Matthew 4:23-25
Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.
“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Matthew 4:23
The region of Galilee is seen on the maps below. It was known as the Galilee of the Gentiles, the worse of the worse of neighborhoods were in that region. Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus, was in that region, and it was a very undesirable place to live, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46 Naphtali and Zebulun were also in Galilee, “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali…the people who sat in darkness…those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.” Matthew 4:15-16
Jesus went everywhere in Galilee, a place where the power of darkness had a grip on the heart, mind, and soul of the people…people deeply plunged into the hopelessness that is rooted in sin. He taught in their churches. He was not part of the churches, not a member, not a minister, but He went into the churches to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17
The message to the fallen churches of today is, “Repent and return to the message of the Cross!” The problem isn’t with the Churches, it’s with sin, and the fallen churches have become deeply rooted in sin. Today’s churches have formed a partnership with the mainstream of community culture instead of living by faith in Jesus Christ. To partner with community values is to partner with the power of darkness through the beast that gives what to say, do think, and feel. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness, 2 Corinthian 11:13-15 The fallen churches lead the people away from belief in God, lead away from Jesus Christ, and replace the Holy Spirit with Satan’s version of the Holy Spirit, which is the beast with two horns like a lamb, as described in the post on Revelations 13:11-13
Paul describes the Gospel that must be preached and taught, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once…” 1 Corinthians 15:1-6 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8
Not only did Jesus preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the churches, but He also went through the communities of Galilee to heal all types of sickness and disease among the people. Unlike the fallen churches of today, our Lord Jesus did not come to establish a community network of foodbanks, nor to have community “fun days”, nor to build a Red Cross on every street corner, nor to garner donations for a Goodwill chain of stores, nor to gather a network of charitable medical staff. All of those things are good for meeting the physical needs of the body, but Jesus Christ came to do more than that! He came to heal the sickness and disease caused by sin…the sickness and disease that lurks within people that brings them into the pathway that lads to eternal Hell. Our Lord Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly…Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 10:10, John 5:24
On the map to the right is seen the region of Galilee, towards the top and bordering the Sea of Galilee. On the map to the left, His hometown of Nazareth, and Capernaum where He moved to, and Naphtali and Zebulun are all parts of Galilee.
“Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.” Matthew 4:24
In the days of Jesus, it was the belief that physical infirmities were a result of sin, “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:1-2 The Jewish culture and the Jewish leaders avoided sinners in order to keep themselves pure in the eyes of God. From that, you can envision the multitudes of people who were outcasts, isolated, and shunned by the community. When our Lord brought healing to them, it was equal to their sins being forgiven and the community culture would be compelled to accept them back into the social network. However, when the sick and diseased were made whole within themselves and in their physical body, instead of returning to the Jewish culture, they praised God in Jesus name and followed Him.
The whole ministry of Jeus is to open a way for people to repent of unbelief and to bring the forgiveness of sin, not to focus people’s attention on physical healings. The reason He did physical healings was to show that He had the power of the Spirit of God upon Him to forgive sin. Jesus said to a crippled man, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Jesus had no intention of healing the man physically. However, the lawyers of the laws of Judaism said, “This Man blasphemes!” The scribes taught that no one had power to forgive sins except God Himself, but Jesus was indeed doing the work of God. Jesus knew what the scribes were thinking, and said, “‘For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’ And he arose and departed to his house.” That is described in Matthew 9:1-8
Jesus suffered in His physical body the crucifixion on the Cross, and His death, for a much larger purpose than to restore the physical body of this earth. The physical body suffers many tragedies, gets sick, is vulnerable to disease, suffers many handicaps, and all flesh dies. Our eternal body does not come in this life but comes after we are resurrected from the grave. Our Lord Jesus shed His blood on the Cross and died to restore our relationship with God by the forgiveness of the sin that is within us. God raised Jesus from the grave after three days as a show of His victory over death and sin. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
On the map below, you can see Syria, where the Good News of Jesus Christ reached. To the left of Syria, is seen a small blue area, that is the Sea of Galilee. Galilee, where Jesus was preaching, teaching, and healing, is the area surrounding the Sea of Galilee to the west, north, and south. People came from Syria to Galilee, the worse region ever to visit. They came to Jesus and brought all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.
If Damascus sounds familiar, Paul saw the great Light of our Lord Jesus Christ while on the road to Damascus [in Syria]. The persecuted followers of Jesus Christ fled to Damascus in Syria to escape the persecution, but Saul/Paul followed them there to imprison them, and he authorized the killing of many. On his way there, He met Jesus Christ, leading to a change within himself to bring about his conversion to the way of Christ, Acts 9:1-19 All of that happened after the death of Jesus on the Cross, His resurrection and ascension, and after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Christians had friends in Syria because of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” Matthew 4:25
On the map below, you can see all of the places where people came from to see Jesus, Who was in the region of Galilee. Envision that, people from the east and west of the Jordan River, to the north and south came to the man of Galilee. Galilee was a place that had such a bad reputation that it was said nothing good could come from there. It was a dark region where the shadow of death overshadowed it. But people everywhere found something good there, they saw a great Light, and that Goodness and that Light was Jesus Christ.
At that time, before the death of Jesus on the Cross and before His resurrection, why were the multitudes from all around coming to Him? For physical healings! However, Jesus came to bring healing of the heart and soul that was made sick and diseased by sin. The healing that Jesus brings by the forgiveness of sin is much different than the physical healings brought by the beast. The beast has power over physiology to be able to do many, many, forms of physical healings. That is the same beast that gives people what to say, do, think, and feel. All the world follows the beast, except we who follow Jesus Christ. Because the culture of the beast wants physical healings, they also want the empowerment in the flesh that the beast offers through the power of darkness. They want to be empowered with uncanny knowledge, heightened intuition, extraordinary skills and talents, amazing physical abilities, uncanny authority over others, sensual comforts, etc. Click for post on that from Revelations 13:3.
“And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” Revelations 13:3-4
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28
“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.
I am coming soon.
Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.’”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11
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