Sunday Morning Service

Matthew 14:1-21 (Click on title for audio access)

"The Overwhelming" • 9.26.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro

- Jesus has finished speaking the parables of the Kingdom. What we have before us can be best described as the reactions to the Kingdom. Nazareth was an example of stony ground.

- We saw the outright rejection of Christ due to personal prejudice. The people of Nazareth rejected Christ because He was one of them.

- Today, we'll continue to see reactions to the Kingdom, beginning first in the halls of Herod.

Text

• Matthew 14:1-5 : "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.' 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.' And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet." : Herod the Tetrarch ruled over a 4th of Israel. When it came to the already infamously immoral Herodians, Herod Antipas lowered the moral bar even further.

- Immediately, we understand that he was a man of superstitious, irrational fear.

- News of Christ's miraculous powers had come into Herod's halls. Herod reasoned that Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead, a condition that he caused.

- John's demise began when he spoke out against Herod's scandalous relationship with his brother Philip's wife Herodias, who also happened to be the niece of Herod Antipas!!

- Philip was a civilian living in Rome. He was Herod's half brother, same Dad, different mothers. Antipas and Herodias mutually decided to divorce their spouses.

- In the case of Herod, this almost cost him his life, as he disposed of a politically allied wife!

- He survived when the Romans quelled the invading forces, and soon, he and Herodias were entangled in a very public affair.

- The people of Israel were greatly scandalized and John was the loudest protestor. When it says that John said to him, there is an indication that this was a repeated action.

- John, it seems, took this immorality on as a main cause.

- In typical Herodian fashion, his desire was to kill John, but his popularity made murder a political impossibility. Herod was afraid of the people and their opinion of him.

- His lady Herodias however, was no slave to political sensibilities.

• Matthew 14:6-12 : "But when Herod’s birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 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. Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus." : The climax of Herod's birthday party was this seductive dance that Herodias' daughter pulled off. This was nothing short of a strip tease!

- Just like any such dance today, the exploitation of her sexuality presented her with an opportunity. Herod, so pleased by her skills, promised to give her anything that she wanted.

- Herod was caught. Herodias wanted to enjoy her sinful activities without John's morality getting in the way. It was her idea to have her daughter to visually seduce her boyfriend!

- What kind of people were these!? What Mother would act this way? Her name is Herodias!

- Now, you have to imagine Herod. He was so "impressed" by Salome's dance that he foolishly promised anything. He is likely thoroughly drunk, but her request immediately sobers him up.

- "I want the head of John the Baptist." His smile turned to a frown and he looked at all his guests looking at him. He can't say "no." What would they think?

- Herod was sorry. He was grieved. Mark fills us in that Herod liked John in spite of the resentment of Herodias. He liked listening to him.

- But every word that came from John fell on deaf ears. John was just another interesting person to Herod, an amusing distraction from the typical day.

- He had made a promise to this young woman. He beheaded the baptist. Herodias' daughter, handed her mother's prize to her. Just like that, John passes on from the scene.

- John's disciples came and took the body away and brought the news to Jesus.

- Now, there is something that really stood out to me about this. One camp might stand up and applaud John the Baptist for his very loud voice regarding this immoral situation.

- He did not back down and spoke his mind clearly about. The other camp might stand up with a different concept.

- John was calling for morality from a man who was clearly not interested in living a godly life. He had begun speaking about the Kingdom, but seemingly changed his message to call out Herod.

- For the last year or so of his life, John spent his energies rebuking a vile eastern despot.

- We need to be careful of setting our sights on secondary issues, especially with people like Herod, who are intent upon living a life that is contrary to scripture.

- That's the point of the story: Herod was a stony ground, who had no room in his Kingdom for Christ's righteousness to penetrate.

• Matthew 14:13,14 : "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. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick." : Jesus was emotionally affected by the news of John's death. He set out to grieve alone.

- The people followed after Him. They were desperate for Him. They would not wait or suffer Him to be away.

- Jesus, tired, saddened and feeling the loss of his cousin, looked at the crowd of people that had come to Him and was compelled to respond.

- Matthew tells us that He was "moved with compassion." The phrase that he uses was one of deep compassion, literally, to have pity from the center of their bodies.

- The Lord sought to meet their needs and they effected Him emotionally.

- You and I can never match His energy, but our hearts must principally be the same. We want our hearts to broken for broken people. We want to be compassionately moved by them.

- His compassion led to His action. He healed their sick. He made them whole.

• Matthew 14:15-17 : "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.' But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.' And they said to Him, 'We have here only five loaves and two fish.'" : Jesus has been healing and touching people well past the time to "close up shop."

- The disciples came to Jesus and reminded Him that people had to get back to an area where they could get something for themselves to eat and they were going to need to get walking.

- The word "deserted" means refers to a place for pasture or a distant field away from village. At this point in the evening, the time for them to be able to go and get food was now past.

- Jesus wants them to stay, so He challenges His disciples to feed the multitudes. Clearly, this is an impossible challenge, as their inventory only reveals five loaves of bread and two fish.

- Think of the bread as being small sized buns. The same with the fish. They are not large fish, but are instead small minnows. Not that that matters much, but just be aware of it.

- Jesus wants the disciples to meet the needs of a great multitude with only minimal resource. There is a lesson coming.

- Their incredulity is well founded when they review their resource, but is illogical if they were to consider who was commanding them!

- When you and I review our resource alone, we will come to the same conclusion: "Send them somewhere else! I don't have it and I can't get it!"

- But when I consider that God has brought a person to me, or is sending me to someone, you and I rightly become aware that our insufficiency is swallowed up in His sufficiency!

• Matthew 14:18,19 : "He said, 'Bring them here to Me.' 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." : Instead of bemoaning their lack, they were to bring their resource to Him.

- Bring what you have to Jesus. He will always make more from it!

- Upon receiving the food, Jesus commanded the group to sit on the grass there on the pasture field. What happens here is profound on several levels.

- Jesus the Shepherd has led the people to a place where He would feed them. That place was likely a pastureland. The sheep were sitting on the grass.

- Like sheep, they sat at the shepherd's direction. Like sheep, they were thoroughly dependent upon Him to provide sustenance, just as we are today.

- When Jesus received the loaves and fish, He took these pieces, blessed and broke them, giving it to the disciples, who in turn began to give them out to the multitudes.

- Now, this is interesting to me. Jesus could have simply spoken and put an entire meal in front of the multitudes. Instead, we have this little drama that Matthew leaves for us.

- Jesus asked for resource and it was submitted to Him. Then, He thanked the Lord and dispersed it through the disciples to the multitudes. What does that mean?

- This I believe is a beautiful picture of the Lord's work. He stands between God and man, giving out to His disciples gifts from Heaven, which in turn can be given to men.

- Yes, there were literal fish and loaves. But this is a beautiful picture of God and His Son, working in cooperation with Christ's disciples to meet the needs of humanity.

- What happens when God does this through Christ's disciples?

• Matthew 14:20,21 : "So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children." : All ate and were filled. The word "filled" comes from the word that expressed full satisfaction!

- When they were all finished, the people were satisfied and the baskets were full of what remained! Notice that there were twelve of them, one for each disciple to carry!

- Matthew lets us know that the complement of people fed that day, would likely have been in excess of 10 to 15 thousand people!

Conclusion

- I want you to take note of four principles that we need to take from this week's message, that are applicable to each one of us. There is a pattern here that is universal.

- First, Jesus will invite you to ministry that is well beyond your resource. He has not changed!

- He wants to overwhelm your sensibilities and stretch what you believe to be possible.

- Second, your first tendency will be to send people or ministry away. The disciples saw what they had in their hands. They did not see their resource in the hands of Christ!

- That always makes the difference!

- Third, Jesus wants to disperse ministry through your hands! If I had been Jesus, if you had been Jesus, you might have left these dumb disbelieving group of miscreants out!

- Instead, Jesus employs them to disperse the bread from heaven to a hungry horde!

- Finally, when all is said and done, the ones that are ministered to will walk away satisfied and you'll find that you hold some leftover for yourself!

- These men walked away with more than started with.

- Our challenge today is to trust and obey in spite of what we believe about ourselves.

- What will your story be like this week? I pray that you would determine it now!