Sermon Tone Analysis

Take a Bold Stand for the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 14:1-12

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared June 11, 2022)

MESSAGE:

*Over the last few weeks, we have been studying Matthew 13, and there Jesus began to explain His Kingdom to His followers.

The Lord taught them through a series of 8 parables.

For example, in Matthew 13:45-46, Jesus said, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

*Jesus wants us to know that nothing could possibly be more valuable to us than His Kingdom.

And I hope you can honestly say that Jesus Christ is your king, because He is the King of all kings.

I also hope you can honestly say that Jesus is your king, because the only place where we can live forever is in the Kingdom of Heaven.

*Today we begin to focus on Matthew 14, and in vs. 1-12 the Holy Spirit led Matthew to look back and tell us about the vicious murder of John the Baptist.

The way John lived and died can help us take a bold stand for Jesus today.

1. FIRST: WE MUST RECOGNIZE THAT WE ARE IN A GREAT SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE.

*John the Baptist reminds us that we are part of the struggle that has brought destruction and death ever since Satan rebelled against God.

*It may not seem like it when we are eating donuts in Sunday School, but Christians, we are soldiers in the greatest army the world will ever see.

And though our ultimate victory is absolutely guaranteed by God, we face opposition that is dangerous and determined, so we must not be surprised by growing hostility.

*In Ephesians 6:10-13 Paul revealed our true enemies, and there he said:

10.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

11.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

*The devil and the other fallen angels are our true enemies, but in these days they have a massive and growing influence in the world.

Many people follow the devil willingly, and many more follow him unwittingly, because of their spiritual blindness.

Paul spoke of this truth in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 where he said, "If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."

*Since these people have been spiritually blinded by the devil, many of them hate Christians with murderous passion.

And why do they hate us?

Jesus told us in John 15:18-21, and there the Lord said:

18. "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own.

Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20.

Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.'

If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21.

But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."

*John the Baptist ran into a buzz-saw of opposition when he stood up for the Lord, and the same thing can happen to us.

John took his stand against Herod the Tetrarch, and was murdered in cold blood.

*Let me remind you that there are several men in the New Testament referred to as "Herod."

They weren't Jews, but natives of nearby Idumea, and they were appointed to rule by the Roman Empire.

The first was known as "Herod the Great," and though he expanded the Temple in Jerusalem, he was a vicious monster of a tyrant who had zero interest in keeping God's Law.

This is the Herod who tried to kill young Jesus by murdering all the infant boys in Bethlehem.

*The Herod here in Matthew 14 was Herod the Great's son.

His name was Antipas, and "tetrarch" was his title because he ruled one fourth of his father's kingdom.

In Luke 13:32, Jesus called him "that fox" because of his craftiness.

(1)

*Jerry Shirley explained that "Herod the Tetrarch was well known for living in luxury.

Jesus once warned of the dangers of the 'leaven of Herod,' which I believe is materialism and fleshly appetites.

This Herod was a drunken, depraved man.

His son was Herod Agrippa, who imprisoned Peter and killed the Apostle John's brother, James."

(2)

*The Herods were a terribly wicked family.

And vs. 1-4 here look back at the fierce and growing opposition John the Baptist faced from this family:

1.

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus

2. 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.''

3.

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.

4. For John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her.''

*Herod had put John in prison, but popular opinion was running against the Tetrarch, so in vs. 5 we read that "although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet."

*Then in vs. 6-8, we see behind-the-scenes conspiracy and intrigue:

6.

But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod.

(This was most likely a very lewd and seductive dance from a girl who was no more that 12 to 14 years old.)

7. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

8.

So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter.''

*Behind-the-scenes conspiracy and intrigue.

Is it any better today?

I doubt it, and if we really knew all the dark things being plotted in our world we might be completely overwhelmed.

But God knows what's going on, and we can always trust Him to triumph over evil!

*Next in vs. 9-10, we see the deadly poison of pride:

9.

And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him at the table, he commanded it to be given to her.

10.

So he sent and had John beheaded in prison.

*And in vs. 11, we see the bottomless depths of depravity, because John's "head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother."

*That's how bad it was in the first century.

Could it get that bad here in the 21st century?

In many places around our world, it already IS that bad.

Many millions of Christians today face evil in the highest places.

*In 2020, Forbes reported that 260 million Christians live in the top 50 countries where believers face dangerous levels of persecution.

I'm talking about places like North Korea, China, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan.

*"Open Doors" reported that the number of Christians killed in 2020 went up 60% over the year before.

They also reported that anti-Christian governments around the world have used COVID-19 restrictions to persecute God's Church.

That's no surprise because we have also seen it here in the United States.

(3)

*By God's grace, Christians in America have mostly been spared from persecution by ungodly political leaders.

That's because our forefathers were mostly God-fearing Christians, and they exalted God in our founding documents.

Listen to these words from our Declaration of Independence:

"IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. .

."

*By God's grace, Christians in the United States are still among the freest people in the world.

But our religious liberty is under growing assault from government officials openly hostile to Bible-believing Christians.

*This hostility should not surprise us because about 60 years ago our Supreme Court voted to remove prayer and the Bible from public schools.

The damage to our society has been catastrophic.

Removing the truth of God's Word from schools opened the floodgate for all kinds of lies to take hold.

*Tragically, we live in what's called the "postmodern era."

Many millions of people have been deceived to believe that there is no such thing as objective truth.

You can have your truth, and I can have mine.

They are much more likely to base their "truth" on feelings rather than facts.

And they are growing ever more detached from reality.

*How bad has it gotten?

In October 2018, the Christian Institute of England reported on a survey by the Coalition for Marriage.

Among the 2,000 people asked, 32 percent supported self-definition of race.

Nineteen percent thought it was okay for people to choose their age.