Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 14 as we continue our study through the Word of God. As you may remember from our last study, Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders and He then begins to teach in parables. And a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, it expounds a heavenly truth. And in this, only those who had the spiritual eyes to see would be able to understand them.
Also, Jesus continues to heal people and free them of the spiritual bondage they were in. It is out of this we now move into Matthew chapter 14, beginning in verse 1, where we read...
VERSES 1-2
1. At what time? At the time that Jesus is touching and healing people, Herod is worried. He thinks that John the baptist has risen from the dead. Why would he feel that way? Because he had John put to death and now he feels guilty and is paranoid.
2. This man is known as Herod Antipas who was a ruler over a fourth of the land, hence the name tetrarch. Herod Antipas ruled from 4 BC to 39 AD in the area of Galilee and Perea and the one who judged Jesus in Luke 23:7-12. His father was Herod the Great who ordered the murdering of all the Jewish children 2 years old and under in Matthew 2:16, trying to kill the newborn king!
3. As we move into verses 3-12 it is a parenthetical section, dealing with John the baptist, his imprisonment and his death. Matthew is giving us the details of why Herod was paranoid, what he did to bring this about in his life. So if you were to read this chapter, verse 2 should flow into verse 13, for Jesus is going to respond to what Herod Antipas is doing. And we will see that as we move on.
VERSES 3-4
1. Herod went to visit his brother Philip and while he was there he fell in love with Philip’s wife, Herodias. And he enticed her to come and marry him, which she did do. And Herod divorced his wife and she divorced her husband, Philip. So John, seeing this adulterous relationship, this immoral lifestyle, he rebukes Herod. And for standing up for righteousness it landed him in prison, which can and does happen, but that shouldn’t stop us from being salt and light to this world.
2. Years later, when Caligula came to the throne in Rome, after Philip had died and Caligula appointed Agrippa over the area of Trachonitus and Ituraca, trouble arose. You see, Caligula gave to Agrippa the title of king, which made Herodias bitter. In fact, Josephus tells us "She was not able to conceal how miserable she was, by reason of the envy she had towards him." Thus, she encouraged Herod to go to Rome and ask Caligula to give him the title of king, for Herodias wanted to be queen. But before they arrived, Agrippa told Caligula that Herod was going to rebel against Rome, so as they arrived Caligula removed Herod from his rule in Galilee and sent him into exile in Gaul, and Herodias went along with him, where they both eventually died! Sin does have consequences!
VERSES 5-7
1. Herod was upset with John, wanted to put him to death, but he realized that would cause trouble with the Jews and he didn’t want that. As time passed, Herod came to have this fascination with John, and would go to see him from time to time. Then came Herod’s Birthday, and what a bash it was. All who came were drunk and his wife, Herodias, had her daughter Salome dance a seductive dance in front of Herod and all their guests. Hard to imagine, but it will get worse. And Herod enjoyed it so much that he offered her whatever she wanted.
VERSES 8-12
1. How wicked this family was. Herod found himself in a position where he had to do what he didn’t want to, but because he promised her anything, he sent forth the order to behead John. Herodias had this all planned out with her daughter, and as John was beheaded, she brought his head to her mother! You would think the seductive dance was bad, but this just shows how wicked they were!
2. Now what can we glean from this? Be careful of the situations you place yourself in. Those parties you go to, those work related gatherings where the alcohol is flowing, and words are spoken, and before long you are involved in a situation that will scar you and others. Don’t place yourself in a sinful situation. At the hospital I use to work at in Illinois, they would have a Christmas party with drinking and dancing, but your spouse was not invited. So I never went unless she could go. Others couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t go, but I would tell them I am just being wise! You see, sin is not bad because it is forbidden. Sin is forbidden because it is bad! And thus, our loving Father warns us to stay clear, avoid it, and we need to obey!
VERSE 13
1. Jesus is not responding to the death of John the baptist, His cousin, but to Herod’s threat. You see, it was not the right time for Jesus to be put to death, nor the right place. And as Jesus tries to find a place to rest, to be alone, He gets into a boat and travels to the area of Bethsaida, which is on the northeast shores of the Sea of Galilee. Now the Galilee region covered a area of some 50 miles long and 25 miles wide, and according to Josephus there were 204 villages with a population of 15,000 or more. So it was heavily populated. And as the people saw Jesus, saw where He was going, they ran on ahead to meet Him as He landed in the area of Bethsaida. Now Jesus wanted to get alone to rest, what do you think His response will be as these 15,000 to 20,000 people gather to meet Him? Let’s read on and find out!
VERSE 14
1. What a lesson for us when we are physically tired or emotionally exhausted. Jesus had compassion on the people and served them. Jesus was not cold, angry, He didn’t grumble, "Not all these people again. And they have so many problems, and it will be years before Sigmund Freud comes on the scene. What will they do until then?" Jesus reached out to them, He met their needs. Be careful that you don’t get so busy that you don’t have time for people!
VERSES 15-16
1. At this point it is after 3 PM and the disciples thought it would be a good idea to send the crowds home because they had no food to feed them. The disciples kept sending people away, and Jesus kept drawing them to Him.
2. Now I love what Jesus says to His disciples in verse 16, "You give them something to eat." Can you imagine them looking at each other, "He is talking to you!" "No, I think He meant you!" And what was going through their mind, can you imagine? They were dumbfounded!
VERSES 17-19
1. First of all these five loaves and two fish were not a meal, but a snack for a journey that a young boy had with him. And this boy shares with Jesus all that he had, which was not much when you consider the huge crowd of people, no matter how much you tired to divide it. You see, these loaves were nothing more than five barely crackers and the fish, like sardines! How in the world can that feed 15,000 to 20,000 people? But when you give to Jesus what you have, as this lad did, He will multiply it and it will minister and meet the needs of those around you.
2. One other point before we move on. Notice that the disciples went to Jesus to receive and then they fed the people. It is as Paul said in I Corinthians 11:23, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you..." You can’t give to others that which you yourself don’t have. You first must receive from Jesus before you can give. Remember that, it is important!
VERSES 20-21
1. Notice, they were filled, satisfied, it is the Greek word which speaks of animals who stayed at the feeding trough until they wanted nothing more to eat. For us, we may not like to think of it that way, so how about after a Thanksgiving meal when you can’t eat another bite, you can’t move, you are stuffed more than the turkey was! That is how filled the people were. Jesus is the Bread of life, and He not only meets our physical needs, but He will also satisfy our spiritual hunger if we will receive from Him. It is as Paul said in Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."
2. In John 6:14-15 we are told during this same incident, "Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king..." In saying that, it leads to what Jesus is going to do next.
VERSE 22
1. It is very late now and Jesus did not want His disciples to get caught up in this king thing. So He commands them to get into a boat and head away from this area.
VERSE 23
1. As Jesus sends His men away, He goes up on a mountain to pray, and He is alone while His men are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee.
VERSE 24
1. They are now some 3 miles or so out on the Sea of Galilee when a storm comes upon them, and it tossed their boat. As hard as they tried to row, they were going nowhere. Think about this, in the boat with them where the 12 baskets of leftovers and not one of them thought, "Maybe we should ask Jesus for help!" So they tried to do it on their own, and it wasn’t working, they were rowing nowhere fast! And the same is true in our own life, you can fight and struggle all you want but you will miss the power that is right before you, the power of God!
VERSE 25
1. It is now after 3 AM in the morning and being around the time of the Passover, in the spring, there was a full moon, so Jesus could see them struggling and going nowhere. So He begins to walk out towards them on the water. Keep in mind they are about 3 miles out now on the Sea of Galilee.
VERSE 26
1. Notice that Jesus is walking right over these storms that had paralyzed these men. And as they see this person coming towards them, these brave men cry out, "Ahhhhhh!" They scream in terror -they thought it was a ghost! Why did they respond that way? Because they were not expecting Jesus because they were not praying, seeking God in the midst of this storm. So when He does come, they are surprised!
VERSE 27
1. Jesus came to dispel their fears and He comes to dispel our fears!
VERSES 28-30
1. Many like to pick on Peter for sinking but I like Peter. You see, the other 11 guys are still in the boat! He took that step of faith when Jesus called to Him. How many of you are still in the boat because you are afraid to come when Jesus calls?
2. Notice that Peter is walking on water during this storm, but then something happens. He takes his eyes off of Jesus and places them on the situation which caused him to sink because of unbelief. You see, we can’t do it, but with God’s help we can. It is as Paul said in II Corinthians 3:5, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." And in this time of trouble, at least Peter knew who to call - not ghostbusters, but the Lord!
VERSE 31
1. When you feel you are sinking, the Lord is near, Just call upon Him. And I don’t believe the Lord is rebuking Peter here, but saying, "Peter, you were doing so well, what happened?" He is trying to get Peter to understand why he began to sink. To stretch his faith. You see, faith will dispel your fear but your fear will dispel your faith! Keep your eyes on Jesus no matter how intense the storm is!
VERSES 32-33
1. The implication here is as soon as Jesus got into the boat, the wind stopped. We need to allow Jesus to get on board in our own lives, for He will calm the storms and see us to our destination. For these men, they were growing, learning to trust in the Lord and so are we each and every day!
VERSES 34-36
1. They are in the area of Gennesaret, which is a fertile plain southwest of Capernaum. And as He arrived, many came to touch Him to be healed. How about you? By faith will you reach out and touch Jesus? Help is that close if you will only reach out!
VERSE 1
1. These religious leaders traveled from Jerusalem to the Galilee area, some 80 miles, for one reason, to challenge the teaching and the practices of Jesus. It was more of an interrogation squad than anything else.
VERSE 2
1. Please understand that these boys are not being accused of not washing their hands, eating with hands covered with dirt. It had nothing to do with dirty hands. What were they upset about? The disciples of Jesus did not go through this elaborate hand washing that came from the tradition of the elders, it was not found in the Word of God. That means these religious leaders must have been watching closely Jesus and His men to see these things they were not doing. They were wanting to catch them breaking the Law.
VERSES 3-4
1. That is what God said, but their tradition now superceded the Word of God! In fact, in the Mishna, it says "It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis then to contradict Scripture itself." You see, the oral law, the tradition of the elders, became more important than the Word of God and that is very dangerous!
VERSES 5-6
1. They were to care for their parents but they found a loop hole. If you would say "Corban" or that this had been dedicated to God, you could keep it for yourself! And Jesus nails them on this. By following the tradition of man, they have negated the Word of God!
VERSES 7-9
1. Notice this is a heart issue and not about their actions. It doesn’t matter how good your actions are if your heart is wrong! And in the end, what is in your heart will be reflected in your actions! It is as Paul said in I Corinthians 13:1-3, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." You see, it is a matter of the heart, so be careful of why you are doing something, check the motives of your heart first and you will make beautiful music!
VERSE 10
1. Here is the essence of His teaching and Jesus wants us to understand it.
VERSE 11
1. It is not what you eat or how you eat that defiles you, but what comes out of your heart that does!
VERSE 12
1. What Jesus said was not politically correct. He came against the traditions these religious leaders held onto, and the disciples were worried that Jesus might have hurt their feelings. And I guess He wanted to stir them up, to get them to think about what they were holding onto. And He is going to hit them even harder in the next 2 verses as we shall see.
VERSES 13-14
1. Jesus first says they were not planted by God and thus they would be removed. Ouch! That hurt. Secondly, He warned His men and us to stay away from people like that because they are more interested in external rituals than a relationship with Jesus, and thus, they are spiritually blind. And to follow after them will cause you to end up in the pit with them. Ouch! again.
VERSES 15-20
1. This was not a parable, but straight truth, and they still didn’t get it. And so Peter asks Jesus to explain it. And Jesus tells them that by taking certain foods into your body it may affect you physically, like eating jalapeno peppers, but it does nothing for your spirit, even though you may be on fire!
2. But, out of the heart comes sin and that is manifested in these actions; wicked thinking, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, sexual sin, stealing, a desire to hurt others, slandering another, and-so-on, that is what is manifested from a heart of sin. What can we do to change? Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." That is what God wants to do in you, give you a heart transplant!
VERSE 21
1. Now Jesus moves northward some 40 miles from Capernaum to the area of Tyre and Sidon, which is called Lebanon today.
VERSE 22
1. Mark tells us she was a Syro-Phoenician which means the land she was living in was controlled by the Syrians and Phoenicia was the country. This was the place of her birth and she was brought up in the Greek culture, she was a gentile.
2. Now she comes to Jesus because her daughter is "severely demon-possessed." And she calls Jesus by His Messianic title, "Son of David." Now what do you think the response of Jesus will be? I think you may be surprised as we read on.
VERSE 23
1. He is silent, ignoring her request. Doesn’t that seem out of character for Jesus? Someone once said that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. And it seems like that is what we see here. And the disciples want Jesus to do something because she is beginning to bother them with her requests, she was bugging them!
VERSE 24
1. Why would Jesus say that? I believe He was trying to stretch her faith as we shall see.
VERSE 25
1. Now she came worshiping Him, not on the basis of His Messianic title, but as Lord! But the Lord is going to continue to stretch her faith.
VERSE 26
1. Jesus did not use the word for wild dogs here, but of a puppy and that might have encouraged her to continue on. You see, the Jews called the gentiles wild dogs, but not Jesus!
VERSE 27
1. She is willing to just partake of the crumbs that fall off the table, what faith. And Jesus is going to recognize that in the next verse.
VERSE 28
1. The disciples wanted to get rid of her but Jesus wanted to stretch her faith, and that is what took place. She had a hunger in her heart for God and was humble before Him and God filled her by healing her daughter. What a great combination of qualities to have in your life, a hunger for God and a humility before Him! How hungry are you?
VERSE 29
1. Mark tells us that He headed to the area of the Decapolis, which was a confederacy of 10 cities on the east side of the Sea of Galilee and was a predominately gentile area.
VERSES 30-31
1. The phrase "God of Israel" seems to indicate these were gentiles that Jesus was ministering to in this region. Make a note of this. This area was the area of the Gadarenes, the area that Jesus healed the two demon-possessed men and the whole town came out to ask Jesus to leave. Now they are gathering around Him and glorifying God. It is possible that these two men were a witness of what God had done and it turned the people on to Jesus! God can do the same with us!
VERSE 32
1. The people were following Jesus for 3 days now, some 10,000 to 15,000 people, and they are hungry and weak, and Jesus has compassion on them and wants to meet their needs. That is the heart of Jesus!
VERSE 33
1. How quickly they forgot. Jesus fed some 15,000 to 20,000 people with five barely crackers and two sardines. And now they are wondering what they are going to do. Now you understand why God repeats Himself, we don’t get it too quickly and when we do, we tend to forget it.
VERSES 34-36
1. What did the disciples have to do before they could feed the people? Go to Jesus! What do we need to do before we can feed people with spiritual food? Go to Jesus! Also, we need to sit down as the people did, have some quiet time so that the Lord may feed us.
VERSE 37
1. Once again they were filled, but not stuffed this time, but just satisfied. And Jesus will satisfy those who come to Him. Please remember, the demands we have will never outweigh the supply that Jesus has for us. Here we see 7 large baskets filled with leftovers, not small hand baskets as we saw in the first feeding back in Matthew 14:13-21. These baskets were like hampers, big enough for a man to fit in. In fact, Paul was placed in a basket like this in Acts chapter 9 as He was trying to escape from the Jews who were after him.
VERSE 38
1. Again, not a small group of people but maybe some 10,000 to 15,000 people were fed by Jesus!
VERSE 39
1. Jesus once again crosses over the Sea of Galilee and comes to the area of Magdala which was located by Tiberias on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. This is the village where Mary Magdalen came from. And as we shall see next time, the religious leaders are waiting for Jesus to arrive so they can try to trip Him up, catch Him breaking the Law, discredit Him before the people. It is hard to believe that a persons heart can be that hard and cold that they are trying to find ways to catch Jesus, but these religious leaders were that stiff-necked and hard-hearted. We must be careful to keep our heart soft, workable, and that is only done as we surrender our lives to Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to till that ground so we can be fruitful in our lives.