Matthew 14:1-21, John the Baptist beheading & feeding of 5000

Intro

Today we start a new section after the parables, and it seemed as if this is a brand new section. It is, but it also serves as the explanation of the parables. You will see more illustration of the parables. Remember how I mentioned that the parables of Jesus are really layer upon layer? We see that in the story of Jesus as well. We are covering a large section today, and it really should be broken up into two sermons, but this is what we have today. It may on the surface look like two unrelated stories, but it is tied together under the rubric of how we must come to Jesus. The first story is about Herod the Great, and the second about a helpless crowd with many needs. There cannot be more of a contrast, and yet, we see that only one group gets to come to the Lord, and it is not the proud who comes to the Lord, but the humble. We will see today what kind of person we need to be to come to the Lord. You may have all the pleasures and things in this world, and yet the thing that you need the most, the life that you desire more than anything else may be elusive to you, and you may be the poorest person in this world, and yet you are not far from the kingdom of heaven. You have to only reach out and get it. You too today are not far from the kingdom of heaven. God is gracious to give you the kingdom, if you but humble yourself confess that you are a sinner, repent from them, and call out to God for His mercy to save you. Let’s look at the contrast between the proud and the humble, and the kind of attitude which pleases our Savior.

The Pride of King Herod.

Let’s look at verse 1 of this chapter. In many ways Herod is like the seed that grew up among the thorns. He did like the teaching of John (this is from Mark), but at the same time he wanted all the pleasures of the world, and he could not be fruitful spiritually. Here we open the story with Herod hearing the fame of Jesus. We are not told exactly when the event took place. We are just told that it was at that season. This can be any time, and it is best to take it as the height of the popular power of Jesus. It is also interesting that at every single account of this event, what we have here is the event seen from the memory of Herod. He recalls this. I don’t think there is another event in the gospel in which a character goes back and think of an event from the perspective of hindsight. It is all straightforward telling of the story, and this raise a very interesting question: what is the purpose of this recollection of this event? You look into his head and you see his guilt. Yes, this is a peer into the guilt of this man.

Who is this man? Many make the mistake and think that this was the same Herod who slew the baby boys in Bethlehem. No, he’s not, but he is the son of that mad man, Herod the Great. This man was Herod the tetrarch. After the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was broken up into 4 pieces, and this Herod has one quarter of it, which is why he had the title, the tetrarch, one fourth. His jurisdiction was the Galilee region in which the Lord Jesus did most of His ministry. But, let us look again at his recollection, and that is one of guilt. Here the Lord is giving us one thing that all of us have to deal with, and that is the trouble that we have with guilt. We all have it, and no matter how much we deny it, we all have it, and we must deal with it. We know that we have done something wrong, and we must therefore deal with it, or deny it. We can deny it, as Herod here does, but it is here nonetheless, and it rears its ugly head unexpectedly, and too soon. This is what the ministry of Jesus does. He is the mighty miracle worker, the Son of God, and the Prince of Peace, and the greatest among us must face Him. How does the guilty deal with their guilt? I want to suggest there are two ways.

Wrong way 1: Trying to appeal to religions

The first thing that Herod did when he heard about Jesus was to say his yes-men that this was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Why did John immediately think that this was John the Baptist risen from the dead? He felt the pangs of guilt eating away at him for putting John to death. We will see that he did not want to put John to death, but he was tricked by the woman and her daughter. Herod here says something strange. He claimed that Jesus was John risen from the dead. Now, on the surface, we know that Herod was not speaking of a literal physical resurrection, because Jesus and John are not the same person. Herod must mean that the spirit of John is in Jesus, and he was confusing all the religion together. It doesn’t make sense, and Herod knows that, but there is no relief for his guilt. He is like the brothers of Joseph, who felt incredible guilt when they sold him into slavery. As soon as they were locked up, what did they say to each other? It was because of how we treated Joseph, and this was something that happened 15 years beforehand. The guilty conscience does not let you off the hook. The same thing here. Immediately, upon hearing the news about Jesus, Herod thought about John. Why? Dear brothers and sisters, God has given all of us a precious gift, conscience. Yes, our conscience today because of our fallen nature is not completely perfect. Yet, we know that it still does its work in us. Romans 2 tells us that our conscience alternatively accuses and even excuses us. We all know that we are sinners and we have all broken God’s holy commands. How are we to deal with this? Most people try to get some religion, because religion is supposed to help you deal with guilt. Do you know everyone is religious? Even those who are supposedly atheists. They may have to deny such a thing as guilt, but you really can’t, because none of us even live up to our own standards. Hollywood stars have a lot of religions, and you know that they are not the paragon of virtues by any means. But they picked their religion to not make demands of them. Superstition cannot get rid of your guilt. Just promise to be a better person doesn’t undo what you have done. You have to repent before God.

Wrong way 2: trying to assuage your guilt by attributing power to the person.

You notice the second part of what Herod says? He has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous power are at work within him. Herod believed that Christ has risen from the dead and that is why He has the power to do all that miraculous work. What does this miraculous work have to do with being raised from the dead? Herod think that it has to do with the fact that John’s power has been multiplied. Whereas before he just preached. He now has power beyond ordinary. Herod is afraid. He’s scare of the power that is at work in John. He attributes more power to John, thinking that this will lessen his guilt, since he has attributed great power to him. But that won’t do. You can only be free from your guilt when you come to the One who can forgive you and ask Him humbly to forgive you of your sins. We play all sorts of games with ourselves, but none of it will free you from your guilt and shame. Only God can do that.

Let us now look into Herod’s mind and see what we can see. One day, all our mind will be exposed with Him for whom we have to do. So let us be ready now by preparing our hearts before Him. In Herod’s mind, the picture immediately coming to mind is the violent arrest of this good and righteous man by his hand. He was yanked out probably in the midst of his bold preaching. And why was he arrested? He was arrested on account of Herod’s wife, named Herodias, because John was saying, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herodias had belong to Philip, Herod’s brother. Herodias had divorced her husband Philip in order to marry Herod. Philip and Herod are also brothers. Not only was there an unlawful divorce and marriage, but there was also incest. Herod also divorced his wife. On top of that Herodias was really the half niece of Herod.

Wrong way 3: Living for the flesh and making decisions based on the flesh.

Let us go next to what triggered this guilt. It’s the fact that he lived for his flesh. I have already spoken of the illicit marriage between Herod and Herodias. They fell in love with each other and divorce their respective spouses, and married one another. Herod was giving to the flesh and it doesn’t stop there, and we see how messy their family relationships are: full of intrigue and also incest. Dear brothers and sisters, you have to realize that the Lord calls you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. You need to constantly fight the flesh or the flesh is going to conquer you. Many of you are disgusted by the incest in their family. Good. But you need to know that you are living in a very depraved culture, and part of it is that the church is not strong in its opposition of sin, especially sin of the flesh. We all want to pander to our culture and show that we are relevant and that we are not against the world, even when this world is so full of adultery and lasciviousness. We are trying to fit into this world, and we are not brave like John the Baptist. And all around us, there is another sexual revolution going on, and we close our ears and move on. Look at the church in Corinth. What did they have? They had incest., and such an extent that it was even shameful to the Gentiles, and yet the Corinthian Christians were proud. They thought that they were the ones who fit into this world. You must fight the flesh. And I can think of no better way to fight the flesh but by regular reading of God’s Word. Read and fight the good fight of faith, and pray for your spiritual fathers to be strong and not weak men.

But look at Herod. His illicit marriage did not tame his monster of lust. Many men have said that they left their wives because they married the wrong women. And claimed that if they marry the right woman, the problem would not exist. That is a lie of the evil one. You cannot tame your lust by feeding it. It’s never enough. If you are conquered by the monster of lust, you need help. You need to ask God to forgive you, repenting of your sins. You also need to confess your sins to one another. This is the step that most Christians would not take. I am glad of many who have confessed in the past, in boldness. But most want to just live in their quiet lives. You have to see that you have to battle sin, and to do all that you can to fight against it. If you don’t fight, you will die. Let us see what happened to Herod. We read that when his birthday arrived, he had Herodias’ daughter, Salmone, danced for the crowd, and she danced in such a way that he was delighted. It probably was a dance that was a seductive dance. She was probably a young teen at the time, barely out of her teen years, but it seems that Herodias wanted to exact a revenge and she knew how to get this weak man to bend to her will. Dear brothers and sisters, Proverbs have so many warnings about the adulteress and how not to fall into her trap. We all think that we are strong and that this man is weak, but the Holy Spirit is giving you this light to shine in your heart to show you that you are not that strong. You will lose your life. You will be reduced to a loaf of bread. We all like bread, especially when we have this donation, but bread is eaten, and it is gone and forgotten, and what an amazing picture of what it means to fall into sin! Mark’s account tells us that Herodias had a grudge against John and wanted to put him to death, but could not, because John was protected by Herod. We read here that Herod wanted to put him to death, but was afraid because the people held him as a prophet. There was a tension and a battle in his mind about who to believe. Mark’s gospel also tells us that he liked to listen to John, because all his life, Herod never have heard of anyone else who dares to speak the truth to him; he probably did not believe that there was truth, and that those who claims to believe in the truth, precious few of them actually lived it. John’s life hung in the balance, but all of this ended on his birthday. When Salmone danced in such a way as to please Herod, he made a promise to her to give her anything she wanted. Prompted by her mom, she demanded the head of John the baptist on the platter. Herod was grieved, but because of the promise he made to her in front of the guests, and to give even up to half of his kingdom away, and the guests that were there, Herod could not negate the promise that he had made, and so he gave the order to have the head of John the Baptist brought to him. They killed John in the prison, and brought the head to him on a platter. What should Herod have done? He should have told Salmone in front of the guests that it was not right to take the life of an innocent man, much less a righteous man like John, and said that he cannot grant her her wish. He should have listened, but no he was afraid of what people thought of him. The oath should not supersede the taking of anyone’s life. And for that he silenced the voice of God speaking to him. He loved his life so much that he gave us what he could have gained if he but listened to the Lord.

We have a lesson here: Listen to the voice of God in you. We all have a decision to make, whether to listen to your lusts or your inner cravings or to listen to the voice of God. The Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians that the flesh fights against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you do not know what you are to do. The flesh will reap death, Romans 8 tells us. You will die, like Herod, or you can listen to the Spirit and live. All eyes were on Herod, and to see what he was going to do. He chose his flesh, and because of that he reaped death. You can hear the pin drop if you were there. He probably looked up and saw the evil glances of his wife, and her mockery, and knew that he was trapped, but that was where we are. Do you know Herod’s name means hero, and that Herodias, heroine? They are nothing but trouble here, and it is so with the natural flesh. You must give your life to God. Every single last one of us is on a march to a certain direction in his or her life. If you choose the wrong path, don’t be surprise where it leads you. Wide is the path of destruction. Would Herod have been embarrassed if he renege on his promise in front of his guests? Yes. Would he have earned the wrath of his wife? Absolutely, but what is far more important than all of these things is that you have to give an account before a Holy God. He should fear God, and also love his own soul. Herod will actually meet Jesus, but by then his heart will be so dead that he will want Jesus to perform some miracles, and when Jesus didn’t, sent Him away. Scripture says, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Friend, if you are here today, and you have not given your life to Christ, I urge you to do so for your own soul’s sake. You only have this life to live. When you choose your own pleasures and the lust of your desire, you only have so long to live, and you will regret it. Repent; trust in God’s provision in Jesus, and you will find true joy and satisfaction.

Let us move on to our second point:

The provision of God to those who look to Jesus.

Jesus always have the time.

Here’s a wonderful story of Jesus provision to those who look to Him to provide. The background of this story is the news about John’s execution. Jesus went out from there to a secluded place by Himself. Jesus was not afraid of Herod, but as a man He wanted to take time to think of the Baptist’s death. His disciples also were just returning from a missions trip. Here we see the humanity of Christ, how He loved his cousin and the forerunner of the Messiah. We see that He needed to take some time to go to a desolate place, so He departed from the western shore of the Sea of Galilee to the eastern shore. But we see here that the crowds would not leave Him alone, and they came by foot to look for Him. When Jesus came to the shore, He saw crowds of people who were clamoring Him for His attention. We then read something that is wonderful: “When… He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.” Mark has the additional statement that Jesus saw that they were harassed like sheep without a shepherd. He cared for them, and that is the contrast between this story and the previous story of Herod’s pride. Herod was a man who was proud and would not humble himself to God even when he knew that his pride led to his downfall. Here in contrast were men who came to Jesus for His healing power. Yes, there are some among them which came to Jesus only because they want to be fed, but there are many who came to Jesus because they realize that they need a Savior. Sheep needs to be led. When you have men together, instinctively, they will appoint a leader if they want to do a task. Here was a sea of humanity reaching out for anything to help them, and they instinctively knew that Christ could help them, just like a sheep instinctively know that it needs a shepherd. The theory of evolution is not true, because there is no way from all my reading that sheep could have survived natural selection; they are just too stupid. They need a shepherd. In the same way too, we need a shepherd, a good shepherd to lead us. Look at Herod. His name means hero, but what is he but a brute who needs to be led. Psalm 73 says that when I was brutish and senseless, I was like a brute beast before You. Herod was a powerful man, but he was a coward. He did not have what it takes to make good decisions. He is a man who is trapped in his own desires and lust and can never break out until he is led by God to repent of his sins. He was a sheep, and yet He refused to come to Jesus, and look at all those mass of people who come to Jesus now. They were lost. They needed some hope. They wanted to be healed for sure, but they need meaning in their lives, which His teaching provided. And look at Jesus. What drove Him? It was His compassion. This word is very interesting. It means spleen. This is what emotion means; it means something from the deep recesses of your heart. Jesus had compassion on those who need Him. He dropped whatever He was doing. He put aside His grief, and the need of His relaxation as well as even His disciples needs. Brothers and sisters, there is no one else in the world that can even come close to the Lord as one who can provide for you, who listens to you, who is called the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. There is no one whom you can trust. He is worthy of your trust. We have the gospel writer putting picture of this. If you go to God, He will never say that He has no time for you. Your friend may say that to you. Your heroes may say that to you. Your parents may say that about you, but God will never say that to you. He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” You can be absolutely confident of His presence in your life. So trust in Him. He gives you the narrow path, but He also leads you, and you are not just a number among the crowds. The crowd may have trouble reaching Him, and you get the sense that He does what He can, but the Holy Spirit now dwells in the hearts of believers and we can always go to our Lord.

Jesus wants us to have the time.

Now we read here that as the evening comes, the disciples came to Jesus and said that this was a desolate place, so that they should send the crowd away. We are going to learn not only the ministry of Jesus, but also the ministry of the church. The disciples were approaching their ministry like the world. What is the world’s way? Everything is compartmentalized. “OK, Jesus, you have done a great job of teaching. Now, it’s late, and we need to rest. Remember, you told us to come here to rest? We got a little interruption, but we understand that you are compassionate, but let us be done. Let them go away to get their own food, because they can take care of it themselves. Let’s clock out now.” That’s what they were thinking. Their thinking is rational, and you can say that it is worldly, but what did Jesus say, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” In the Greek, the ‘you’ is emphatic. YOU do something about it. You know one of the hardest thing about being a Christian is that the Lord puts you in situation that you don’t think you can handle, and if He’s really kind, He will make you handle it. What do we want to do? We want to come to church, and we will give Pastor Steve 30 minutes for the sermon. Hopefully the worship is good, and after we are done, we can have some fellowship, and then we are done with church, right? We go down stairs, we have lunch. We played Brawl Stars. We talk about the latest news, business of the church, maybe moving. O’ sometimes a stranger will walk into our midst. We got to Pastor Steve. He’s got to handle these people, especially if they are strange looking. He was trained for that. What’s wrong with this picture? Do you think that this is how the Lord wants you to live the Christian life? YOU do something about it. No, we have no training about how to deal with those strange people. What do you think Jesus would say to you? You have my word. Everything you need for godliness, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness is found in His word. You don’t need that counseling degree. There’s nothing wrong with that if the Lord calls you to it, but you can’t rely on degrees, and you can’t say that the degree is greater than what you can do armed with the Word of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We say that we believe in the Holy Spirit, but most of us don’t believe it. We don’t live like we believe that God can provide. Part of it is that we are so comfortable. Yes, we have material blessing, but don’t rely on it. Part of it is that we don’t have faith that God will provide. Come on, if the Lord were here today, and He says to us, “You give them something to eat, we’d all still say that we can’t.” We don’t believe God. That is the point. Listen: You give them something to eat. The church is weak, because we don’t believe the word of God. Yes, I have been trained, but don’t think for a minute that the 3 years of seminary training I received tells me how to deal with a wife who is wailing outside her nice suburban neighborhood, wailing about her marriage. Tells you how to deal with her. Education says, “Don’t get into that position. You are stupid that you allow that to happen.” The Spirit of God says, “I am the Lord. Walk with me, and I will help you to solve this problem.” You have to solve this. Do you know you have the power of God in you? Of course, I am not telling you to go downstairs and break the doughnuts. God won’t be mocked, but you have to show the world that you have something that they don’t. And you do, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And let me come back to this: We have to organize our time according to the Lord. This is the Lord’s Day. What has the Lord done for you? If you are truly saved by God, you have a lot to say about what the Lord has done for you. Give it all to the Lord, and He will bless you. Trust in God. I dare you all to pray this dangerous prayer. Lord use me. Let’s quickly see what happened. The disciples said we only have two loaves and five fish. Jesus said bring them to Him. He had the people sit down in groups on the grass, and He then gave thanks and then hand the bread and the fish to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the crowd. Christ provided, but He worked through His disciples, and in a sense they did give the people something to eat. Wow, what a wonderful miracle, and then there was 12 baskets full leftover. And there were 5,000 men, not counting women and children. There could have easily been 10,000 people. What an amazing miracle. What do you think the disciples learned? They can trust their Lord to provide. Unfortunately, they will still have a lot to learn. What do you think the Lord wants you to accomplish? We dream too small. We just have our Bible study. Maybe God wants you to be an elder or a deacon, or even a pastor. May you trust in the Lord.