This time let's turn in our Bibles to
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14.
And at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard
of the fame of Jesus.
And he said to his servants, this is
John the Baptist.
He's risen from the dead and therefore mighty
works do show forth themselves in him.
For Herod had laid hold on John and
bound him and put him in prison for
Herodias sake, his brother Philip's wife.
For John said unto him, it is not
lawful for thee to have her.
And when he would have put him to
death, he feared the multitude because they counted
him as a prophet.
But when Herod's birthday was kept and the
daughter of Herodias danced before him and pleased
Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to
give her whatsoever she would ask.
She, being before instructed of her mother, said,
give me here John the Baptist head in
a charger.
So the king was sorry nevertheless for the
oath's sake.
And them which said it meet, he commanded
that it be given to her.
And he sent and beheaded John in the
prison.
And his head was brought in a charger
and given to the damsel and she brought
it to her mother.
And the disciples came and took up the
body and buried it and went and told
Jesus.
Here we have the story of Herod and
the beheading of John the Baptist.
He was called Herod Antipas.
He was the son of Herod the Great.
The word Tetrarch means the ruler over a
fourth part.
When Herod the Great died, he had many
sons, but three of them were given rule
over part of the territory that Herod the
Great once governed.
Herod Antipas, the one who had beheaded John
the Baptist, was married to the daughter of
a Nabataean king, Aretha.
And he went to Rome where he visited
his brother Philip, Herod Philip.
And there he fell in love with Philip's
wife.
And he enticed her to leave his brother
and to return with him as his wife.
But in order to do this, he had
to then divorce Aretha, the daughter of the
Nabataean king, which he did.
And he took Herodias as his wife.
Now John the Baptist spoke out against that.
John the Baptist was a straight shooter.
And he said, it isn't lawful for you
to do that.
It wasn't lawful for him to put away
Aretha without a cause.
And of course, it wasn't lawful to marry
his brother's sister.
So John the Baptist spoke out boldly against
him and he paid the price of incurring
the displeasure of Herod, for Herod imprisoned him
and would have put him to death.
Yet there was such a popular appeal that
John had to the people.
He was a little fearful of putting him
to death.
Josephus, in his Antiquities, the historic account of
the Jews, helps us in this a little
bit.
He said that Herod actually was desiring to
put him to death because of the tremendous
popularity that John had among the people.
And he was actually a little threatened by
the popularity of John the Baptist.
Herodias ultimately, of course, was the downfall of
Herod.
She was a very cruel and cunning woman.
She, of course, was upset because John had
spoken out against the marriage, had a deep
kind of desire for revenge.
And so she allowed her daughter to dance
for Herod on his birthday.
Her daughter's name was Salome.
The dances were of those oriental type which
were very suggestive and sensuous.
Salome was probably only 16 or 17, and
for her mother to allow her to do
this shows the fact that there was no
real morality in the heart of Herodias at
all.
Very immoral woman.
And when Herod's passions were aroused by the
dance of Salome, in that moment of excitement
and the applause for the dance and all
the crowd around, he said, ask whatever you
want and I will give it to you.
And her mother Herodias had already coached her
in advance that she should ask for the
head of John the Baptist on a charger.
And when she made this request, of course,
Herod wanted to back down, but he had
made the promise and so he held to
it.
Now, later on, when Caligariac became the emperor
of Rome, there was another son of Herod,
Agrippa, that he sent to reign over some
of the provinces of Israel and he gave
to Agrippa the title of king.
And so you remember Paul addressing him, King
Agrippa?
Now, Herodias said to her husband Herod Antipas,
look, he has the title of king, you
ought also to have the title of king,
because she had this desire to be known
as Queen Herodias.
And so this real thing in her, to
be wanted to be known as queen, she
put her husband up to going to Rome
to talk to the emperor Caligariac that he
would give to Antipas also the title of
king.
However, Herod Agrippa heard of the plan and
so he sent messages ahead to Caligariac and
said, hey, Antipas is not to be trusted.
He is very likely to rebel against you.
He's looking for position and power.
And so Caligariac believed the report that he
received from Agrippa.
And when Antipas came requesting that he received
the title of king, instead of receiving it,
he had taken a lot of money with
him.
And she said, what's money, you know, go
and bribe Caligariac for this title of king.
Caligariac took the money, but he banished Antipas
to Gaul.
And so that was the end of his
ambition.
And that was the end of Herod Antipas.
He and Herodias were…
Herodias, Caligariac said, look, you can stay here
if you want.
But she said, no, you know, I'll be
with my husband.
That's the only honorable thing she did.
So, she was banished with him to Gaul.
The end of this man who fought the
prophet of God because the prophet had enough
courage to speak out against his sin, had
him in prison.
And so we read of the death of
the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist.
And when Herod heard of all that Jesus
was doing, though he had put John the
Baptist to death, his conscience was probably still
troubling him.
He said, this is John the Baptist.
He's raised from the dead.
And that's why he can do these marvelous
works.
He no doubt really believed that John the
Baptist was indeed a true prophet.
A while ago, a fire truck went up
that way.
Now it's come back this way.
I guess they're lost.
I'm not surprised.
They've been harassing us here at Calvary Chapel
like you can't believe.
Sending out inspectors every month.
And the whole game is to find something
that the other inspectors haven't found.
And they go through here with a fine
tooth comb, just trying to find anything.
And it takes them a long time, several
hours.
And then they'll find some little thing and
write us up another citation, you know.
And they're minor kind of things.
And one says, oh, that's all right.
The next one says, no, this is a
code.
And we've been having a...
Well, Romaine's been having...
I don't know who has the worst of
it, but I just hope we don't burn.
I don't know they'd be able to find
us or not.
When these tapes go across the country, people
don't know what we're talking about really.
But so now in
verse 13, when Jesus heard of this horrible
atrocity against John, it no doubt shocked him.
And he went by ship into a desert
place apart.
Desert, not meaning desert like the Mojave or
Sahara, but a deserted place.
Because there really isn't any real desert around
the Sea of Galilee, but there are places
that are deserted or uninhabited.
And so he went to one of the
uninhabited areas there across the Sea of Galilee.
Over on the opposite side of the sea,
there were several sort of deserted areas.
So when the people had heard that he
was leaving, they followed him on foot out
of the cities.
And when Jesus went forth, so he got
around the other side and here was a
great multitude of people waiting for him.
Now, the Sea of Galilee is only eight
miles across.
And from the area of Capernaum, if you
cross over to the area of Bethsaida or
Gennesaret, it isn't really that far.
And you can watch a little boat go
all the way across.
So as they're taking off for Capernaum, it's
easy to tell which direction they're going.
They just watch which direction they're going.
Then the people run around the upper end
of the lake and then they'd be there
waiting for him when he got to the
other side.
This must have been difficult.
Here you're troubled because of this horrible atrocity.
And you're wanting to get alone for just
a little bit to sort of, you know,
put things together, get things in perspective.
And so you try to get off alone
and have just a little time to wait
upon God and to pray and to sort
of get yourself collected.
And you get to the other side and
here's the whole multitude of people waiting there
for you.
Now, it would have been very easy for
Jesus to have been brusque and say, look,
I came over to get a rest, you
know, can't you leave me alone?
And I know so many people who have
a great ministry today who might do just
that.
But Jesus, when he saw the great multitude,
was moved with compassion toward them.
Oh, God gives the heart for the ministry
like Jesus.
That whenever we see the people, rather than
feeling, oh no, you know, why do they
have to come here?
Don't they know I want to be alone?
That whenever we meet them, we are moved
with compassion towards them.
God give us a heart of compassion towards
the needs of people.
And the needs of people always moved the
heart of Jesus with compassion.
He could not see a needy person without
being moved with compassion towards them.
And he healed their sick, spent time with
them.
Now, many of these people were not really
seeking him.
All they were seeking was help, the healing
of their sick.
And it would be very easy to sort
of jump on the crowd and to needle
them and get after them.
Because all you want is the benefits.
You really don't want to make the commitment.
And that was so true.
But Jesus never chided them.
He never got on them.
He just went ahead and ministered to them
freely.
And I love him for that.
Now, when it was evening, his disciples came
to him and they said, this is a
deserted place and the time is now passed.
You better send the multitude away that they
might go into the villages and buy themselves
some food.
But Jesus said unto them, they don't need
to depart, give them to eat.
And they said unto him, we only have
five loaves and two fish.
And he said, bring them to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down
on the grass.
And he took the five loaves and the
two fishes.
And looking up to heaven, he blessed and
he broke.
And he gave the loaves to his disciples
and the disciples to the multitude.
And they did all eat and were filled.
The word filled in Greek is glutted, that
it would be a more appropriate translation.
They were, they all ate and were stuffed.
And they took up of the fragments that
remain twelve baskets full.
And they that had eaten were about five
thousand men beside the women and children.
So here is that recording of the marvelous
multiplication of the loaves and the fishes to
feed the five thousand.
Now there are those who have difficulty with
miracles.
And so when they read this story, they
try to read into it a plausible explanation
to remove the miraculous from it.
We are told that these five loaves and
two fish came from a little boy who
probably, when he told his mother, I want
to go over and see Jesus.
She packed him a lunch.
And so when the multitude was there, they
said, Lord, we, we, we, you better send
them away that they might buy food.
And he said, no, they're hungry.
They might faint in the way.
Let's feed them.
They said, oh, well, we had, you know,
several thousand dollars worth of bread.
We couldn't feed this crowd.
Jesus said, well, what do you have?
And Andrew said, there's a little kid over
here with five loaves and two fish.
But what's that to a multitude like this?
And so the little boy came and gave
his five loaves and two fishes to Jesus.
And he then blessed them and broke the
bread and distributed.
And there are those who explain that in
those days they wore these long robes and
they had sleeves that tied at the wrist.
And quite often people carried bread and fish
in their sleeves.
And that when everybody was hungry and they
all knew they were hungry, everybody was so
selfish.
None was willing to share their own little
lunch that they had tied in their sleeves.
But when the little boy came forth and
offered to Jesus his five loaves and two
fishes, everyone was so touched and moved by
the beautiful example of this little child.
They all untied their sleeves and shared with
each other.
And there was really enough there that they
could gather 12 basket fulls after everybody had
eaten.
And so it was the touching example of
a little child that moved the multitude.
And isn't that a beautiful story?
God's got a hot place for men who
try to mess with the word.
And immediately Jesus constrained the disciples to get
into a ship and go before him to
the other side while he sent the multitudes
away.
So he said to the disciples, go ahead
and get in the boat and go over
the other side.
I'll send the multitude away.
And when he had sent the multitudes away,
he went up into a mountain apart to
pray.
And when the evening was come, he was
there alone.
Now notice this.
And I think this is important to note.
It had been an extremely hard day.
Jesus had received the news of the horrible
atrocity.
His cousin, John, had been beheaded by Herod.
And he felt it sort of imperative to
just get alone for a while.
So he got into the ship with the
disciples and they headed over to the other
side.
But the people seeing the direction where they
were going, ran around the upper part of
the Galilee and met him when the ship
landed.
And here was the multitude.
And Jesus spent the day ministering to them.
He's weary emotionally because of what had happened
to John.
No doubt wearied physically by ministering to these
people, being pressed by them all the day
long.
Up until the evening, he feeds them.
And then he sends them away as the
disciples are heading back.
Hard day, troubling news, physically exhausted.
Time to really flake out.
But instead, he went up into a mountain
apart to pray.
Oh, the importance that prayer had in the
life of Jesus.
Now, if he being the son of God
felt the necessity to be strengthened through prayer
on these kind of occasions, how much more
we weak, failing disciples or followers of him
need to spend time in prayer to be
strengthened by God.
We would say, oh, it's time to really
get a rest.
You know, I really need to get a
nap.
I really need to get my strength.
But instead, he went up and spent the
evening, the night in prayer, according to another
gospel.
But prayer was his place of strength.
He discovered to be a place of great
strength, even as you can discover that prayer
is a place of great strength indeed.
And so when the evening was come, he
was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea and it was tossed by
the waves, for the wind was contrary.
Coming from the side of Gadara back across
the sea, there is that valley that comes
into the Sea of Galilee from the Mediterranean,
where when they get these storms, it usually
blows in through that Kinneret Valley.
And so in coming back, you're coming against
that wind that comes howling through that valley.
And so the disciples were faced with this
dismal prospect of trying to row against the
wind and against the flow of the wind
whipped waves because they were heading back towards
the area of Capernaum.
And so they were in the midst of
the sea and they were being tossed with
the waves, for the wind was coming from
that direction of the Mediterranean.
And in the fourth watch of the night,
Jesus went unto them walking on the sea.
That is almost morning.
And when the disciples saw him walking on
the sea, they were troubled, saying, it's a
spirit.
And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoken to them, saying, Be
of good cheer.
It is I.
Be not afraid.
And impulsive Peter answered, Lord, if it is
you, bid me to come to you on
the water.
And Jesus said, Come on.
And when Peter was come down out of
the ship, he walked on the water to
go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he
was afraid and he began to sink and
he cried, saying, Oh, Lord, save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and
caught him and said unto him, Oh, thou
little faith, why did you doubt?
Amazing story, isn't it?
How that Peter was able for a time
to walk on the water and it would
appear that he could walk on the water
as long as he kept his eyes on
Jesus.
But suddenly maybe a wave crashed splash in
his face and he looked around.
Oh, what am I doing out here?
You know, and he started to sing.
Lord, save me.
And Jesus, I can hear Jesus chuckle as
he said, Oh, you have little faith.
What happened to you?
You know, you started.
Well, what happened to you, Peter?
Oh, you have little faith.
I think that the lesson is keeping our
eyes upon the Lord.
I think that is so important for us.
It is so easy for us to get
our eyes on our circumstances and we start
looking around at the boisterous waves.
We start looking at our problems.
We start looking at our situations and we
begin to sink because every one of us
are faced with daily situations that can really
sink us if we really get into it.
We need to keep our eyes on the
Lord who is the master over the sea,
over the waves, over the winds.
And looking at Jesus, he was able to
walk for a ways on the water.
Getting his eyes off of Jesus and on
the waves, he began to sing.
And as long as we keep our eyes
on Jesus, we can walk on the water,
so to speak.
Now, to me, it is great that when
Peter started to sink, he knew where to
call.
Lord, save me.
I've been in the same boat.
Man, how many times I've cried, oh, Lord,
save me, you know.
And the graciousness of Jesus.
Oh, thou little faith.
Why did you doubt, Peter?
You're doing all right.
And when they had come into the ship,
the wind ceased.
Then they that were in the ship came
and worshiped him, saying, of a truth, thou
art the son of God.
They just had seen such a tremendous demonstration
of his divine powers.
And when they were gone over, they came
to the land of Gennesaret.
And when the men of that place had
knowledge of him, they sent out into all
the country round about and brought unto him
all that were diseased.
And Gennesaret is there that it is Kinnereth
or Gennesaret.
It's the name of that valley coming from
the area of the Mediterranean aqua area.
And they besought him that they might only
touch the hem of his garment.
And as many as touched were made perfectly
whole.
Now, Jesus did not have some kind of
magic garment that if you touch it, you
would be healed.
The healing took place in each case because
of the faith of that person.
And the touching of his garment was the
point for them to release their faith.
There is sort of a passive kind of
faith if such a thing can exist.
A believing that God can do it.
Knowing that God can do it.
Being fully persuaded and assured that God can
do it.
And I think that we all probably fit
in that category.
Who believe in God.
We know that God can do anything.
And I'm faced with some malady or whatever.
And someone says, well, God can heal you.
Yes, I know that is true.
I don't doubt that.
I go to the hospital and I see
these people in critical condition.
The doctors have given them up.
And I say, well, God can heal you.
And I believe that.
I believe God can do anything.
But there is something to activating that faith.
To where it is not, I believe that
God can heal you, but that I believe
that God will heal you now.
That moment when faith is activated to receive
that touch or healing from God.
And I think that this touching of the
hem of his garment created a point of
contact for those people to release their faith.
In other words, in their minds, they were
saying, I know that the moment I touch
the hem of his garment, I'll be healed.
And that was so in their minds that
the moment they were able to grab the
hem of his garment, they released the faith
and it was no longer just a passive.
I know God can, but I know that
God is.
And in that moment, released their faith to
take them at that moment, their healing.
And the moment they activated or released the
faith, they were healed.
There were many things in the new Testament
that formed points of contact for the releasing
of faith.
And Jesus actually established more or less points
of contact on various occasions.
When he put mud in the blind man's
eyes and said, now go and wash it
out the mud.
And as soon as you wash it out,
you can see the man believed that the
minute I can wash this mud out, I'm
going to see.
And it was a point of contact for
the releasing of his faith.
In the old Testament, when the prophet Elisha
told Naaman to go dip in the river
Jordan seven times, when you come up from
the seventh time, you're going to be healed.
It was a point of contact for the
releasing of faith.
In the book of Acts, they sent out
from Paul handkerchiefs or more literally sweatbands and
his aprons, and they would lay them on
the sick and the people would be healed.
Peter, when he was walking down the street,
they would set the sick in the way
so that his shadow would fall on them.
And the shadow of Peter falling on them
was a point of contact because they, Oh,
I know as soon as Peter's shadows falls
me, Oh, I'm going to be healed.
And they had that point of releasing faith
and somehow we need to, to be able
to release the faith so it will become
activated.
So I know that as soon as, you
know, it'll happen.
And it's a point of contact to release
the faith.
And there is a valuable lesson there.
Then Jesus, then came to Jesus, scribes and
Pharisees, which were from Jerusalem.
Hey, these guys had come a long way
to challenge him.
They came all the way from Jerusalem clear
up to Galilee, which was about a journey
of almost well over a week from Jerusalem
to Galilee.
So they came up to the Galilee and
they said, why do your disciples transgress the
tradition of the elders?
Now the Jews, of course, had the written
law, but on top of the written law,
they had developed the oral traditions and these
oral traditions many times actually superseded the law
as traditions have a way of becoming so
embedded in our being that it's harder to
break traditions than almost anything else.
And Jesus was not one to conform to
traditions.
He was not in any ways a traditionalist.
Of course, they also had the Talmud, the
several volumes of the amplification and explanation of
the law.
So in it, many, many traditions.
So why do your disciples transgress the tradition
of the elders?
For they don't wash their hands before they
eat bread.
Now from this, don't immediately conclude that they're
a bunch of dirty slobs.
According to the tradition, there were many things
that could make a person unclean, but this
uncleanness was a ceremonial uncleanness, which if you
were ceremonially unclean, you could not enter into
the temple.
And many things could make you ceremonially unclean.
If you would touch anything that was unclean,
you became unclean.
Now, if you touched anything that was touched
by something unclean, you became unclean.
And to them, Gentiles were unclean.
And if a Gentile walked across the dusty
road and you would walk across and you
would, the dust that his foot touched would
become unclean because he was an unclean Gentile.
And thus, if you walked in the same
dust, you became unclean because you touched the
unclean dust that was made unclean by a
Gentile who walked over it.
There were certain foods that if you ate
them would make you unclean.
And so, this business of washing became quite
a tradition.
And there were certain ways by which you
had to wash in order that you might
ensure that you were cleansed from all of
the dust or impurities or the unclean things
that you might have come in contact with.
And you had to do this before you
touched your food, else your food would be
unclean.
And when you ate it, you would become
unclean because you were eating unclean food.
So, they had the traditional ceremony for washing.
And you would have to hold out your
hands in an upright manner and they would
pour water over your hands as you rubbed
your hands back and forth, up and down.
And the water had to drip off of
the wrist because the water is now unclean
because it's touching whatever was unclean on your
hands.
And you've got to make sure the water
doesn't fall on you.
So, you hold it out and up so
that the water drips off your wrist and
doesn't hopefully run up your arm or that
portion of your arm would be unclean.
Having then poured the water over and washing
your hands in this upright manner, then because
the dirty water from your unclean fingers has
come down over your hands, you've got to
get rid of that.
So, you put your hands down next and
they pour water over the top of your
hands as you are rubbing your hands in
a downward manner.
And then finally, rubbing your fingers together as
water is poured over to get rid of
all of the uncleanness.
And here were the disciples just, you know,
grabbing the bread and eating it without going
through this whole little ritual.
And this is what Jesus was being challenged
on.
Your disciples aren't following the traditions.
There's nothing in the Bible that says you've
got to wash your hands a particular way.
And at this point, Jesus is about ready
to blow tradition totally out the window.
So, his disciples were accused of transgressing the
traditions, not going through the ceremonial washing of
their hands before they eat their bread.
But he answered and said unto them, why
do you also transgress not the traditions notice,
but you transgress the commandment of God by
your tradition?
Oh, watch out now.
Because even within the church, it is possible
for us to develop certain traditions and to
get hung up on traditions.
And it is also possible that many of
the traditions within the church are actually a
violation of the commandment of God.
There was a lady who came to church
here at Calvary Chapel, invited by some of
her friends.
And she was visiting here from Missouri.
And she happened to belong to the Missouri
Synod Lutheran Church.
And after service, she came up to me
and she was shaking.
She was so angry.
She said, why didn't you face the altar
when you prayed?
I mean, she was really upset.
And I said, what?
She said, when you pray, you didn't turn
and face the altar.
Why didn't you?
I said, well, I guess because I don't
think Jesus lives in the altar.
But the traditions, you say, why didn't you
turn towards the statue of Jesus when you
prayed?
But by traditions, there is the violation of
the commandment of God that says we're not
to have any images.
You see, we're not too far removed from
the Pharisees and from the Jews who allowed
tradition to actually develop to the point that
by the traditions, there was actual a violation
of the commandment of God.
So they were accusing the disciples of Jesus
of not keeping the traditions.
Jesus said, hey, you're violating not the traditions,
but the commandments of God by your traditions.
For God commanded saying, honor thy father and
mother and he that curses his father or
mother, let him die the death.
But you say, whosoever shall say to his
father or mother, it is a gift by
whatsoever thou may be profited by me.
And he honors not his father, his mother,
he shall be free.
And thus you have made the commandment of
God of none effect by your traditions.
Now the Bible says you weren't to curse
your father or mother.
That's the commandment of God.
You're to honor them, not to curse them.
But they had a tradition.
If you prefaced your curses by saying, look,
this is for your good and your benefit.
You're a dirty, rotten little, you know, it's
a gift.
Now I'm doing it for your benefit.
I'm telling you this for your benefit.
They were free as long as they would
preface it by that.
This is a core band.
This is something by which you might be
benefited.
And so Jesus points out that through their
tradition, they had actually made allowance for an
actual violation of the commandment of God.
And thus you have made the commandment of
God of no effect by your traditions.
You hypocrites.
Jesus is pretty straight.
In fact, he gets so straight, it's almost
scary.
Uh, when we move along in Matthew here,
you hypocrites.
Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you saying this
people drawn near to me with their mouths
and they honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me teaching
for doctrines, the commandments of men.
Now the church has developed many
dogmas that they teach for doctrine and are
in the same position as were these scribes
and Pharisees in the time of Christ, who
began to honor and hold traditions and the
commandments of men, even over the commandments of
God.
So he called the multitude and he said
unto them now here and understand this and
here goes tradition bond.
It's not that which goes into the mouth
that defiles the man, but that which comes
out of the mouth.
This is what defiles the man called the
multitude.
Listen now, hear me out.
It's not what goes into your mouth that
defiles you.
It's what comes out of your mouth that
defiles you.
Oh boy.
That is just going against that whole tradition
of, of how you're to eat with washed
hands and, and really even what you're to
eat.
So go out and enjoy a pork chop.
It's not what goes into your mouth.
It's going to defile you.
Just make sure it's cooked well.
So all the tapeworms and the trichina is
dead so that you won't become infected each
shrimp, because it's not what goes into a
man's mouth that defiles a man.
It's what comes out of his mouth that
defiles him.
This is heavy, heavy duty.
Then his disciples said unto him, Hey Lord,
don't, you know, they were really offended at
what you said.
And Jesus answered and said, every plant, which
my heavenly father hath not planted shall be
rooted up.
There are plants that are growing, weren't planted
by the heavenly father.
They're going to be rooted up.
Just let them alone.
Notice he didn't say go out and argue
just to let them alone.
They are blind leaders of the blind.
And if the blind lead the blind, both
of them will fall in the ditch.
Then Peter said to him, Lord, what did
you mean by the parable?
And the parable was, it's not what goes
into the man's mouth that defiles him that
comes out.
Peter said, what do you mean by that
Lord?
And Jesus said, don't you understand that whatsoever
you eat goes into your belly and is
cast out into the drug.
It goes through your body.
It's purged.
But those things which proceed out of the
mouth come forth from the heart and they
are the things that defile a man for
out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts and
murders and adulteries and fornications and thefts and
false witness and blasphemies.
And these are the things that defile a
man.
But to eat with unwashed hands doesn't defile
you.
You don't have to go through a ceremonial
washing before you eat food.
It doesn't defile you.
It goes through your body, passes through.
But what you say, what comes out of
your mouth, it reveals what's in your heart
and out of the mouth, the hatred, the
bitterness, those things that you express, the lust,
the desires, these things that are in the
heart, the things expressed by the mouth.
And there is the true defilement of a
man.
Then Jesus went from there and he departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
Now going into the coast of Tyre and
Sidon, he's actually moving into the territory that
is Phoenician and thus moving out from the
totally Jewish community.
And behold, there was a woman of Canaan,
a Syrophoenician woman, who came out or lived
in those same areas.
And she cried unto him, saying, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David,
for my daughter is grievously vexed with the
devil.
But he did not answer her a word.
And his disciples came and they besought him,
saying, Lord, would you send her away?
She's bugging us.
What they were saying is, Lord, take care
of the daughter.
Get rid of the woman.
She's, you know, she won't let us alone.
But he answered and said, no doubt in
the hearing of the woman, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
help me.
And he answered and said, it's not right
to take the children's bread and cast it
to dogs.
And she said unto him, that's true, Lord.
Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall
from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O
woman, great is thy faith.
Be it unto thee even as you will.
And her daughter was made whole from that
very hour.
Now, as we read the translated text, we
have difficulty.
Difficulty understanding Jesus treating a woman in this
rather cold and almost insulting manner as it
would appear from our text.
But let us note a few things.
Number one, Jesus from the beginning knew he
was going to heal the daughter.
He knows all things.
Jesus said the Bible says they didn't need
to testify to Jesus about anything because he
knew all men.
He knew what was in men.
He knew what was in the heart of
this woman.
He knew the faith that was there.
And he was drawing skillfully from her this
great expression of faith that was there.
And so his first rebuff was that of
silence.
He didn't answer her at all.
And over the apparent silence of Jesus, she
persisted until the disciples were so bugged by
her.
They said, Lord, why don't you just, you
know, take care of her?
And she knows she's a menace.
And Jesus, no doubt, as I say, in
her hearing said, look, I'm only sent to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And so she came and she worshipped him
saying, Lord, help me now continuing to draw
her out.
He said it isn't right to take the
children's bread.
That is.
The children of Israel and those benefits of
healing that he had brought to them, it
isn't right to take that and to cast
it.
And here's where you got to be careful.
There were two words for dogs and the
Jews often called the Gentile, Gentile dogs.
And it was a dirty word.
Now there are no swear words in Hebrew.
They have no words to swear by in
Hebrew, no curse words.
If a Jew wants to curse, he has
to curse in English.
There are no curse words in which I
think is quite fascinating.
But the dirtiest thing they can call a
person is a dog.
They had these wild dogs that ran in
packs that everybody hated.
They were vicious.
They were just hated.
And so they would refer to usually rather
than these, they would rather than say he's
a Gentile, they'd say he's a Gentile dog.
But then there was another Greek word for
dog, which is a little puppy, which was
usually around the table as the children were
eating.
Now, when they ate, they didn't have utensils
like we have, the knives and forks and
spoon.
And so the kids didn't have to learn
table etiquette, but they would just pick off
with their hands and you would eat with
your hands.
And after you were through with your meal,
you would then take a piece of the
bread and you would wipe your hands off
with the piece of bread.
Just clean all the grease and juices off
with a piece of bread.
And then they'd usually take that piece of
bread and toss it to the little puppies
that were around the table.
And so it was a very common picture
in the minds of the people when Jesus
said, it isn't right to take the children's
bread and to cast it to the little
puppies or to cast it to puppies.
And she said, yes, Lord, but the little
puppies eat the bread that falls from the
master's table.
She said, all right.
Great is your faith.
It was faith that conquered over the silence
of Jesus.
It was faith that conquered over the seeming
reluctance of Jesus.
It was faith that won.
This mother was desperate.
Some of you mothers have wayward daughters.
Now, probably none of you would go so
far as to say they're vexed by the
devil, but here was a mother in real
distress and she came to Jesus and her
faith triumphed.
Listen, come to Jesus.
Don't go away until you've received.
There was no way she was going to
go.
Until she received help.
Jesus answered and said to her, Oh woman,
great is thy faith.
Interesting.
He said that also of the Roman centurion
and of this Seraphim woman and Jesus departed
from there and he came near to the
sea of Galilee and he went up into
a mountain and he sat down there and
great multitudes came unto him, having with them
those that were lame and blind and dumb
and maimed and many others.
And they cast them down at Jesus feet
and he healed them in so much that
the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb
speaking, the maimed all and the lame walking,
the blind were able to see and they
glorified the God of Israel.
Then Jesus called his disciples under him and
he said, I have compassion on the multitude
because they've continued with me now for three
days and there's nothing to eat and I
will not send them away fasting lest they
faint in the way.
And his disciples said unto him, where should
we have so much bread in the wilderness
as to fill this great multitude?
And Jesus said unto them, how many loaves
do you have?
And they said seven and a few little
fishes and he commanded the multitude to sit
down on the ground and he took the
seven loaves and the fish and he gave
thanks and break them and gave to the
disciples and the disciples to the multitudes.
And again, they did all eat and were
stuffed and they took up of the broken
meat that was left seven baskets full.
And they that did eat were 4,000
men beside the women and children.
And he sent away the multitude and they
took the ship and they came to the
coast of Magdala.
Now Magdala is probably two miles south of
Capernaum there in the sea of Galilee.
They have discovered the ruins of the city
of Magdala from which Mary Magdalene did come.
And you can see the ruins there at
Magdala today.
And incidentally, um, someone wasn't reading the scriptures
carefully and they built a church there at
Magdala that they call the church of the
loaves and the fishes where they said Jesus
fed the multitude.
But notice he didn't come there until after
he had fed the multitude in the mountains
apart from there.
But it's convenient for the tour buses.
And so they take you down by the
sea of Galilee there at Magdala to show
you the mosaic of a church where there's
a loaves and fishes and the mosaic on
the floor.
And they swear that this is the spot
where it all happened.