Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Point Church Podcast, where we're working through the Gospel of Matthew. ⁓ forty days, forty podcasts for this Lit series. I'm here with Pastor Sam. ⁓ and we're picking up where we left off. Well, actually in our new chapter, chapter 14. That's right. And this it reads At the at that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. This is John the Baptist, he told his servants. He had been raised from the dead, and that's why the miraculous powers are at work in him. Yeah, so ⁓ so John's been killed. We just learned this kind of out of nowhere, and all at the same time Herod is hearing these rumors about Jesus, and he's like, ⁓ it must be John, this is what's going on, and he's been raised from the dead. So goes to show there is a belief of resurrection that like that was his first thought. Yeah. But that's just kind of the the intro to what's going on. Verse three, for Herod had arrested John, chained him, and put him in prison on the account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, since John had been telling him it is not lawful for you to have her. Though Herod wanted to kill John, he feared the crowd, since they regarded John as a prophet. Yep. So people ⁓ again, John's a prophet, he's a holy man. People are going out to see him in the Jordan River. So it it's widely accepted, maybe not even among the religious leaders, but among the crowds as they say, This is a you don't touch this guy and he's calling you out on your sin that we all know is there, but he's the one basically saying the emperor has no clothes as John the Baptist and he imprisons him 'cause you think that's all I can do right now. I can't kill him. I'd lose too much popularity and there could be an insurrection. Verse f or six it says When Herod's birthday celebration came, Herodias' daughter danced before them and pleased Herod. So he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she answered, Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter. Although the king regretted it, he commanded that it be granted because of his oath and his guests. So he sent orders and had John beheaded in prison and His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl who carried it to her mother. Then his disciples came, removed the corpse, buried it, and went and reported to Jesus. Yeah, quite a vivid scene of ⁓ having this essentially seems like a child ask for the holy man's head, and then she's like, I'll take that, and just gives it to her mom. So these this is a vicious, vicious people. And What we take from this is a few things is that John did not compromise. No. Herod did. Yeah. Herod is seen as the one who compromised. Herod keeps his head, but he loses his reputation. Yeah. And he loses his name and he loses basically he just keeps a little more time, but history does not look back fondly on him, especially in scripture. No. John, on the other hand, ⁓ does not compromise. He loses his head, which I'm sure was incredibly painful, and you know, is in prison. But we look back at him with reverence and awe. So part of it is remembering that the cost of following God, of ⁓ you know, sticking to the word of God will cause you temporary pain. It can cause you temporary pain and suffering, but compromise is what will lead to long term actually like suffering and pain through loss of reputation and loss of like the worth in your name. Good. ⁓ in verse thirteen, it says When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew from there by boat to a remote place to be alone. When the crowds heard this, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd, had compassion on them, and healed their sick. Let's let's pause there for a second. So Jesus hears the news, and this really ⁓ I think highlights his humanity. He's not numb. He's not like You know, completely like, well, okay, we just gotta keep going. Like he he retreats. That's like a word of saying, like, going to be alone with his father. T he's like, I need to process this. I need to get away. But even in that emotional state, the crowds won't let him be. So they're like, ⁓ is that what we're doing? We're going over here now. And instead of being bothered by them, that again just shows the compassion. This almost shows the godly heart of Jesus, I think. is he's like he has compassion on them, which ⁓ translates to almost like the that pit in your stomach, like, ⁓ like like his heart breaks for them. I but he's moved to do something about it. So he immediately is like, Okay, I guess I'm not getting that time I thought to be alone. Yeah, to be alone that I need, but I'm gonna start healing. Well and also shows like when we feel like we just need to be alone with God, that, you know, in some cases people are like, You need to talk, you need to talk and do this, which is great. Yep. But there's times where being alone with God is what you need. That's what we need. Yes, absolutely. Even Jesus did that. ⁓ if Jesus needs it, how much more do we need it? Yeah. Verse 15 it says, When evening came, the disciples approached him and said, This place is deserted and it is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves. They don't need to go away, Jesus told them. You give them something to eat. But we only have five loaves and two fish, they said to him. Bring them here to me, he said. Then he commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate and s and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of leftover pieces. Now those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Yeah, so a lot this is a very famous scene, and again, it's been speculated that it's just the men who were counted. Yeah. So there are some who ⁓ believe it was closer to fifteen to twenty thousand were in the crowd. Yeah. So again, that's how many people were following Jesus on foot, and then that's how many he feeds. Now, famous story here, obviously, but there's a lot of theological significance happening. The first one I think to point out is the twelve baskets full of leftover pieces, signifying, you know, twelve signifies Israel, the twelve tribes, the twelve sons of Jacob, that Jesus has come to feed God's people. He's feeding them. ⁓ think back to Israel wandering in the desert after, you know, ⁓ leaving Egypt. Manna from heaven every single day was fed to them. ⁓ also think back to the Sermon on the Mount. Your heavenly Father knows you need these things. Look at the birds of the air and he feeds them. Again, Jesus is showing that it doesn't take very much for God to provide all that we need. ⁓ this is also could be seen as a precursor to the Last Supper. Mm-hmm. That, you know, he takes the bread, he blesses it, and he breaks it. This is, you know, a precursor to that scene, showing that, hey, I'm feeding you. physical food right now, but to really take care of God's people is gonna require a breaking of me. And there are other parts of the scriptures where he calls himself the bread of life. Yeah. So in order to feed us what we need for our life to be sustained, he needs to be broken like the bread. Mm-hmm. And going into another ⁓ famous passage here, mm-hmm in verse twenty two it says, Immediately he made the disciples go into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. After dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain mountain by himself to pray. Well into the night he was there alone. Meanwhile the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves because the wind was against them. Jesus came towards them walking on the sea very early in the morning. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. Yeah. So Jesus has finally dismissed the crowd, which probably took a minute of twenty thousand people walking away. And I don't know if he said, Guys, I need to be alone. to the crowd or but somehow he's able to get alone and pray with his father, finally gets the rest that he needs. Yeah. The disciples go back and they're being, you know, just thrown about by this storm. And they say they see him, they see him walking, but they assume it's a ghost because I think we've talked about this before that there was a belief That over the waters is where evil spirits lied. Yes. And so we've talked about this before. And so that's what they think they're experiencing. That what's kicking up this storm is an evil spirit. It's a ghost. ⁓ It was back when he ⁓ the two demon possessed men. Yes. Yeah. Yes. ⁓ and so that's when they're saying, like, okay, there's something different about this storm and it's ⁓ it's evil, it's a ghost. So that's what but they don't recognize who is actually the one walking towards them. Until verse twenty seven, immediately Jesus spoke to them, have courage, it is I, don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him, command me to come to you on the water. He said, Come. And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid and began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Ya Now we have to also remember Peter's occupation, that he was a fisherman. So this is not a guy who scared of water. Yeah. Right. Like he's experienced storms before. This is his job. So this it shows one, the level of this storm that I think we sometimes just downplay, like 'cause we kind of read through and we're like, ⁓ okay, this one waves are not like, no, this is like this probably felt like a tsunami that they're in for these fishermen to be like, we're gonna die. Mm-hmm. ⁓ the other thing it shows is that Jesus is directly confronting the place that they project as the ultimate fear. This is where evil lies. This is where we're gonna die. And Jesus is like, even this storm can't touch me. I'm walking on top of the storm. And I know that's kind of like ⁓ like the everyone makes that sermon point, but that that cannot be understated enough that it's like. You know, that's not hacked. That's really profound. That there's no storm, there's no place, there's nowhere that evil rains that Jesus won't walk into and take control over. And that is that just needs to be remembered always and always. Yeah, and they already kind of know that he controls the wind and the seas, right? 'Cause he was sleeping right before and he said stop. Yeah. Yeah. Like so they know it and then it's ⁓ it's But they but this is different. Like this is this is different. Yeah. Yeah. Like you just said. ⁓ in verse thirty-one it says, Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught a hold of him, and said to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt? Right. So Peter is obviously being incredibly brave and faithful by saying, If it's you, call me out. Yeah. Which is interesting because Jesus doesn't ask him to come out. No. Rather, Peter like kind of ups the ante and Jesus allows that. Yeah. But ⁓ so he sees the passion of Peter and he sees the belief that Peter does have in Jesus. But it's almost like a slight heartbreak, I think, for Jesus, like, ⁓ you got distracted. You took your eyes off of me. ⁓ even on these big things. And again, we've talked about this in past episodes about this is the tension of of anxiety versus faith that it's like you took your eyes off me because you were trying you know what I mean? Like you got consumed by your surroundings and ⁓ But Jesus gets him right back into the boat and he's he's not scolding him, really. He's just like, like, Lord save me. He could have been like, nah. Should have should have done it the first time. Yeah. He doesn't. He's like, I'll save you as many times as it takes. So good. In verse thirty four it reads When they had crossed over, they came ashore at ⁓ ⁓ wait, no, there's a ⁓ verse thirty two. ⁓ I'm sorry, verse thirty two. When they when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those in the boat worshipped him and said, Truly you are the son of God. Yeah. I think that's a pretty good observation on their part. He just fed twenty thousand people and walked on the water and allowed Peter to do the same too. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're definitely starting to get it. Yeah, I think, yeah. It's in their brain now. Now in verse thirty four. When they had crossed over and they came to shore at Ganesaret. When the men of the place recognized him, they alerted the whole vicinity and brought to him all that were sick. They begged him that they might only touch the end of his robe, and as many as touched it were healed. Right, so he's getting a much better reception here. Yeah. Than he did when he drove out the demon-possessed man and went into the pick. Much, much better reception. ⁓ I would say that it's a similar fear as we talked about with that one. Because they're like, you're holy, you're set apart, but they're like But now Jesus' reputation is one of compassion as well. Like that has also been spreading. So they're like, ⁓ this this man. Is not just to be feared like he's going to destroy you, but this is man is approachable. Yeah. Like he is set apart. He's holy and he is worthy of fear, like because of that. But also Yeah, he's so powerful that just touching Yes. Very similar to the woman of the twelve years of bleeding who said, If I can just touch the end of his the hem of his garment, then I would be healed. It's the same level of faith that they're like, again, it doesn't take much for Gs to do what he needs to do. It it it runs so similar to ⁓ the fish in the lobes. It doesn't take much for Jesus to do what he needs to do. Again, going hearkening back to faith as small as a mustard seed. Mustard seed. So yeah. There it is. Well, with that, we're gonna close out today's episode, episode twenty eight. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you tomorrow ⁓ for episode twenty nine.