Author: Richard Sipes

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Word of Warning

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Word of Warning

Matthew 16:1-12

I have been pointing out that we are in a section of the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus is training His disciples in kingdom ministry. Each of these narratives is a lesson in faith, in learning to believe in Jesus and to trust Him in all things. When Jesus fed the five thousand, He was training them on the priority of kingdom ministry and God’s provision for it. When He walked on water, Jesus taught them the power of faith over fear. When the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus about hand washing, He gave them a lesson on the purpose of kingdom ministry—God’s cleansing the heart by faith. When Jesus answered the request of the woman of Canaan, He gave them a lesson on the perseverance of faith. And in feeding the four thousand, He taught them that compassion for all people is the passion in kingdom ministry. Today, along with the disciples, we will learn a lesson on the peril of kingdom ministry.

We who are disciples of Jesus Christ are called to kingdom ministry with Jesus. Kingdom ministry is all about making disciples, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom so that men and women, boys and girls, would believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world. Today we learn that discipleship not only requires us to believe, but it requires us to beware. Kingdom ministry includes warning disciples about the dangers that will derail or sidetrack their Christian walk.  

The context for this lesson goes back to the end of Matthew 15 where Jesus had just fed the four thousand in a largely Gentile area. Immediately after feeding that crowd, Jesus and His disciples left to go to the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 15:39).

While Jesus was in Gentile territory, the people sought Him out, brought the sick and needy to Him, marveled that He healed them all, and glorified the God of Israel (Matt. 15:29-31). This is what faith looks like. But now, when Jesus is back in Jewish territory, we find Him again facing opposition. Instead of finding people who believe, Jesus faces unbelieving opposition. The religious leaders of Israel again confront Jesus. And Jesus teaches His disciples to …

1. Be wary of seeking signs (Matt. 16:1-4)

Matthew 16:1 says, “Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.” Now, if you were a first-century Jew reading this sentence, you would be stunned that the Pharisees would join with the Sadducees.

We have already met the Pharisees, a religious and political group, who so esteemed the oral traditions that formed around the law of Moses that they developed a rigid and burdensome set of strict applications of the letter of the law to everyday life. The name Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word parash meaning “to separate”. They were very careful to keep themselves separate and distinct from the ‘contaminations’ of pagan culture.  

The Pharisees have confronted Jesus a number of times already. They grumbled when Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 9:11). They accused Jesus of casting out demons by the ruler of the demons (Matt. 9:34; 12:24). They accused Jesus of teaching His disciples to break the Sabbath (Matt. 12:2). They plotted against Jesus to destroy Him (Matt. 12:24). They confronted Jesus about hand washings (Matt. 15:1-2) and were offended by Jesus’ teachings (Matt. 15:12).

The religious and political party of the Sadducees rejected the oral traditions, the prophets, and other sacred writings that the Pharisees held to. They believed that only the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were authoritative. While the Pharisees believed in angels, spirits, and the resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees did not. Most of the Sadducees were wealthy Jewish elites in the ruling class. Because the office of the High Priest was sold by Rome to the highest bidder in those days, all the chief priests were Sadducees. They controlled the temple and its worship.

Representatives of both parties constituted the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish governing body in Israel (cf. Acts 23:6). These two disparate groups join together to confront a common opponent—Jesus. Their purpose is to test Jesus. It is clear that they were not coming to find evidence to believe in Jesus. They had already made up their minds about Jesus. They were looking for evidence to condemn Him. They pretended to seek evidence that Jesus was the Messiah but only desired to see Him fail, so that they might ruin Him.

So they demand “that He would show them a sign from heaven”—in other words, a sign from God. We know that they were not sincere in wanting to see a sign from heaven, because Jesus had already given many signs from God. Jesus had healed great multitudes of sick people, and cast out demons. He had cleansed lepers with a touch, given sight to the blind, and cast out demons with but a command. And these miracles all testified together to the fact that Jesus Christ is the long-awaited, promised Messiah—through whose ministry the Scriptures said that “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 35:5-6). Jesus did not do these things in secret, He did them publicly. Jesus not only did miracles of healing and casting out demons, He also did what God alone can do when He fed the multitudes in the wilderness.

If this group of Pharisees and Sadducees sincerely wanted a sign from heaven, they had plenty to chose from. God gave one very notable sign from heaven at Jesus’ baptism when, “the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matt. 3:16-17).

But in spite of all this, they still demanded more. They demanded “a sign from heaven”. Perhaps they wanted Him to cause the winds to blow down from the clouds and part the sea—as it did in Moses’ day. Perhaps they wanted Him to cause the sun to stand still in the firmament—as it did in Joshua’s day. Perhaps they wanted Him to cause fire to come down from sky and consume an offering—as it did in Elijah’s day. My guess is that even if Jesus had done these things, they still would not believe. Their problem was not a lack of evidence. Their problem was the evil unbelief in their hearts.

That was their demand—“show us a sign from heaven”. When they made this request, they likely already knew what His response would be, because the Pharisees had already asked this sort of thing of Him once before. Back in Matthew 12, we read…

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:38-40).

The sign of Jonah would be Jesus’ final and ultimate sign. Jesus, the Son of Man, would die, be buried, and rise from the dead on their third day. It would be the definitive proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the King of heaven and earth. Through His death and resurrection Jesus would save from sin all who believe in Him. This is the gospel message. To those who genuinely and sincerely seek the truth, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only sign that is necessary.

This time, Jesus answered in almost the same exact words in Matthew 16:2-4:

He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Look at Jesus’ words about the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ ability to determine the weather. They knew how to look at the evidence and draw a logical conclusion. They could do it with the weather. They knew how to read the facts and correctly interpret them. Their problem was not lack of evidence or lack of reasoning. Their problem is that they did not want to believe what the evidence clearly showed. They were not ignorant, they were evil.

Jesus says, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” (Matt. 16:4). Only a “wicked” and “adulterous” generation would continue to ask for signs in such a context. They only proved that they were never really interested in signs at all. He calls them “Hypocrites!” They came pretending to know God. They came pretending to want a sign. They came pretending to seek the truth. But in reality, they only came to confirm their wicked unbelief. They came with murder and adultery in their hearts. Jesus is not interested in playing their games. He does not play pretend. He refuses to give them again what they already refused to receive and believe. Jesus does not rebuke them for their failure to see but for their failure to believe.

Be wary of seeking signs. It may indicate a wicked heart of unbelief. God has graciously given us the one sign that is necessary to believe and be saved. Jesus died for our sins on the cross and God raised Him from the dead on the third day. If you will not believe in Him knowing that, no sign in heaven will convince you. In Revelation 6, after Christ breaks the seals on the scroll and “the stars of heaven fell to the earth” and “the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place,” instead of believing in Christ, people hid themselves from the wrath of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 6:15-17). In Revelation 9, after the plagues of the trumpet judgments, the people “did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Rev. 9:20-21).

Be wary of seeking signs. Even if you get them, it’s no guarantee that you will repent and believe. Don’t seek after signs. Seek the Savior. Come to Jesus who died for your sins and lives to give you eternal life.

Next, Jesus teaches us…

2. Beware of false religion (Matt. 16:5-12)

Matthew 16:5-6 says, “Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.’”  

Jesus uses “leaven” or “yeast” here as a symbol of that which is small, and that operates and spreads in a hidden way. Once allowed into a thing, it spreads its influence and ends up permeating the whole thing. Just as a little leaven leavens the whole lump, a little of the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees can work its way in, spread its influence, and end up permeating the whole of a person’s soul.

Now, the disciples misunderstood this. They are confused. They have no idea what Jesus is talking about, so they assume it must have something to do with the fact that they forgot to bring bread (Matt. 16:7). Jesus is concerned about their spiritual food, but they are concerned about their physical food. So Jesus has to correct them. Matthew 16:8 says, “But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, ‘O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?’”  

Why did they miss the point? Jesus says to them, “Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?–but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Mat 16:9-11).

Jesus says they missed the point because they failed to remember. Jesus had just fed the multitudes through them. On both occasions, He took the meager food they had and multiplied the bread so it not only met the needs of everyone, but they had an abundance of leftovers. Jesus says they failed to understand the lesson of the loaves. They hadn’t “understood” what these experiences had to teach them about Jesus’ priorities, His power, and His provision. These were lessons in faith, training them to trust in Jesus. Yet, because they failed to remember and understand, Jesus rebukes them saying, “O you of little faith” (Matt. 16:8). If they truly believed what Jesus taught them, they would never have worried about bread. They would see that Jesus was not concerned at all about what’s for lunch. He was concerned about the poisoned religious food of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew explains in verse 12 that, “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matt. 16:12). What is so dangerous about their doctrine? What is the major problem with it? Jesus has told us. Look back up to Matthew 16:3, what did Jesus call them? “Hypocrites!” He said the same thing about them in Matthew 15:7. In Luke 12:1, we’re told that Jesus—on another occasion—said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.” In the Sermon on the Mount, repeated tells His disciples “you shall not be like the hypocrites” (Matt. 6:5; cf. Matt. 6:2; 16; 7:5). Seven times in Matthew 23 Jesus condemns them for their hypocrisy (Matt. 23:13, 14, 15, 23, 27, 29).

They were pretending to seek the truth, but they were not seeking the truth at all. They were, in fact, doing all they could to avoid and oppose the truth. All the signs were pointing to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah—the Son of God and King of the Jews. But they didn’t want Him. They would not bow down to Him and worship Him. They would not accept God’s plan for them through His cross. Their pursuit of the truth was a sham.

And Jesus was warning His disciples—and you and me today—to beware of that attitude! We must be on our guard against the hypocritical pretense of “seeking the truth” that is often characterized by seeking “signs”. “I’ll believe what God says if He does this or that! I’ll put my faith in Jesus if He shows me the evidence I demand of Him.” The reality is that He has already given us all the evidence we need for a saving faith in the cross of Jesus Christ. To ask for more than that is to ask out of a wicked and adulterous heart.

Listen, the greatest danger facing the church today is not a lack of resources but a lack of genuine faith in Christ. Jesus warns us about spiritual phonies. Hypocrisy is contagious. It spreads like leaven. A little bit can permeate and ruin the whole church. Jesus says beware of them. Just because a person knows how to dress, knows how to talk Christian, and can quote Scripture, does not make them real. They may just be wearing a great costume and playing a great part.

Our concern in the church should not be if we have enough bread. Our concern should be the spread of hypocrisy. Is our faith just pretend? Are we losing our holiness? Am I wearing a mask of religion on Sunday to cover my iniquity on Monday?

Jesus says beware! Stay away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Stay away from anything that substitutes legalism for faith in Jesus. Stay away from trusting in ritualism and ceremony. Stay away from self-righteousness and pride.

What’s the solution? Turn to Jesus. Come humbly, repentantly, believing in His death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. Trust in His resurrection from the dead to give you a new life and life eternal. Instead of hypocritically keeping external rules and rituals, walk in a loving relationship with Christ. Obey His word out of gratitude for Him saving you from sin and hell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. He is the only Lord and Savior.

 

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A Lesson in Compassion

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A Lesson in Compassion

Matthew 15:29-39

It is a joy to come together again on the Lord’s Day, to open our Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew and hear God’s word for His church. Matthew is the gospel of the King and His kingdom. Matthew demonstrates that Jesus is the promised King and Messiah. Jesus Christ fulfills the prophesies of scripture. He has the authority of God the Father in His words and His works. He does what only God can do. He possesses the attributes of Almighty God.

In Matthew 14-17, we are in a section of Matthew where Jesus is training His disciples in kingdom ministry. Every narrative not only teaches us about who Jesus is and what He came to do, but also about who Jesus calls His disciples to be and what He calls them to do. We saw Jesus feed the 5000 through His disciples, teaching them the priority of kingdom ministry and God’s provision for it. We saw Jesus walk on water teaching them the power of faith over fear. Then, when the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus and His disciples about washings, Jesus taught them the purpose of kingdom ministry, God’s cleansing of the heart. Last time, we saw Jesus interact with a woman of Canaan and we saw the perseverance of faith in kingdom ministry.

Today, we learn another lesson: the passion of kingdom ministry. Our text today shows that compassion is a driving force in Jesus’ ministry. We have seen Jesus’ compassion driving His ministry before. Matthew 9:36 said, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.” And Matthew 14:14 said, “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”

The Bible repeats the refrain that “The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” (Psa. 103:8; 145:8). We know God is compassionate. Jesus has the same mercy, grace, and compassion as the Father. And the lesson for us is not only does God show compassion toward us, but He also calls us to join Him in His compassionate work.

1. The Context (Matt. 15:29-31)

Last time, we saw how Jesus had left the Jewish region of Galilee, where He had done most of His ministry, and traveled to the Gentile regions of Tyre an Sidon. While there, He had encountered a Gentile woman of Canaan who exhibited great faith in Him. He responded to her faith by graciously healing her daughter from demon possession (Matt. 15:21-28). We do not know how long Jesus was in the area of Tyre and Sidon or what else He did there, but now Matthew 15:29 tells us, “Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.”  Mark gives us a little more information saying that Jesus came through the region of Decapolis (Mark 7:31). Apparently, from Tyre and Sidon, Jesus had headed east through Phoenicia, skirted around the North side of the Sea of Galilee, and traveled through the region east of the lake known as the Decapolis, or “Ten Cities” which would be in present day Jordan. Like Tyre and Sidon, this area was largely Gentile.

The importance of Jesus’ location is that it speaks to the make-up of the multitudes He ministers to. We have seen that Jesus had been trying to get His disciples alone to teach them in relative peace. So He has gone to these largely Gentile areas away from the crowds of Jewish enthusiasts that surrounded Him. But even here, Jesus’ reputation proceeds Him. The people in this area had also heard about Jesus and His miracles. Remember back in Matthew 8 Jesus had cast our demons in the country of the Gadarenes and Mark 5:20 tells us that the formerly demon-possessed man “departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled.”

So, you can just imagine how people must have welcomed Jesus when they heard He was passing through this region. We’re not sure how long He spent there, but apparently, He was there long enough for multitudes of people to hear that He was there and come to see Him. Matthew 15:30 says, “Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them.”

I love the picture that Matthew gives us of Jesus’ mercy to the multitudes that came to Him. He says that they brought people to Him who had all sorts of needs that were beyond human remedy—some who were lame, some who were blind, some who were mute, and many others. They laid these needy people at Jesus’ feet; and Matthew tells us that He healed them. There wasn’t a single need placed before Jesus that He wasn’t able to graciously and completely meet.

Matthew 15:31 says, “So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.” The goal of kingdom ministry is ultimately that people would worship the Lord. As Christ’s followers, we are called to minister not only to people’s physical and temporal needs but to lead them to glorify God. Jesus has immeasurable compassion to heal their broken bodies, but He has infinitely more compassion on them for the sake of their eternal soul. Jesus came to save us from sin, death, and eternal condemnation. He came to deliver us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light. He came that God would be glorified by people who have been redeemed by His precious blood shed on the cross.

Notice the significant, unusual phrase at the end of that verse, “and they glorified the God of Israel.” These Gentiles were marveling at Jesus. And when they marveled at Him, they truly were glorifying “the God of Israel.” “God of Israel” is used over two hundred times in the Old Testament, but only twice in the New Testament (the other time is Zechariah’s prophecy at the birth of John the Baptist, Luke 1:68). If these people were Jews, would they simply not praise God, as did the people who witnessed the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9:8?  The inference is clear, both from the context (Matt. 15:21; Mark 7:31) and from the statement, “they glorified the God of Israel” (Matt. 15:31) that these people are Gentiles, not Jews. Jesus is still in Gentile territory.

This is important because it was to this very same crowd of Gentiles that Jesus demonstrates His great compassion by feeding them just as He had done the Jewish crowd in Matthew 14.

So we see…

2. Jesus has Compassion on the Crowd (Matt. 15:32)

Our remaining verses today deal with Jesus feeding the four thousand. Matthew 15:32 says, “Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.””

This sounds very familiar doesn’t it? We saw a similar situation in Matthew 14 when Jesus fed a multitude of five thousand men plus women and children. The two accounts are very similar. Both times a great crowd gathers, Jesus teaches them and heals their sick, they are hungry and far from home, Jesus has compassion on them, he talks with the disciples about feeding them, they only have a small amount of food, Jesus instructs the crowd to sit down, he gives thanks for the food, he has the disciples distribute the food, everyone eats and is satisfied, and there is food left over.

But the feedings also have some significant differences. The location here is on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee in Decapolis, not Bethsaida. Here, they sat on the ground, not on the grass. Here we find the 4,000+ are fed after they had been with Jesus three days rather than 5,000+ who were fed after one day. Here, seven loaves of bread and a few fish are available rather than five loaves and two fish. Here seven large baskets–hampers–are taken up rather than twelve regular baskets. So on a basic level, Jesus does this miracle twice because there was a need twice. There were hungry people who needed to be fed.

But another question is, “Why does Matthew include this story in his Gospel?” We’ve already seen Jesus do something greater. We know that the Gospel writers were very selective in what they included in their accounts. As John wrote about his Gospel, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25).

In addition to what we learned from the first feeding, this miracle points out two things. First, Jesus is not only able to perform a mighty work, but He can repeat it according to His own desire. Second, this miracle demonstrates Jesus had compassion on those outside of Israel’s covenant as well as those within it.[i]

At the same time, Jesus was also trying build the faith of the disciples. He is training them in kingdom ministry. Jesus does not ask them what they think they should do, and He does not immediately tell them what to do. He presents the dilemma to them. This is an opportunity for the disciples to apply the lessons they have already been taught. Jesus said, “I care about these people and sure would like to feed them.” Then left it for the disciples to ponder. Will they show God’s compassion to all people, not just the Jews like them?

So we see, again, that …

3. Jesus Challenges His Disciples (Matt. 15:33-34)

Jesus calls his disciples together. He explains the problem to them just as before, and they answer: “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” (Matt. 15:33). Have the disciples forgotten what Jesus did in Bethsaida when He fed the five thousand? I don’t think they forgot what Jesus did, but I also think that they have not fully learned the lesson Jesus taught them through it. We shouldn’t be too hard on the disciples here. How many times has God provided for us in the past, and we still have trouble trusting Him for whatever we are going through in the present?

To their credit, the disciples don’t ask Jesus to send the crowd away like they did last time. They recognized Jesus’ compassion for these people. Their reply to Jesus emphasized that they knew the Lord could satisfy such a multitude but that they could not. He had no less power than before, and they had no more. They knew that Jesus could feed the people if He chose to. The question is, will He? This was a Gentile crowd. Jesus had forbidden them to go in the way of the Gentiles and had instructed them to preach to the Jews only (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus had delayed in granting the request of the Canaanite woman and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Perhaps they wondered if Jesus would want to feed this Gentile crowd.

So, like last time, the disciples point out the obvious lack of resources. And like last time, “Jesus said to them, ‘How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.’” (Matt. 15:34). Notice this—the crowd is smaller than before, and yet their resources are greater. Oh, they are still largely insufficient. Apart from Jesus’ miraculous intervention, they are no more able to feed this crowd than the last one. So, they await Jesus’ direction on what He wants them to do to fulfill His request.

4. Jesus Completes the Miracle Feeding (Matt. 15:35-38)

35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. (Matt. 15:35-38).

The feeding of this multitude is carried out in the same manner as the first feeding of a multitude. Yes, they have more food and fewer people to feed, but it is as impossible for 4,000 to be fed with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish as it is to feed 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. The task cannot be completed unless God intervenes, and He does. Jesus gives thanks (Matt. 15:36) and begins giving the food to the disciples who serve it to the people. Jesus was teaching the disciples about compassion. He didn’t give the food to the people, He gave it to the disciples so they could give it to the people. He made sure that they showed compassion to this Gentile crowd.

Everyone is satisfied—four thousand men besides women and children. And they took up seven baskets of leftovers. Once again, the provision was more than sufficient. When Jesus fed the 5,000 Matthew said there were twelve baskets left over, but the word Matthew used there was kophinos, a small Jewish container, a private basket for personal use similar to a lunch box. But the word Matthew uses here for these seven baskets is spuridas, a large Gentile basket. It’s the size of the basket that Luke says was used to lower the Apostle Paul outside the wall of Damascus in Acts 9. The baskets the disciples filled here were big enough to hold a man.

Why is that important? Because Jesus is teaching His disciples about compassion. No matter how much you give to help others, God has more than enough not only for them but for you also.

This lesson is preparing the disciples for the Great Commission, at the end of the Book of Matthew (28:18-20). While Jesus sent His disciples only to the Jews in Matthew 10, He will send them into “all the nations” in Matthew 28. We have a glimpse of this in our text.  

What do we learn from today’s passage? We see, again, Jesus’ divine compassion and power. He healed people physically and He healed them spiritually. He fed them with bread and fish and fed them the word of God. He did these things because He is the Son of God. He is God with us (Matt. 1:23), God in human flesh (John 1:14). He is not only the God of Israel, He is the God of all the nations. He has compassion for all. He has power for all. Not only does He have compassion for our spiritual needs and our serious physical needs, but even for our daily needs. And He has compassion not only on Israel, but on the world.[ii]

If you have not yet come to Christ for salvation, Jesus says to you, and to all sinners in need of salvation, “I have compassion…” And He not only feels that compassion for you, but He also acted on it. Jesus offered His life up for you. He paid the debt of sin that you owed. “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,” (1 Pet. 3:18). In compassion, He suffered and died in your place so that your sins could be forgiven and you could become a child of God. So He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28). Look to Jesus who loves you and died for you. Believe in Him. Trust His saving blood. This is the loving, saving compassion of Jesus.

What about us? If we are His disciples, children of God by faith in Christ, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, those in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells by faith, then that same compassion should be felt and shown by us. Do you see the needs of people like Jesus did? Does your heart go out to the harassed and helpless, the sick and sinful? Do you believe that Jesus is willing and able to help them, to save them? Do you believe that He wants to use you to show His compassion to them? God loves people. He cares about people. And He has sent us into the world to care about them too.

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[i] Scott Harris, Compassion for People – Matthew 15:29-39, https://www.gracebibleny.org/compassion_for_people_matthew_15_29_39

[ii] John MacArthur, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2314/compassion-for-the-outsiders

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A Picture of Great Faith

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A Picture of Great Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

In Matthew 15, we are in a section of Matthew where Jesus, having given evidence that He is the Son of God, the Messiah-King, and having taught His disciples about the Kingdom of God, He is now training His disciples in kingdom ministry. The lessons Jesus teaches them in these narratives are about faith—faith in Him.

In the story of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus gave them a lesson in trusting Him and depending on Him to work through them (Matt. 14:13-21). Then, we saw Peter who had “little faith,” yet was able to do the impossible–walk on water to be with Jesus (Matt. 14:22-33). We saw the multitudes bringing their sick to Jesus and believing He would heal them (Matt. 14:34-36). Then we saw the flawed faith of the scribes and Pharisees who trusted in their traditions rather than Jesus and the word of God (Matt. 15:1-20).

These are faith lessons, training us to trust Jesus Christ and His word. They are lessons about saving faith and also about serving faith. We must believe in Jesus to enter His kingdom, and we must believe in Jesus to do kingdom ministry. As Paul writes in Romans 1, our salvation is “from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17)—that is, it is by faith from beginning to end.

So, today we get another lesson in faith, but not just any faith—this lesson is about “great faith.” It is “great”, not in the sense that it is large in size, but because it was remarkable and exceptional. Today we see the extraordinary faith of a gentile woman, an outsider, not one of the lost sheep of Israel. And we will find it is the kind of saving faith that characterizes all who truly trust in Christ.

Let’s look at this woman’s example of great faith. First, we see…

1. Faith’s Petition (Matt. 15:21-22)

Matthew 15:21 says, “Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.” Tyre and Sidon were on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Lebanon. Tyre is about fifty miles south of modern Beirut, and Sidon was halfway between the two. In Jesus’ time, as now, the cities were outside the Jewish area of Israel. They were largely Gentile cities. Now this is unusual for Jesus. He spent most of His time ministering in the Israeli areas of Galilee and Judea.

If you remember the last couple of chapters in Matthew, Jesus tried to withdraw from the crowds to spend time alone with His disciples, but the multitudes kept following and finding Him. He is also fresh off a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, perhaps He wanted to let the conflict settle a bit because it was not yet time for that conflict to result in His death. So, He has gone to a territory where the Jews would not normally be looking for Him. In his account of this episode, Mark records that Jesus “entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden” (Mark 7:24). Even in this place, we find those who are seeking Jesus.

Matthew introduces the seeker in Matthew 15:22, “And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.’” The first thing Matthew tells us about her is that she is “a woman of Canaan.” Mark gives the detail that she “was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26). She is not in the land of Israel, and she is not a Jewish woman. The religious history of Canaan consisted of the worship of idols and false gods. In the Old Testament, the Canaanites worshipped Baal, Asherah, and other deities, though by Jesus’ time, many of those gods would have been replaced by the Greek and Roman pantheon. She most likely had a heritage of paganism.

This woman’s daughter was “severely demon-possessed.” Some evil spiritual force had taken ruthless dominion over her. What could she do? Where could she go? How could she hope to set her daughter free from something so beyond the help of men or idols? Imagine worshipping gods who do not hear and have no power to help. No wonder she came to Jesus, the miracle-working prophet from Nazareth.

How would she have known about Jesus? We saw in Matthew 4:24 that Jesus’ “fame went throughout all Syria” and that “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.” As she heard these stories, perhaps a conviction began to grow in her that this Man could help her daughter. And now that He was in her neck of the woods, rumors began to be spread around that Jesus was in a house not far away.

So, in desperation, she came to Jesus. She came, crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David!” Notice, she called Jesus “Lord” three times in this passage. To call Him “Lord” can, of course, mean that she simply spoke respectfully to Him, as if to call Him “Sir”. But clearly, the context shows that she regarded Jesus in a much higher way than that. She obviously had heard the stories about Him, and was coming to Him for a miracle for her daughter. And so, calling Him “Lord” was her way of recognizing His divine authority and power.

Then she called Him “Son of David.” This is a loaded term. Matthew has shown us from the very beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. He is the prophesied “Son of David,” the King who inherits the throne of Israel. Two blind men in Matthew 9 had cried out something similar, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Matt. 9:27). And after Jesus healed a demon-possessed blind and mute man in Matthew 12, the amazed crowd asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matt. 12:23). But what a remarkable thing for this Gentile woman to say! Here is a non-Jewish woman, coming to a Jewish miracle worker, calling Him Lord, recognizing Him as the Jewish Messiah-King, and begging Him to free her daughter from demon possession. Although she probably does not understand the full meaning of His lordship or messiahship, she comes with a sense of awe and wonder at His power and goodness. What a contrast between her and the scribes and Pharisees who refused to recognize who Jesus was! By faith, she saw what the blind religious leaders could not see.

And she says, “Have mercy on me.” She did not come demanding something of Jesus, she just came pleading for mercy because her daughter was in a desperate state. She saw Jesus as her only hope.

So in her, we see faith’s petition. Next we see…

2. Faith’s Persistence (Matt. 15:23-27)

So far, this story is not particularly unique. Many desperate people came to Jesus and begged for His mercy and healing power for their loved ones. But at this point, this story goes in a totally unexpected direction, because rather than immediately helping her, Jesus proves her faith with a series of barriers. These obstacles will prove the quality of her faith. She had a faith that persevered through the …

A. Obstacles of Faith

First, she faces the obstacle of Jesus’ silence. Matthew 15:23 says, “But He answered her not a word.” She came to Jesus crying out for mercy, and He didn’t even acknowledge her. This seems so uncharacteristic of Jesus. Jesus usually welcomed needy people; He picked up little children; He ate with outcasts; and He touched the unclean lepers. But here, He seemed to ignore her cries. He didn’t say a word to her.  What is going on?

What we have to remember in this story is that Jesus does nothing without a divine purpose. And Jesus does nothing unloving. He is proving this woman’s faith. He puts up these barriers, not to drive her away, but to draw her closer.

I suspect that there may be someone here today who desperately needs the encouragement of this woman’s faith. Perhaps you have a deep need. You have cried out to the Lord, but you feel as if the Lord is not answering. This woman’s encounter with Jesus can teach us much about the mercy of the Lord and the faith that lays hold of it. This woman endures the obstacle of silence.

Next, she faces the obstacle of Jesus’ followers. Matthew 15:23 goes on to say, “And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” To the disciples, she was just a bother, a nuisance, someone to get rid of. The phrase “send her away” means to relieve or release. Perhaps they were urging Jesus to give her what she wanted so she would leave them alone. They weren’t exactly driven by the highest and most noble of motives. The disciples are not so unlike us, are they? How many of us get annoyed with problem people? Like the disciples, perhaps we wish that Jesus would just fix their problem so they will stop being a bother. But remember, Jesus is also teaching them a lesson in faith. He wants them to see the difference between superficial belief and genuine faith. The disciples’ attitude was an obstacle.

Then, the woman faced an even bigger obstacle. Jesus says, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (Matt. 15:24). Jesus says that His mission is to the lost sheep of Israel. This reminds us of what Jesus had said to His disciples when He sent them out to preach the Kingdom. He told them in Matthew 10, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus emphasizes that His mission, while He was on the earth, was to the lost sheep of Israel.

We that this was not an absolute rule. There were exceptions. Already in Matthew 8, we saw Jesus respond to the faith of a Roman centurion and heal his servant (Matt. 8:5-13). In John 4 and Luke 17, Jesus also reaches out to Samaritans. We also know from the rest of the New Testament that this was only a temporary limit on Jesus’ mission. After His death and resurrection Jesus will send His apostles out to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). It has to do with timing and priority. As John writes in His Gospel about Jesus, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him,” (John 1:11). Paul wrote in Romans 1:16 that “the gospel of Christ… is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Jesus came to the Jews first, in order to fulfill God’s plan of salvation for all people from all nations everywhere.

Look at the phrase, “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This does not mean there were a just few lost sheep in Israel, but that all Israel was lost. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” All Israel, in fact, all people need a Savior who dies for their sins. All people need Jesus.

But as Jesus says this in answer to her request, it’s an obstacleIt looks like Jesus is rejecting her. He seems to be refusing this woman because she is not Jewish. We might look at this and think Jesus doesn’t care. But that’s not how the woman looked at it. Matthew 15:25 says, “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’” She was not put off by Jesus’ silence, the disciples’ annoyance, or the Lord’s seeming denial. Despite the obstacles, despite the fact that Jesus’ mission is to lost Israelites and she is a Canaanite, she doesn’t react with bitterness or resentment because she still believes that Jesus is her only hope. Rather than turn away dejected or bitter, she came to Jesus. She bowed down before Him in worship. She saw Jesus for who He was: a gracious and compassionate Savior, who was able (and hopefully willing) to extend mercy to her, and to her daughter.[i]

Amazingly, yet again, Jesus puts up another obstacle. But even what appeared to be our Lord’s harshest words do not put her off. In Matthew 15:26 Jesus answered her saying, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” It is obvious from this statement that Jesus is connecting the house of Israel with the children and this Gentile woman with the dogs. Why is He calling her a dog? It appears to be a great insult. The woman undoubtedly had heard Jews insult Gentiles by calling dogs before. But why would Jesus, who we know to be kind and compassionate, speak this way?

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:6? “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” One thing you might not have noticed is that Jesus did not use the same term for dogs in talking to this woman that He did in this teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:6, the word used for “dogs” refers to dogs in a negative sense, like a vicious wild dog. Figuratively, the word is used in the New Testament to describe evil men and workers of iniquity (Phi. 3:2; 2 Pet. 2:22; Rev. 22:15). But in Matthew 15:26 (and the parallels in Mark and Luke), Jesus uses a different word that means “little dogs,” puppies, or pet dogs.

The woman listened well to Jesus, even to His choice of words. Did Jesus refer to her as a “little dog,” a household pet? Good! She seized on this word, and made this the basis for her appeal. She answered in Matthew, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Far from being offended by Jesus, she was inspired by Him to ask for what she desired. She was, in truth, a little dog, not worthy to sit at the masters or eat the children’s food. So, she asked for the crumbs that a dog might reasonably expect from its master.

Every time she faced obstacles to faith, she turned them into …

B. Opportunities of Faith

No matter what, she would not take “no” for an answer. She would not be put off. Like Jacob, wrestling with the Lord at Peniel (Gen. 32:26), she would not let Him go until He blessed her. She passed every test the Lord had placed on her faith. And when it was all over, she still looked to Him to answer. She persevered in faith. She saw the obstacles as opportunities from God. She believed that Jesus is the Son of David, the Jewish Messiah, sent to save His people from their sins. But she still believed that Jesus was her Savior as well.

She had proven herself to have great faith in Him. She kept asking until she received, kept seeking until she found, and kept knocking until it was opened to her (Matt. 7:7). Of course, Jesus knew she would pass the test, as God knew Abraham would pass the test when God commanded him to offer his son Isaac on an altar (Gen. 22). So, what may at first seem cruel on the surface in both accounts is actually compassionate and wise and loving. God used tests not to destroy them but to validate and cultivate their deep and abiding faith.

So, we have seen faith’s petition and faith’s persistence. Finally we see …

3. Faith’s Prize (Matt. 15:28)

Matthew 15:28 says, “Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” How she must have delighted in our Lord’s response! Jesus commended her faith in a way that no Jew was ever commended. Why does Jesus commend her? Because she showed remarkable understanding of Jesus’ mission, remarkable faith in Jesus’ power, remarkable trust in Jesus’ compassion, and remarkable perseverance to keep asking Jesus in the face of obstacles.

When Peter sank after walking on the water, Jesus said he had “little faith,” but this woman had great faith. Only two people in the Gospels are told by Jesus that they have great faith—and they are both Gentiles. The first was the centurion in Matthew 8 of whom Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matt. 8:10). The second is this woman of Canaan. Jesus said to her, “‘O woman, great is your faith!”

She had great faith because her faith had the right object. She had faith in Jesus, the Messiah-King and Savior of all. She had great faith because her faith was humble. She knew she didn’t deserve anything, so she begged for mercy. Her faith was reverent. She called Jesus Lord and worshipped Him. And her faith was persistent—it withstood the test and clung to Jesus. What a picture of true faith!

This is the faith that saves and the faith that serves. We come into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus and we do kingdom ministry by faith in Jesus. Do you have great faith in the great Savior?

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[i] Bob Deffinbaugh, https://bible.org/seriespage/23-lesson-hermeneutics-matthew-1521-39

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Truth vs. Tradition, Part 2

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Truth vs. Tradition, Part 2

Matthew 15:1-20

Last time, we studied the confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 15.

1. The Confrontation (Matt. 15:1-9)

A. Pharisees confront Jesus about tradition (15:1-2)

They came from Jerusalem and charged Jesus with teaching His disciples to transgress the traditions of the elders—specifically regarding the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. They condemned those who did not follow their man-made traditions. Jesus hadn’t broken God’s Law; He hadn’t offended God; He had simply failed to play their traditional religious games. Traditions that are man-made carry no divine authority.

B. Jesus confronts Pharisees about God’s law (15:3-9)

Jesus then turned the spotlight on the Pharisees and charged them with transgressing God’s law in order to keep their traditions. Specifically, they broke the fifth commandment to honor their father and mother by keeping a tradition of vowing their possessions to God. They used their tradition as an excuse to disobey God. Jesus called them hypocrites (Matt. 15:7), said that their hearts were far from God (Matt. 15:8) and that they worshipped God in vain because they taught as doctrines the commandments of men (Matt. 15:9).

So we learned last time that religious traditions can easily become sinful transgressions when they cause us to set aside the clear commands of God’s word and become a substitute for a true relationship with God by faith.

Next, having dealt with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus then turns from the hostile, unbelieving Pharisees and speaks directly to the crowds, the common people. And He teaches them the spiritual truth that the religious leaders had failed to either grasp or teach. It’s the lesson that stands behind the other things that Jesus has said in this passage about religious traditions and the religious leaders who demand that those traditions be followed.

2. The Application (Matt. 15:10-20)

Jesus taught the surrounding crowd a universal principle regarding spiritual cleanness and spiritual defilement. It answers the fundamental question regarding the whole nature of man’s relationship to God—the question of “defilement”. What is it that truly makes a woman or man “unclean” before a holy God? And what must that man or woman do to become “pure” in His sight?

Remember the context here in Matthew 15. The Pharisees and scribes were defending a religious tradition. They were saying that it defiled someone to eat food without first going through a traditional hand washing ceremony. They were defending the idea that religious purity before God had to do with external things. But Jesus taught that …

A. Spiritual defilement is internal, not external (15:10-11)

Matthew 15:10-11 says, “When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man“

Jesus begins with an invitation: “Hear and understand . . .” The proud Pharisees and scribes “heard”, but their minds were closed, they could not understand the truth of God from the lips of the Son of God. So, Jesus offers that truth, not to the proud and learned religious leaders, but to the common multitude who had gathered around Him.

The Pharisees were concerned about hand washing because they wanted to be clean before God. But Jesus says quite plainly, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Nothing that enters you from the outside can make you unclean before God. So, their ceremonial washing was useless for spiritual cleansing.

Jesus says that they have things backward. They said that a man is defiled, or made unclean, by what goes in his mouth. But Jesus declared that a man is defiled by what comes out of his mouth. Jesus says, if you want to guard something, don’t guard what goes in your mouth, guard what comes out of it. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 12?

33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. 36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt. 12:33-37).

On the day of judgment, you won’t give account for what you put in your mouth. But you will give account for what came out of it. The words that come out of your mouth are an indicator of the condition of your heart.

What Jesus said to the crowds—and by implication, also to the scribes and Pharisees—was extraordinarily stunning. The term “defiled” or “unclean” was a major issue for a first-century Jew. If you didn’t stay “clean” by avoiding certain foods, avoiding certain people, and by keeping a long list of rules and regulations, you couldn’t attend Temple, your friends would shun you, your business would decline, and your reputation would suffer. The people lived in fear of being found to be unclean. Man-made traditions cause people to live in bondage. Try to grasp how absolutely revolutionary Jesus’ words must have sounded to people who were taught all their lives that their eternal destiny hinged upon eating the right kind of food and not eating the wrong kind of food.

What Jesus said was, in fact, so shocking and offensive to the normal Jewish religious convictions that the disciples were compelled to ask Jesus more about it.

B. Man-made religion is dangerous (15:12-14)

Matthew 15:12 says, “Then His disciples came and said to Him, Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” Of course, the Pharisees were offended by what Jesus said. Hypocrisy is based on deceit. Truth exposes hypocrites, and therefore it offends them. It was no surprise to Jesus that the Pharisees were offended. He knew their hearts. He knew their hypocrisy. He knew their religion was just man-made traditions.

So, Jesus answers His disciples by teaching them two brief parables about the danger of man-made religion. First, he uses the illustration of a plant, “But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.’” The Pharisees had substituted their traditions for the word of God. Anytime you abandon the word of God, you are no longer speaking for God but for yourself. God’s word endures forever. Therefore, those who abandon God’s word will be like a plant pulled up by the roots. The Pharisees’ religious tradition was not something that the Father had planted. So, it was ultimately doomed to be pulled up by the roots on the great day of judgment. A plant pulled up by the roots will never grow again. What a warning against man-made religion that replaces God’s word with traditions of men!

Second, Jesus uses the illustration of the blind guide. Jesus said, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” (Matt. 15:14). The disciples were worried about the Pharisees’ reaction, but Jesus says to “Let them alone,” leave them, ignore them. Jesus had taught the truth and rather than repenting, the Pharisees were offended. Their hearts were hardened toward the truth. They abandoned the light of God’s word, and so they are blind guides. Following their religious traditions was just like blind men groping around in the dark.

Think about it! Here was the Son of God, standing before them, and they were offended at Him and seeking to destroy Him. And that’s what made them especially guilty, because they were not only spiritually blind, but were also in arrogant denial of their blindness—setting themselves up to be guides to others. To be “blind” is bad. But to be a “blind leader of the blind” is nothing short of deadly!

Remember when Jesus gave sight to a man born blind in John 9? The Pharisees tried to disprove the miracle, and when the former blind man defended Jesus, they threw him out. Later, when the man found Jesus again, “… he said, ‘Lord, I believe!’ And he worshiped Him” (John 9:38). And Jesus answered saying, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (John 9:39). John then tells us that the Pharisees heard these words and asked Jesus, “Are we blind also?” (John 9:40). And Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” (John 9:41). They are blind guides.

Therefore, Jesus warns His disciples to leave them, stay away from those who arrogantly set themselves up to be spiritual leaders in opposition to Christ and the truth of God’s word. Our standard is Christ and His word. We must measure teachers and their teachings by the infallible word of God. Man-made religion is dangerous because God has not planted it and will fatally uproot it. And it is dangerous because those who follow these blind guides will also fall into a pit.

Finally, Jesus teaches His disciples that …      

C. The problem of sin is the heart (15:15-20)

In Matthew 15:15, speaking for the group of disciples (Mark 7:17), “Then Peter answered and said to Him, ‘Explain this parable to us.’” The fact that Jesus had to further explain His clear and unambiguous teaching just shows how deeply ingrained these traditions were in even Jesus’ disciples. “So Jesus said, ‘Are you also still without understanding?’” (Matt. 15:16). In the original language, Jesus literally asks, “Still [or “even now”] also are you without understanding?” After being with Jesus for so long and hearing Him teach so much, He expected them to be beyond having to ask this question by now! I wonder how many times Jesus would need to say the same to us.

Jesus knew that what they were asking about was His statement in Matthew 15:11—the one that offended the Pharisees, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” It’s not really a parable. What Jesus taught is not a hidden truth—Jesus taught it clearly—but it is a hard truth. It went counter to all they had been taught about spiritual defilement and spiritual cleansing. It’s a hard pill for many people to swallow because if it’s the things outside of us that defile us, then we can simply avoid those things by following our rules and traditions about cleansing things. But if the defilement is inside us, how do we make our hearts clean?

Look at what Jesus goes on to teach His disciples. In Matthew 15:17, Jesus asks, “Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated?” Jesus wants them to understand that it is not food that makes you clean or unclean before God. Eating food with dirty hands does not make you unclean before God. Any foods you eat, clean or unclean, go straight into the stomach and then leave the body. Food is physical. But being clean before God is not a physical matter. So, Jesus leads us away from focusing on the externals.

Being clean before God is a spiritual matter. It is a matter of the heart. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 15:18, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.” What proceeds out of the mouth? Words. What we say with our words is an expression of what is in our hearts. But Jesus’ focus goes beyond just the words we speak. His focus is the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. He describes seven expressions of evil, certainly not an exhaustive list, but enough to show the evil that is within. First, He says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts . . .” (Matt. 15:19). Evil words and evil deeds, all of them, first spring forth from evil thoughts in our minds and evil desires in our hearts.

Then, having already confronted the Pharisees about breaking the fifth commandment, Jesus lists commandments six through nine in order, “… murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Notice that Jesus states these sins in the plural form, no doubt to express the various ways these evils in the heart manifest themselves. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. “Murders” include not only deadly acts of violence but also brutal words and verbal expressions of hatred (Matt. 5:21-22). “Adulteries” and “fornications” are not only acts of unfaithfulness and sexual immorality but also impure thoughts or verbal expressions of lust (Matt. 5:27-28). “Thefts” are not only actual acts of stealing but the intent to take or have what belongs to someone else. “False witness” is not only saying false words but also intending to deceive (Matt. 5:33-37). Finally, “blasphemies” not only include speaking wrongly of God’s character or misusing His name but also may include slandering the image of God in other people.

The point is that spiritual defilement is not external, it’s internal. Uncleanness is not physical, it’s moral. Sin does not come from external things—it comes from the heart. One preacher put it this way, “Every sin is an inside job.”[1] Every sin you commit begins in your own heart. Jesus concludes in Matthew 15:20, “These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Therefore, what we do not need is not an external, ceremonial washing; what we need is an internal, spiritual washing.

Man-made religion will tell you how to clean the outside—do the ceremony, follow the rules, clean up your act. But it can never cleanse the heart. So the evil remains. How can we rid ourselves of the impurity within? How can a man cleanse his heart? Here is the biblical answer to that: you can’t. Nothing any person can do—no religious ceremony, no amount of good deeds, no measure of sacrifice or service—nothing we do can ever cleanse our hearts of the sin and evil within.

So, you say, “Well pastor, is it hopeless?” What is the solution? How can our hearts be cleansed? The answer is only God can cleanse our hearts. And He has provided for that cleansing in His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:7 says “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Hebrews 10 says we have “… boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” therefore we may “…draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” The blood of Jesus cleanses all who come to Him by faith. Paul writes in Titus 3,

4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Titus 3:4-6).

When you put your faith in Christ, your sins are forgiven and God gives you his Holy Spirit, He washes your sins away and makes you new and clean in His sight. Believing in Jesus is not a work that you do. Salvation is the gift of God that you receive (Eph. 2:8-10). Faith is the open hand that receives the free gift. Spiritual cleansing begins with the washing of rebirth. It is a work of the Holy Spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is how we are justified, made righteous in God’s sight. This is how we are sanctified, set apart for God.

That is our initial cleansing when we are born again by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus. We are forever counted righteous and clean for the sake of Jesus Christ because we have died with Him and been raised to a new life in Christ. His once-for-all sacrifice on the cross paid my sin debt in full and I am no longer condemned as unclean before God. I have died with Christ to sin and been raised to life as a new creation with a new heart.

Yet, because we live in this sinful world and in this body of flesh, we still sin and stain ourselves with unrighteousness. So, we also need ongoing cleansing. This cleansing includes the process of sanctification “with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26). In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to His Father for those who believed in Him, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” God’s word cleanses by renewing our minds, giving us the mind of Christ with godly desires from the heart. When we do sin, we need cleansing to restore that close fellowship with the Lord. This comes by repenting and confessing our sins. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Christ continually cleanses us from sin when we confess it to Him. What does the old song say?

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Only Jesus can make you clean. And let me tell you, there is nothing better than being clean before God, having your sins washed away, being born again as a child of God, having a new heart, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and having the assurance of heaven. Come to Jesus. Believe He died to forgive your sins and make you clean. Trust in Him as the risen Lord who is able to cleanse you forever. You need Jesus, only Jesus.

 

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[1] Alistair Begg, https://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2021/01/30/behaving-part-2-of-2-/

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Truth vs. Tradition

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Truth vs. Tradition

Matthew 15:1-20

Tradition! There are all sorts of traditions in life. We have family traditions, holiday traditions, community traditions, national traditions, and church traditions. Some traditions are a good thing. They serve a useful function giving us a sense of community with others and continuity with our past. But when it comes to a relationship with God, traditions can often do more harm than good—especially when we put our traditions above the clear commands of the word of God.

Today, we come to a new chapter in our study of the Gospel of Matthew. It begins with a controversy over tradition, a confrontation between the scribes and Pharisees and Jesus. But this is not the first time we have seen Jesus in conflict with the Jewish religious leaders. Recall that in Matthew 9, when Jesus forgives the sin of a paralytic, the scribes accused Jesus of blasphemy (Matt. 9:3). Then, when He ate at Matthew’s house, they were appalled that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 9:11). Next, when Jesus cast a demon from a mute man, the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons” (Matt. 9:34).

In Matthew 12, the Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of violating the Sabbath (Matt. 12:2). When Jesus claimed He was Lord of the Sabbath and proved it by the scriptures and by healing a man with a withered hand, they “went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him” (Matt. 12:14). Again, when Jesus healed a blind and mute demon-possessed man, they accused Him of working in the power of the devil (Matt. 12:24). He utterly disproved their accusation, and said they were a “brood of vipers” who, being evil, were incapable of speaking good things. When they sought to discredit Him by demanding a miraculous sign from Him, He told them that the only sign they would receive would be “the sign of the prophet Jonah”—that is, the sign of His own resurrection after being “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). And He said they had a greater condemnation than the sinful, wicked, pagan nations of the past that repented at the teaching of God (Matt. 12:41-42).

So, you can be certain, that when the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem come to question Jesus in Matthew 15, they come with hostile intentions. They did not come to hear Him teach, wonder at His miracles, or believe in Him as the Son of God. They came to accuse and discredit Him. Matthew 15:1-20 can be outlined this way: 1) The scribes and Pharisees challenge Jesus about tradition and Jesus confronts them about God’s law (Matt. 15:1-9); then, 2) Jesus taught the crowd a principle about true defilement (Matt. 15:10-11); Finally, 3) Jesus explains this further to His disciples (Matt. 15:12-20).

This passage teaches us that religious ‘traditions’ can easily become sinful ‘transgressions’, especially when they cause us to set aside the clear commands of God’s word and become a substitute for a true relationship with God by faith.[1]

So first we see…

1. The Confrontation (Matt. 15:1-9)

A. Pharisees confront Jesus about tradition (15:1-2)

Matthew 15:1-2 says, “Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.’”

It is important to understand what the Pharisees are talking about here. They accuse Jesus’ disciples of transgressing “the tradition of the elders.” The word “tradition” (παράδοσις, paradosis) literally means “giving over” or “delivering” something. Metaphorically, it came to refer to the body of precepts handed down by the scribes and rabbis. Thus, “the tradition of the elders” was a set of oral interpretations of the law passed down from one generation to the next.

Historically, from the time of Ezra and the return of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity, the Jewish leaders and scholars developed a detailed set of rules and regulations related to the law of God. These traditions were not scripture, but they were intended to help God’s people conform to God’s commandments. The trouble was, that by the time of Jesus, these traditions they taught about the law of God became more important than the law itself. The scribes and Pharisees were experts in ‘the traditions of the elders’ and strictly devoted themselves to keeping them. Many of these traditions were later codified in the Jewish Talmud and are still observed in orthodox Judaism today.

The area of the tradition that the Pharisees were concerned about on this day was the washing of hands before eating. Their concern was not so much a matter of “personal hygiene” as it was “ceremonial cleanliness”. They took this ceremonial washing very seriously. You can understand how the Jews felt about washings from what they later wrote in the Talmud. One wrote, “Whoever eats bread without first washing his hands is as though he had sinned with a harlot. Whoever makes light of the washing of his hands will be uprooted from the world. Whoever eats bread without scouring his hands is as though he eats unclean bread” (Sot. 4b).[2] Another wrote, “A person who despises the washing of the hands before a meal is to be excommunicated” (Ber. 19a).[3]

It is important to understand that these traditions were not Scripture. There is no requirement for ceremonial washings before meals in the law of Moses. The only washings prescribed by God were for the priests in their temple service (Exodus 30:17-21, 40:12; 2 Chronicles 4:6). But the traditions of the elders went far beyond the requirements of the law of God. These were religious rules and regulations created by men, not by God.

Even though this tradition is foreign to us, the Jews in Jesus’ day knew all these rules and believed they were binding. In his parallel account, Mark explains,

3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. (Mark 7:3-4).

So, it was especially offensive to the Pharisees that this upstart rabbi, Jesus, had not taught His disciples to keep those traditions and observe them carefully. This was the issue that the Pharisees used to try to discredit Jesus.

How did Jesus respond?

B. Jesus confronts the Pharisees about God’s law (15:3-9)

Jesus answered their question in the same way He often answered accusatory questions—by asking them a question in return. He said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:3).

Never in the Gospels do we find Jesus basing His actions on the “traditions of the elders”. He never appealed to their traditions, advocated for them, or held them to be authoritative. Instead, Jesus always appealed to the authority of scripture or His own authority as the Son of God. Jesus had no problem breaking with their traditions when they were not prescribed by the word of God. That’s why He would heal people on the Sabbath and allow His disciples to pluck grain and eat it on the Sabbath even though it was against the traditions of the elders. Jesus violated their tradition but always obeyed the word of God.

Which should be more important: the tradition of the elders or God’s commandments? The Pharisees accused Jesus and His disciples of transgressing the traditions. Jesus accused them of transgressing God’s commandments. When you hold your tradition as sacred, you are in danger of putting your tradition above God’s word. That is exactly what the Pharisees did.

In Matthew 15:4-6, Jesus gives them an example of how they put their tradition before God’s word. He first told them, “For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’” (Matt. 15:4), quoting the fifth commandment (Exo. 20:12; Deut. 5:16). Then, He added the Scripture’s warning about the punishment prescribed by the law for the breaking the fifth commandment, “. . . and ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death’” (Exo. 21:17; cf. Deut. 27:16; Pro. 20:20; 30:7). This is God’s word, straight from the ten commandments given by God to Moses and the people of Israel.

Then Jesus contrasted God’s clear commandment with their man-made tradition. “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God’” (Matt. 15:5). Notice the contrast here between “God commanded” and “you say”. The first is the word of God, the second is a tradition of men.

This particular tradition taught that if someone pledged money or other material resources to the temple for the service of God, then the money had to be turned over to the temple upon their death and could not be given to anyone else. The person who made the pledge could still use the money, but they were forbidden from giving it to anyone else because it was now “Corban”—that is, a gift set apart for God (Mark 7:11). It had the appearance of being an act of great devotion to God. But practically, that’s not how it worked out. They didn’t actually give their money to God, they only pledged it to God. That way, they could keep it and use it for themselves, but they didn’t have to use it to help anyone else.

Jesus indicates the problem of this tradition, saying in Matthew 15:6, “‘then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.” If a man made this kind of vow and then found out that his aging parents were in financial need, their tradition forbade him from giving anything to them (cf. Mark 7:11-12). Jesus says that by their tradition, they have transgressed the commandment of God (Matt. 15:3). They have nullified or voided the word of God by their tradition (Matt. 15:6). They followed a tradition of vowing their money, and they broke God’s commandment to honor their parents.

When a tradition is treated as a greater authority than the clear word of God, it is in danger of becoming sinful. When it actually makes you transgress the clear commandment of Scripture, then it is sinful. The Pharisees were allowing people to put their possessions under “Corban” as a way of shirking their responsibility to their parents. So, Jesus gave an example where their tradition was in direct contradiction to the commandment of God, but the Pharisees kept the tradition rather than the word of God.

They said they were followers of God, but in reality, they were just followers of tradition. What does that make them? Mathew 15:7, Jesus calls them, “Hypocrites!”

A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be something they are not. By holding to their traditions, they could display an outward piety while in their hearts they transgressed God’s law.

Jesus explains their sinful condition by quoting from the prophet Isaiah:

7 “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ “ (Matt. 15:7-9).

The danger of resting on religious traditions is that they become a substitute for a true relationship with God. Jesus said they “draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips.” Oh, they knew how to spout their love for God. They knew how to pray in public. They pledged their money to God, but it was all just empty words. They were all talk and outward show. Jesus said, “But their heart is far from Me.” Following religious traditions can never substitute for a true relationship with God. We may fool others with our pious words and legalistic rules, but we cannot fool God. He knows our hearts.

And not only do those traditions give us a false sense of “relationship”; but they also give us a false experience of “worship”. Jesus quotes Isaiah, “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” When we put traditions above the word of God, our worship is in vain. Our worship means nothing. It is empty ritual that does not move our hearts and cannot please God. God doesn’t want you just to go through the motions. He wants your heartfelt worship, repentance, prayer, and obedience.

One commentator said this about tradition,

Satan has no greater allies than hypocrites who go under the guise of God’s people. And hypocrites have no greater ally than tradition, because tradition can be followed mechanically and thoughtlessly, without conviction, sincerity, or purity of heart. Because traditions are made by men, they can be accomplished by men. They require no faith, no trust, no dependence on God . . . they appeal to the flesh by feeding pride and self-righteousness . . . that is why ritual, ceremony, and other religious traditions are more likely to take worshipers further from God than bring them closer. And the further a person is from God, the more vain his worship becomes.[4]

Not all tradition is bad in and of itself. Tradition can connect us with the generations past who served God faithfully. Some traditions may actually help us to know and worship God. But traditions that replace the Word of God, are not just worthless, they are evil. The word of God is our authority not the doctrines of men. We must test everything we do by the word of God. Have we allowed following tradition to become a substitute for a true relationship with God and obedience to His word?

Next week we will look at the rest of this passage, Matthew 15:10-20, as Jesus will teach a universal principle and apply it to His disciples. But what have we learned so far?

This passage teaches us that we should not judge other people by our traditions, they are not sacred. God’s commands always come before our traditions. Listen, nothing that we do in church is sacred except the worship of God according to the word of God. The type of music; the number of services; the times we start and end; the order of service; using a hymnal or a screen; pews or chairs; piano, organ, or band; how we dress; when we stand or sit; how we give our offerings; how often we observe the Lord’s Supper; and many more traditions—none of them is sacred. Worship can look and feel different in different churches and cultures as long as we are worshiping in Spirit and truth according to the word of God. God’s commands always come before man-made rules, regulations, and rituals.

God is not impressed with empty worship traditions. Listen to what the Lord said to His people in Jerusalem in Isaiah 1,

11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.

12 “When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?

13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.

14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.

16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:11-17).

How many times do we follow religious traditions in worship that we think God is pleased with, or that we think bring us into His favor, when in reality, the Lord can’t endure them because we observe them with sinful hearts and filthy hands that have never been washed cleaned by the blood of Jesus?

Isaiah goes on to write words from the Lord inviting His people to salvation,

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD,
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured by the sword”;
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20).

 The only way for your sins to be washed away is by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you. Jesus saves—nothing else. John writes in Revelation that “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth …” has “… loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev. 1:5-6).

The old hymn asks,

Have you come to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

The church cannot save you. Religious ceremonies cannot save you. Tradition cannot save you. Trying hard to be good cannot save you. Your sins have separated you from the Holy God who loves you. Your debt to God is greater than you could ever pay. The wages of sin is death. But Jesus Christ came to save. He paid your debt in full with His precious blood. Come to Jesus. Believe He is Lord, that He died for your sins and was raised for your justification. He will save you, justify you, cleanse you, and make you His own.

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[1] Greg Allen, Traditions and Transgressions, https://bethanybible.org/archive/2007/032507.htm

[2] Cited in A. Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud, New American Edition (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1949), p. 241.

[3] Ibid.

[4] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Matthew, Moody Publishers, Chicago, 1987, p. 455.

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Walking on Water, Part 2

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Walking on Water, Part 2

Matthew 14:22-36

Matthew’s theme is that Jesus is the Messiah-King. As He walked this earth, our Lord’s message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The subject of Jesus’ teaching was the kingdom of God. And in all of His preaching, He clearly showed Himself to be the long-awaited Messiah-King who fulfilled the prophecies of scripture. He had sent His apostles out to proclaim that same message of the kingdom and confirmed the gospel with miracles, signs, and wonders. He had compassion on the people, healed their diseases, and freed many from demonic possession. And yet, He had to rebuke the very places where He had taught and worked (Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum), because they would not repent at His teaching (Matt. 11:20-24). The religious leaders of the day resisted His teaching, demanded signs from Him (Matt. 12:38), and sought to kill Him (Matt. 12:14). Even His own family (Matt. 12:46-50) and the people of His hometown resisted and rejected Him (Matt. 13:53-58). King Herod reacted to news about Jesus with misunderstanding and superstition (Matt. 14:1-2). The multitudes that He fed misunderstood His mission—forcing Him to separate Himself from them because they sought to make Him into their earthly provider (John 6:15). Even Jesus’ own disciples failed to recognize Him as He walked out to them on the sea—fearing that He was a ghost (Matt. 14:26).

Remember, in this section of Matthew, that Jesus, having taught about the kingdom of heaven, is now concentrating on training His disciples in kingdom ministry. In the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus taught them that He is the Lord, the Messiah-King, who is able to work through them to do kingdom ministry when they trust in Him. But did they learn the lesson? Immediately after Jesus used them to feed the multitude, He sent them across the lake against a windstorm. And so, in our last lesson, we saw …

1. The disciple’s problem (Matt. 14:22-24)

They found themselves at their wits’ end without Jesus. Jesus deliberately sent them off on a journey that He knew would prove very frustrating to them, which would drain them of all their own personal resources. He did this so He could then illustrate to them—and to us—that He is far above those things that frustrate us. Jesus is building their faith in Him.

Then we saw…

2. Jesus’ presence (Matt. 14:25-27)

Finally, after they strained at the oars for hours against the wind, Jesus comes to them, walking on the water. The disciples are terrified. They think Jesus is a ghost, But Jesus comes saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I: do not be afraid.” (Matt. 14:27), revealing Himself to be Lord and Savior, the One who is above all their frustrations and fears. “What a profound lesson about God’s protecting love, when without human resource, when there is no way, He makes the storm His path to save His own.”[1]

Now when Mark and John wrote about this in their Gospels, the Holy Spirit led them to end the story with Jesus entering the boat and the disciples’ amazement. But Matthew goes on to tell us about something else that happened before then because the disciples need to learn what God can do through them when they trust in Jesus.

Which brings us to…

3. Jesus’ provision (Matt. 14:28-32)

Matthew tells us that Peter said, “Lord, if it is You . . .” What was Peter doing here? Was Peter doubtful? He and the rest of the disciples were certainly terrified. They were seeing a man walking on the water, after all. He looked like the Lord, He spoke like the Lord. Maybe, Peter thought, there was one way to be sure it was Jesus, and that was by walking on water to Him at His command. And so, Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (Matt. 14:28).

Peter certainly was impulsive, but I believe it was an impulse prompted by faith in Jesus. Peter was not putting Jesus to the test, something we are told not to do (Matt. 4:7). Jesus’ presence in the storm emboldened Peter to exercise a fearless faith. Peter overcame his fear and attempted the impossible.

As a commercial fisherman, Peter had spent a lot of time in boats out at sea. He knew how impossible it was to walk on the sea. I’m sure he knew better than to try stepping out of the boat unless Jesus commanded him to do so! And so, the Lord said, “Come” (Matt. 14:29), and Peter threw one leg over and onto the water, then the other, and soon he was walking on the water toward Jesus. Can you imagine the faith it took for Peter to step out of the boat? Can you imagine what he must have been thinking when he first touched his foot to the water and then put the rest of his weight onto it?

We may be tempted to criticize Peter a bit for his lack of faith as we see what happens next, but it’s important to point out that at least he got out of the boat! That took more faith than most of us would exercise. Most of us would stay in the boat and wait for Jesus to come to us! When Jesus says, “Come,” you’d better come. In Peter’s case, he was safer out on the water with Jesus than in the boat without Him.

Peter is an encouragement to me because we often find him saying or doing big, bold things for Jesus, and then immediately messing up right after. Peter walks on water with Jesus, then he sinks and needs to be saved. Peter makes the great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). Then when Jesus explained His impending suffering and death, Peter rebuked the Lord, speaking the words of Satan, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matt. 16:22). At the last supper, Peter pledged to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matt. 26:35). And we all know how that ended—with Peter in bitter tears after denying three times that he even knew Jesus (Matt. 26:75). Peter is a great encouragement for imperfect believers like you and me who sincerely want to follow Jesus but who are constantly falling flat on our faces. God used Peter. He can use us as well.

Now, as long as Peter’s eyes were fixed on Jesus, he did fine. He walked on water. But the fact is that Peter turned his gaze from Jesus. Matthew 14:30 says, “But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’” The moment he began to focus on the wind that was blowing, and on the waves that were thrashing around him—in other words, the moment he focused on his circumstances rather than on Him who walked above them all—Peter began to sink.

And so, he does the only thing he can do. He prayed a simple prayer, but a great prayer. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” And Jesus does! “And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him,” before he sank down beneath the surface of the waves. Then Jesus said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt. 14:31). “You of little faith” is only one word in the Greek: “Little-faith.” It’s like a nickname. Jesus called Peter “Little-Faith.” “Little-faith, why did you doubt?” He was not rebuking Peter for attempting too much, but for trusting too little.

One of the details that I love the most about this story is found in the fact that Matthew tells us that “they” got back to the boat (Matt. 14:32). Jesus didn’t just leave Peter in the water, nor did Jesus walk back to the boat, dragging Peter under the water behind Him. I believe that Jesus raised Peter up and they walked together. Then, as soon as our Lord and Peter got back into the boat, Matthew tells us “the wind ceased” (Matt. 14:32). Once again, Jesus confirmed to them who He is—that He is the Lord who has authority over even the winds and the sea.

Ray Fowler points out some lessons we can learn from Peter here.[2] First, there is the lesson of faith. When you trust Jesus, God can do through you the most amazing and marvelous things. Then, there is the lesson of focus. Faith is keeping your eyes on Jesus. It’s not easy to keep your eyes on Jesus in the middle of the night, when the raging storm of fear threatens to overwhelm you. But don’t lose your focus! Keep your eyes on Jesus, not on your problems. And then thirdly, there is the lesson of forgiveness. God loves and forgives you even when you fail. Even when you lose faith, even when you lose focus, you just need to call out: “Lord, save me!”, and Jesus is right there to help you back into the boat.

The main point of the whole episode comes now at the end …

3. The disciple’s praise (Matt. 14:33)

Matthew 14:33 says, “Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly, You are the Son of God’” Matthew DOESN’T say “They thanked Him saying, ‘We would have died without You.’” Matthew says they “worshiped Him.” Though they had a long way to go in their spiritual understanding, the disciples were growing in their faith in the Lord. And so, for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ disciples confess that He is the Son of God. Their worship is joined to their confession.

Jesus is the promised Messiah-King and the disciples recognize and declare His deity. There is no other way possible that Jesus could have done what He did—walking on the sea, saving Peter, and calming the storm. It was not only a demonstration of His divine power, but also of His divine love and care for the disciples. The proper response to Jesus is to worship Him.

Let’s remember who Jesus is and worship Him. Let’s remember that, in our times of frustration, in our times of fear, and even in our times of weak faith, He is the Son of God. He is in control of all of life’s circumstances. He comes to us walking on the water. Let’s listen to His voice, lovingly, compassionately calling out to us in those tough times—in the times of frustration, or fear, or weak faith—and saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I: do not be afraid.” Let’s be very sure that we keep our focus on this One who walks above it all.

As we do, we will be ‘walking on the water’ with Him.

Finally, Matthew concludes this section with a summary Jesus’ …

5. Ministry to the people (Matt. 14:34-36)

34 When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, 36 and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well. (Matt. 14:34-36).

Jesus has just taught His disciples a lesson about His divine nature, His awesome power, and His saving love. He is training them to trust Him. Now He teaches them another faith lesson. He demonstrates, again, His kingdom ministry to which He calls them. These verses not only give us the assurance that Jesus lovingly and graciously rewards any expression of faith that is placed on Him, but it also teach us what we who have placed our faith in Him for salvation should do to draw others to Him as Savior.

The people of Gennesaret took four simple actions that become a pattern for us in kingdom ministry.[3] First, they recognized Jesus. They recognized Him and His power to transform lives. Kingdom ministry begins with recognizing Jesus for who He is. Do we truly believe that Jesus is the only hope for men and women who are broken and ruined by sin?

Second, they sent out the word about Jesus. Once the men of Gennesaret recognized that it was this miracle-working Jesus who had stepped onto their shore, “they sent out into all that surrounding region” with the news of His arrival (Matt. 14:35). They spread the news. Nobody had to compel them to spread the word. It is the natural response of those who believe in the power of Jesus.

Then third, they brought needy people to Jesus. The people of Gennesaret sent out into all that surrounding region, and “brought to Him all who were sick” (Matt. 14:35). In other words, they sought out and brought those to Jesus who could not have brought themselves to Him—those who “had it bad”. It was a tremendous act of love and mercy for them to bring the needy. And as a result, Jesus graciously gave them what they needed.

The people of Gennesaret recognized Jesus when He came, spread the news about Him throughout the surrounding region, and then took the initiative to bring helpless people to Him.

Then finally, they plead with Jesus. Matthew tells us that those who brought the needy to Jesus “begged Him that they [that is, the people in need] might only touch the hem of His garment.” They probably got that idea from when Jesus healed the woman with the flow of blood who touched His garment in Matthew 9. Jesus told her, “your faith has made you well” (Matt. 9:22). Jesus didn’t have a magic robe that healed people when they touched it. Jesus responded to their faith with His mercy and compassion and made them perfectly well. He saved them thoroughly.

This highlights one of the most important things we can do for the needy people we bring to Jesus—to plead with Jesus on their behalf. Are you praying to Jesus, pleading with Him to save that family member or friend who is sick with sin? Recognize the power and compassion of Jesus to save them. Spread the news about Jesus. Bring the needy to Him. And plead with Jesus on their behalf. What a lesson in kingdom ministry!

Jesus is Lord, the Son of God, who walks on the sea above all our frustrations, fears, and failures. Have you come to Him for salvation? Do you worship Him? Are you bringing others to Him?

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[1] John MacArthur, Worship the Son of God, Part 2, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2310/worshiping-the-son-of-god-part-2

[2] Ray Fowler, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/when-the-going-gets-tough/

[3] Greg Allen, Bringing People to Jesus, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/031107.htm

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Walking on Water

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Walking on Water

Matthew 14:22-33

Today, We come to another familiar story in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus walking on the water. Which would be so utterly amazing to us, had we not heard the story many times over. This episode in the life of Jesus has left its impression on the mind of the world.  Still today, we describe someone who is very gifted or successful as “able to walk on water.”  But we mean the phrase only metaphorically.  No one can literally walk on water. But Jesus did. And the point of the whole episode comes at the end when the disciples worship Jesus saying, “Truly You are the Son of God” (Matt. 14:33).

We said last time that this section of the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 14-17, focuses on Jesus training His disciples for kingdom ministry. Jesus does many miracles in this section, but these miracles have less to do with proving Himself to the crowds, and far more to do with Jesus teaching the twelve. We saw this last time as Jesus fed the five thousand. Jesus wants to do kingdom ministry through His disciples. So He pressed them to the end of themselves and their resources to reveal that kingdom ministry must be done according to His will and in His power.

Now, Jesus gives His disciples another hands-on ministry learning session. This lesson also will bring the twelve to the end of themselves. They find themselves tormented by the waves and the wind against them (Matt. 14:24). The Gospel of Mark tells us that when Jesus finally joined them in the boat, “… they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.” (Mark 6:51-52).

They didn’t learn the lesson Jesus was trying to teach them when He fed the five thousand. So now, He is teaching them again. Jesus wants to grow their faith in Him. And one of the ways Jesus grows our faith is through difficult circumstances. In those trials, we learn things about God’s love and power that we would never understand in any other way. Sometimes, the Lord puts us in difficult situations so we will learn to trust Him more.

So first we see…

1. The disciple’s problem (Matt. 14:22-24)

Here’s the setting. It’s late in the day (Matt. 14:14). Jesus has just performed the great miracle of feeding the multitude—5000 men, plus women and children—with five loaves and two fish (Matt. 14:13-21). The Gospel of John tells us that the crowd was so enthralled by this miracle that “they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king” (John 6:15). But Jesus, knowing that their enthusiasm is shallow, refuses them. The Lord knew that their motives were not spiritual and that their purposes were out of God’s will. Instead, Matthew 14:22 tells us, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.” When it says Jesus made them get into the boat, the verb means He compelled or drove the disciples. Jesus got them out of there forcefully and quickly. If the disciples had stayed, they would likely have fallen in with the plans of the crowd for a popular uprising. But that was not Jesus’ plan.

He sent them “to the other side” of the lake away from the crowds and their superficial enthusiasm. Matthew 14:23 tells us, “And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.”  Jesus went up alone into the mountain on the eastern side of the lake to pray, to commune with His Father. The masses were wild with enthusiasm and the disciples misunderstood Him. The Father alone was what Jesus longed for at this time.

Meanwhile, what are the twelve doing? They are in a boat on the lake, and Matthew 14:24 says, “But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.” It should have been a short boat ride across the northwestern corner of the lake. They started in the evening, perhaps hoping to get to their destination before it got too dark. But now, they are “in the middle of the sea”, a long way from land, and not at all where they intended to be. Their little fishing boat was “tossed by the waves” because the wind had kicked up and was against them. Imagine trying to row against the wind on a storm-tossed sea in the middle of the night! They have been straining at the oars for hours (Mark 6:48).

And the worst part? Jesus is not with them. Back in Matthew 8, they had also been on the in a boat in a storm on the sea. The boat was being covered by the waves and the disciples thought they were about to perish. But Jesus was with them, asleep in the boat. When they woke Him, desperately calling out, “Lord, save us!”, Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm (Matt. 8:23-27). But this time, they are alone. Maybe they are thinking, “if only Jesus were here, He could rebuke the wind and calm the sea!” But there they are, alone, blown off course, exhausted, and buffeted by the waves on the sea.

And why are they there? Jesus sent them there. No doubt, Jesus knew a storm was brewing. He knew the torment they would face on the sea. They were in this storm because they were obedient to Jesus. As we read our Bibles, we discover that two kinds of storms: storms of correction, when God disciplines us; and storms of perfection, when God helps us to grow. Jonah was in a storm because he disobeyed God and had to be corrected. The disciples were in a storm because they obeyed Christ and had to be perfected. MacArthur writes, “Jesus knew of their situation long before it happened, and He did not have to rush away from prayer in order to be on time to help. The storm and the disciples were equally in His hands, and He knew in advance exactly what He would do with both.”[1]

They are in Jesus’ spiritual boot camp. He is training them in faith. Adrian Rodgers says, “Jesus is an unusual teacher. He gives the test first and the lesson afterward.”[2] Jesus sat upon the mountain in prayer for hours—perhaps occasionally looking up to see how, off in the distance, the disciples were rowing frantically and fighting against the winds; and yet, did nothing to change the winds in their favor. Matthew tells us that it grew to be the fourth watch of the night (Matt. 14:25), which would have made it about three or four in the morning.

Jesus deliberately sent them off on a journey that He knew would prove very frustrating to them, and that would drain them of all their own personal resources. Why did He not come to them sooner? Jesus’ seeming delay was not due to indifference or inability. As remarkable as it may seem, I believe it was because Jesus wanted them to first exhaust themselves of every resource of their own. He did this so He could then illustrate to them—and to us—that He is far above those things that frustrate us. That He is with us and in control of all things even when we cannot see Him. He wants to build our faith in Him.

Which brings us to point 2…

2. Jesus’ presence (Matt. 14:25-27)

Matthew 14:25 says, “Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.” What a wonderful statement! “Jesus went to them.” He knew their need and He came. Spurgeon wrote, “Jesus is sure to come. The night wears on and the darkness thickens … He comes in the teeth of the wind, and on the face of the wave. Never fear that He will fail to reach the storm-tossed [boat]: His love will find the way. Whither it be to a single disciple, or to the church as a whole, Jesus will appear in His own chosen hour, and His time is sure to be the most timely.”

Jesus comes, “walking on the sea”, demonstrating His power over nature and His own true nature as the Son of God. In the Old Testament only God walked on the water and had power over the sea. Job 9:8 says of God: “He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea.” And so by this miracle Jesus was showing that he is truly God. Later on, the disciples will acknowledge this when they worship Him in the boat saying: “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matt. 14:33).

Why did Jesus walk on the water? To show His disciples who He is and what He can do with them when they trust Him. I believe that’s what Jesus was doing with the disciples. And I believe that’s what He often does with us. In order to teach us about His own sufficiency in our lives, He will often send us off in a direction that He knows will frustrate us—into a situation that will take us to the end of ourselves and leave us feeling as if we’re getting nowhere. And then, Jesus comes, walking above it all. He sends us into the storm because He loves us and knows how bad it is for us to rely on our own strength and resources. He wants to wean us of our trust in ourselves, and to learn to trust Him alone.

But in their struggling faith, the disciples don’t recognize Jesus right away. Matthew 14:26 says, “And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.” Matthew tells us that they were “troubled”; but I suspect that was something of an understatement. It didn’t register to them that it was Jesus walking toward them. Rather, as Matthew tells us, they were saying, “It’s a phantasma”—a ghost; some unearthly, inhuman apparition. No man could do what they were seeing. And if it isn’t a man, what is it? Matthew tells us that “they cried out for fear”.

Why did they not recognize Jesus? The answer is they were not looking for Him. Had they been waiting by faith, they would have known Him instantly. Instead, they jumped to the false conclusion that His appearance was that of a ghost. The point is this: fear and faith cannot live in the same heart, for fear frequently blinds the eyes to the presence of the Lord.[3]

Notice the contrast. The disciples are terrified. Jesus is calm. I don’t know what that scene looked like, but I don’t picture Jesus walking upon the water with great difficulty—as if He were struggling to keep His balance. I doubt He was leaping from wave to wave like a broad-jumper. No, He was just walking, calmly walking. As the wind was blowing and the waves were raging all around Him, He walked in the midst of it all with perfect calmness and peace. When He detected the fear in His disciples over the sight of Him coming, He immediately spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” (Matt. 14:27).

First, He says, “Be of good cheer”—that is, take courage. We can take courage and be of good cheer—no matter what the troubling circumstances—because of what He says next: “It is I”. Literally, this is the Greek version of God telling Moses in Exodus 3:14 that His name is “I AM.” Jesus identifies Himself with the God who in the Old Testament miraculously delivered His people again and again. It’s not just that Jesus is saying, “Don’t worry. It’s me. I’m not a ghost.” It’s His way of saying, “I am the Lord God of the universe. I created the wind and the waves and I sent the storm.” We could never be of good cheer if it wasn’t Him. but because He is God and is always near, we can always be of good cheer—even in the most fearful of circumstances. And finally, He commands us, “Do not be afraid.” We can truly abandon all fear. We can truly be at peace. The circumstances are all in His mighty hands.

Now when Mark and John wrote about this in their Gospels, the Holy Spirit led them to end the story with Jesus entering the boat. But Matthew goes on to tell us about something else that happened before then. 

Which brings us to…

3. Jesus’ provision (Matt. 14:28-32)

Matthew tells us that Peter said, “Lord, if it is You . . .”. Isn’t that interesting? Was Peter unsure? Perhaps he was unsure. He was seeing a man walking on the water, after all. But I suspect that Peter thought there was one way to be sure it was Jesus; and that was by walking on water to Him at His command. And so, he said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (Matt. 14:28).

Peter was not putting Jesus to the test, something we are told not to do (Matt. 4:7). Instead, he was the only one in the boat who reacted in faith. His impulsive request led him to experience an unusual demonstration of God’s power. Jesus’ presence in the storm caused Peter to exercise a fearless faith. Peter overcame his fear and attempted the impossible. But notice that he did so only with Jesus’ command to come. Notice also that he asked only to do what Jesus was doing.

Peter had spent a lot of time in boats out at sea. He may not have known too many things, but he knew better than to try stepping out of the boat unless Jesus commanded him to do so! And so, the Lord said, “Come”; and Peter threw one leg over and on to the water, then the other, and soon he was walking on the water toward Jesus. We may be tempted to criticize Peter a bit for his lack of faith in this story; but it’s important to point out that—at least—he got out of the boat while the others stayed in! That took more faith than most of us would exercise. Most of us would stay in the boat and wait for Jesus to come to us!

Now, as long as Peter’s eyes were fixed on Jesus, he did fine. He walked on water. But the fact is that Peter turned his gaze from Jesus. Matthew 14:30 says, “But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’” The moment he began to focus instead on the wind that was blowing, and on the waves that were thrashing around him—in other words, the moment he focused on the circumstances rather than on Him who walked above them all—Peter began to sink.

He prayed a simple prayer, but a great prayer: “Lord, save me!” And Matthew writes, “And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”” (Matt. 14:31). “You of little faith” comes out to four words. But in the Greek Jesus only used one word: “Little-faith.” It’s a title or a nickname. Jesus called Peter “Little-Faith.” “Little-faith, why did you doubt?” He was not rebuking Peter for attempting too much, but for trusting too little.

And one of the details that I love the most about this story is found in the fact that Matthew tells us that “they” got back to the boat (Matt. 14:32). Jesus didn’t just leave Peter in the water, nor did Jesus walk back to the boat, dragging Peter under the water behind Him. I believe that Jesus raised Peter up and they walked together. As soon as our Lord and Peter got back into the boat, “the wind ceased” (Matt. 14:32). Once again, Jesus confirmed to them who He is—that He is the Lord who has authority over even the winds and the waves.

Ray Fowler points out some lessons we can learn from Peter here.[4] First, there is the lesson of faith. When you trust Jesus, God can do through you the most amazing and marvelous things. Then, there is the lesson of focus. Faith is keeping your eyes on Jesus. Don’t lose your focus! Keep your eyes on Jesus, not on your problems. And then thirdly, there is the lesson of forgiveness. God loves and forgives you even when you fail. Even when you lose faith, even when you lose focus, you just need to call out: “Lord, save me!”, and Jesus is right there to help you back into the boat.

The main point of the whole episode comes now at the end …

4. The disciple’s praise (Matt. 14:33)

Matthew 14:33 says, “Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly, You are the Son of God’” Matthew DOESN’T say “They thanked Him saying, “We would have died without You.” Matthew says they “worshiped Him.” Though they had a long way to go in their spiritual understanding, the disciples were growing in their faith in the Lord. And so, for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ disciples confess that He is the Son of God. Their worship is joined to their confession.

Jesus is the promised Messiah and the disciples recognize and declare His deity. There is no other way possible that Jesus could have done what He did, because it was more than just a demonstration of His divine power, but also of His divine love and care for the disciples. The proper response to Jesus is to worship Him.

Let’s remember who Jesus is and worship Him. Let’s remember that, in our times of frustration, in our times of fear, and even in our times of weak faith, He is the Son of God. He is in control of all of life’s circumstances. He comes to us walking on the water. Let’s listen to His voice, lovingly, compassionately calling out to us in those tough times—in the times of frustration, or fear, or weak faith—and saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I: do not be afraid.” Let’s be very sure that we keep our focus on this One who walks above it all.

As we do, we will be ‘walking on the water’ with Him.

I wonder, have you believed that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you worship Him? Has He saved you from your sin and yourself? Are you walking by faith with Jesus? Here’s what Jesus says to you, “Come!”

—————————————————————-

[1] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary-Matthew, Moody Publishers, p. 439.

[2] Adrian Rodgers, quoted on https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew-14-commentary#14:24

[3] Got Questions, What was the meaning of Jesus walking on water?, https://www.gotquestions.org/walking-on-water.html

[4] Ray Fowler, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/when-the-going-gets-tough/

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Jesus Feeds the 5000

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Jesus Feeds the 5000

Matthew 14:13-21

Today, in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we come to a very familiar story, the feeding of the five thousand. Many of us have heard this story read and taught since we were children. The downside of being so familiar with this passage is that we might be tempted to rush past it, thinking, “Yeah, I got it, nothing new here.” But what if you read this miracle story as if you were hearing it for the very first time? Instead of skimming over the words, your eyes would be glued to the page. Instead of dispassion, there might be exhilaration. You would be amazed at the compassion and power of Jesus. You might react like those men in the Gospel of John who saw this miraculous sign firsthand and said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14).

The feeding of the five thousand is arguably one of the most important miracles Jesus ever worked. Other than the resurrection of Christ, this is conceivably the most famous miracle in the New Testament. It is the one miracle Jesus worked that all four Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—chose to include in their accounts.

Each of the Gospel writers emphasizes different aspects of the story. Mark’s account demonstrates the compassion of Jesus. He begins with, “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd…” (Mark 6:34). Luke uses this miracle to set up the great question from Jesus about His identity. His account concludes, “So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”” (Luke 9:17-18). John moves from this miraculous sign to Jesus’ declaration that He is the bread of life, the Son of God “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). One reason the Holy Spirit ensured that this story is recorded four times is that it affirms to us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in human flesh and the Savior of the world. He is the One we must trust for salvation.

Now, what about Matthew? What is his emphasis? To begin with, we must remember the theme of the Gospel of Matthew. His is the Gospel of the Kingdom. He presents Jesus as the Messianic King who comes in fulfillment of the prophecies of scripture to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:23). Matthew wants us to think of the kingdom of Israel while he explains the kingdom of heaven.[1] In Matthew 13, Jesus taught His disciples the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in parables. Now, in chapters 14-17, Jesus gives His disciples on-the-job training in the work of the kingdom. This section is like Jesus’ kingdom boot camp. And the feeding of the five thousand is their first training session.

Matthew particularly shows how Jesus purposefully involved His disciples in this miracle. When the disciples want to send the crowd away, Jesus tells them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matt. 14:16). Jesus uses what the disciples have—five loaves and two fish (Matt. 14:17). He gives it to the disciples, the disciples give it to the people (Matt. 14:19), and the disciples take up twelve baskets of leftovers (Matt. 14:20). Matthew clearly makes the point that the ministry of the kingdom is a mission that Jesus wants to do with His disciples, and that their ministry is completely dependent on Him.

The structure of Matthew’s text suggests that his emphasis is on Jesus’ conversation with His disciples. Matthew begins with a transitional statement linking this event to the death of John the Baptist (Matt. 14:13a). Then he reports how the multitudes followed Jesus, and He showed compassion on them and healed them (Matt. 14:13b-14). The central part of the passage is Jesus’ interchange with the disciples (Matt. 14:15-18), followed by the miracle of the feeding (Matt. 14:19-20). The passage closes with a report of the magnitude of the miracle (Matt. 14:21).[2]

Following this structure as our outline, first we see…

1. Matthew’s Transition – Jesus withdraws with His disciples (Matt. 14:13)

Matthew 14:13 is a transition verse. The disciples of John the Baptist had come to Jesus and reported the news—not only of Herod’s murder of John but also of Herod’s fearful attitude toward Jesus as well. So, Matthew transitions, “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities.” (Matt. 14:13). We will notice as we study the next few chapters that, from this point on in Matthew’s Gospel, although crowds still follow Jesus, His ministry becomes less and less public. More than once, we will read that Jesus departed or withdrew (Matt. 14:13; 15:21, 29; 16:13). Mark 6:31 records that on this occasion, Jesus said, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

Going forward, Jesus will direct much of His attention to the personal training of His disciples. Jesus didn’t withdraw to a deserted place because He feared Herod. No, He went there to spend time with the twelve—to refresh, teach, and train them. They needed to be prepared for kingdom ministry and to be ready to give their lives for it just as John the Baptist had done.

Here’s a good place to make a simple application. If we are going to be involved in kingdom ministry, we must spend time with Jesus, learning, loving, praying, and fellowshipping with our Savior. Do you spend time alone with King Jesus daily? Do you gather weekly with His church to worship and be equipped for kingdom service? One of my favorite times each week each Sunday I get here to my study around four in the morning to spend time with the Lord preparing for our corporate worship and praying for you.

If I had been one of the disciples, I’m sure I would have looked forward to spending some alone-time with Jesus. Instead, I imagine that the disciples were sadly surprised to land in a deserted place only to find a multitude of people had followed them on foot around the lake. So much for a quiet time of rest!

We have seen Matthew’s transition as Jesus departs to be alone with His disciples. Next, we see…

2. Jesus’ Compassion – Jesus heals the sick (Matt. 14:14)

Matthew 14:14 says, “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” (Matt. 14:14). Jesus was not bothered by the crowd. When He saw them, He didn’t resent them—far from it! Rather, “He was moved with compassion for them.” The word for “compassion” is very expressive. It means that Jesus’ whole being was stirred to its most profound depth for these people.

Mark and Luke both tell us that because Jesus had compassion for them, He spent the day teaching them about the kingdom of God (Mark 6:34; Luke 9:11). Matthew stresses Jesus’ compassion in healing those who were sick. Jesus cared about people’s needs—their spiritual needs and their physical needs. MacArthur points out that “Jesus postponed His rest, His privacy, His time alone with the disciples, and even His time with His Father in order to meet the needs of those helpless people who suffered.”[3]

As we said before, the healing ministry of Jesus was a sign to all that He was the Messiah and the fulfillment of scripture (Matt. 8:16-17; 12:15-21). And His healing ministry demonstrated His compassion. Jesus extended mercy to the hurting then, and He continues to do so today. Regardless of what state or situation you may find yourself in today, Jesus is moved with compassion and will extend mercy to you if you will receive it. You can bring your troubles to Him, and you will find sympathy, compassion, mercy, and love that heals your deepest hurts.

So, we learn about Jesus’ compassion. Next, we also learn that Jesus wants to show His compassion and mercy through His disciples.

So, next we see the …

3. Disciple’s Situation – Jesus involves them (Matt. 14:15-18)

Matthew 14:15 tells us the crowd’s situation and what Jesus’ disciples propose to do about it, “When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” The disciples saw the situation. They are in a deserted place, the people have no food, and it’s getting late. What they did not see is that the solution was right there with them, full of compassion, and ready to act. Did you notice the contrast between Jesus’ attitude toward the multitude and that of the disciples? Jesus welcomed them, but the disciples said to Jesus, “Send them away”. It may be that the disciples were just being practical about how to meet the needs of the crowd, but given the situation, I think they wanted a break. My guess is that they viewed the crowd as an annoying problem rather than, like Jesus did, people who needed compassion. So, the disciples give Jesus some advice, “Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.”

But Jesus does not take their advice. By the way, God never needs our advice. He knows all things and is Lord over all. We know that Jesus had the power to feed all the people without any help from the disciples. He could have called down manna from heaven like Yahweh did for Israel in the wilderness. He could have spoken the word and had a loaf of bread appear in each person’s hand. He could have called angels to distribute food to the crowd. Yet, Jesus does none of those things. Jesus surely knew what He was going to do. But His disciples don’t. And Jesus wants to involve His disciples in this miracle.

So, Matthew 14:16 says, “But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”” The emphasis in the Greek is on YOU—the disciples. Jesus challenged both the compassion and the faith of the disciples.

The disciples recognized the need. They understood what Jesus was asking them to do. But to them, it seemed impossible. But instead of saying, “Okay Jesus, show us how,” the disciples immediately start raising objections. They don’t have the resources to feed such a crowd. They say to Jesus, “We have here only five loaves and two fish” (Matt. 14:17). It was enough perhaps to satisfy the hunger of a little boy, but certainly not enough to feed a multitude of thousands of people. The situation was humanly impossible. In and of themselves, they couldn’t even begin to accomplish what Jesus was proposing. The disciples were focused on their insufficiency rather than trusting in their Master’s sufficiency. They overlooked the power of Jesus to do the impossible.

Isn’t it easy for us to do that as well? God calls us to do something big, like reach our community for Christ, and we get all hung up because we are looking at the obstacles instead of the mission. Remember, when God asks you to do something, He can do it through you! Otherwise, He would not have asked you.[4]

So, what do you do when God asks you to do something that is clearly beyond your means? In Matthew 14:18, Jesus says, “Bring them here to Me.” Bring what you have to Jesus. They had a meager five loves and two fish. Notice that Jesus didn’t ask them to produce what they didn’t have. He asked them to give Him what they do have. How many times have we made up excuses about what we don’t have, and we fail to offer to Jesus what we do have? “If I just had more money, I’d give regularly to the church!” “If I just had the gift of evangelism, I’d witness more!” “If I just had the ability that others have, I’d serve the Lord.” “If I just …”! Listen, the Lord doesn’t use what you don’t have. He uses the inadequate things you have when you yield them to Him.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, nothing good will ever come from anything we can do apart from Jesus. Jesus Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But nothing will be impossible if we take stock of what little resources we have, and then humbly, personally, relationally obey Jesus’ command, “Bring them here to Me.”[5]

That is the disciple’s situation. Now we see …

4. God’s Provision – Jesus feeds the multitude (Matt. 14:19-20)

Look at what Jesus does. Matthew 14;19-20 says,

19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.

First, Jesus had the multitudes sit down. Mark tells us that they sat in ranks, in hundreds and fifties (Mark 6:40). Second, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He gave thanks to God for His provision—even if that provision seemed small and insignificant in human eyes. With God’s blessing, even the insufficient becomes sufficient. And third, He broke and gave the loaves. He divided it up and distributed it through His disciples.

Just think of that! They were the very ones who were complaining that all this was impossible. Now Jesus uses them to feed the multitude. I have no doubt but that, as they distributed the increasingly multiplied food, their sense of wonder and awe over Jesus multiplied as well. And as a result, everyone had a feast—both literally and spiritually. Jesus provided all that they needed—and more!

Did you notice how many leftovers they gathered up after everyone was satisfied? Twelve baskets full. Remember, there are 12 disciples. So, what’s happened here? They take the five loaves and two fish that Jesus blessed, broke, and gave. The disciples take their basket with portions that Jesus broke and they go around and feed this mass of humanity. When they’re done feeding everyone and the disciples return, their baskets are still full! They had more food at the end than they had at the beginning!

Why are there twelve baskets full? In the Old Testament, the number twelve is most associated with the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. Matthew is giving evidence that Jesus has come as the promised Messiah-King of Israel. Jesus is setting up a new Israel, a new kingdom, with these twelve disciples. As Messiah, Jesus is able to meet all the needs of the nation. Just as God provided manna for twelve tribes of Israel in the wilderness, even so, Jesus provides for His people in the wilderness.

But there’s more than that going on here. Think about where “bread” has been mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew so far. In Matthew 4, Jesus went out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). And what did the devil say to Him? “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matt. 4:3). Jesus wouldn’t do that because He lived in obedience to the word of God (Matt. 4:4) and didn’t have to prove who He was to Satan.

But Jesus does give evidence that He is the Son of God to His disciples. And one of the ways He proves it is when He makes bread right there in the wilderness where there is no bread. Jesus would not do what the devil tells Him to do, but, in His compassion, Jesus does provide bread to feed a hungry crowd. And in doing so, He proves that He is the Son of God.

This crowd came seeking Jesus, following Him into the wilderness and He fed them. What did Jesus teach in the Sermon on the Mount? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). They hungered after the Lord and He filled them. He satisfied them. The bread was a physical manifestation of His spiritual provision.

In Matthew 6:11, Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Why? Because through Jesus, your Heavenly Father provides bread—everything that you need for life and godliness. He is the provider of bread. We are to ask God for it and look to Him to provide.

Jesus satisfies completely and abundantly. The people leave fuller than a Thanksgiving dinner. And Jesus leaves twelve baskets full of bread for His disciples. There are a lot of parallels between the feeding of the five thousand and Psalm 23 in the Old Testament – you know, the Psalm that begins, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” (Psa. 23:1). In Psalm 23, David describes the Lord as His shepherd who guides him, leads him to rest, lays him down in green pastures, and provides for all his needs until his cup runs over. And that’s exactly what Jesus does for the people here in Matthew 14. He has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). He guides them, teaches them, sits them down in the green grass, and provides for their needs until the baskets overflow.

Thus, we see God’s provision. Then finally we see the…

5. Miracle’s Conclusion – Jesus fed 5000+ (Matt. 14:21)

In Matthew 14:21, we read, “Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” This is the first we hear of the massive number of the multitude. Now, if you had not heard this story over and over again since you were little, you would surely be thinking, “What! Are you kidding me? That really happened?” Listen! What Matthew wants us to do is to stand in awe of Jesus. This is a man who takes five loaves and two fish and feeds 5000 hungry men plus women and children!

Here’s the point that Matthew wants us to see: Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah-King, who is the Lord, our compassionate shepherd who shows mercy and provides salvation. And Jesus wants to use His disciples, and us, in the ministry of the kingdom. The lingering question is: Will we? Will we see the ministry of the kingdom as something Jesus wants to do through us? Will we take the message of Jesus, the Bread of Life, to a world that is starving for truth? I know, the mission is overwhelming. I know, the opposition is mounting. I know, our resources seem meager. I know, our little church appears insignificant to this world. But Jesus is with us! And with Christ, nothing is impossible. He commands, “You give them the gospel!” And He says about our meager abilities, “Bring them here to me!”  

So, in closing, what is God asking you to do these days? Has God laid a certain ministry idea upon your heart? Is He calling you to a closer walk with Him? Is He calling you to serve, or get involved, or be a member in this church? What needs is He showing you that need to be filled? How might God use you to fill those needs?

The disciples with their bread and fish were greatly used by the Lord. Before He could use them, however, they had to be placed in His hands. There are people here today who need to place their lives in the hands of the Master. Some need to come to Jesus for salvation. He died in your place to forgive the debt of your sin. He was raised to give you a new life. Repent and believe on Jesus today. Jesus works through His saved disciples to save the world. Come to Him, believe on Him, abide in Him, serve in Him, love in Him, do everything in Christ so that all the glory is to Him. What an awesome, compassionate Savior is Jesus!

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[1] Peter Krol, The Feeding of 5,000 According to Matthew, https://www.knowableword.com/2014/01/20/the-feeding-of-5000-according-to-matthew/ accessed 07/23/2024.

[2] Allen Ross, The Feeding Of The Five Thousand (Matthew 14:13-21), https://bible.org/seriespage/21-feeding-five-thousand-matthew-1413-21 accessed 07/23/2024.

[3] John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew, Moody Publishers, Chicago, p. 428.

[4] Ray Fowler, Give It to God, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/give-it-to-god/ accessed 07/26/2024.

[5] Greg Allen, Bring It to Jesus, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/021807.htm accessed 07/26/2024.

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The Death of John the Baptist

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

The Death of John the Baptist

Matthew 14:1-12

Today, we begin a new section of the Gospel of Matthew. It is a narrative section, full of accounts of Jesus’ miracles and controversy over Jesus’ identity. Matthew’s Gospel, as you may remember, is the Gospel of the King. Matthew wrote it primarily for the Jewish people, and it presents Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah and King of the Jews. We just finished looking at Jesus’ third extended teaching section where He taught the crowds and His disciples parables of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13. At the end of Matthew 13, after the parables are completed, Matthew tells us that this King then presented Himself to the people of His own hometown of Nazareth. But they were offended at Him and didn’t believe on Him. Matthew 13:58 concludes, “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

This lack of miracles in Nazareth was significant because Jesus had been doing many mighty works throughout Galilee for quite some time. In Matthew 4, we read,

. . . 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. 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. Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan (Matthew 4:23-25).

In Matthew 8-12 we saw Jesus cleanse a leper (Matt. 8:1-4), heal a centurion’s servant of his paralysis (Matt. 8:5-13), and raise Peter’s mother-in-law from her sick-bed (Matt. 8:14-15). Jesus exercised authority over the wind and the waves (Matt. 8:23-27), over the demons (Matt. 8:28-34), and over sin, proving His authority to forgive sins by healing a paralytic (Matt. 9:1-7). He cured a woman of a life-draining flow of blood (Matt. 9:20-22), raised a dead girl to life (Matt. 9:18-19, 23-26), gave sight to two blind men (Matt. 9:27-31), and set freed a demon-possessed mute man so that he could speak (Matt. 9:32-33). Everywhere He went, He demonstrated compassion to people in need—“… teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt. 9:35).[i]

And this leads us to the very first thing we find in Matthew 14 today. This new section of Matthew begins with a controversy over Jesus’ identity prompted by His miracles. News of Jesus’ miracles reached the ears of Herod, the king over Galilee. So we see…

1. Herod’s Fear and John’s Faithfulness (Matt. 14:1-5)

Matthew 14:1-2 says, “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.””  

Herod was the name of a number of related rulers that we find in the New Testament. Although they pretended to be kings of the Jews, the Herods were not strictly Jewish. They were Idumean, descendants of Esau from Edom. Herod the tetrarch, also called Herod Antipas, was the son of Herod the Great, the king who ordered the murder of the infants of Bethlehem in the account of Jesus’ birth (Matt. 2). Rome divided Herod the Great’s territory after his death and his sons governed these smaller territories. “Tetrarch” means ruler of a fourth—a fourth of a region.

Herod Anitpas began his rule shortly after Jesus was born and ruled over Galilee and Perea throughout the time of our Lord’s life on earth. He was the civic ruler over the region where Jesus grew up, worked, and did most of His public ministry.  

When Herod heard about Jesus and all the miracles that He was doing, he was convinced that Jesus was somehow John the Baptist come back from the dead. Matthew told us back in Matthew 4:12 that “John had been put in prison.” And in Matthew 11, we saw that John heard about the works of Christ from prison and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus really was the “Coming One” (Matt. 11:2-3). Now, in Matthew 14:3-12, Matthew gives us a flashback to what had happened earlier, telling us the rest of the story about John the Baptist. Here we learn that it was Herod who had arrested John and put in prison.

And we learn why. Matthew 14:3-4 says, “For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” The reason Herod arrested John was because John had confronted him about his sin of adultery.

Now, history shows us that the Herods were an incestuous and immoral family. But Herod the Tetrarch’s behavior in this case caused a scandal that was particularly shocking. Herod Antipas’ brother Philip had a wife named Herodias (who was also his neice, Herod the Great’s granddaughter). Herod Anitpas lusted after his sister-in-law Herodias. So, he divorced his own wife and convinced Herodias to divorce Philip. Then Herod Anitpas and Herodias eloped. So, Herodias divorced one uncle to get married to the other. It’s more scandalous than a soap opera! The conduct of Herod Antipas outright incestuous lust.

This is where John got into trouble. John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” What boldness this took! John, no doubt, knew what kind of a man Herod was, and he knew what Herod could do to him. But as Jesus once asked the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?” (Matt. 11:7). No! John was no flimsy little reed shaking in the wind. He was a “a prophet … and more than a prophet” (Matt. 11:9)—A mighty wind who shook the ruler of Galilee!

John’s words so inflamed Herod  that he arrested John. Apparently, Herod wanted to put John to death. He wanted to silence that righteous tongue of his; and by doing so, silence the condemnation he received from the word of God. Matthew 14:5 says, “And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet” (Matt. 14:5). What Herod should have feared was the judgment of God. Instead, he feared the judgment of the crowds.  Many men today are just like Herod; they’re more afraid of the judgment of men than they are of the judgment of God.[ii] As we see later in this story, because Herod feared men and wanted to protect his reputation, he would do the despicable—order the death of God’s prophet.

So, we see Herod’s fear and John’s faithfulness. John had not only pointed faithfully to the law in order to declare sin, but he had also pointed faithfully to Jesus and declared, “… He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt. 3:11-12). He declared that Jesus is the Messiah, the King, the Savior, and Judge.

John is faithful. Herod is fearful.

Next, we see…

2. Herod’s Weakness and Herodias’ Revenge (Matt. 14:6-12)

It was Herod’s birthday. Mark tells us that he threw a great feast, and all of the nobles and high officers and all the chief men of Galilee came (Mark 6:21). The wine, no doubt, flowed freely. Matthew writes, “But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod” (Matt. 14:6). History knows this girl as Salome, the daughter of Herodias and Philip her first husband and Herod’s brother. So Salome was, at the same time, Herod’s step-daughter, his niece, and his grand-niece.  

She “danced before them.” This kind of thing was never done by a member of the royal household. Dancing girls, in those days, were considered to be very immoral. And though we’re not told what sort of dancing Salome did, we can be pretty sure that it wasn’t ballet!

When she got done dancing, Herod made a drunken—and, I suspect, a somewhat lustful—promise to the girl: “Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask” (Matt. 14:7). Apparently, the girl then consulted with her mother, Herodias which resulted in the most notorious “dancer’s tip” in all of history. Matthew 14:8-11 says,

So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, “Give me John the Baptist’s head here on a platter.” And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

Salome’s mother Herodias was bent on revenge. She hated John the Baptist for condemning their incestuous adultery. She wanted John dead, executed in a most gruesome manner. And she wanted it here and now.

Matthew tells us that Herod “was sorry”. But He was not sorry enough to change his mind, to repent. Herod was more concerned about keeping his drunken, hasty promise to the girl than he was about taking the life of the prophet of God. He was more concerned for admiration before men than he was about damnation from God. He feared men rather than God. So, to protect his prideful reputation, in fearful weakness, he gave the order and the dastardly deed was done. John the Baptist, faithful prophet and forerunner of the Messiah, is executed.

Now we understand why Herod was so afraid that John the Baptist had risen from the dead. When he heard news of Jesus and his mighty works, he was struck in his conscience with guilt and fear. Everything Herod did was out lust, pride, and fear. And now all he can do is fear what is coming.

Matthew concludes this gruesome tale by writing, “Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.” (Matt. 14:12). And with that, Matthew connects the death of John with the ministry of Jesus.

What can we learn from this passage?

I believe that this account of the death of John the Baptist is not included here simply to complete the story of John’s life. Matthew places it here because it is a magnificent, flesh and blood example of what the Lord had been teaching throughout the Gospel. John is a man who was persecuted for righteousness’ sake. He acknowledged Jesus before men and paid the price for it. Now he will receive the great reward in heaven that is reserved, Jesus said, for those who are persecuted for His name’s sake. John is an example to us of faithfulness unto death. Matthew shows us here what kind of people we ought to be.

Are we faithful and bold in our day the way that John was in his day? Can we be like John and not fear to denounce the sin of this world, saying, “It is not lawful . . .” Sin breaks God’s law and God’s heart. There is no other way for people to realize their need for a Savior until they realize that they are sinners against God’s law, and they need to be saved. Then like John, not just pointing out the sins of the world, but pointing them to the Savior, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). May God make us more like John—so bold and courageous in speaking the saving message of Christ to this world, that we are willing to suffer with Him for doing so. May He make us faithful to the end.

Herod reminds us that we live in a sinful, dark world of evil. John reminds us what our mission is in this fallen world—to faithfully proclaim Jesus no matter what it costs us.

John is also our example because his life and ministry reflect the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. John was the forerunner of Jesus and his death foreshadows the death of our Lord. The parallels are striking. A Roman ruler, Herod, was responsible for John’s execution. And another Roman ruler, Pilate, was responsible for Jesus’ execution. Herod feared the crowds because they believed John was a prophet (Matt. 14:5). The chief priests and Pharisees feared the crowds because they believed Jesus was a prophet (Matt. 21:46). John was seized and bound (Matt. 14:3) and Jesus was seized (Matt. 26:50) and bound (Matt. 27:2). Herod was asked by Salome to kill John and was grieved to do so (Matt. 14:6-11). Pilate was asked by the Jews to kill Jesus and was reluctant to do so (Matt. 27:11-26). John was buried by his disciples (Matt. 14:12). Jesus buried by a disciple (Matt. 27:57-61).

It’s really all about Jesus Christ. He came to die for our sins. He is King and Lord, risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the throne of God. He is coming again to judge the living and the dead. Have you trusted in Him? Has He saved you? Believe on Him today. He will make you faithful unto death and give you the crown of life (James 1:12; Rev. 2:10).

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[i] Greg Allen, Two Kings, Matthew 14:1-14, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/021107.htm

[ii] Greg Allen, ibid.

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The Tragedy of Unbelief

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

The Tragedy of Unbelief

Matthew 13:53-58

53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Today, we come to the end of Matthew 13. In this chapter, Jesus has taught both the crowd and His disciples in parables. The parables were about the kingdom of heaven—its beginning through the preaching of the gospel, its nature, its growth in the world, its immeasurable value, and its final and complete establishment at the return of Jesus Himself to earth.

The final six verses in Matthew 13 are a transition passage between Jesus’ parables of the kingdom and Matthew 14-17 which focus on miracles and opposition. In many ways what happens at Nazareth is an outworking of the parables Jesus has just shared. In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught that not all receive the gospel message, which is exactly what happens in Nazareth. In the parable of the weeds, Jesus taught that believers and unbelievers will live together in this world until Christ returns. The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast show us how God’s kingdom seems small and insignificant in the beginning, which we see in Nazareth when Jesus’ own hometown rejects Him. The parables of the treasure and the pearl teach that only those who treasure Christ truly receive Him. The people of Nazareth did not receive Jesus when He came because they did not honor or treasure Him. And then finally, the parable of the dragnet shows God’s judgment on those who disbelieve. This is prefigured by the lack of miracles in Nazareth due to their unbelief in Christ.[1]

Unbelief is deadly. Unbelief is the greatest stumbling block. Unbelief is the chief wickedness. Unbelief is the mother sin, the father sin, the parent sin…the sin of all sins is unbelief. It was unbelief that caused Eve to sin against God in the Garden of Eden. She failed to believe the Word of God. It was unbelief that unlocked the doors to the promised land and the Israelites did not go in the Bible says, because of their unbelief. It was unbelief that tied the hands of Jesus when Jesus was in His own hometown and the Bible says, He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief and the sovereign God has limited Himself to work according to the faith.[i]

In the end, people who reject Jesus do not do so because the evidence for faith is not compelling enough. It’s not because the things the Scripture say about Him are not intellectually sound. When you really get down to it, people who hear the truth about Jesus and reject Him do so because of an unbelieving heart of disobedience toward God.

Jesus’ visit to His hometown of Nazareth teaches us that Jesus can be rejected even where He is best known, if unbelief abides in the heart.[2] How in the world can you hear Jesus teach, see Him grow up for thirty years in your midst in a little town, know that He has preformed miracles upon miracles that could never be refuted, and not believe?

Our passage this morning has a very simple structure. Jesus goes to his hometown. We see the people’s reaction to him, and then we see Jesus’ response. In this passage we see what the tragedy of unbelief does. It blinds the eyes, hardens the heart, and prevents salvation.

1. Jesus goes to Nazareth (Matt. 13:53-54)

Matthew 13:53 says, “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there.” “There” is Capernaum where Jesus had been teaching and doing many miracles. Where did He go? Matthew 13:54 tells us “When He had come to His own country…” That place—as Luke tells us in his Gospel—was Nazareth, where Jesus had spent His growing-up and early adult years.

Nazareth was a very small and humble town. The people who lived there would have seen Jesus up close and personal for a long, long time. The families of Nazareth would have grown up along with the members of His earthly family. Many people would have had children who played with Jesus, and with the other children of Mary and Joseph. He would have worked in the community in Joseph’s trade as a carpenter. Luke tells us that it had been Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath. Jesus was called a “Nazarene”. Nazareth could truly call Jesus their ‘hometown boy’.

Surely, the people of Nazareth had heard about all that Jesus was doing. In fact, when Jesus goes to their synagogue, they ask, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Matt. 13:54). They heard about the things that He was doing and the miracles He had been performing in Galilee. When He came back to His hometown, we would expect that they would have a great celebration and that he would receive a hero’s welcome. When Jesus arrived in Nazareth, Matthew tells us that, “…He taught them in their synagogue…” Imagine how packed their synagogue would have been that day! What would Jesus—one of their own!—have to say?

Luke, in his Gospel, gives us an example of what Jesus was teaching them. He writes,

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:16-19).

Jesus had read from a passage that the people of Nazareth would have known and loved. It was a passage from Isaiah 49 that spoke about the coming of the Messiah—the promised King of the Jews. But Luke goes on to say that something remarkable happened.

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:20-21).

No doubt, you could have heard a pin drop! Luke tells us that “… all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”.

We have seen that Jesus finishes teaching His parables of the kingdom and returns to His hometown where He teaches in their synagogue. What was the reaction to Jesus?

2. The people react to Jesus (Matt. 13:54-57)

Matthew 13:54 tells us that, “…He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished…” At first, they were astonished. His words struck hard and left a deep impression.

The people were amazed or impressed by Jesus’ wisdom and power. But you know what? It doesn’t matter if you’re impressed with Jesus. A lot of people are impressed with Jesus. They are impressed by His teachings, captivated by His example, awestruck by His sacrifice. But it doesn’t matter if you’re amazed with Jesus. What matters is do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe He is the Son of God? And that’s where the people of Nazareth ran into a roadblock with Jesus.

But even though they were amazed and marveled at what He taught, their hearts were full of unbelief. So they asked, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” (Matt. 13:54-56).

Why did they bring up the subject of Jesus’ family? Because it lays the foundation of why they were astonished and why they questioned where Jesus had gained His power and teaching ability. Jesus had grown up in their midst. They knew Him as child and a young man. They knew He did not have formal religious training like the Rabbis – so how could He teach like He does? They had not seen Him do miracles when He was living in Nazareth – so where did this power come from? To the people of Nazareth, Jesus was just a carpenter that used to live there and the son of a carpenter whose family still lived there.

Matthew shows us that their familiarity with Jesus bred contempt. Matthew 13:57 says, “So they were offended at Him…” The word “offended” literally means that they stumbled at Him. As Paul put it, “. . . they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame’” (Romans 9:32-33). In Matthew 21:44, Jesus would say later of Himself, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder”. It’s the same today. Jesus is not what people expect Him to be; and they either must be changed by Him, or they will take offense at Him. They either fall on Him, or He falls on them.

What was it that He said that was so offensive? I believe that what was offending them the most was what He was telling them about Himself. As you read the Gospels, have you been surprised by how many times that people get offended by Jesus? It happened a lot! And usually it was what He says about Himself that offended them the most. It put them at the point of decision. They either had to believe what He said about Himself, turn from their sins, and trust Him, or they had to refuse to believe what He said, and reject Him out of a hardness of heart.

Both the verb “taught” in Matthew 13:54 and the verb “offended” in Matthew 13:57 are in the imperfect tense, indicating a progressive action. This suggests that the more He taught, the more offended they became at Him. Look at our passage in Matthew, and you can see how that offense grew.

First, they didn’t believe in who He was presenting Himself to be. He was presenting Himself to be the Messiah—both in the things that He taught about Himself and in the things that He did. His teaching and His works were authenticating Him as their long-awaited King. But they wouldn’t receive Him as the King sent from God. They said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty miracles?” And people do the same today, don’t they? They refuse to make a connection between His divine words and divine works, and draw the conclusion about His divine identity.

Second, they wouldn’t accept His authority. They didn’t appreciate that His words placed Himself above them. They focused on His human-family as reason to believe that He was no better than them. People do something similar today when they insist that Jesus was just a man—a wonderfully profound teacher and a brilliant religious reformer; but in the end, just a man. And as a mere man, they say, He has no real authority.

So, they were offended at Him. And the reason they were offended and rejected Him is given in Matthew 13:58—they responded to Him with “unbelief”.

John 1 tells us that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:11-12). The people’s response to Jesus in Nazareth teaches us a great danger we all face—especially in the church! Jesus can become the least appreciated in the place where He is the best known . . . if He is greeted by those who have sin in their lives and unbelief in their hearts.

This is how the people of Nazareth reacted to Jesus. How did Jesus respond to their unbelief?

3. Jesus’ response to their unbelief (Matt. 13:57-58)

Matthew 13:57 tells us, “But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.’”

The word translated “without honor” in this verse is a word that means to be dishonored or despised. We find the same word twice in Isaiah 53:3 where Isaiah says about Christ: “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  

Jesus is not saying here that He was honored everywhere else except His hometown of Nazareth. Jesus was dishonored in other places, as well, but there’s something about your hometown or your own home or family that makes things especially hard. It’s hard to take a stand for God among the people who know you best, unless they’re standing for God, too.

Notice Jesus even specifies “his own house” here. Although Mary was a believer, the Bible tells us Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him at this time, although they would come to faith in Him later (Acts 1:14; James; Jude). It’s hard to be a Christian, but Jesus is saying it is especially hard at home.

In Matthew 13:58, we’re told, “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Mark, in his Gospel, tells us that Jesus laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them (Mark 6:6); but that was all. He didn’t do in Nazareth—His own home-town—the sort of mighty works that He did elsewhere. They wouldn’t believe on Him, nor trust Him; and so, they didn’t receive very much from Him.

He disappointed their expectations because they wouldn’t receive Him for who He is. How many people do you know who say they have had the same kind of experience with Jesus? They say that they tried Jesus, but He didn’t work for them. And the truth is that they wouldn’t receive Him for Who He really is—Lord and Savior. They didn’t come to Him for deliverance from their sin. They came to Him selfishly or pridefully—with their own preconceived notions of who He should be or what He should do for them. They do not see Jesus do mighty works for them because of their unbelief. So many people miss out on salvation because they see Jesus only from a worldly or human perspective.

John MacArthur wrote,

Those who heard and saw Jesus did not reject Him for lack of evidence but in spite of overwhelming evidence. They did not reject Him because they lacked the truth but because they rejected the truth. They refused forgiveness because they wanted to keep their sins. They denied the light because they preferred darkness. The reason for rejecting the Lord has always been that men prefer their own way to His…The people of Nazareth were like people throughout the history of the church who can find every foolish reason to justify their rejection of the gospel. They don’t like the attitude of the one who witnesses to them; they think most church people are hypocrites; they think the preacher is too loud or too soft, too stuffy or too overbearing; and the services are too formal or too informal. They are offended at the slightest things Christians do and construe the insignificant as being all important. They put up one smoke screen after another to excuse their unwillingness to believe the clear and demanding claims and promises of Christ.[II]

What a tragedy! How much we lose when we won’t—by faith—receive Him as He truly is!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this earth and lived a sinless life. Because of this, He is the only offering that is acceptable to God. He died upon a cross to pay the debt for your sin. He was raised from the dead to give eternal life to all who would place their faith in Him. He is the only means of salvation that this world will ever know.

When God sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins, God gave us a gift that we don’t deserve. Let us give Jesus the honor He deserves every day of our lives and for all of eternity.

Repent of your unbelief. Place your trust in Christ today. Honor Jesus by living for Him and telling others about Him.

 

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[1] Ray Fowler, A Prophet without Honor, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/prophet-without-honor/

[i] Adrian Rogers, quoted on https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew-13-commentary#13:58

[2] Greg Allen, The Home-Town Stumble, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2007/012107.htm

[ii] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary-Matthew, pg. 409 & 411.

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