SNBS Matthew 14-15 :9

Matthew chapter 14 verse 1 and 2. At that time Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants

This is John the Baptist. He's been raised from the dead. This is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

Welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study. I'm Pastor Josiah Shipley of Witten Baptist Church. You can find more videos like this on our

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All right. So we're here in chapter 14 and I'm gonna go through chapter 14 pretty quickly and we we might even start on chapter 15 today.

We'll see. Got a counseling appointment in a little bit, but I think we got time. So let's see what we get.

So I just have a few notes. I want to hit on this chapter. Herod the Tetrarch, that means a fourth.

Herod the Great, which was his grandfather. Yeah, his grandfather Herod the Great, I think. Ruled a much larger region.

It was split up into four different little kingdoms. Tetrarch, he ruled one -fourth of that kingdom. At that time

Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus. Jesus has been teaching, preaching parables.

And he said, this is John the Baptist who's been raised from the dead. That's why these miraculous powers aren't working him.

And then Matthew tells us how John the Baptist died. Herod sees John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother

Philip's wife. Because John has been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

So let's look what happened here. By the way, in the family of the Herodian line, a lot of incest.

But here what happens is Imperfect.

What happens is Herod is sleeping with his brother Philip's wife and John saying, it's not lawful for you to do this.

Herod is a professed Jew, someone who claims to believe in God's law. But his actions show different.

Herod wanted to put him to death, but he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet. But when

Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias, his brother's wife, who he is sleeping with, her daughter came and danced before the company and pleased

Herod. So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the

Baptist here on a platter. And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

And he sent and had John beheaded and in prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought it to her mother and the disciples came and took the body, the headless body of John the

Baptist, and buried it. And they went and told Jesus. So the disciples went and got

John's body and they buried it, John's disciples, excuse me, and then they went and told

Jesus. When Jesus heard this, he withdrew there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Now, Jesus loved

John the Baptist and it was his cousin. So he's trying to be by himself, but the crowns heard about it and they followed him on foot from the towns.

Now listen to the patience of our Lord. When he went ashore and saw a great crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

So even though Jesus was hurting, even though Jesus was dealing with what we might call anxiety and depression, even though Jesus was distraught that his friend, that his cousin, that his ally had been beheaded, when he saw others in need, he felt compassion on them.

Church, family, let me tell you something. One of the best ways to deal with despair, with discouragement, with depression, with anxiety, is to serve someone else.

God has given us the ability to, God will heal us through obeying him and serving others.

Now when it was evening, and we see that example with Jesus, when it was evening, the disciples came to him, that's

Jesus, and said, this a desolate place and my day is over now. Send the crowds away to go to the villages and buy food for themselves.

But Jesus said, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. They said, we only have five loaves here and two fish.

And he said, bring them to me. And he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

Now, not every time in the scriptures before Jesus or disciples eat do they pray. But they do sometimes.

And often, it's not a blessing. It's giving thanks. I wouldn't say that Jesus is blessing the food, but he's blessing

God. Remember, the word for blessing is eulogiesim.

Eulogiesim. Eulogia. That is like a eulogy to speak a good word of.

He's blessing God here. You know, we often say God bless America, but we should bless

God. Speak a good word of him. Now, Jesus, by the way,

I pray before I eat and I teach my family to just as a reminder to be grateful and as an excuse, if you will, to make sure

I am in constant communication and realigning my heart and my mind with God.

He broke the loaves and gave them to disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied and they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

And those who ate were about five thousand men besides women and children.

Now, just think about that for a minute. Five thousand men besides women and children. Now, your bible probably has this labeled as the feeding of the five thousand, but that's actually not true.

Five thousand men besides women and children. If there was one woman per man and one kid between the two, that's 15 ,000 people.

This crowd was probably 15 ,000 to 20 ,000 people. Here in Memphis, the

FedEx Forum where our gruesome play can hold about 18 ,000 people. That's probably about the crowd that Jesus fed.

Five loaves of bread and two fish with 12 baskets left over, one for each apostle.

Our Lord is awesome. Verse 22. Yeah, we're about to get into the walking on water.

Sorry for the spoiler or alert if you've never read the book. Immediately, he made disciples get in the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

After he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain to pray by himself. When evening came, he was there alone.

So again, he wanted to be by himself. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves so the wind was against them.

And then the fourth watch of the night. Fourth watch would be fourth.

Let's see what it says. Yeah, because the first one, let's see, the first hour is six to nine.

Second is nine to twelve. Third is twelve to three. Three to six. Six to nine.

So the fourth watch of the night. So six to nine is the first watch. Nine to midnight is the second watch.

Midnight to three a .m. is the third watch. Three a .m. to six a .m. is the fourth watch. There we go. I knew I could get it.

In the fourth watch of the night, three a .m. to six a .m., he came to him walking on the sea. Walking on the sea.

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost or it's a spirit.

Phantasma is more like ghost. Pneuma is normally spirit. So phantasma, it's a ghost. They crowd out with fear.

Sometimes people like to make a lot about what does this mean about the existence of ghosts? If by ghost you mean spirits that are not in heaven or hell, not in Hades, not that are just wandering.

I don't think that is a biblical understanding. Whatever they mean here, it's not that.

But they cried out in fear. Phobia, like phobia. But immediately

Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him,

Lord, if it's you, command me to come on the water with you. Come to you on the water. Jesus said, come.

Peter got out of the boat and walked on water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the son of God.

Truly, you are the son of God. An amazing sentence. Man, Peter walked on water for a little bit.

Isn't that amazing? When Jesus got in the boat, the wind ceased. They worshiped him and said, truly, this is the son of God.

You see, now they've seen Jesus have authority over demons, have authority over diseases, have authority over He declares authority over animals in chapter 10.

Authority over food. He has authority over nature. Truly, this is the son of God.

In another time where he makes the storm cease, when he was sleeping in the bottom of the boat, they said, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the seas obey him?

When they crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized them, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment, as many were touched were made well.

Now, where did they get this idea that they could just touch the fringe of his garment and be healed? That's right.

The woman of blood they heard about what happened with her and her faith. Isn't it beautiful?

They heard about that and they had the faith to say he could do the same for me. Isn't that beautiful?

Now, let's get into chapter 15. I have much more notes on this chapter.

This is one of my favorite chapters. The Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem.

Now guys, that's like, he's like 75, 100 miles north of that. They traveled. And why did they travel 75 miles, 100 miles all those days to come to Jesus?

They came to ask him this question. You ready? Not how do I become saved or how do

I inherit internal life like Nicodemus asked. They asked him, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they don't wash their hands before they eat?

You see, they even admit this isn't in the Bible. It's the tradition of the elders. But remember the Pharisees believe that the oral tradition is as inspired as the

Torah. Whereas the Sadducees only believe the first five books. The Pharisees literally believe the oral tradition is as inspired as scripture.

Baptists, Catholics, tradition is not as inspired as scripture.

Don't play that game. And Jesus answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

So they said, why do they break the tradition of the elders? He said, why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and mother, whoever reviles father and mother must die.

So Jesus quotes the scripture from Exodus 20 and 21. But you say, if anyone tells his mother and father, what you have would be gained from me is given to God, that is

Corbin. He need not honor his father. So you, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.

For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. Church, may it never be, may that never be said.

For the sake of your tradition, you've made void the word of God. Do you forsake what the Bible says because that's how it always has been for you, or that's what your grandmammy told you, or that's how your aunt or your uncle raised you?

Who cares about any of that? Who cares? For the sake of your tradition, do not make void the word of God.

Jesus puts the tradition in the right place. You see, what happens is, instead of honoring the father and mother financially in their elderly years, the priests, the rabbis, the pharisees would say, hey, give that money, make a donation, make a tithe, and say it's given to God, and therefore it can't be given to your parents, so that you don't have to keep paying your parents any money, and I get a cut.

For the sake of your tradition, you may avoid the word of God. Jesus says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy you of use when he said,

Now, I want you to listen to these next two verses. This is, this is important. These people honor me.

Timah, Timah. Similar to maybe where Timothy gets his name from. I don't know the etymology of his name, since I'm not sure, but it might be here, because Timah means honor, or Timao.

These people honor me with their lips, but their cardia, their heart is far from me, like cardiology.

Yes. Cardio. Cardia is the word for heart, cardia. These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. Now guys, just think about this for a minute.

Can this be said of you? These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

What good is praise if there's not heartfelt worship behind it? These people honor me with this, but their heart is far from me.

Who cares? Now he's quoting Isaiah. I wish I could remember. Isaiah 29, uh 29, 13.

Okay. These people honor me with this, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.

Teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. Witten people should know what's a doctrine. It's a fundamental teaching found in the word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

Well, they're teaching theology, the commandments of men, as if it were doctrine. I want to read for you what

Jesus is quoting from. And it's worded just slightly different in Isaiah 29. It says this.

And the Lord said, because these people draw near to me with their mouth and on me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.

They don't have an actual fear of me. The fear they do have of me is from men. It's not actually what they should be afraid of.

Guys, this is one of my favorite sayings in the Bible. This you would do well to memorize.

Matthew 15, 8 and 9. These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain they do worship me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men. Let that never be said of the church, at least not of my people.

Let worship be from a true heart, not just with lip service. Jesus didn't care about that.

It's a lot of people that say they love Jesus, but their actions are so different. 1 John 3, verse 18, if I remember correctly.

Little children, we must not love in word or deed, but in truth and action.

You can say you love Jesus all you want. Your actions show it. All right.

Now, you know what? We're going to leave off here in verse 10 of chapter 15.

I think that's a good stopping spot. So chapter 15, verse 10 is where we'll leave off.

All right, guys. I hope that was of some benefit to you. I pray that God bless you, that he give you wisdom in the sermon, to know his word, to obey it, and to apply it, to serve somebody else.

Anyone listening, if you know if in any way you want to give to the ministries of this church, we are a medium -sized church trying to do big church things.

We have our mission trip of 50 people coming up, 48 people now, whatever it is, to Puerto Rico.

We have VBS and block parties and trunk retreats and women's retreats and men's retreats and all sorts of things.

We're trying to build in addition to our MMA SOG ministry. That's going to take some funds.

Anything you can do to help is always appreciated. Of course, not at the expense, if you're a member of another church, not at the expense of your giving there.

I would never ask that. That would be wrong. All right. Love you guys very much, and I will talk to you later next week.