Matthew 4 - Believe in the Supernatural?

What have you experienced that you would describe as supernatural?

Ever had an evil thought that scared you?

While Jesus was in the wilderness, the Accuser tempts Him to take an easier path. Jesus overcomes these lies with Truth.

Jesus announces the Kingdom of Heaven has come, and the way to enter this Kingdom is through repentance – acknowledging you need help and forgiveness from God.

Jesus began to invite others to follow Him and help Him proclaim this good news.

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Matthew 4 Video:

https://youtu.be/y7FngrjQy-w

Matthew 4 Notes:

What have you experienced that you would describe as supernatural?

Ever had an evil thought that scared you?

In Matthew 4, we discover Jesus out in the wilderness being tempted to take the easy way rather than God’s harder way towards accomplishing his mission. Jesus overcomes the temptations by quoting the Scriptures back at this spiritual force of evil known as “the accuser” or also known as Satan or the devil. Jesus replaces the lies with the truth. We even see Satan twist the Scriptures for his own evil agenda, but Jesus holds on to truth.

Before we go too much deeper into Matthew, we need to talk about the supernatural realm.

Some of us deny its existence. Some of us have gone all into the supernatural but it may be more on the dark side of things.

Think about this for a moment. Is it possible there are realms we cannot see or hear but we can feel it’s presence? We need to avoid being closed minded on these things. For millennia, people from different cultures have believed in a spiritual realm. Just because the western world has denied the supernatural since the enlightenment doesn’t mean every other culture throughout history has been wrong. We don’t want to fall into ethnocentrism!

So let’s consider, if there is a God who created the vast universe outside of time and space then it should not surprise us there are other spiritual forces – the Bible calls them angels and demons. It also shouldn’t surprise us that when the Creator of the universe steps into time and space that He can do things beyond our comprehension – like we see Jesus doing at the end of this chapter. Jesus is healing people! Some from illness. Some from demonic oppression.

If someone claimed to be God but didn’t do miraculous things, we would be suspect.

In this instance, Jesus overcomes the temptations of darkness and instead begins to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven has come, and the way to enter this Kingdom is through repentance – acknowledging you need help and forgiveness from God.

Jesus began to invite others to follow Him and help Him proclaim this good news.

Then Jesus showed He was more than a man, more than a carpenter, more than anyone who had ever walked the planet before or since. He had power over the broken and power over evil. He was and is the Messiah!

To apply this to our lives, we need to understand the Big story. In the beginning the God of heaven spent time with Adam and Eve in paradise – the Garden. God gave them freedom with which they chose to go their own way. Every human being has done the same thing ever since. Even still there was always a way to reconnect with the God of heaven. The tabernacle was the place where God’s space connected with humans then it was the temple of Israel but then it was the in the person of Jesus. Now it is through those who follow Jesus. The Spirit of God lives within us! Everywhere we go we can bring more of heaven to earth!

One day God will make all things right and there will be a new heaven and new earth. Evil will be eradicated.

You see the enemy has power for a limited time, but the power of God within us is more powerful than the enemy! Knowing the Word of God enables us to avoid temptations.

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