Matthew 4

Key Verse: Matthew 4:19

Big Idea: Jesus the King came to call people to build a kingdom, not of swords and castles, but of people.

Sometimes, everything changes in an instant. Peter and Andrew were throwing a net into the sea, the familiar smells and sounds of the busy lake all around them. They had been fishermen their entire lives, their sons would be fishermen, and their sons after them. Their lives must have seemed so predictable, but they also knew things were changing. Peter and Andrew had been baptized by John, and knew the One He had preached about who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

They never could have dreamed that their whole lives would never be the same, because that One would walk up to them and say “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people!”

At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days, and was offered all kinds of physical things: food, pride and political power. But Jesus quoted the Bible each time, to show that His Kingdom would be a different kind of Kingdom. It was not about visible greatness, but about a Kingdom built in the Spirit out of men, women, boys and girls. This Kingdom would not be won with guns or swords, but with the Word of God and His power.

Older kids: Point out how the Crusades and other attempts to force people to become Christians missed the whole point, because God’s reign has to be accomplished on the inside.

Jesus was launching an invasion. He was breaking down the enemy strongholds of sickness, sin and, ultimately, death.

Discussion idea: How do Christians or churches sometimes get caught up in the temptation to build a physical kind of Kingdom?

Prayer focus: Whenever Jesus was tempted, He quoted the Bible. Pray for a commitment to Bible reading and prayer, to have the equipment needed to do the work to which Jesus has called us.