I. Jesus’s Movement to Capernaum
Capernaum was located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee (technically a lake), the nearest village to the Jordan River on the side where it fed into the lake.
Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been thrown into prison. So came a transition in Jesus’s ministry. He had been baptized by John, and now Jesus moved from His childhood home to this area beside the Sea of Galilee. Why did He move?
It was not out of fear that Jesus left Nazareth, though it may appear that way. “When Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew (departed) into Galilee.” Herod was the culprit who had John arrested. He was not the most stable individual. After all, his family was a paranoid group of egomaniacs. They made up reasons to dispose of people. Yet in all of this we know it was not out of fear that Jesus left because both Nazareth and Capernaum were under Herod’s control.
Others who knew Jesus understood that He feared no one. He taught them, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul.” And He certainly was not afraid of Herod. In Luke 13, the Pharisees approached Jesus and said, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.” Jesus’s reply was firm and sure. “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal.’ Nevertheless, I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.” He had set Himself on a collision course with the rulers of that place in order to fulfill His mission. Thus He did not move out of town to avoid a confrontation with the man who arrested John the Baptist.
In just a moment we will look at Jesus’s motive for moving. But first think about this. Fear is not a reason to make a change in ministry. If you are serving the Lord faithfully in some capacity don’t allow any fear to paralyze your service for the Lord. There are going to be all kinds of fearful situations that may make you want to leave what you’re doing. There are going to be a whole lot of “what ifs” to prevent you from continuing on in what you are doing. If you are convinced that the Lord has you in a place of service for Him, don’t leave that particular area of service because of some imagined or real thing that causes fear.
Jesus said in Luke 21:26 that in the last days when fearful things are taking place people will be fainting from the “expectation of the things which are coming upon the world.” They will be paralyzed in what they should be doing merely because of the expectation of the things that were coming. There are Christians who faint in their service of the Lord only because of an expectation of the things that might happen. But this kind of fear should not drive us away from serving the Lord.
It is interesting that in the context prior to the passage that Jesus quotes from in Isaiah 9, Isaiah is commanded from the Lord not to have fear about what was going on and quit what God had called him to do. Isaiah 8:11-12 says, “For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people… ‘You are not to say, “It is a conspiracy!” in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.’”
There were all kinds of political upheaval in the days of Isaiah. Large nations like Assyria sought to envelop other smaller nations under their rule and remove their sovereignty. Perhaps there were people telling Isaiah to stop prophesying judgment because people would consider him a traitor, one who was not a patriot and would discourage the nation. Don’t keep speaking the truth, Isaiah, because someone might kill you.
What was God’s response to that? “You are not to fear what they fear… it is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary.” Isaiah was encouraged to make the Lord His fear. In fearing the Lord and reverencing Him, Isaiah would find that God was his place of protection. Regardless of what happened to him, Isaiah could serve the Lord without fear.
Think of the apostle Paul. He was on his way to Jerusalem to bring a financial gift to the saints who were suffering there. He knew the Lord had called him to serve this way. He was told again and again through the prophecy of the Holy Spirit that prison and affliction awaited him in Jerusalem. What was his response? “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus.”
Here Paul is encountering an expectation of something fearful. Did he back down from the ministry? Did he say, “Perhaps I should bow out of this Jerusalem ministry trip”? Some of the people around tried to convince him to do so. But the Lord had called him to that ministry long before he found out about the outcome.
Think about that today and how the hearts of people faint for only an expectation of what might happen (and many times a false expectation). Paul said that he wanted to finish his course. But Satan brings fear into our hearts to prevent us from finishing the course the Lord would have us take. We end up filled with fear and excuses for why we can’t complete what the Lord called us to do: “I can’t come to church faithfully because I am worried that my oil burner might quit and the house will get cold and my turtle will die.” Now I’ve never heard such an excuse. But how many other excuses (that appear good) are simply driven by fear and prevent us from carrying out God’s work and finishing His ministry?
Think about this: Paul was talking about getting the life beaten out of him, and he still wanted to be faithful to his ministry. Sometimes people say something like, “I didn’t come to church because my car was making a strange noise and I didn’t want it to blow up.” But it’s funny that they will use the car to go to work on Monday morning because they have a greater fear of their boss. Don’t let fear prevent you from serving the Lord. Second Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and discipline. If you have fear over something the Lord has given you to do, recognize that the fear you feel is not sourced in God.
Jesus did not leave Nazareth behind because He was fearful. When the Lord has you in a ministry, don’t fear. Serve Him with His power, love and discipline.
II. Jesus’s Motive
Then what was the reason to move to this area? Why did Jesus pack up and move twenty miles away? Verse 14 gives us the reason: “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet.” Jesus came to do His Father’s will in order to fulfill the Word of God. The necessity to do the will of Him who sent Him and finish His work was Jesus’s consuming desire.
I think that this passage of Scripture from Isaiah was to demonstrate the Father’s mercy. How merciful is God? He is willing to bring the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ even to those who had rejected His Word. The passage of Scripture from which Matthew quotes is Isaiah 9. The context of the passage starts in chapter 8 and describes the response of the Israelite people toward God. Isaiah 8:19-21 says, “When they say to you (Isaiah), ‘Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people consult their God? …To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn (because they have no light in them).” They rejected God’s Word. They sought to find mediums to consult the dead instead of the Word that had been given to them from God, even though the Lord expressly forbade consultations with the dead. (That is really just seeking to contact demons. If you think that you have just spoken with Uncle Fred in a séance, you are wrong: it was a demon.) The Israelites sought that means of receiving insight. Perhaps because it was more exciting than reading the Bible. Perhaps because it seemed more real to have someone actually speak to them than to put in the effort to read a book and meditate upon it and seek God to understand it.
People today still look for insight, wisdom, and direction from demonic sources. Horoscopes, Ouija boards, and (the apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 4) doctrines of demons taught by church leaders who reject the gospel and add manmade commandments to God’s Word. Those who hold their words above the Scripture are teaching doctrines of demons.
But you receive the light of the Word of God. These people in Israel had set themselves up as the authority. It wasn’t that they didn’t have an aura of religion. They did. It wasn’t that they didn’t have the Word of God. They did. But the light they thought they had was really darkness because they sat in judgment over the Word instead of the Word sitting in judgment of them. The word said, “Don’t consult mediums,” but they said, “It is okay if we do this because we’re God’s people.” What they saw as light was really darkness. Jesus said, “If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” If the light that is in you is not the Word of God, then it is only darkness.
Not only did they reject the Word of God, but they rejected God Himself. Because they had rejected God’s Word, God brought difficulties into their lives to show them they needed to seek Him. Isaiah 8:21 said, “They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished.” But instead of humbling themselves and returning to the Lord, what was their response? The rest of the verse says “when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward.” In the midst of their difficulty they curse their ruler of the land and the Lord.
There are people who now are cursing their leaders and God. Look at our country and the nations around the world. People fail to realize that we are in the mess we are in because we have rejected God’s Word and He has brought difficult times to cause people to repent and look back to Him in a revival. Instead, in their hearts, people are cursing the president and God, when in reality what we need to be doing is falling down on our faces before God and seeking Him according to His Word.
What was going on in Israel? They would rather have asked the opinions of dead men instead of seeking the truth of the living Word of God. They would rather have cursed God and their leaders instead of turning back to Him. So God’s judgment was to allow them to remain in darkness, to let them have their own way for a while. Verse 22 says, “They will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.”
Notice that they are driven away into darkness not because God rejected them, but because they rejected God. They turned from looking upward to looking downward (to themselves). They were looking for answers on the earth instead of with God. And so what did they find? Distress and darkness. If you are in darkness it is not because God has rejected you, but because you have rejected God.
Yet this passage doesn’t end there in darkness. It does not leave the people in that place. Enter the mercy of God. The passage describes God’s desire to have mercy upon people. God says, “I desire mercy!” Because of God’s mercy, He did not want them to remain in darkness. And so Isaiah 9 tells us “the people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” He cranks up the light so that they cannot miss it. They turn their heads downward from God and find only darkness, so He sends Jesus down to the earth, the true light that lightens every man. What do you do when your children are not listening to your call to get out of bed? You open the shades; you turn on the light. You point out to them that the light means God has something for them to do.
He sends His own Son to bring them the truth. This is God’s mercy and patience. They reject the light of His Word and His person, so He sends them His Son that by means of the cross they might no longer stray like sheep but return to the overseer and guardian of their souls. Jesus said in chapter 12 of John’s gospel, “I, if I am lifted up (upon the cross) from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” God wanted to have mercy on these people who were in darkness. They were turning away from Him, but He would not leave them alone. God knew what they didn’t realize. They needed Him and He pursued them.
Why did Jesus move to Capernaum? To be a light to the people sitting in darkness in Galilee. The religious leaders had such a hard time with Jesus because He exposed their darkness. They claimed to be a light to the blind, but Jesus told them that they were simply blind guides of the blind. They were in darkness and refused to come to the light.
Because Jesus set His heart to fulfill God’s Word, He brought the light of the gospel to the people living in this region. If you set your heart to carry out God’s will without respect to fear, you will be like Christ in giving the light of the gospel to those who are in darkness.