Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back (Sermon)

Let's turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 15,

Matthew chapter 15. Sometimes in the Christian walk, people will take three steps forward and two steps back.

And that's the title of the message, and I got that just because the way the disciples, just the way they are,

I mean, they will have these setbacks at times. Peter will say something he shouldn't say.

Jesus will admonish them for their lack of faith, and then all of a sudden, they're taking these leap, there's a leap forward, and they're expressing great faith, and it's just back and forth and back and forth.

But of course, if you are taking three steps forward and two steps back, I mean, overall, you're making progress.

So the progress of the disciples at this point in Matthew chapter 15, yeah, at times it's been slow, but we're going to see in chapter 16, this is really a high point.

And then Peter, that's when Peter makes his great confession of faith. Thou art the

Christ, the Son of the living God, and then those of you who know the story, as soon as he reaches that high point, he says something else he shouldn't say, and Jesus basically calls him the devil, or he's acting like a mouthpiece for the devil.

And that's just the way it is with them, and even with us. Sometimes we're moving forward, and we think, yes,

I'm finally over that temptation. I've got victory, this or that, and then you have another setback.

We shouldn't be discouraged. I mean, this is part of the Christian walk. But we're looking at Jesus this morning.

The first passage we're going to look at, verses 29 through 31, this deals with Jesus healing the multitudes, and then

Jesus is going to feed the multitudes. We've already looked at Jesus feeding the 5 ,000, now he's going to feed the 4 ,000.

And all of this is building up, it's building up to chapter 16, where Peter makes that great confession of faith, because why is

Jesus healing? Why is he performing these wonders? So that people would finally come to that place where they realize and then profess he is the

Son of God. But let's read Matthew 15, starting in verse 29. It says,

Jesus departed from there, and he skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain, and sat down there.

Then great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and laid them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them.

So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the

God of Israel. Now Jesus called his disciples to himself and said,

I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with me three days, and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.

Then his disciples said to him, Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?

At which point Jesus probably is thinking, Don't you remember what happened last time with the 5 ,000?

He doesn't say that. Verse 34, Jesus said to them, How many loaves do you have?

And they said, Seven, and a few little fish. So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitude.

So they all ate and were filled, and they took up the seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.

Now those who ate were 4 ,000 men besides women and children, which,

I'll just add, because it's just the men being counted, it could be another great number like 8 ,000, 10 ,000, 12 ,000.

Verse 39, and he sent the multitude away, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

And may God bless the reading of his word. Okay, so why is Jesus doing this?

Why is he healing the multitudes? Why is he feeding the multitudes? Why is he working wonders?

It is so that people will figure it out for themselves that he's more than just a great rabbi or even a prophet.

I told you, I mean, he could come and tell you, I am the Son of God. He could just tell people that, but that's not something you can just say.

You have to prove it, right? So that's why Jesus is working miracles. At this point, his disciples, they are slowly being convinced of this fact, that Jesus is divine.

Sometimes they take a few steps forward, then they have a setback, and this is the cycle that keeps happening.

But overall, they are making progress, and like I said, it's building up to this event in chapter 16, where Peter makes that great confession of faith.

But based on the message from a few weeks ago, I had said about Jesus when he walked on the water, that account, if you remember, after he did that and the storm was calmed, what did the disciples do?

It says they worshiped him. And of course, only God is worthy of worship.

So all of that to say, I think they're understanding. They understand Jesus, who he is.

He is the Son of God. But in order, yeah, they believe that, but to say that out loud is something different.

You know, sometimes people believe something. They might express that, but to say it out loud, people are reluctant.

Part of the Christian faith is that we are to confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not enough to just believe something in your mind. You need to confess it with your mouth.

And of course, you're supposed to live it out. But the disciples, I think, initially knew that Jesus was the

Messiah. That's why they gave up everything to follow him. in the first place.

But you know how it is. Doubts start to creep in. There's temptation. There's always something trying to pull you in the other direction.

So I think they believed he was the Messiah, but I don't think they understood his deity, not at first.

For those of us who have been in the Christian church a long time, who were brought up in the church, the idea that Jesus is

God in human flesh, we're like, yeah, of course, everybody knows that.

But back then, let's be honest, that's kind of the first time you hear something like that.

It's a difficult concept to wrap one's mind around. I mean, it's still a difficult concept, but this is all new to them.

No one has ever experienced God in the flesh before. At least they didn't know it when it happened, when there was theophanies in the

Old Testament. But anyways, that's why Jesus is working miracles, so that people will come to this realization.

So the disciples are just about there. The multitude, they're getting there, some of them.

But the religious leaders of Israel, they don't want to get there. But let's look at verse 30 again.

So Jesus is healing all manner of diseases. It says, So they laid them at Jesus' feet, and it says he healed them.

And it's implied in the text that he healed everybody. You know, sometimes people will hold, churches will hold healing services, or there's an event, and they'll have a prayer tent, and they're laying on hands, and they're trying to heal people.

Well, you know, you could question whether or not anyone's getting healed in those places, but one thing you know for certain, there's nobody that can just heal everybody.

I mean, this is totally unique what Jesus is doing. So he's healing the blind.

We all know what it means to be blind. You can't see. Being mute means you can't speak. I was thinking this week, what's the difference between being lame and being maimed?

Well, being lame, how many of you have gone to the gym? Maybe you haven't gone to the gym in a long time, and then you go that first time, and you're working out, you're working really hard, and the next day, you feel lame.

Your body isn't working the way it's supposed to. It's hard to get around. But being maimed is when there was an injury or something, and your body parts just don't work at all.

So big difference. Doesn't matter, though, for Jesus. He just heals everybody. It doesn't matter what it is.

There's nothing too difficult for the Lord. And that's the thing about these miracles.

There's no question that they're real. This is what I love about the miracles of Christ.

Even his most vehement critics could not deny that he was working miracles.

Today, yeah, you do have the faith healers and the people on TV, and they make promises, and they try to use all sorts of tactics to get people to come in.

And sometimes you'll see people come up on stage with a sore back, and the guy will lay hands on them.

Well, a sore back can be healed through a couple aspirin. Adrenaline might be able to do it.

So, again, there's a question of whether or not anything miraculous is happening. But with Jesus, there was just no question at all.

So his critics, the scribes and Pharisees, they weren't denying that Jesus was healing people.

They just said what? Yeah, that he was doing it by the power of Beelzebub.

But everyone in Israel knew Jesus was healing all manner of diseases.

Look at verse 31. So, when the multitude saw it, or it says, they marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they glorified the

God of Israel. Okay, so now they're just one step away from making that final connection that Jesus is the

God of Israel in human flesh. This is the idea his disciples have been working through in their mind.

At times, they're still lacking faith. But here, once again, that kind of bubbles to the surface where they lack faith.

So, again, taking steps forward, they worshipped him. They know he's divine after he walked on the water.

Here's another setback. Look at verse 32. Jesus tells them, I have compassion on the multitude because they have continued with me three days and they have nothing to eat.

And I don't want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. And look how his disciples respond.

They say to him, where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?

Oh, well, you tell me, where could they go? They just have to turn to Jesus and you'll take care of this like last time, right?

Why didn't they do that? I mean, I don't know what's going on in their minds. Sometimes I read the

Bible and I'm like, listen, if I were there, if I were one of the disciples, I wouldn't say something like this.

But the reality is I probably would. It's one thing for us to look back.

We know the story, so we shouldn't be too hard on them. But this is a lack of faith.

So, yeah, they ask, where can we get bread to feed such a large crowd?

And it's like, hello, don't you remember? Wasn't that long ago when Jesus fed 5 ,000 with only five loaves and two fish?

And now he feeds 4 ,000 with seven loaves and a few fish. And it doesn't really matter the amount of food.

The issue is the amount of faith. How much faith do you have?

And the answer is, at this moment, they don't have enough. They're still lacking in faith.

But despite their setbacks, they're moving forward. I would just ask you, are you moving forward this morning?

Are you moving forward in general? We all have those things that we go through, the times of testing, and you think,

I really messed that up. Maybe you went into a store and you're talking to the clerk, and I don't know, the conversation just kind of opened up.

You had the perfect opportunity with a coworker or someone to share Christ, and you didn't do it.

And you walk away, and you think, wow. Or whatever the situation is, we all have these moments, right?

I could have done better. But are we moving forward? Are you in a better place now than you were five years ago, ten years ago?

If you can see that you're making progress, keep going. So let's look at Chapter 16.

We'll move along. Jesus has fed the 5 ,000. Here he feeds the 4 ,000.

You know, modern critical scholars. And I know Marcus doesn't like me calling them scholars.

But, you know, whatever you call them today in the seminaries, there's the people who think that this was actually the same event.

You know, it just got mixed up, the details, so that turned into two separate stories.

No, it was two separate events, 5 ,000, 4 ,000. I mean, it's right here in the same

Gospel. Matthew knew what happened because he was an eyewitness. So don't listen to any of that stuff.

But there were those critics that were trying to work against Jesus, and that's the

Pharisees and the scribes. Typically, we've been looking at, yeah, the scribes and Pharisees. It's like their names go together.

The scribes and Pharisees. Well, here it's a different group. Look at Matthew 16, verse 1.

It says, Then the Pharisees and what? The Sadducees came.

And testing him, they asked that he would show them a sign from heaven.

Notice that. He just fed 5 ,000, 4 ,000. Heals the multitudes.

The word about this has gone all throughout the land, and they show up and, oh, well, that's not enough.

Show us a big sign, something in the heavenlies. Weren't those other miracles good enough?

Verse 2, He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather, for the sky is red and threatening.

You hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet

Jonah. And he left them and departed. Do you think this made the

Pharisees and the Sadducees like Jesus more or less? I wish

I was there to see this. They come, all right, show us a sign from heaven, and you wicked hypocrite, and he just walks off.

And this is where the people, well, my Jesus wouldn't do that. My Jesus would never say an unkind word to anyone.

Well, the real Jesus did. But these men, you have to understand, these men, they were wicked.

You know, that prayer request where the scammer took advantage of the man with dementia.

And there's all these people scamming the elderly, and they'll hurt anyone they don't care.

That's the way these religious leaders were. And it's like some religious leaders today. They prey on the elderly.

They prey on the sick. And they know what they're doing. They are utterly corrupt, and they all do it in the name of God.

I mean, these are some of the most evil people on the face of the earth. So that's why Jesus talks to them like that.

But this term, the signs of the times, what does that mean? You know, you should be able to discern or read the signs of the times.

Well, the signs of the times, basically, what has been going on in Israel lately? The ministry of John the

Baptist, right? You get the first prophet in 400 years. What else?

Followed up by the ministry of Jesus and all the buzz about him going throughout the land, how he's healing everyone.

There's the fulfillment of prophecy, right? Of course, you could go back 30 years to the star of Bethlehem.

There would still be people who remembered that. All of this in Jesus' teaching and how he speaks like no other man has ever spoken, all of this together, this is the signs of the times.

It all points to the kingdom of God truly is at hand. The king is here.

They could not discern the signs of the times. Could the disciples discern the signs of the times?

Yeah, they could. The multitudes? Yeah, they're starting to figure it out. But the religious leaders, they just didn't want to accept it.

I think deep down, they had to know. So why is it that they refused to believe in Jesus?

Well, basically, they were the ones holding power. They wanted to hold on to their own position.

They realized if Jesus is the king, and we're the ones controlling the temple and everything right now, we're at odds with him.

If he actually becomes king, we're in big trouble. They're not going to believe in Jesus because they know this is bad for their career, to say the least.

So let's talk about this group, the Sadducees. I think we dealt with this group one other time, and I told you a way to remember who the

Sadducees were and what they believed. Remember how to... Yeah. Okay, so the Pharisees actually believed in...

I mean, they were the whatever, conservatives of their day. They actually...

Their beliefs were right, mostly. Of course, they had the problem with tradition over scripture, and they were hypocrites, and they were wicked.

But they had a lot of the correct beliefs. The Sadducees, on the other hand, they had the wrong beliefs.

They were like the theological liberals of their day. They denied the supernatural. They denied heaven and hell.

They denied the resurrection, and that's why they're sad, you see, because they don't believe in an afterlife.

So you die, and that's it. Do you think they got along? Did they get along?

No, they despised one another. Yeah, they didn't get along at all.

They were opposed to each other normally, but their hatred for Jesus, that's what gave them their common ground.

So, you know, forgive... I'm not trying to get political here. I'm just drawing this analogy.

You think of today, there's the Republicans and the Democrats, right? And we use these same terms in a different context.

But you have the conservatives, or Republicans, and liberals, and you have the Democrats. And they don't get along, do they?

And it seems like nothing can bring them together. But you go back to maybe 9 -11.

Remember, for like a few weeks, a few months after 9 -11, like the country came together, and Republicans and Democrats came together.

Why? Because they had a common enemy in Al -Qaeda and terrorism, right?

So that's what it took to bring these two groups together. They viewed

Jesus as the enemy. We need to stop him. So these two groups normally would be at each other's throat, but they say,

No, we need to come together to oppose the ministry of this man, Jesus. And notice, they ask for a sign, a sign from the heavens.

I mean, this is something huge. Basically, they're asking for the sun to be darkened, or the moon to turn to blood, or something to happen in the sky that there be no question about it.

Something like Joshua. Remember the miracle in the book of Joshua where the sun stood still?

They're asking for a miracle on that level. Now, do you think Jesus is going to do that?

Could he do that? He could have done it, but why would he do it? Let's say Jesus caused the sun to stand still for 48 hours.

Theoretically, he could have done that. Would that change their mind? See, Jesus knows it doesn't matter what he says, what he does, they aren't going to believe.

But he does say, I will give you one sign. I mean, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.

You should just have faith. You should just believe. There's plenty of evidence. But since you won't do that,

I will give you one sign. And what's that sign? The sign of the prophet Jonah.

Most people know Jonah as he's the guy with the whale. He got swallowed by the whale.

Or a great fish. Jonah, long story short, God called him to preach to the city of Nineveh.

And Jonah didn't want to go. He hated the Ninevites. So he got on a boat and headed in the opposite direction.

Long story short, God, because of that, because of his disobedience, he sent the tempest on the sea.

Jonah ends up in the ocean and he is swallowed by the great fish.

How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish? Three days and three nights.

Here's what Jesus says back in Matthew 12, verse 40. You can make a note of this. Matthew 12, 40, he says,

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the

Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. This will be the sign.

And he's going to tell his disciples later on in chapter 16 how I must be arrested, tried, put to death, but on the third day

I will rise again. This is the sign. Jesus is going to die. He is dead for three days and three nights.

I know there's an old question with Good Friday and Sunday morning. It doesn't really add up to three, and that's a whole other topic

I'll deal with maybe at Easter. But that's the idea. That's what

Jesus is saying. The sign will be I will die and I will rise from the dead on the third day.

Let me ask you, did that convince the Pharisees? Did it?

It might have convinced one or two. We think that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and he believed.

Joseph of Arimathea, we think he believed. So there were a few Pharisees who ended up coming to faith in Christ, but nothing was going to convince them.

So you had to profess Jesus is Lord. So again, the multitudes are getting there.

The religious leaders, they don't want to be there. His disciples, though, even after this setback, they've taken two steps back, but now they've finally reached the place where they're about to say it.

Skip ahead to Matthew 16, verse 13. Matthew 16, 13.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,

Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Well, some people say you're

John the Baptist, that be risen from the dead. Some say you're Elijah, because Elijah must come first, right?

And others say you're Jeremiah or whoever, one of the prophets. Okay, that's what others are saying.

Jesus then said, But what do you say? And this is where, verse 16,

Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ. But he doesn't just say that.

You are the Christ. What is the Christ? Who is the Christ? The Son of the living

God. This is the profession of faith that saves.

In the Gospel of Matthew, it's stressing Christ the King, but it's all been building up to this moment that Jesus is not just King, he is actually

God in the flesh. Make no mistake about it. I'll say it again.

This is the profession of faith that saves. The term Son of God. Son of God is a title for deity, because God is

God. We are his children through adoption, but Jesus is his only begotten son.

Jesus shares the same nature as the Father. So this is how a person is saved, realizing that,

Why don't we just believe in some God or this God or that God? I understand who the true

God is because I have believed in Jesus. He is the true God made flesh.

This is what Peter says, and Jesus responds in verse 17. Blessed are you,

Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my

Father who is in heaven. Peter didn't come to this realization all on his own.

He had a little help. God the Father opened his eyes. But it was because he saw and because he heard the word preached.

And the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We have never seen the miracles.

Maybe you've experienced a miracle in your life. Some Christians say they have. But it's really the word, understanding who

Christ is, that a person is saved by saying, I believe Jesus is the

Son of the living God. We're going to come back to this text next week because there's just so much here in Matthew 16.

We're going to read on verse 18. He says, And I say to you, Jesus, talking to Peter, You are

Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

And I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And there's all sorts of theories on that throughout church history that we're going to talk about.

So we'll come back to this passage next week. But the most important part about it was the title of the message,

Taking Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back. That's what the disciples have been doing all this time.

They're making progress, making progress. They say, do something dumb.

They're great men of faith. They're expressing that faith. And then they get into the flesh or do something carnal.

But all that time they've been making progress. They finally came to the place. If Peter wasn't saved before right here, he's saved now.

And I'll just say, if you've never come to the point in your life where you have confessed with your mouth, you've told others, you've told somebody, you start with telling

God, Lord, I believe in you. I believe Jesus is your son.

You've started with that. Then you tell others. You make that profession of faith that saves that Jesus is

God in flesh, son of the living God. Have you done that? Have you done that?

Are you making progress? Maybe you've done that years ago. You've made that profession of faith five years ago, 10 years ago.

And life is hard. Things happen. You feel those temptations and things trying to pull you in that other direction.

Keep making progress. One foot in front of the other. That's what you need to do. This afternoon you might have a temptation.

Something might happen. You know what? Just resolve in your heart that if I mess up, if I sin,

I'm going to confess it. I'm going to do better next time. Next Sunday, I'm going to be in church.

I'm going to keep moving forward. Don't feel overwhelmed. Don't feel like I can't do it.

I keep failing. It's part of life. But make that progress. Three steps forward, two steps back.

But the most important thing of all is that a person makes this profession. Thou art the

Christ, the Son of the living God. Let's pray. And Lord, I do ask if there's someone here today or listening on the radio or online,

Lord, if they've never confessed with their mouth. That's what the book of Romans says. If you confess with your mouth the

Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

And Lord, we're going to see next week, even with Peter, the first time he hears that Jesus has to die, he says, no,

Lord, it'll never happen to you. And Peter goes through another setback where Jesus says to him, get behind me,

Satan. The Lord Peter kept moving forward and we regard him as one of the greatest

Christians who's ever lived. The man who has said so many things that people regard him as the apostle with the foot shaped mouth.

And yet here he is making the greatest profession any man has ever made. Lord, we thank you for your grace.

We thank you for your spirit. Continue to conform us to the image of your son.