Matthew 13:53-14:36

Today we’re with Jesus as He makes His way back to His hometown after teaching the Kingdom parables, only to be rejected there and we begin at Matthew 13:53-54,

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?

 

From this verse we see that here again mighty works, miracles, were performed, but as we’ll see in moment, not many.

But we should notice the fact that the people never questioned whether or not He could perform miracles. Their question was, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”

Verse 55,

Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

 

They ask among themselves, “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” You see it confused them. They didn’t recognise who He really was. To them He was just the carpenter’s son. And that’s all He is to some, probably most, folk in our day.

Many think He was a great teacher, a great man, a wonderful person, with some good life lessons, and to these people in Nazareth He was just the carpenter’s son.

 

Verse 56,

And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?

 

It’s obvious that the Lord Jesus had brothers and sisters. Of course, they were half-brothers and half-sisters because they were born of Mary by the seed of Joseph. Jesus was not. He was born through the womb of Mary but by the seed of God.

They were younger than He was. These brothers and sisters were younger than Him, and, along with all the townspeople, they didn’t understand anything about Him. After His resurrection they saw that He was truly the Son of God.

 

Now verse 57,

So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house.”

 

You see, His hometown folk were so familiar with Him and with His family that they were “offended at him.”

That is, they took offense at Him. I suppose they said, “We know His family. He grew up among us. Where does He get the things He teaches?”

 

And verse 58,

Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

 

This is a tremendous revelation. Look what it was that limited the power of God when He was here.

It was unbelief! “He didn’t do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” It wasn’t that He was unable to do them but their unbelief, prevented them from seeing Him as anything more than an ordinary man. So, He did few miracles there.

We need the kind of faith that believes Christ is Who He said He was and that He can save the lost. He’s limited today in our own community, in our churches, in our families, and in our own lives by unbelief.

Our Lord states a great truth here.

Now we move on to Chapter 14 of Matthew’s Gospel where the forerunner, John the Baptist, is beheaded; Jesus withdraws but is followed by the multitude; He feeds the five thousand and sends His disciples over the sea into a storm, then walks to them on the water.

The movement in Matthew of the rejection of Jesus as King and His conflict with the religious rulers continues.

This chapter reveals that events are moving to a crisis. John the Baptist is slain on the pretext that Herod must keep his oath.

Jesus withdraws in order not to force the wicked hand of Herod, for His hour hasn’t yet come.

If we were to judge the importance of Jesus’ miracles by the attention given to them by the Gospel writers, the feeding of the five thousand would certainly be the most important. It’s the only miracle recorded by all the Gospel writers.

 

Matthew 14:1-2,

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.” 

 

Tetrarch means “ruler of a fourth part” and refers to a ruler who governs a quarter of a larger territory or province. Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, was appointed the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea by the Roman Empire and he ruled over a fourth part of the Roman province of Syria.

 

If this verse sounds superstitious you’re right, it is. It’s the superstition of old Herod and also of other ignorant people of that day. In today’s world, of course, we like to believe we’re not superstitious like that. Really!

Many millions today are following the horoscope and astrology charts, many people, especially woman think it’s a wonderful little experience hopping off to the fortune teller.

Oriental religions are having a tremendous influence in our modern culture.

The human race is basically still superstitious, and the minute we get away from the Word of God, we become very superstitious.

Even those who call themselves atheists are turning to cults and “isms” and pagan religions, and many of them are so far off we wonder how intelligent people could become involved in them.

I’ve told the story before, but I know this firsthand because before I trusted in the Lord 43 years ago I was a member of a cult. It was called Zenith Applied Philosophy, ZAP for short, and was an offshoot of Scientology. Scientology’s founder was L Ron Hubbard who was a highly successful science fiction and fantasy author before founding the Church of Scientology.

When looking back it’s truly amazing that anyone could fall for the tripe that the organisation was founded on, but I was sold on it for about 2 years, and it was hard facing up the fact that I’d allowed myself to be lured into something that was blatantly foolish.

But like we’ve just seen in the parables, especially the parable of the tares, there was just enough fact to be able to sell the fantasy.

Yes, it’s easy to be superstitious and consciously or unconsciously believe garbage.

G.K. Chesterton, the great preacher, teacher, and Christian writer once said, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything”.

 

The Person and the ministry of Jesus couldn’t escape the notice of Herod. He was a member of a family that was as a bunch of rascals of the very darkest kind.

They were the Mafia of the first century, and the Herod of this chapter was no exception.

The first several verses of this chapter are a flashback of what’d already taken place. When Herod heard about the preaching of Jesus, he was immediately filled with fear and superstition.

Herod had put John the Baptist to death, and he associated John with the Lord Jesus. Herod believed John had risen from the dead, and his fear changed to frenzy because he wanted to eliminate John altogether.

Herod was a drunken, depraved, debased, weak man, and he was a killer. He’d already murdered John, the forerunner of Christ, and he was prepared to murder the Lord Jesus Himself.

The following verses are part of the flashback describing the circumstances surrounding the death of John the Baptist.

 

Matthew 14:3,

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. 

 

Notice that it says that Herod had laid hold on John.

It was a past action. Herod had imprisoned John “for Herodias’ sake.”

Herod was strongly influenced by others, you see.

Here, he’s influenced by Herodias, and later on it’ll be by others. He was a dyed in the wool politician and everything he did was to get the approval of others.

 

Verse 4,

Because John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 

 

You see, John the Baptist had spoken out against Herod’s immorality in sleeping with his sister in law, his brother’s wife.

John certainly wasn’t a politician!

 

Verse 5,

And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

 

Here we see that Herod was afraid of the crowd.

 

To verse 6,

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

 

Herod was a lecherous, lustful, dirty old man, who’s living with his brother’s wife at the time, as we’ve just seen, and John the Baptist had condemned him.

 

Matthew 14:7,

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

 

He expected her to ask for some material thing, something within reason.

 

Verse 8,

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

 

The mother, Herodias, lived up to the Herod name. It was a cruel, sadistic request, bought on by a brutal desire for revenge because of John’s condemnation of her.

 

Verse 9,

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.

 

The man was motivated by fear of what his guests might think of him for having made a promise and not making it good. He was sorry and regretted what he’d said, more than likely because he’s now in a no win situation. Herod had no qualms about killing John, in fact he wanted to kill him, but he was afraid of a riot, because all the people believed John was a prophet but on the other hand he feared for his reputation if he didn’t honour his word to Herodias’s daughter.

 

Now verses 10 and 11,

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. 

 

The sadistic, sad, and sordid account of what took place shows us the type of society it was.

John the Baptist was beheaded, and his head was given to the dancing girl on a platter! How many great and wonderful individuals through history have suffered degrading torture and murder for doing nothing but good.

Human nature hasn’t changed much. Lust and murder are just as much a part of society today.

 

Verse 12,

Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

John’s disciples claimed his body and tenderly and lovingly buried it.

They then went and told Jesus what had happened to John.

The Lord withdrew because He knew that Herod’s fear would break out into a frenzy and cause him to do something rash.

Jesus knew this man’s capabilities and He wanted to avoid an incident because His hour had not yet come.

 

Now to  Matthew 14:13,

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. 

 

The Lord went by boat across the Sea of Galilee, but the crowd that had followed Him on foot out of the cities didn’t want Him to leave. They walked right around the shore of Galilee and met Him on the other side. This reveals how popular He was with the crowds.

 

Verse 14,

And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. 

 

Notice again that they brought their sick out to Him. He healed literally thousands of people in that day. To compare what He did then to the so called healing ministries of today is scandalous and it degrades Jesus, because what He did was plainly evident to everybody. Even those who hated Him couldn’t deny his miracles because there were many thousands of them walking around healed.

 

Now to verse 15,

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.” 

 

Notice that the disciples are attempting to advise Jesus what to do. Their advice was to send the people into the villages to get food the best they could.

 

Verse 16,

But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 

 

The feeding of the five thousand is the one miracle that’s recorded in all four Gospels which makes it a very important miracle.

After all these disciples had seen Jesus do and after all that they’d heard they still thought they had to tell Him what to do as if He needed their advice so badly!

But He said to them, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

What would these disciples have thought at this command? What would you think? In their minds this was an impossible command.

 

Verse 17,

And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 

 

“We have here only five loaves and two fish!”

Even after all they’d seen, lepers healed, ones born blind made to see, the dead raised, and still they see Jesus as having only the same ability as themselves.

To them it was impossible to feed the crowd with so little, so that must be the same for the Lord.

You see they did what we all do, we’re always seeing God through our own human ability.

It’s as if God is just like us, but he’s not! He’s infinitely more powerful than us.

Ephesians 3:20 says,

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,

Luke 18:27 says,

And He (Jesus) said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. 

We see His power to create the universe and everything in it.

We trust Him for our eternal salvation. We know that by His power He came to live on earth in the flesh of man through a virgin birth.

We trust and believe Him for the big things, but we see the smaller everyday situations as beyond His ability.

 

Psalm 32:8 says,

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”

This verse tells us that God guides us with his eye upon us. Do we really believe that?

Jeremiah 29:11 says,

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

If we do believe that how do we react when trials and temptations hit us?

Are we any different from those disciples?

The thing that’s lacking in their, and our, thinking is the trust, the belief in the power of the Lord Jesus.

 

Verse 18,

He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

 

What a response!

What could these disciples have possibly thought at this command?

He’s the Lord, and He says to us, to you and me, “Bring what you have to Me.”

It is not what we have that counts it’s what the Lord’s able to do with it.

The One who created the earth and everything in it by the power of His Word and then made man from the dust, the compounds of that earth that He created, can surely do something bigger with what you and I have than what we could ourselves.

 

Now to verse 19,

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.

 

 

“He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass.”

In Mark’s account of this miracle, we’re told that He made them sit down by companies or ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.

The Lord had them sit in order; He always does things in an orderly fashion.

“And looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.”

These fellows who had deemed themselves expert enough to tell the Lord Jesus what to do now find themselves as waiters, serving the crowd.

No one knew where this bread actually came from.

Jesus showed us that God can provide out of resources that we can’t see or even imagine exist.

We often think we know how God will provide for us and we’re also quick to tell Him how we think He should go about it, but God often provides in unexpected and undiscoverable ways.

 

Verse 20,

So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 

 

They all ate and were filled. There’s more said about God’s provision here than first meets the eye.

God provides abundantly. Everything we need is there in plenty. Notice, everything we need. Not every material and physical whim and fancy our little heart’s desire. See also how God’s provision also includes managing waste?

What was left over didn’t just get chucked, it was preserved. Just because this food was provided supernaturally didn’t mean it should be wasted. This was another teaching by default, I think.

We’re to be good stewards of His provision.

 

To verse 21,

Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. 

 

There were five thousand men plus women and children. If we add one woman and one child to each man, the Lord actually fed closer to fifteen thousand than five thousand people that day.

 

As soon as the multitude was fed, Jesus sent his disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and He went to pray.

 

Now to Matthew 14:22,

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 

 

See the word “imediatley” here?

There was an urgency about this verse.

Matthew’s record here notes the urgency Jesus used to dismiss the multitudes and how quickly He sent His disciples over the sea in the boat but he, Matthew, doesn’t offer an explanation.

John, in his record of this miracle, does gives us the reason.

John 6:15, and we read,

Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

See, Matthew is presenting this part of Jesus’s ministry which has to do with His kingship, and so it may appear strange at first glance that he would ignore this attempt to make Jesus’ king.

However, this is more evidence of the incredible claim of Jesus to be King.

He’s King by right and by title. He won’t become King by any sort of election or democratic process.

He’s not “elected” King by the will of the people. He’s King by the will of God.

He’ll finally become King by force at just the right time in God’s plan, as Psalm 2:8-9 says and again we read that,

Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 

You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.

 

We move now to Matthew 14:23-4,

And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 

But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 

 

The Lord is in the mountains, in the place of prayer. The disciples are down on the Sea of Galilee in a storm and in darkness and they’re in peril.

What a picture this paints of today. Jesus has gone on to the Father and is seated at the Father’s right hand. We today are down here on a storm–tossed sea in the place of peril.

 

Verse 25,

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

 

The fourth watch is from three in the morning until daylight.

This is the time of the day that the Lord walked on the sea, going to His disciples and it may well be that it’ll be the watch in which He’ll come for us at the Rapture.

Christ is the bright and morning star for the church, and He’ll take the church out of the world.

 

Now in regard to this miracle, and the last one, the feeding of the five thousand, in fact in regard to every miracle Christ performed, we’ll never see them as anything more than fantasy and fable if we don’t “get” the awesome power of Almighty God and His command over the material and all the dimensions of the universe.

 

If we’re among that majority of people who will not or can not believe that God is all powerful, all knowing and almighty and therefore we explain the existence of all things by believing that in the beginning there was absolutely nothing.

Then that absolutely nothing exploded caused by absolutely nothing, and then the absolutely nothing that resulted in that explosion of nothing caused the nothing to form all the impossibly complex universe, the heavens, the earth, and everything contained in them, again from absolutely nothing.

And then all the resulting molecules, gasses, and every other “thing”, completely by themselves, attached to each other in some sort of a cosmic mass meeting and formed the unimaginably complex interactions with every other particle in the universe to create life as we know it. All random, all from absolutely nothing.

If we belong to that camp we’ll never ever be able to believe in Christ’s miracles or, for that matter, in Christ Himself.

If we do believe that there’s an Almighty God, Creator of all things, these miracles are almost everyday things and are not only believable but fully expected.

On to verse 26,

And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

 

This is the picture. The Lord Jesus is up there on the mountain, and He sees the disciples in the storm, straining and rowing, as Mark’s Gospel records it. Then He comes to them between 3 am and sunrise walking on the sea. When they see Him, they say, “It is a ghost; and they cried out for fear.” Were they superstitious.” Yes, there may have been a certain amount of superstition in them.

They’d never seen a ghost before, but they think they’re seeing one now!

 

Verse 27,

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 

 

Immediately He reassured them that He was no ghost!

 

Verse 28,

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 

 

Peter’s been criticised down through the ages for this. They say that he shouldn’t have asked to walk on water.

However, I think he’s to be admired. Most of us are satisfied with little things from God Not old Peter!

Notice in verse 29 that Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter for asking,

So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 

 

People say that Peter failed to walk on the water, but that’s not the way the Bible has it.

The Bible says that Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus. This isn’t failure! Peter asked a huge thing of God. No wonder God used him in such a wonderful way during the days that followed.

No wonder he was chosen to preach the sermon on the Day of Pentecost.

 

Verse 30 now,

But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 

 

Peter took his eyes off the Lord Jesus while he was walking on the water. When he began to sink, he prayed the shortest prayer in the Bible, “Lord, save me”! If Simon Peter had prayed this prayer like some of us in the church pray, “Lord, Thou who are omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, helpest me this day as I sinketh beneath these waters…” Peter would’ve been bouncing on the seabed before he got his request out. Peter got right down to the nitty gritty, and we need to pray like that.

 

Verse 31,

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

 

I don’t know about you, but I detect a slight amusement from The Lord in His response.

Peter’s problem was that he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the circumstances, in this case the waves and the stormy sea.

You and I are in a world today where we see the storms and the waves crashing around us, and this is the time when we need to keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 14:32-33,

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 

Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” 

 

The Lord performed this miracle for His own, so that they’d be brought into the place of faith.

Even Simon Peter, who was bold enough to say, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water,” turned his eyes off Jesus even though he actually walked on the water.

The incident should have strengthened his faith, but it didn’t.

None of us can criticise Peter because we’re all the same.

For many of us our faith becomes weak when our eyes are taken off Him. In the time and place we’re living in today the things of God, His Word, eternity, His Salvation all seem like the least of all things when in reality they’re the only things that’re important. Thank God it won’t always be like that.

These things were done so that these disciples would know that He was the Son of God and worship Him.

 

To verses 34 to 36,

When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. 

And when the men of that place recognised Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well. 

 

John’s account of this incident in John 6:21 says that immediately (that’s after Jesus got into the boat) the boat was at the land where they were going.

Both space and time are in the control of this One who was the fullness of divine power. They landed in the district of Gennesaret, Jesus was recognised. His fame and reputation had gone throughout the country.

The residents spread the news in all directions, and crowds came and brought Him sick people with every kind of disease.

They were fully convinced of His power to work miracles that they begged just to touch the hem, or fringe, of His garment, the same as the woman with the issue of blood in chapter 9:20.

He continued to minister to the needs of the people and again, we see multitudes healed. Thousands were made whole by the Lord.

 

More and more the people see Jesus as the miracle worker. They know He must be from God but they’re still blind to His real purpose and Who He really is.

We might think today that if only Jesus was here in person like He was then I wouldn’t need to suffer as I do, but you see, He IS here today. He’s alive and well and we have a more sure word of prophecy even than His physical presence.

In 2 Peter 1:19 the apostle Peter tells us,

And so, we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

 

When Peter uses the word prophecy he doesn’t just mean prediction of the future, although that’s includes.

He means the entire Word of God because he speaks of the Scriptures as having been spoken by God and the prophets being more than just secretaries who took dictation from God. They expressed their own feelings and thoughts, but God was able to transmit His complete will and word through those writers.

This Bible, The Word of God, is a miraculous Book. It isn’t only divine, it’s human as well.

It’s exactly like the Lord Jesus Himself who was both God and man. The Bible is a God–book and a man–book. It deals with human life, right down here where we live and move and have our being, yet it’s God speaking to man, to you and me, in a language that we can understand.

Yes, we have the Lord with us today just as those people did back then.

Until next time friends when we start in Matthew chapter 15, may God reveal Himself to you more each day.