Matthew chapter 14:1-12 (continued)

“At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendants, ‘This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,  for John had been saying to him: ‘It is not lawful for you to have her.’

Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet. On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much  that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.  Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.’

The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted  and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.”

Over the past few weeks we have examined some of the parables that Jesus used to teach the Apostles, and some of the disciples about the kingdom of heaven. Essentially, He was equipping them with all the information and tools they would need to do the work of the New Testament church—when He was gone.

These were the things that they would recall when He was gone; these were the tools that helped them stay the course, as the church was persecuted by her enemies across the Roman Empire. Without the persecution of the Pharisees and the Romans, the church very much may have stayed a Jewish phenomenon and died in Jerusalem. But persecution came as the gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire and most of the known world (including North Africa).

Today we will look at one of the saddest events of the New Testament narrative. It is the execution of John the Baptist. John, as you will recall was the cousin of Jesus; his mother was family to Mary. John was about 6 months older than Jesus. John was a “forerunner” to Jesus. In Jesus’ day, a forerunner was used by neighboring kings to warn other kings who would be visiting. It gave them time to repair roads or prepare straight paths for them to travel.

In John 1:23, John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3; he was the voice that cried in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of [for] the Lord.” This is exactly what a person who heralds news would do; he would let the king know that a king was coming and that the paths should be straightened and made ready for an imminent arrival.

John did his job; he was the last of the Old Testament prophets from God after 400 years of silence after the prophet Malachi; God began His New Testament phase of working with the Jewish people.

As we get to this account we are actually looking at history; John was already dead and Jesus’ fame had spread all the way to Herod’s palace. His servants were convinced that Jesus was John come back from the dead; little did they know that this Jesus would come back from the dead.  But this leads us to the first point.

We All Know the Dead Will be Raised, Verse 2

You never go to a funeral and hear people say, “Oh well he (or she) is in the dirt now.” No, people always talk about “he (or she) is in a better place.” We understand that even in our fallen state, we go somewhere—death is not the end. God made us in His image and He is an eternal God so we have that in us, the desire to live forever.

Unless a person is gravely ill or very old, say over 85, death comes as a surprise to most if not all people. The entire cancer mindset is “We will beat it.” In Ecclesiastes 3:1 we find this telling verse:

“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

God put eternity in our hearts and we know that we will live forever somewhere. The account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 reminds us that there are two ends to this life, one which is in torments—hell, fire and pain for eternity, the other is safe in God’s keep. The choice is yours in this life. Eternal life or eternal death, you will live in one for sure. Choose Jesus and choose life now.

John Told the Truth and it Cost Him His Life, Verses 3-10

You see, once you understand that this life is just the beginning and there is more to it after physical death, then the ability to make costly stands will be strengthened in the power of Jesus. John the Baptist was not afraid to tell Herod the truth. What was that truth that cost him his life?

Herod was a ruthless man, given to rages and unaccustomed to being told “No.”  He had taken his brother, Philip’s, wife to be his own. This is adultery. Philip was still alive as far as we know. John the Baptist told Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his brother’s wife (verse 4).  Even in today’s modern and liberal world that kind of behavior is frowned upon.

The Ten Commandments which John would have known as a prophet of the Lord clearly states in the 7th of the commandments listed in Exodus 20:1-17, that you should not commit adultery. Adultery is any sexual act between a married person and a person he or she is not married to. Fornication is any sexual act between people who are not married at all or any other sexual act outside of marriage. Thus, John spoke the truth; Herod was not allowed to have his brother’s wife. For this John was imprisoned.

Today we are seeing much of the same thing and if you study down through history you will find that countless numbers of Christians have been killed over the years for simply speaking the truth. Of course no one can hear of the death of a Christian and not think of the great Stephen who was killed in Acts 7:57. The people who heard the truth about Jesus and their sins covered their ears and cried out with loud voices to drown out the truth.

Biblical truth cuts to the heart of men, it separate the lies and fictitious cushions we build to protect our fragile egos. Man says, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” But the Bible says we are sinners, snakes, and our mouths are deep graves, and that our hearts are deceitfully wicked.  The Bible says that all of our goodness is filthy like rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6).

Today we have Christians being brutally persecuted in Muslim countries because they are believers in Jesus Christ. Closer to home, we have families that have bakeries and are losing their businesses—because they stand for the biblical definition of marriage. Or we have Christians being labeled as intolerant because they accept that the Bible is the final authority in life. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the only way of salvation in John 14:6, and we lovingly teach that for the benefit of our friends, family and yes—even our enemies. But we are branded as intolerant for speaking the truth.

You see, the true God of the Bible is the God of absolutes and mankind kind of likes things to float, so that right and wrong become relevant to the situation as opposed to a fixed boundary. To accept God’s absolutes would be to admit that the naysayers are wrong or to admit that there is a God to answer to for their disregard of His rules. The godless haters would rather try to imprison us, kill us or do whatever it takes to drown us out. The same truth that sets us free in Christ can get us killed for Christ.

Pride Is a Killer, Verses 9-12

Herod did not intend to kill John the Baptist; he imprisoned him hoping John would come around. In the course of his imprisonment we see in Mark 14:6 that Herod celebrated a birthday and Herodias had her daughter do a dance for him.  Herod was mesmerized, I am sure, by the young lady dancing before him and he made her a promise and an oath to give her anything she desired.

It is very important for us to learn not to write checks with our mouths that our hearts don’t want to cash. The Bible has a lot to say about the mouth and the tongue in particular:

“But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).

Whoso keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles” (Proverbs 21:23).

“ I said, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me” (Psalms 39:1).

Well, it would seem that Herod did not heed the Scriptures well, so he ended up doing something he did not want to do; the king was distressed about his oath, but to save face he murdered John the Baptist for simply telling the truth. Jesus warned that in the last days the same fate would fall upon those who are His followers. In Matthew 24:9-12 we find these sobering words:

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”

Notice that we will be hated by the world and its systems; this is very important for the modern church to understand. The new compromising church wants to appeal to the world and draw them in. There is no such instruction in the Bible; rather we are to be a peculiar people set apart for the Lord (1 Peter 2:9).

We need to interact for the sake of the gospel; Jesus interacted with the masses but He did not assimilate. He kept His uniqueness and His righteousness in that perverse generation. We are called to do the same. Jesus was killed for it and they will kill us as well. Are we ready to die for the name of Jesus? John the Baptist did; he told the truth and it cost him his life.

Missionarybaptistchruch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com

 

Matthew chapter 13:53-58 (continued)

“Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables that He departed from there.  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? 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?’ 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.’ Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

As we come to end of this chapter it has been a bit of journey to get through it. I remember as a kid when I first got into preaching that some of these passages would be covered in one sermon.  But now as the Lord expands my view of life and the world I find that there is so much information in one small passage as opposed to an entire chapter that it is impossible to cover very large portions of the Bible in sermons or lessons.

We have to take little bits and chew on them for a while. We learn to savor the scripture, get the full taste of the lesson and apply it to our lives.  Of course the application is what matters, it does not matter how much of the Bible we know, what is important is how much do we apply and allow the Holy Spirit to add to our person.

We are called to be more like Christ, thus we have to be less like us.  This is hard for us; we live in a world, even amongst churches, that glorifies the flesh and tells us that we are good.  All too often it is made out to be like Jesus came to top up our goodness as opposed to the fact that we are totally depraved and lack any goodness at all.  Thus the idea of the transformation we see in Romans 12:1-2 is that we simply stop being caterpillars and begin to be butterflies.

I will admit, my caterpillar is not dying well, it fights and squirms to the top and tries to stifle the butterfly in me.  It is a tiresome battle with the flesh, one must be constantly vigilant and I will confess that I envy, yes even in this I am failing, those who make the Christian walk look so easy and seem to have no trouble mirroring Jesus.  They always have a great spirits, full of grace and the right words.  In the meantime I fight to make sure my mind is on good things, I bite my tongue to not say the wrong thing and I find that grace and graciousness is far from me.

Jesus has just spent a long time teaching through parables and He has imparted to these 12 men and a few ladies who traveled with them the deepest riches of the kingdom of heaven. They are in awe of Him and now they have to be tempered. They have to understand that rejection is a harsh reality of this Christian life and the ministry. Those of us who are Bible students are in awe of the Bible as we begin to see things when we study them.

We get this idea that everyone will be just as awed as we are and we try to teach them and find that they either don’t get it or worse they don’t care. Those who know us best are often the first to reject us and as we can see from this lesson our families are the ones that are the hardest to win.  But don’t give up on them there is some good news at the end of this lesson; see you there in a few minutes…

Jesus Came to Teach in a Local Synagogue, Verse 54

Last year the folks from our church and I had the privilege of serving as counselors at the Billy Graham Festival of Hope here in Toronto.  Over 40,000 people showed up to hear the gospel and that reflects the kind of response that happens all across the world as they travel. This past weekend they were in Japan for a huge festival with thousands hearing the gospel.  But in our text, Jesus shows up in Nazareth— in his home town, and He attends the local synagogue where He teaches the Old Testament Scriptures to the people present and they are astonished.  They are at a loss to explain the wonders of His teaching and the power with which He does these mighty works.

They are blown away that He could have this kind of knowledge and command of the Scriptures. They knew him as a carpenter. He was not one of the learned classes. And in those days, heredity was important to your future; the carpenter’s son became a carpenter, the blacksmith’s son a blacksmith, and so on.  Jesus was not supposed to be a teacher of the Law, he was just a commoner.

Well this is our first lesson from Jesus for today. No matter what your heritage as far as pedigree and beginning, with the power of God you, too, can become an accomplished Bible teacher. In fact contrary to the spiritual leaders of the time that used biblical knowledge to keep the people down, Jesus used His knowledge to free people.  He explained the Bible to them so that they could understand it and apply it to themselves independent of the priest.

The entire goal of the New Testament church and the Bible is to encourage people to be “self-feeders” in the Scriptures. Read and study on your own. God is able to open your eyes and your hearts if it is your desire for Him to do so.  In Acts 17:11 we find that the Berean church were diligent students of the Old Testament—they searched the Scriptures.

As a pastor my goal would be to equip the people I serve to ready and study the Bible for them.  They should be so familiar with the Bible that it is as important to them as life and blood.  They should crave it and need it like water or food.

The problem is that these folks that Jesus taught that day still did not believe that He is who He said He is. They could not wrap their head and hearts around the fact that He is God in the flesh, Jesus the Christ—the Saviour of the world and their rightful King. Thus all they saw was a man who was out of His “element” as a teacher and they just wanted Him to be a carpenter.

Sadly this is how the world today still sees Jesus. They accept Him as a good man, a good teacher, a good example, a good legend and on and on they go. But they simply won’t accept Him as God. And here is that line in the sand that God draws, Jesus must be accepted as God, no lesser acceptance will be allowed by His Father.  Once you accept that He is God then all other supernatural possibilities become possible and we are no longer surprised at His wisdom and power; we stand in reverent awe of them.

Jesus Was Not an Only Child, Verse 55

There is teaching in one of the major religions of the world that teaches that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life.  Well this verse makes it clear that Mary had at least 4 other sons and 2 daughters.  The sons are listed here and we are told He had sisters. Thus this myth of Mary’s perpetual virginity is shot to pieces. Now let us move on from here and consider the idea of the perfect sibling.

Could you imagine living in a household where one of the siblings are perfect, literally? Well it is no secret in the Bible that Jesus’ own brother hated him and would rather he be dead; we find them in John 7 encouraging Him to go to Jerusalem even though they knew that the Jews wanted Him dead.  Jesus did not have a healthy home life yet He did okay.

Jesus’ own family did not accept Him as Lord.  We know of two of His brothers that came to salvation, James (Galatians 1:19) and Jude; Jude was also an author in the New Testament. James, Jesus’ brother was a leader in the church at Jerusalem. So we know for sure that some of Jesus’ earthly family came to salvation and since the records of women were not often recorded we can hope that his sisters saw the light as well as seeing that Mary was an adamant follower of her Son.

The lesson here is that most, if not all prophets, are despised by their families; the reason being is that they are acquainted with all of your flaws and failures. But often strangers give you more respect than your own people. Most pastors have a hard time serving in their home church, the one they grew up in—as sometimes a lot of harbored feelings, just like those that were held against Jesus can simply be walls to ministry work.

But if you live for the Lord and serve Him faithfully God will allow some of your family to grow to love and respect you.  The whole goal being of course is to point them to Jesus for salvation.

Unbelief, Verse 58

This is the biggest hindrance to the work that God does in and through us. We find a father struggling with his unbelief in Mark 9:23-24:

“And Jesus said to him, ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

This is a real struggle for all of us in this life. We believe that Jesus is God. I do, we know that. I have trusted Him as my Savior and I am sure that He can do all things. My questions and the question that many have is this: “Will He do them for me?’

In Luke 17:5 the apostles begged Jesus to “increase their faith.” They understood that they could not do it on their own, so they needed a supernatural infusion of God’s faith to build them. How does God increase our faith? By putting us in positions where we have no choice but to trust Him. We are put in places where we simply have to be “still and know that He is God” (Psalm 46:10).

God put Israel between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army so that they could see the salvation of the Lord.  He sold Joseph into slavery and put him in prison unjustly so that one day he could rule Egypt and deliver Israel from a famine. On and on we can go in the Bible with examples of what God does to increase faith, expand belief and grow our dependence on Him and Him only.

This is my cry and I hope that it is yours as well:

“I do believe; help my unbelief.”

If you truly cry this out brace yourself, God will show up and put you to task.  Hold on my dear friends, God will not fail you nor abandon you; He simply cannot.

“For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, ‘Fear not; I will help thee.’ (Isaiah 41:13).

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com