Matthew 2024

Well, we are going to read tonight's passage, which is Matthew 13 verse 55 to 14 verse 13.

You'll find it on page 980 in the church bibles. When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers they ask. Isn't this the carpenter's son?

Isn't his mother's name Mary and aren't his brothers, James Joseph, Simon and Judith aren't all his sisters with us, where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, our prophet is not without honor, except in his own town and in his own home. And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. At that time, herod the Tetrock heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendant, 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 that it's not lawful for you to have her.

Herrod wanted to kill John, but 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 dish, 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 beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a dish 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. When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. Thanks, Naomi. Let's pray.

Father help us now as we look at your word, we've just heard some terrible things that happen in countries, and we ask you please that you would help us to take seriously the freedoms that we have to hear the word of god. It's unlikely that someone is waiting outside to cut our heads off, because we've heard the word of god. And we are free to listen. So please help us by your spirit to grow the truth that we hear in our lives. That we may be prepared to be people that speak whatever the consequences.

Again, we pray for our brothers and sisters in the Congo, and, we we find it hard not to be deeply moved by that. And we ask you, please, that they would love you, experience your love, and, we pray please that their persecutors and their enemies would hear, the truths that they're saying and would respond to them. Would you be gracious to them? We pray in Jesus' name. Our man.

We're going through Matthews's Gospel, and we're jumping a chapter because we'd gone through Matthews's Gospel and done parables. And so we've started to go through it again without the parables, which is very odd, but that's the way we we've done it. If you go right back to the beginning of the bible, to the book of Genesis, you see the the the there, there's there's the start of creation. God creates the world in that first book, and he creates people mankind. And it's written to show us loads of things.

I love those early chapters of the book of Genesis because there's lots and lots of foundational truths about the world, about us, about who god is, about how we're to interact with with each other about male and female and stuff. There's tons and tons of stuff in those early chapters. But 1 of the things I think about the early chapters of Genesis when you read it is this rhythm And you have this rhythm, and it's written that way. There's a there's a rhythm of word from god and response, and that's how it goes. So god said let there be light.

And then the responses, and there was light. And there's a rhythm to the way that's written. And then there's a third aspect as well to the rhythm. So it's not just sort of 2, 4 timing. This is like a wolf There's a third aspect, the delight.

God saw the light was good. So do you see how it goes? Let there be light. There's a response. There was light.

And then we're back to god God saw that it was good. There's a delight in that. Or you or you could say this. There's the call. God said.

There's the echo. It was so, and then there's the fruit. It was good. That's that's how it goes. And then when it comes to the creation of people, the word of god is emphasized even more because actually we sort of go into the mind of god, into the mind of the trinity, god, father, son, and holy spirit.

Because they're formulating what they're going to say, and they they say this. Let us make man in our image in our likeness. So the word of god there is is really powerful about who we are. So we have this rhythm of god's word and god's response throughout creation including, as I say, the creation of people. But also you can add to that, that rhythm when it comes to people, when it comes to Adam and Eve, it it it carries on.

It doesn't just stop. It doesn't just stop at creation. They're meant to be listening to his word and they're meant to be fruitful. In fact, he even says, go and be fruitful. So there's always meant to be the command of god, the word of god, and then the response, and it's always to to to bring to be fruitful.

I hope I hope you understand what I'm saying. I'm I'll get we'll get to this passage in a minute, but I just wanna build up there. So if you want to answer to, you know, what it is to be human, then I think we would have to say that a massive, massive part to that answer, what it is to be human is that we're formed as an echo to god's word. And we're to be fruitful from god's word. God spoke us into being.

God sustains us by his word, and he instructs and he guides us by his word. What is it be human, where it's all around the word of god and the response to the word of god. God speaks, we listen. We had that song. I think we have that song this morning.

Did we have it this morning? Yeah. God speaks, we listen. That's exactly right. God speaks and the humans are to respond.

God calls, and the echo is it is so. And then there's the delight of god, the fruit. The wholeness comes. See the see the see the rhythm? Jesus said that, people should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god.

So so not only do we need food to stay alive. We need food to stay alive physically. If you don't eat food, you're gonna die. And you're in serious trouble, obviously. But just as you need food, you need the word of god.

So Jesus is saying the same thing. You need the word of god to be human. Now in Matthew 13, if we had preached it, which we have, you can go and hear sermons on. I think we've done it quite a few times. Matthew thirteenth.

Jesus told this huge and wonderful, parable story about soil and seed. And he says a farmer goes out and he's sowing seed. And he says some of the seed falls on the path, and the path is hard, and the birds of the air come and they eat up the seed. It's gone. Some seed fell on rocky soil.

And the seed goes into the rocky soil, and it begins to grow, and it shoots up, but it's got no roots because of the rock. And so when the sun comes up, it's got no roots, it dies. Some seed falls on weedy ground where there's lots of weeds growing, and the seed grows into a plant. But before it can produce fruit, then there's weeds to, you know, go around the plant and choke the plant to death and it dies. And some seed falls on good soil where it grows, and there's a harvest it produces fruit.

Now that's the same rhythm, I think, I wanted to show you. The seed is the word of god. Jesus says. The soil is the human heart and the response to the word of god. There's the sowing.

There's this response. And there's the fruit. That's what's going on. So it's a parable about responding to the word of god. To be human, really human is to be a good soil.

That's what we were made for. We were made to hear the word of god, echo the word of god, produce fruit that pleases god. That's what it is to be truly human. And that's what's going on in that parable. So there's the rhythm.

See the rhythm again? The call of god, god said, the echo it was so fruit. So it's rebellious. And horribly rebellious for any human to reject the word of god. It really is serious because not only is it rebellious, It is not good.

You'll never get the it is good from god if you don't listen to his word. It will be it is not good. And not only that, it makes us less than human. Less than what we were created to be. And we'll never produce fruit, fruit that we should do.

We we we won't reach our potential. We won't reach what god created us to be. There'll be no echo of god. There'll be no fruit. So to be a hard path when it comes to the word of god means that your infertile soil It means that the devil will take away the seed.

That's the bird that comes down and pecks the seed. Not to respond to the word of god is not like is not like not eating food. You'll become an anorexic. You're hollow out. You're starved to death.

You're less than human. You know what it is when you see people that haven't eaten. You know what it is when you see those those horror camps, the Nazi camps where they were starved to death. You see almost zombie like people trying to walk. And they're almost less than human, if you see what I mean in that.

Now wasn't their fault, of course. But if we are not responding to the word of god, then that's what we're gonna be like. So in chapter 13, you have the parable, but at the end of chapter 13 and in that first, couple of stories in chapter 14, you have the history. The parable turns into reality. The parable turns into history, and we see 2 rejections of the word of god.

So let's have a look at them then. So now we're in chapter 40 at the end of chapter 13. First of all, you've got the rejection in town. We've got town birds. We've got birds of the town that are gonna peck away the seed.

So look at verse, 53. When Jesus has finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogues, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers they are? Isn't this the carpenter's son?

Isn't his mother's name Mary? Aren't his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judith? And aren't all his sisters with us? Where did this man get these things? And they took offense at him.

But Jesus said to them, only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor, and he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. This is an extraordinary scene. This is Jesus coming to his hometown. No. You you would I mean, who would ever have heard of Nazareth if Jesus hadn't had come from it?

Yeah. I mean, you genuinely would have thought it was local boy made good. Hey, look, Jesus is here. You genuinely think something like that, would would would be about, but it turns out that it's not local boy made good. They actually reject him in the end.

They're actually offended by him. That's what goes on. Verse 57, and they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them only in his hometown and in his his own house, his a prophet without honor. They started off amazed, so it is a bit like the the seeds in the parable of Jesus where it sort of grew up quickly and, they're amazed, but it's rocky soil.

They start off sort of amazed at this, and they're amazed at 2 things, his wisdom and his miracles. And why are they amazed at that? Because they knew him. They knew he was unschooled. You know, no 1 went to school in Nazareth.

You know, particularly not the Mary family, you know, and Joseph family. He's an unschooled rabbi, and yet and yet, He speaks not like the boy next door. He's speaking like a really educated man. He seems to know his stuff, and then he does these miracles. Where's he got that power from?

Verse 54, coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogues, and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers from? And as they began to talk, where did he get it from? I said, well, we know him. Isn't he the carpenter's son?

He's he's a local, you know, handyman. He's a village handyman, isn't he? I've got a coffee table made by him. Yeah? And it was not that good.

I mean, who does he think he is? You know, that this is what's going on. He's got a Gallaudetian accent like us. He doesn't come from Jerusalem. He doesn't talk posh.

He's just an ordinary Northern bloke. Yeah. Because they're northerners. Yeah. And, what's going on here?

You know, isn't this Mary's son? And the contempt grew. And I mean, that phrase probably isn't this Mary's son? Mary's son? Not Joseph's son, Mary's son.

We know what that was all about. Don't we? Remember that story? Yeah? She wasn't even married.

Was she when she was pregnant? Yeah? Who does he think he is? Boy next door, telling us what to do. See, they sort of identify him To some degree, he was the carpenter's son.

He was Mary's son. These are his brothers and sisters around. But they can't put 2 and 2 together. It's a 1 dimensional idea of who Jesus is, and they they just can't seem to to look at the evidence. Isn't this the carpenter's son?

That's a great question. Isn't it? How how is he doing these things? Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't is isn't his mother's name Mary?

Don't we know his brother his brothers and sisters aren't doing this stuff? How is he doing this stuff? It's a very good question, but they come to the wrong conclusion. Don't they? They're offended.

The defendant by him. He is too big for his boots. He's come to this town, and he's coming to tell us what to do. And we don't we we don't mind a celebrity, but this is too much. We don't wanna profit We don't want someone telling us where we go wrong.

Yeah. That's what's going on here. So you see, the rhythm is broken. I think the rhythm of this world is god speaks. It is so very good.

That's the rhythm. Here we have god speaks. Who does he think he is? We're offended. And Jesus' response is only in his hometown.

Is a profit without honor. And the fact that he couldn't do miracles there, I don't think it meant that he's lost power or something because of their unbelief. I don't think it's that. It means that he's not gonna force his way on onto them. He's not gonna force the echo, the proper response.

If they reject this revelation, he's gonna give him no more. You know? They've they've had enough, and they've rejected it. So he won't keep forcing his word on them. Yeah.

The echo hasn't come back. There's no fruit. So you have to chop chop the plant down. And Jesus leaves his hometown, and he leaves his hometown like the ugly duckling. Get him out of town.

Yeah. But, of course, he's in fact the beautiful swan that they don't recognize. Now how does this apply to us? It's an amazing thing, isn't it? Prejudice is a great time saver.

I don't know whether you've worked that out. You know, if if you want to save time, be pre be prejudiced. It's simple as that. Prejudice is a great time saver, and it enables you to form your opinions without bothering to work through any facts. That's the beauty of prejudice.

And a great many people think that they're thinking when they're really rearranging their prejudices. And that's what happens with Jesus. Instead of saying, how does a carpenter's son have this wisdom and these powers? Therefore, There must be something more about him that I need to listen to. Their prejudice takes over.

We know who he is. We're not gonna listen to him. And if you have the incorrect understanding of who Jesus is, then, you'll respond to him incorrectly. In John chapter 1, John's gospel, says this, he, that's Jesus, was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. That's outstandingly bad.

The world was made through him. They did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. You see see the false false rhythm there? Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave them the right to become children of god.

So there's a breaking of the rhythm of creation here. There's a hardening of the heart here. They don't want him to be who he is, and there's pride in the end. It's pride. Who does he think he is.

They don't want him to be lord of their lives. Who does he think he is? He's only the carpenter's son. So that's the first story. K?

When we go into this second story, Matthew takes us now to the rejection in the palace, and we've got royal birds. They were town birds that were taking away the word of god, and now we've got royal birds. Gonna take away the word of god. And we're brought into this next story, and there's again the breaking of the rhythm of creation here. And it's the same as the as the first story.

It says herod now. And he he doesn't want anyone to be king over him and, accept himself. And because of that, he's not gonna listen to the word of god. So it's, again, not a lack of evidence. It's not an intellectual problem.

With, herod. It's a moral problem, and that's what this story is all about. We, if we go down the immoral route, you don't want to hear the word of god. If you're gonna be immoral, you won't want someone telling you that you're immoral. That's that's that's what's gonna hap that's what happens here.

And so he doesn't respond to the word of god again. He doesn't have the echo. There is no fruit. So what what we've got here is herod, he he married his brother brother's fill Philip, his brother Philip's wife. Yeah.

And, her name was Horodius just to make things seem more complicated. So he might have fancied her because they had the same name. I don't know. Perhaps at the party, they started to, what's your name? My name's Herodius.

But he would have known anyway because it's his brother's Philip's wife, erroneous. And, that was an unlawful marriage for a number of reasons. Philip was still, living. So it's adultery. Herrod was already married, so it's double adultery going on here.

Her, herrodius was herod's niece. So we've got ****** going on here. Got double adultery and ******, and it was clearly against the word of god leviticus that he should marry her. And John points this out. Right?

He's a great preacher. John points this out. He speaks the word of god. And, herod rejects that. He's moved by it if you read math, math, other accounts.

And he's a bit worked up about about John, and he sort of quite likes the manliness of John's, preaching, but he rejects sit. Look at verse 4. It says of chapter 14. John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for for you to have her. So the word of god has come to him.

The seed has come into his life, but instead of, the worries of this world choking him as as they did in Jesus parable, it's the lusts of this world. There's lust for this woman chokes to death the word of god, so there's no fruit. It's an it's an amazing story, I think. In fact, as you read it, you sort of sense the the shadow of the royal birds hovering over. They're they're vultures hovering over herod, and they're about to come down and peck the word have got away that's laying on the surface.

That's what's gonna happen here. But the thing is here, or I think what's interesting is, god in his kindness sends the word of god more than more than once to herod. This is quite an amazing thing. There's a constant hardening going on here. John, according to Jesus, is the greatest prophet.

We've got here the greatest preacher in Jesus' estimation of a preacher, preaching to herod. He's he's not he's not some backwater preacher, and he's not some nice sort of bloke who's not clear here. Jesus says, you know, he's not got some soft tongue. So you're you're not quite sure what he's saying. You know, he's not some of the British broker would just say it sort of, well, they're gonna be sort of rude to someone or anything like that.

Now John doesn't worry about being rude. He says the truth. Yeah. And he's not dressed in fine clothes. You know, so in other words, he's not about, you know, getting high up in in some kind of religious authority.

He's he's he's not a reed shaking in the wind Jesus says about him. He's a prophet And according to Jesus, he's the greatest prophet that's ever lived. So he's a pretty good preacher here. And John couldn't help but hear him as well. So god's kind here.

Look at verse 5. Herrod wanted to kill John but he was afraid of the people because they considered him a profit. So if if if herod had had his desire, John would have been dead earlier. But god in his kindness allowed the people to like John and so herod was scared of the people. So there's a kindness there because John's still preaching, even though herod's desire was to kill him, but John is still preaching.

And god allows him to sow the word. He's still slowing the word. At this heart. And then John arrests him and puts him in his palace. So you've got him even nearer.

I mean, he's down in a dungeon, but he's shouting out. He's preaching the word. There's sowing going on all over the place here. And that's the coyness of god, isn't it? That he's hardening his heart, but still god speaking, banging at the door, throwing the seed onto the path.

But it all fell on the surface, and there was no response. There was no echo, and there's no fruit, and so the birds come, and the birds come on his birthday. They're gathering around on his birthday. This is summer Hitchcock movie going on here, isn't it? Here he is.

And he's having fun, and he's getting more and more drunk. It's his it's like a stag do going on here. And, They're getting drunk, and more and more drunk, and the birds are hovering, and he doesn't see them. Verse 6, on herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodius, danced for them, 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. So it's his birthday.

It's all male. It's like a stag too. They're getting drunk. And normally, the prostitutes come in women aren't allowed in until the prostitutes come in and dance, but her erroneous thought are send my daughter. Josephus, who's a who's a historian, writing around this time, He says her name was, salome, and that she was 16 or 17 years old.

And that turns him on. His niece turns him on, and he's drooling. And excited. The word that is used, it pleased herod is a ****** turn on word. He's a dirty old man, really, to be honest, a horrible old uncle lusting after her.

He's lewd, and he's leering, and he's lecherous, and he's vile, and he's drunk, and the word of god cannot grow in those conditions. That's a hard path. To be like that. And so he makes a stupid promise. And what a weak man he is because he keeps a foolish oath and breaks a great law.

He's more frightened of the woman's tantrums than he is at the wrath of god. He's more frightened that the criticisms and the frowns of his guests the year than the years at his conscience. And he makes his decision, and the birds come down. The birds have lust and cowardice, and they take the word of god away from him, and he shuts the the the mouth of the profit by cutting his head off. That's how he shut a profit up.

That's what they were doing in the Congo. Was it 70, did you say? 70. That's why that's how you shut a mouth of the profit up. You have to cut his head off, and that's what they do.

And the last time, herod sees John, is when his head is brought in and John has nothing more to say. Tradition says that herrodious as it was being carried in spatter, John the Baptist and pulled out his tongue that was on his head on the platter and shoved her hairpin through his tongue. It's herod's birthday. But he's dead from that day on. He will never hear the word of god again.

And in that sort of bridging verses, in verses 1 and 2, you see what's going on, inherited. At that time, Heather de Tetra, heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attend attenders, this is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead. This is why miraculous powers are working at him. Perhaps herod is thinking I've got another chance now to hear the word of god.

John the Baptist has come alive again. This is what this is who Jesus is. And, you know, he does. You know, he does, he calls Jesus in to his court. Because he thinks Jesus has joined the Baptist.

Maybe there is a word. Maybe, you know, I chopped the man's head off. Maybe there is a word of god. And do you know it's 1 of the most powerful sermons Jesus ever preached. Do you know what Jesus said to herod when Jesus was called in?

Know what Jesus said? Do you know what he said? He said something. He said nothing. There's no more words to say.

He said nothing. You cut from the Baptist head off you cut the profits head off. You're not there's no more word to say. Okay. That's the story.

We've heard the parable. We've seen the story. Let's just apply it. Our responsibility with the word of god doesn't end hearing it. We need to echo, and we need to produce fruit.

Otherwise, we're like the town, and we're like herod. When we hear the word of god, it's not to go in 1 ear and go out the other, it's not even to go into our heads where we can sort of memorize it and say it and speak it out. To other people in arguments. It's to echo in our hearts. The response to the word of god is that we hear it.

We echo and we produce fruit. There is to be action from the word of god. Otherwise, we're a herod. Otherwise, we're like the town. We all have computers.

Every day, I type facts into my computer. I've typed in I don't know how many servants, probably thousands of sermons into my computer. I type them in. Yeah? I type in facts about Jesus.

I've got long detailed arguments about who Jesus is. I've got stuff about the trinity. I've got all kinds of arguments about why there is a god and all that stuff. I've got sermons on many books of the bible that I've typed in. I type them into the computer.

The word goes into the computer. But if I just leave it and go off to make a cup of tea, the screen saver comes on. It goes back to what it always is. The stupid computer. It doesn't listen to a word.

It's seen me pray over the words I've typed in. It goes back to screensaver. It never does a thing. It never changes. Ever.

Yeah? Except when it comes up and says I've spelt a word wrong, it's so clever, isn't it? It tells me off for spelling a word wrong for getting little things wrong. But it never changes its heart and it's up there, the filthy heart. It's up there.

It never changes. That's exactly like herod. It's exactly like the seed on the path. The word of god comes in, you know stuff. But if it doesn't change, if it doesn't turn into praise, if it doesn't turn into the echo so that god says it's good.

There's fruit. Then we don't hear the word of god. However, much we know in our heads, it's so important that there's a response, isn't there? It's so important that we don't allow the word of god to just sit on the hard path of our heart and allow the birds to peck it away. So instead of god said response and delight, it's so often god said rejection and death.

Every time we hear the word of god sown out to us, even tonight, What is our response? How do we respond? Are we offended? You read some parts of the word of god? You're gonna be offended.

You're gonna if you understand the Bible properly, There's many times, oh my goodness. Say what's he saying? Who does he think he is? What god? That's who he thinks he is.

Yeah? And so if it is god, then I should echo. And I should respond and grow grow fruit from it. That's how we're meant to read the word of god. That's how it's meant to work.

There's supposed to be a delight in it. I I was just as I was sitting upstairs because I got here quite early. I picked up an old book, from my bookshelf. It's nice to do that. So let me just pick out a book and just open it up and see what it says sometimes when you got some time.

Open it up, said godly man should be thankful. Know what what a wonderful line? I thought, well, this this book's blown me away. I don't need to read it now. That's the best thing.

I've heard. A godly man should be thankful. Yes. That's the echo, isn't it? God speaks.

The echo is the response and the fruit is thankfulness. When we hear the word of god, it will say things. If it's going to be the word of god, Unless I'm god, I'm going to find that it will attack me in some way. It will expose me in some way. It will show me up in some way.

And I may not like it. But it's always gotta be good for me if it's the seed of god's word that will bring life. So how are you doing with the word of god? I hope you're not a herod. I hope you're not a herod.

And I hope you not like the, townsfolk beware the birds, but take the seed away. Father god help us please with these simple stories to examine our own hearts, that we may bear fruit in Jesus' name.