that we intend to do the will of the Father who we now have access to through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our ministry isn't to save sinners as Jesus ministry was. Our ministry is to witness for Jesus. To point sinners to Jesus. When we get baptized we're publicly proclaiming we will be faithful to that calling.

Chapter 4 - One valuable lesson I've learned from this Chapter is this: the best way to deal with the temptations and attacks of Satan is with Scripture. Three times Jesus was tempted and all three times he threw Scripture at Satan. I think it's interesting that Satan also used Scripture, almost as if he was mocking Jesus, when he said "for it is written". Satan often likes to attack me by bringing up my past. I always find peace when that happens by praying Romans 8:1. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." It works!