Because He Will Satisfy YOU!

[0:00] please take your Bibles turn to the Gospel of Matthew Matthew chapter 14 the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14 if you're visiting with us and you need a Bible if you look in the chair in front of you pull that black Bible out and go towards the back of that black Bible find page 12 that's where you'll find Matthew chapter 14 just trucking through Matthew's Gospel Matthew chapter 14 we're going to do the first 21 verses Matthew chapter 14 verses 1 through 21 page 12 in that black Bible let me read and we'll we'll begin our our study of

[1:00] Matthew chapter 14 verses 1 through 21 at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus and said to his servants this is John the Baptist he's risen from the dead for this reason miraculous powers are at work in him for Herod having had John arrested he bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias the wife of his brother Philip for John had been saying to him it's not lawful for you to have her and wanting to put him to death he feared the multitude because they held John as a prophet but on Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias danced in the middle and pleased Herod thereupon verse 7 he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked and having been prompted by her mother she said give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist and though grieved the king commanded to be given because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests and he sent and he had John beheaded in the prison and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl and she brought it to her mother and coming his disciples took away the body and buried it and going away they reported to Jesus verse 13 hearing this

[2:28] Jesus withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place by himself the multitudes hearing this they followed him on foot from the cities and going ashore he saw a great multitude and felt compassion for them and healed their sick and being evening the disciples came to him saying the place is desolate and the time has already passed send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves verse 16 but Jesus said to them they don't need to go away you yourselves give to them to eat and they said to him we have here only five loaves and two fish and he said bring them here to me and ordering the multitudes to sit on the grass taking the five loaves and two fish looking up toward heaven he blessed and breaking the loaves he gave them to the disciples and the disciples to the multitudes and they all ate and were satisfied and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces twelve full baskets and there were about five thousand men who ate aside from women and children in an article on it was posted on the web from the Guardian there's a photograph by Carol Guzzi and I found this is the photograph this is Mosul in the final days of July 2017 and the article underneath this picture

[4:17] Carol Guzzi says this quote I was one of the last photographers left in Mosul during the final days of the battle to liberate the Iraqi city from the Islamic state in July 2017 I've covered the humanitarian consequences of war for three decades but the sheer horror I witnessed during this conflict felt different there was no end to the cruelty the stream of suicide bombs grenades car bombs and snipers was relentless people were forced to watch their loved ones die in front of them and when civilians did reach the point of escape ISIS would use them as human shields she says later but what really ripped at my heart was the plight of ISIS children whose parents had been suicide bombers for the caliphate I met one little girl called

[5:19] Khadija who was calling out for her mother not realizing that the burns all over her body were caused by her mother's suicide bomb as a mother I will never understand an ideology that would induce you to hurt your own end quote and on the picture underneath it's kind of like a small little caption it says it was innocence amid war this tiny girl who should have been enjoying her childhood trapped trapped in this catastrophic battle it's hard to see amongst this horrible scene hope and yet with the child there is an element of hope hope in the midst of despair and war the presence of a child can be a sign of hope when there are no more children there's no hope it's hopeless it's hard to see hope when all hope seems lost it's hard to feel relief and satisfied when you're in despair and all you see is death and yet as we come to this part in Matthew's gospel

[6:48] Matthew remember he's saying bow down and worship Jesus the Messiah King of Israel that's his driving force of his gospel that's what he's calling his readers to do to respond in this way today he actually gives us a reason because he will satisfy you bow down and worship Jesus because he will satisfy you when all hope seems lost Jesus Jesus is our hope when there's nothing but hopelessness there's hope in the Lord the Lord is our salvation amid rejection God will always satisfy in the midst of rejection and despair God will always satisfy us providing for our needs with his compassion and strengthening our faith in him he cares and is actively involved in our lives because this is what you see in this accurate historical accounts of the death of John the Baptist

[8:13] Jesus and then Jesus feeding the 5,000 Matthew shows us what will happen to Jesus himself and how in his very death God will provide this is a historical account these events truly happened John the Baptist was beheaded and then soon after that right after Jesus he went away with his disciples doesn't say that we only get Matthew's perspective but with his disciples he goes away to a lonely place and these crowds come and Jesus tries to show his disciples strengthens their faith I am who I say I am I am the authority I'm the Messiah I'm the king and guess what this is going to happen to me but in my very death there is hope this is a picture of the gospel Jesus' death as tragic as it was actually displayed the very provision of God when all seems lost

[9:19] God gives hope in providing the way in his son his son who satisfies us because that's exactly what you see it's amazing the similarities between John the Baptist and Jesus I'll point some of those out to you as we go through the text in the first twelve verses so many similarities between John and Jesus and on purpose to show that God's messengers will be rejected the parable of the sowers comes to life once again and there will be death the ultimate prophet will face death and yet in the midst of that death death God provides God gives hope God shows compassion that's what we see a picture of the gospel the prophets are rejected time and time again so to have John the Baptist beheaded it really doesn't come to shouldn't come to any surprise to us but it's sad it's disappointing and yet this rejection culminates in the rejection and death of the ultimate prophet the king of Israel

[10:42] Jesus instead of humbling himself Herod Antipas saves face kills the great prophet the last prophet of the old dispensation but in the midst of this rejection Jesus exemplified great mercy towards people and then he taught his disciples about compassion about trusting God trusting him and remember I said this last week from chapter 13 verse 53 all the way to chapter 19 verse 2 you're going to see this opposition is going to continue to climb and get stronger and stronger and stronger and then past chapter 19 verse 2 all the way you'll see it's going to culminate in the death of the ultimate prophet of Jesus the Messiah and yet Jesus from chapter 13 verse 53 all the way chapter 19 verse 2 and following Jesus is going to take the time to strengthen the faith of his disciples to trust him that he is their provision he will satisfy them in the midst of this chaos and that's what we feel today in the midst of our own chaos

[11:58] God shows us from his word I am your hope you must trust me right he does that time and time again it's interesting we'll look at this in a moment Antipas' conclusion about Jesus was superstitious and even bizarre and yet the truth is Jesus and John were linked with their message and their destiny and just so many different similarities that you'll see here between John the Baptist and Jesus but know this God takes what we have as his servants he uses us for his glory in ways we would have never thought possible even amid rejection and despair God will always graciously satisfy us with himself if you miss anything this morning don't miss that so notice first rejection and despair the death of John the Baptist this is not fun good news verses 1 through 12 notice the first two verses

[13:11] Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus said to his servants it's John the Baptist he's risen from the dead for this reason miraculous powers are at work in him he was superstitious because he had a guilty conscience over what he did to John the Baptist and then your question is what did he do to John the Baptist well notice how verses 3 all the way to verse 12 it does a flashback of what's happened verse 3 he had John arrested he bound and put him in prison on account of Herodias the wife of his brother Philip for John had been saying to him it's not lawful for you to have her let's stop there what happened what's going on and who is Herod Antipas anyways Herod Antipas was one of the sons of Herod the Great Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea during the whole time of Jesus' life and ministry this is what happened he divorced his wife first wife to marry Herodias okay so back up

[14:19] Herodias married Herod Philip Philip was her uncle ew who was the half brother to Herod Antipas Philip and Herodias they had a daughter Salome she was the one who danced we'll look at it later Antipas and Herodias they fell in love they agreed to marry so she left and divorced Philip to marry Antipas Antipas had married the Nabitian king's daughter he divorced her so he could soap opera right he divorced her so he could marry Herodias I have it in my notes soap opera saga I mean totally right the days of our lives the days of Roman Empire lives right that's what it's called which by the way it really Antipas divorcing the Nabitian king's daughter that caused major problems so major that the Roman Empire later on had to step in and deal with that what a clown anyways so what does John do

[15:34] John confronted Antipas with what he had done so Antipas imprisoned him for it right and Herodias didn't like it either we find out about that later not only was it unjust and wrong to do this just in general but especially Antipas was part Jewish he should have known the law so John was an embarrassment to Herod not to mention a threat to the political security that he had right and notice what it says here in verse 5 wanting to put him to death he wanted to execute John but he feared the crowds the multitudes because they held John as a prophet interesting here's a similarity this anticipates the fear from the religious leaders to arrest Jesus why did they not want to arrest Jesus because of the crowds you'll see that later on in Matthew's gospel story continues

[16:39] Herod's birthday the daughter of Herodias Salome danced before Herod and pleased Herod publicly did a dance at his birthday in front of all the dinner guests now it's debatable some people say it was some exotic dance it's debatable if she really did something like that but however she did whatever she did she pleased Herod so greatly he gave an oath notice promised with an oath verse 7 to give her whatever she asked which was taken advantage of by her mother who held a grudge against John the Baptist well finally a way to be rid of that blasted John the Baptist for good verse 8 being prompted by her mother she said give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist so not to look like an idiot since he gave an oath and for the sake of his dinner guests to save face and to keep the harmony with his wife notice it says verse 9 the king commanded to be given because of his oath dinner guests he sent verse 10 and had

[17:58] John beheaded in the prison Herodias had finally avenged herself but Antipas his conscience haunted him that's the reason for a statement about Jesus interesting the irony there in verse 9 the king one writer put it like this a king made the tool of a woman interesting see it wasn't about what was right or true or just it was about himself and notice the other similarity why did Pilate do that to Jesus not because it was right just and true everything that Pilate did was unrighteous unjust and untrue and yet he had

[19:02] Jesus executed see there's a huge similarity there with Jesus and John the Baptist he thought that in Jesus John was brought back to life bizarre yet it shows the link between John the Baptist and Jesus I do want to also point out there look at verse 12 and his disciples came they came they took away the body and buried it talk about guys being quote unquote loyal to the end loyal to the bitter end said one writer they came they took the body away they buried it then they went and reported to Jesus their action towards John was remarkable that's great courage even an example to Jesus disciples that did the very opposite they ran away we see John was faithful he fearlessly and faithfully prepared the way for Jesus Israel's Messiah King one day this little king will stand before the big king the only king and give an account for what he did to

[20:08] John but John's death anticipated Jesus own death what a tragedy it looked as if all hope was lost at the death of this great prophet of Israel which is how life would look at the death of the son of God it would be bleak it would be despair it would be hopelessness and yet Jesus would show that all hope and provision is found in himself John the last great old testament prophet died and yet Jesus confirmed his identity in the midst of this death that he truly is the Messiah king our only hope look

[21:10] God's messengers may face rejection and even death but God will always display his provision he will always satisfy us with himself he is our hope may you stay faithful to the gospel word oh Christian may you stay faithful to the gospel word which leads us to the next point first you have rejection despair now hope provision and satisfaction this happens in Mark's gospel you even see this a little bit in Luke's gospel you have the death of John the Baptist and Jesus goes away Matthew doesn't tell us with his disciples he says by himself but in other gospels he goes away with his disciples tries to get away by himself and here comes the crowds and then he feeds the 5,000 notice what happens verse 13 he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place by himself maybe to grieve to pray but as he sought out the privacy the crowds they were watching notice it says they followed him on foot from the cities verse 14 going to shore he saw a great multitude and felt compassion for them and he healed their sick privacy went out the window yet

[22:27] Jesus still was gracious and merciful to the people healing their sick a way for him to model to his disciples mercy and compassion and to strengthen their faith in him that they must trust him that he is the provision that God has been providing for them it's found in him and he do the only miracle that's found in all four gospels is the only miracle you see that's in all four gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John notice the disciples didn't get the compassion part just yet verse 15 when it's evening the disciples came to him and the place is desolate the time has already passed and the multitudes are away and we go into the villages and buy food for themselves one writer put it like this quote the disciples wish to be rid of the needy end quote send them away they definitely were not thinking about how to be compassionate and notice what Jesus does here he challenged their logical thinking he said to them they don't need to go away there in verse 16 and here's the nuance of the

[23:44] Greek you yourselves give to them to eat just a challenge and notice they're like we have here only five loaves and two fish not sufficient obviously bread and fish a poor person's meal the typical Galilean diet a staple for having food was bread designated God's provision and notice Jesus what he does here verse 18 bring them here to me he wanted to direct their attention away from the hopelessness and their quick fix solution notice how he invited them to think outside the box and see how God is the one who meets the needs of his people he wanted them to see his powerful authority as the

[24:47] Messiah King that in him they'll find everything that they need everything to be satisfied it's found in Christ it's found in Messiah notice verse 19 and I want to point out how it's translated here ordering the multitudes to sit on the grass taking the five loaves and the two fish looking up toward heaven he blessed the emphasis is on that verb he blessed and breaking the loaves he gave them to the disciples and the disciples to the multitudes Jesus blessing the food was him giving praise to God for the supply for the provision for what we need it he gives it he blessed in his giving another picture of the gospel he blessed in his giving in his giving Jesus blessed us he gives himself in the gospel as he gave himself to die for sinners on the cross that's how you can receive the blessing that's how you can receive God's blessing

[26:02] God will bless you he will save you if you repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone and miraculously the food began to multiply itself enough to fully satisfy over 20,000 people notice verse 21 and there were about 5,000 men who ate aside from women and children it could have been 30,000 40,000 50,000 people that Jesus fed like that and it was more than sufficient notice verse 20 and they all ate and were satisfied filled and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces 12 full baskets what an abundant blessing to show his authority as the king but also to display such compassion Jesus fed all these people who and brought us to people to see