The sermon titled 'A Disclosure of Two Kings' by Scott Brown examines Matthew 14:1-21, contrasting the characters of King Herod and King Jesus. Herod is depicted as a fearful, self-serving ruler, driven by the fear of losing power and plagued by a guilty conscience over the execution of John the Baptist. In stark contrast, Jesus is portrayed as a compassionate shepherd who prioritizes the spiritual and physical needs of the multitude. The sermon highlights the miracle of feeding the 5,000 as a testament to Jesus's divine provision and authority, symbolizing the spiritual nourishment He provides. It underscores the importance of listening to one's conscience and the dangers of living a fear-driven life disconnected from God's will. The sermon also emphasizes the role of Jesus's disciples, who, despite limited resources, are called to partake in His ministry by feeding the multitudes, illustrating the principle of divine empowerment. The message concludes with a call to trust in God's provision and to live a life centered on His kingdom rather than personal ambition.

Today's text that we're going to be in is Matthew 14, 1-21. At that time Herod the Tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him. For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had said to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

And although He wanted to put him to death. He feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore, he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter.

And the king was sorry. Nevertheless, because of the oath, and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out, he saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.

But Jesus said to them, They do not need to go away, you give them something to eat. And they said to him, We have here only five loaves and two fish. He said, bring them here to me. Then he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass, and he took the five loaves and the two fish. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke and gave the loaves to his disciples.

And the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about 5, 000 men besides women and children. Let's go to Lord in prayer.

Lord Father we thank you that you have given us physical substance. Lord, now we ask that you would feed our spirits through the preaching of your Word. Lord, that our faith would be increased as we hear your Word preached. And as we strive to exalt you and you alone and think little of ourselves Lord help us to take our eyes off of our own needs and to truly exalt you with our praise and worship this morning. We pray for Scott as he comes to bring forth the word to us and that we would hear and heed.

We pray this in your Son's name. Amen. The last verse of Chapter 13 indicates that Jesus wasn't doing very many miracles in his hometown because the prophet doesn't get very much honor in his hometown. But at the same time there was miracle working going on all over the region because the disciples had been on their mission and they'd been going from city to city and they were proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and things were happening in these cities and they were they were coming to the ears of those who were in authority, the visibility of the ministry of Jesus was rising. It's about a year and a half into the ministry of Jesus when we find ourselves here in this text.

And Matthew is handling these events differently than the other gospel writers. And we have to understand what Matthew is trying to say. But what Matthew has been doing the whole time is disclosing the nature of the King of Kings. And he's presenting Jesus Christ as the King. And That's what he's doing over and over again.

So he's emphasizing different things here. And here in our text this morning, he's disclosing the power, the superiority, the beauty, again the inestimable value of his kingdom. And here in this passage we really have a disclosure of two kings. The first king is King Herod. And the second king, of course, is King Jesus.

And so there are these dramatic contrasts in this passage of scripture as we start with a disclosure of Herod. And what we find about Herod is that, you know, we learned what kind of man he was. We learned what made him tick. And looking at him should cause us to learn more about the kingdom of man and ask ourselves what makes us tick. Now here's a mistake you don't want to make in this passage.

Don't read the word Herod the Tetrarch and think that's some other guy. Because Herod is being played before us to help us to understand who we are. And there are various characters in this passage of scripture. And what Christians ought to do is ask themselves, who am I in this text? You might say, well, I'm not the ruler of the Jews.

What does this have to do to me? Well, that's really the wrong way to interpret Scripture. We should be asking ourselves, who am I? And what we see here with Herod is there is a man who is obsessed with himself And that's contrasted with the rule of the King of Kings, who is a good shepherd. J.C.

Ryle says that this chapter, or this first part, the first verses on Herod, is Jesus' book of martyrs, where the martyrdom of John the Baptist is replayed. And I mean, you could say it's Herod's book of brutality, but it's Jesus' book of compassion. You could say it's Herod's book of insecurity, but it's Jesus' book of sovereignty. You could say that it's Herod's book of deprivation, but it's Jesus' book of provision because he fills those who come to him. And so here in this narrative, we have a much more brief testimony of this scene.

There are 136 words that Matthew uses here, but 249 words in Mark to describe this. So, you know, Matthew is focusing in on particular things, And one of the challenges that we always have is, what is this gospel writer trying to say? And there's always a temptation to just draw from all the other gospel writers, which we will do this morning somewhat. But At the same time, we have to understand that Matthew is presenting an argument that he wants us to understand. And throughout, you know, Matthew has been bringing in the Old Testament to prove that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Now in this passage, there are no direct quotations from the Old Testament. But at the same time, there are many really vivid allusions to the Old Testament in the feeding of the 5, 000, especially. It just reminds of Moses and the manna and the bread of life and the parallel miracles of Elisha and Elijah in 1st and 2nd Kings also, you know, seem to be the same kind of classification of miracle that we see in the feeding of the 5, 000. So the chapter starts with at that time. And what time is that?

Well, it's the time when Jesus' fame is spreading. Even though he didn't do very many miracles in his own hometown, at the same time his fame is spreading in a really remarkable way. And in such a remarkable way that the kings of the earth are taking notice, this is not happening in a corner. And that's why anyone who says that Jesus didn't live, they just don't understand history. Historians report this event of Herod and the things that happened with him, particularly Josephus.

But what's happening here is the apostles are spreading about the region and they're declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And they're healing the multitudes and they're casting out demons. And so that's the time, at that time. It's at the apex of Jesus' ministry, where things are being made known at this point, like never before. And so much so that Herod the king is fearful.

So the first section, if you have your outline in front of you, there are four basic sections I'd like for us to look into this morning. And this first is this whole matter of Herod becoming so disturbed about the mighty works that are done by Jesus Christ in the first two verses. So at that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard the report about Jesus. So that really sets the stage for everything that Matthew is going to try to tell us here. And Herod lived from 4 BC to 39 AD.

So it's that time in his life. Herod is an older man at this point. And this is not the same Herod of Jesus' infancy, by the way. This is Herod the Tetrarch, who was ruling one-fourth of the province, that was broken up. This is not the Herod that killed the children in Jesus' infancy.

It's a different Herod. So Herod heard the report about Jesus. Now, Mark tells us that Herod had pretty intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We learn that Herod, he feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man. So he was tracking, he was tracking this whole movement that was rising up from the time of John.

And now he's hearing, he's hearing about the Lord Jesus himself. And as a result, his conscience is activated. He remembers what he did to John and He cannot escape his sin against John and God's voice of Consciousness crying out in his soul just like the voice of conscience cries out in every man's soul to remind him of who he really is and what he really has done. But man wants to try to dampen and suppress the truth and unrighteousness, to somehow put it out of his mind. But Herod cannot get it out of his mind.

And his paranoid, power grabbing kind of nature is being assaulted here. And so his conscience is being activated. And this just shows us really who we are. We have a conscience that's been placed there by God. When we are unbelievers, God will afflict our conscience.

And if we suppress the truth and unrighteousness, we'll never be converted. The most important thing a person can ever do is to listen to his conscience and to recognize who he really is. Herod had a conscience and he had some kind of respect for what was going on with these men. He was like many of your friends maybe who they think Jesus was really a fascinating person and they're interested to talk about him. But their consciences rage against them and they continue to press down and they do not listen to the voice of God.

And I just think it's a, it's helpful just to say listen to your conscience and you know it's, if you are Herod in this story, the person who cares only about himself, the person who desires to have his own pleasures, and that's the driving force of his life, and he'll do whatever he can to promote himself, and your conscience is speaking to you. Then listen to your conscience. And so here what we have, he remembers that he's killed John the Baptist. And of course, you know, John the Baptist was the last Old Testament saint to be a martyr. Herod killed the last Old Testament saint.

And now he's afraid of, he is now afraid of the Savior himself, who will also be martyred. He has the privilege of living in the shadow of the death of the last and the first martyrs between these eras, these great eras of the New Testament to the Old Testament. So what's happening here is that there's a flashback going on. There's this memory of it. Now, it says here that John feared.

I mean, it said that Herod feared. And Mark says that Herod feared John. Matthew says that Herod feared the people. So what we learn about Herod is that he's driven by fear. And It just made me think this week, you know, how many rulers are there today that fear God?

Or that they fear the people of God? That they fear the men of God who are in the world? Why is it today that it seems like no one fears the Church of God? Why is it that no one fears you? Does that have any relevance to us at all.

But here, what we find is the power of God working at this time caused the rulers to fear. I long for the day where the rulers of this earth, where our friends, fear the Church of Jesus Christ. We want everybody to like us, but should we want them to fear us? I think we should want them to fear us, not to like us. Well, that's what was happening here.

And, you know, why is it that no one fears the Church? And it's probably because the Church doesn't fear God. It's probably because the Church doesn't exercise church discipline anymore. The church doesn't obey simple commands. But let's make no mistake about it.

A holy church, a holy man, a holy woman, a holy boy, a holy girl will be feared. The Bible makes that clear that this is one of God's objectives with His people. In Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 25, He says, this day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven Who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and shall be in anguish because of you? I look forward to the day when people feel anguish when they see you coming. It's the anguish because the holiness of God has come into their presence.

Be done with man-pleasing. Be done with trying to be everyone's friend. We have so many commands of love and mercy and compassion. We speak the truth in love. So we're not talking about an angry people thrashing around, but we are talking about a holy people who are an awesome weapon in the hands of a holy God.

And, you know, in Deuteronomy 11 we read the same thing, where God says, No man will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He said to you." Now this is something that God does. God is able to put the fear into the hearts of those who see the holy ones of God walk on the face of the earth. So there should be an element of fear. Woe to a society, woe to a church, woe to a family where there's fear of man and not fear of God.

You know, kind of in a related way, I was just thinking, you know, One of the most important questions that a civil magistrate must ask, and we're at a time right now where civil magistrates are parading, you know, in front of us to try to make themselves appealing to us, and what are the questions that they should be asking of us, of us as the people? And one of the most important questions they ever ask is, is this a God-fearing people? The most important declaration any of our civil leaders can make is, is fear God and keep His commandments. Now Herod didn't ask any of these questions of the people. Instead he asked this question, how can the people esteem me?

How can the people establish me? How can the people serve me? And so he feared the loss of his interests, of his wealth, of his reputation, of his practices. He did not want to lose his position. So this whole matter of fear is really the central element of Herod's personality.

He fears everyone. He fears the people. He fears John. He fears Jesus. He fears his wife.

He fears his peers. He's a man full of fear. That's one of the ways that you can tell that you're an unbeliever. Life is just full of fear. There's no peace in your heart.

You're like Herod, where everything is a strategic move and with every move there's a fear of what might happen to you. And it's the heart of Unbelief. John Newton wrote a song, Begone Unbelief. Begone Unbelief. Because, I mean, unbelief is so harmful, but not only is it harmful to the body, but it will destroy the soul if the fear is placed in the wrong place.

So here, you know, the central component of Herod is that he fears man, he wants to please man. And so every element of his life is try to play the chess, you know, the chessman in such a way that he comes out on top. That's his whole driving force of his life. He only really cares about himself. Now John is not like that.

He's really the, he's the essence of of the person who Jesus spoke of when he said, Therefore do not fear them. Who said, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. And the Lord Jesus said, do not fear therefore, are you of much more value than the sparrow. So there's this whole matter of fear that's brought up. Now, then there's this flashback in verses 3 through 12.

This is kind of the back story. It's a digression that tells us, it's kind of a window into another period of time. So you see what's happening, you know, the narrative starts with the declaration of Herod's fear and is remembering something is happening, it's very disturbing to him. Then there's this backstory, this flashback. And in the flashback, we're taken back to John's time when he was in prison, where Herod laid hold of him and bound him and put him in prison.

He put him in a terrible prison, Macorus, out in the, it was a fortress prison out in the desert. It was a terrible, terrible place where John had sent him, where Herod had sent him. And what we learned from this flashback is John was not afraid at all to confront the moral condition of civil leaders. And He was speaking the law of God to the civil government. He said, it is not lawful.

John was preaching the law of God to the civil realm. And it wasn't all that pleasing to them. He was most likely speaking, quoting Leviticus 18.16 and Leviticus 20.21. What Herod had done was a violation of, he had a number of violations of infidelity, divorce, and a form of incest. He was involved in a kind of incestual relationship in his home.

This was the scandalous nature of his sin, crossed over a number of boundaries. But John was not afraid to confront the moral condition of civil leaders. There are people out there today who say that the law of God has nothing to do with our laws of our land. That's completely wrong. You would just have to say that John was doing something wrong or foolish.

You would have to castigate John for doing this. But what he was saying, it is not lawful. What law was John appealing to? It was the law of God. That was the only law he had.

So anyone who pretends that the law of God should not run our government is not thinking very clearly, especially about John the Baptist. He thought it was right, and So should we. So we also notice that John was persistent. John kept saying this. He kept saying, it is not lawful for you, it is not lawful for you.

He kept on saying it. He was the constant dripping, the broken record of John. Here we go again. He's coming and he's telling us these things. In Mark chapter 6, Matthew uses the perfect tense to say that he just kept on doing it.

It just wasn't a one-time occasion. There was persistence in it. It takes persistence. You remember William Wilberforce, his war on slavery in England. He just, he waged it over decades, not months.

He just kept on pounding away one day after another. So John was making these public denunciations and he was being tracked. You know this is what happens to people who bring the law of God to bear on the civil magistrate. They will be tracked. So welcome to planet Earth.

If you happen to be one of those people who does that, then don't worry about it. This is what's supposed to happen. You're bearing witness to a higher authority. As Samuel Rutherford said, the law is king. The king is not law, the law is king.

The law of God. And then John, so John is preaching the law of God to these civil magistrates and he's just showing his his zeal for for holiness. You know we're so quick to weigh the consequences of what might happen to us. Well if I say this then this is going to happen to me. John wasn't that kind of a man at all.

John is the polar opposite to Herod. Herod's main gig is saving his skin. John's main gig is saving his soul and bearing witness to the kingdom of God. That's all he cares about. So there are these contrasts here.

So Herod has him imprisoned for these things. And then Herod is fearing the multitude, it says in verse 5, and it gives the reason, because they counted him as a prophet. So Herod was a public opinion, he was constantly filled with fear, and he has already learned the lesson that the fear of man brings a sinner. He's already faced Almighty God and has learned the truth about it. So there's this birthday party that happens in verse 6 where the daughter of Herodias dances before them and Herod is pleased.

So This is now, you know, Herodias is introduced into the story. She was the daughter of Herod's brother. And The one dancing, Josephus says, was his niece. And at the same time, Herod had married his brother's wife. He'd gone to Rome and took her home with him.

And So that's what was said. Now there's this birthday party happening and it was a wicked and perverse gathering, you know, Herodias is sort of the Jezebel of the New Testament. She's right up there in wickedness and perversity. And then in verse 7, there's a promise made. He promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, give me John the Baptist's head on a platter. So there's a seductive, this dancing going on, this glamorous presence. And what happened to Herod is his brain went to mush. He's like the fulfillment of what's spoken of in Proverbs 6.26, for by means of a harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread. And he makes a ridiculous promise.

He just becomes a loaf of bread in the face of a beautiful woman. And he says, I'll give half my kingdom. That's what happens with immorality. That's what happens when you entertain things that are immoral. You will lose your kingdom.

And he did. He was only going to give half of his kingdom, but it cost him far more than that. So he made a foolish oath, you know, maybe it was like Jephthah. He was snared by the words of his mouth, as Proverbs says. And she wanted John's head immediately.

And this was a really bad birthday party. I don't know how many birthday parties. There was a really sweet birthday party that went on yesterday, but this was a really bad birthday party. And horrible things were going on. And we learn here that Herod was sorry.

Now what is that all about? He was sorry. He had, You know, this whole matter of unbelief, inherent, just surfaces what happens in the heart of an unbeliever. They're sorry. They're sorry that they do things.

But it's not a sorrow that leads to repentance. It's a completely different kind of sorrow. The unbeliever often feels bad. They have remorse. Just like Judas did, his remorse absolutely overcame him.

So the presence of remorse really is not what makes a person become a Christian. Hopefully it leads, the remorse leads to true repentance. But with Herod, he was just sorry. His conscience was piqued. It bothered him.

It was a horrible thing that he did. But he did it anyway. He did it because he had to do it. But being sorry about something is not the same thing as repentance. You see that in your children all the time.

Johnny hits Susie and you confront Johnny and he says, oh sorry. I think that was that kind of how sorry he was. But he had this dull, he experienced what unbelievers experience, the dull ache and the weight of sin. But it's not heavy enough to drive their souls to repent. The king was sorry, nevertheless, that's the big word, nevertheless.

But there are all these other exceptions that need to be fulfilled, and that's what he did. So Herod is fearing his wife, He's fearing his peers, he's fearing his people, but it did not occur to him strongly enough that it was a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. So Herodias is given the head of John the Baptist. And then you see the behavior of the disciples after this is being reported. And this next frame in the flashback is a very tender and heart-rending one.

John's disciples, who have their intelligence system working pretty well. They know that their friend has been murdered, and so they go to the prison. And you can just picture it, they're going out through the desert, to this fortress prison, out in the middle of nowhere, where the privation and the cruelties were legendary. And we first learn about their treatment of his body. The disciples take the body and they bury him.

Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. So here, You know, John the Baptist's body was treated with such barbarity. Now it's treated with honor. And there are several situations like this in the scriptures. The Lord Jesus' body is treated tenderly by a rich man.

Stephen was buried by devout men. And now here the friends come and they pick up the torso, the beheaded body of John. And then the second thing that they did is they went to Jesus. They went and they told Jesus. And, you know, he was their shepherd, and they came and they spread their sorrows out in front of them.

He was a compassionate high priest. And so they went to him. It's a very beautiful part of the narrative to me Just these five words and went and told Jesus That's where they went. It's really one for their comfort you know when you think of what what what people do when a tragedy happens, and instead of going to Jesus, they want to go to some other, they want to go to this diversion or that diversion. But a true disciple will go and spread his sorrows in front of the one who who can comfort the afflicted.

You know, this is the one they came to the one who said, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So then, Jesus departs to be alone in verse 13. So the flashback is done. And now we're back into the sequence of the narrative. So Herod hears what's going on with Jesus.

He's terrified of it because he wants to hold on to his power base. Then there's this flashback memory of what he did to John the Baptist. And then now the narrative continues. Jesus departs to be alone in verses 13 and 14. When Jesus heard it, when he heard what?

When he heard that Herod thought that Jesus was John the Baptist, who had been raised from the dead. That's what I think is now might be, you know, you've probably heard this priest where Jesus went to be alone because John the Baptist had just been beheaded. That's possible. You make your own decision. But I think that was a flashback and the narrative continues here.

And so this threat has come to Herod's consciousness. Jesus hears about it. He hears what's going on and he knows what Herod did to John, and we're not really told exactly why he departs to this deserted place, but he departs to this deserted place. He goes in a boat. He borrows a boat.

Jesus, you know, is always... He didn't seem to own anything. A borrowed boat, a borrowed donkey, a borrowed tomb. That's how He was taken through life by his father, which should help us to understand a lot about our own lives, about God's provision, how God is able to provide for His people. I was talking to one of the brothers here this morning, and he was praying earlier that God had provided bread for him last night.

And after the prayer I asked him, what do you mean by that? He said, you know, God's always fed me. God takes care of His children. And so here the Lord Jesus, He's going in a boat. Note, He's going by Himself.

He is alone. He's going to a place that no one else would want to go. And He's going to be alone with his Father. He's doing what he spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.

And your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. So Jesus is going, his intention is to go to the secret place, to be with His Father in heaven. You know, this is prayer week, right? This is the time to really ratchet up the prayers in private and together as families. We're gonna do it more as a church this week as well.

So I'm so grateful that this happens at the beginning of prayer week. You know, let's make progress in coming before the face of our Father in the secret place, to long for the secret place. You won't go to the secret place unless you've longed for it. Unless your heart desires to be in the presence of God. That's always the problem.

The problem isn't necessarily discipline. It's a heart matter. It has to do with affections. It has to do with what you love. We love the activities and the distractions and all things going on so much.

And we love our Father so little. That's why we don't want to go to the secret place. It's not that complex, but The Lord Jesus Christ here, He is in a time of weariness. It must be met with rest. He desires to be alone like He does often, where He gets up early in the morning and He goes and prays.

Let's make prayer week like that. Like where the morning's when we get up earlier and where we pray more throughout the day. Where we enter into that secret place more. And then the multitudes follow him. So he wants to be alone and the multitudes follow him.

It's obvious why they would want to follow him But the multitudes heard it and they followed him on foot from the cities he goes across on the boat and at the same time the people are making their way around the shoreline to meet him and And it's a big crowd. We learn later that it's 5, 000 men. So it's a big, big crowd. I don't know if you've ever been in an outdoor place where there are 15 to 25, 000 people. That's a lot of people.

Well, that's the kind of crowd that was making its way around the sea to meet our Lord. Now, this was, it was very inconvenient. It was especially inconvenient for the disciples because they wanted their rest. But we learn in verse 14 at the very end of it, and he was moved with compassion for them. So that was the way that he reacted.

His heart went out to them. And I love this section because this is such a clear display of the Gospel. The Gospel begins with the compassion of Jesus Christ for people, for all these people that are coming to him. And Matthew says that his compassion led him to heal them. And this is the essence of the Gospel, that the kindness of God has appeared.

Now this is a mixed crowd. Obviously it is. He doesn't deal with the crowd necessarily according to their sins. He's extending his mercy seemingly to all of them. We've seen him do that already in the Gospel of Matthew, where he's healing everyone.

You think all these people were somehow becoming Christians? No, they absolutely were not. And his kindness being poured out is leading many of them to repentance. It's His compassion, really, that is the reason why we're even gathered here today. Because we came here because Jesus Christ had compassion on us.

And we desire to gather with his people and to open up his Word and to sing praises to him. We came because of his compassion and also to partake in more of it because We need more of it. And our Lord has compassion over His people. And He sees the crowd like sheep having gone astray, that are torn apart by the devil. And so he has compassion.

And then Matthew focuses on the application of his compassion and that he healed their sick. Now Jesus is always around the sick. And the word that Matthew uses for sick here indicates being out of strength, being weary, being weak. Mark says that they're like sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion for them, says Mark, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Now, You know, this whole narrative is about shepherds. There's one kind of shepherd and that's Herod. But there's another kind, there is this dramatic contrast in the Lord Jesus. Now Mark says that he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Now, I just want to talk about this whole matter of shepherding because I think it ties in to what Matthew is really trying to communicate here about these two kings and these two kingdoms that are in operation.

Matthew is establishing that Jesus Christ is the King, prophesied by the Old Testament, prophets. And he is a king. Now Numbers 27 speaks of sheep without a shepherd having to do with political leaders. So sometimes in the Old Testament, sheep and shepherd has to do with the political leaders. In 1 Kings 22, Ahab wants Micaiah to prophesy, and finally Micaiah tells the king what he wants to hear.

And then we read, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. This is all in the context of political leadership. And Ahab knew what Micaiah meant, that you have not done your job as a shepherd. So There are different kinds of shepherds in the world. And there are these political shepherds.

Ezekiel 34, son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel who've been feeding yourselves. It's used for political leaders. It's used for priests and spiritual leaders of Israel, and it's also used of God. The shepherd language refers to God Himself. The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. And so, what I believe Matthew is trying to make very, very clear is that the Lord Jesus Christ is that kind of shepherd that David prefigured, that John the Baptist prefigured, and now it is him. And this is the shepherd that heres. And so he was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick. He is a different kind of shepherd.

And Matthew is making that very clear. He goes before his Father in heaven to seek his face. The multitudes come. He's moved with compassion. He's a completely different kind of shepherd.

And then we come to the feeding of the 5, 000 in verse 15. So this marks really the second major section. You know, first Herod is disturbed, then there's this flashback. Jesus departs to be alone, and now the feeding of the 5, 000. Now, the story is, it's a very important story.

It's the only miracle of Jesus that's included in all four Gospels. And it happens at the height of Jesus' ministry, and it's a story of how the power of the King of Kings operates with compassion. We saw power at work in Herod who had no compassion. Now we see power at work in a king who has compassion. So We're turning from one king to another.

Herod serves a meal, but it's a defiling kind of gathering. But here we see a different kind of host. We see a different kind of meal, a different kind of household, a different kind of purpose, a different kind of atmosphere. The first banquet is sexualized, it's brutal, it's pompous, It's self-serving. It has a bunch of puppet boys in the room.

It has a man who fears everyone. That's the first kind of banquet. This kind of banquet, though, is completely different. It's pure, it's life-giving, it's humble. It's everything that the other banquet wasn't.

There are these two banquets that are presented to us in Scripture. And Matthew will speak about the banquet. He uses language here that we'll get to in a minute. It's very interesting. But here Matthew is showing us that there's a better table from which to eat.

There's a better king. There's a better meal. There's a better shepherd, and there's a better kingdom. So Matthew is placing these things in opposition to show the dramatic nature of the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. It is such a better table, isn't it?

And he is such a better king. It's such a better filling. Here, fears the multitude, Jesus fills the multitude. But that's why I titled the sermon, and they were filled, because Matthew is showing us the goodness of the King of Kings. Jesus is showing us who He is.

He's showing us that He is bred from heaven as He does this miracle. This shows us that the manna from heaven, I'm sorry, the manna in the wilderness was about Christ. In the same way that the rock was Christ, so was the manna from heaven, to prefigure and foreshadow the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God gives bread from heaven. That's exactly what John says in John 6, where he says, Our fathers ate manna in the desert as it is written.

He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." So the Lord Jesus is presenting himself as bread from heaven. And this miracle connects him with it. Jesus and his disciples are also contrasted right here. His disciples recommend sending the multitudes away. They said, this is a deserted place.

Send the multitudes away. Let them go into the villages. It was evening. It was at the end of the day. What kind of evening?

We don't know what it was. The Jews had two kinds of evening, from 3 to 6, and from 6 to 9. This period was probably just before sunset, would be my guess. That's when this happened. Now, this same scene has played a number of times before where the disciples want to get rid of people, but Jesus wants them to come.

It happened with the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15-23. It happened in Matthew 19 when the disciples rebuked the parents for bringing their children. It happened in Luke 9 where they said, don't bother the master, don't bother the master. So the disciples did this several times, but the Lord Jesus overwhelms their self-serving nature and he wants to do something better than that. They cared about themselves, but their Lord cared about those people.

And They're set in contrast here as well. The Lord Jesus says, come unto me. And then Jesus does something to them. He commands them to feed the multitudes. You ever done that?

You ever asked your children to do something they don't want to do. You just commanded them to do it. You know they don't want to do it, but you just, you tell them to do it. Well, that's what Jesus was doing here. He's telling them to do it.

You, He says, you give them something to eat. That's simple. You do it. They must have been confused at that moment. But this is going to be the strategy of Jesus for the rest of history.

He's going to give His disciples the work to do. This is a paradigm for us. He's giving us His work to do. He says, you give them something to eat. And this is a really significant moment in the story because Jesus is giving His ministry to His disciples.

You feed them. Then at the end, at the end of the book of Matthew, of course, he's going to say, go therefore into the world and make disciples. You do it. This is the way that it ought to be. And the disciples object.

They would probably just like another lecture. They'd probably like to hear, could you give us the Sermon on the Mount again? Could you train us for evangelism? No, you do it. Just go do it.

He wants them to ask and to seek and to knock. And then, I mean, he's training his disciples. And this training has been happening in all kinds of different contexts. And now it's happening at the end of the day with a crowd of 15, 000 to 25, 000 people. And he's training them.

And he's putting them in a position where they're going to have to take action when they have very limited resources. This is always the case. We always have limited resources for the things God has called us to do. Always. That's my experience.

Have you ever had enough money? Have you ever had enough elders? Have you ever had enough children? Well, some of you might. Have you ever had enough to do the things that you think that you should do?

We pretty much always feel like we just had a little bit more. But the disciples here are being trained by their Lord to do the work with the limited resources that He has given them. They're going to do something with what He has given them. All you can do is do with what you've been given. You have to sort of play the hand you've been dealt.

That's it. And so that's what Jesus is teaching His disciples to do, to deal in an obedient way with the resources that God has given him. You don't have Joe's or Mike's resources, you only have the resources that are yours. So what are you going to do? You have to be obedient with them.

And Jesus is teaching His disciples to do that. Jesus here, his concern is with men, not with programs. Men are his method. He works through men. He gives his work away, he equips them, and he sends them out.

And so here Jesus is, you know, one and a half, you know, two years into his ministry. And this is what he's going to do. He is going to continue to entrust the faithful men to do his work once he leaves. And he gives them an impossible task. I mean, let's just agree, this is an impossible task.

It's ridiculous. You have these five loaves and two fish, and you're going to feed 15 to 25, 000. This is ridiculous. And often, that's how it looks to us. What God has called us to do just looks completely impossible.

But it's not. Because it's God who has called us to do it. Now, one of the interesting things about this feeding the 5, 000 is that Jesus, He really sets Himself as the head of the family. He sets Himself as at the head of the table. If you look at what He does, first He requests the loaves and the fish, bring them to me.

He is the governor of this time. Even though he's giving the work, he's governing every aspect of the time. He says, bring them here to me. And then he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. Now Matthew doesn't mention the boy with the loaves and the fishes.

He just mentions the loaves and the fishes. Matthew is drawing attention to the King of Kings and his power and his compassion. That's the focus of what Matthew is trying to communicate here. And then he organizes the crowd. He says, sit down on the grass.

And Matthew uses a really interesting word. It means garden bed to garden bed. If you can picture a sort of a raised garden bed, these different clumps of people. Mark tells us that they were organized by 50s and 100s. Well, Jesus does that.

He's orderly. He's doing everything decently in order. He is at the head of the table. He is the head of the household. And He is organizing this meal.

It's not just happening randomly, half-hazard. But He is bringing structure to His meal, as He will do later on, when He establishes the Lord's Supper as an ordinance. They're ministering in an orderly manner. There's forethought, there's structure to handling this large crowd. And then, he blessed and broke and gave the loaves to his disciples.

And the disciples gave to the multitude." So you see the way this thing is working. So he blessed, and in other words, he gave thanks. He uses the same word here, Matthew does, that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 10, that this is the cup of blessing, you look out, to give thanks, to praise, to speak with favor. And notice the verbs that are here. Took, blessed, broke, gave thanks, gave.

It's really interesting. The verbs that he uses are used in other contexts. In Luke chapter 24 verse 30, There's the same sequence. At the beginning, at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself. This was on the road to Emmaus.

And they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther, but they constrained him saying, Abide with us, for it is evening for the day is spent. And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, now Listen to this, as He sat at the table with them. So now, they've been walking all day, they're inside, they're at table, and now He is at the head of the table again. And listen to what He says.

He took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. Isn't that amazing? And their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and then He vanished from their sight. They were there when He did this, when he fed the 5, 000. And he's doing it again.

This is the formula of the Lord's Supper. This is the first time that we know that the disciples have ever heard these verbs used in sequence, but they'll hear them again. And then they'll be commanded to use these verbs in sequence for the rest of their lives. And so are we. Those beautiful verbs.

Those beautiful verbs. Take, blessed, broke, gave thanks, gave. It's the language of the Lord's Supper. Now, you know, it's reminiscent of Elisha feeding a hundred people with twenty loaves with some left over. It's reminiscent of the widow's oil that just never runs out.

It just keeps regenerating. You know, who knows how this happened? It just somehow kept on coming. I don't know how to explain it, except for it just was coming. And it was the custom of the Jews to give thanks for their food.

And our Lord does the same thing. When we were having Bible study, I think it was Dan said, this is just a picture of what happens every day in our lives. We eat every day. We sit down, we give thanks for the food, and then we distribute it. It's the same, we repeat this every day, and we do it in the Lord's Supper as well.

But Here, our Lord does it with this very large crowd. And it's just a standard order of doing things. We give thanks for food. That's why people, Christian people, generally give thanks for their food before they eat it, because of what has happened here. You know, he could have given manna again.

He could have fed them so many different ways, but he designed that he would feed them out of five loaves and two fish. Inadequate resources, but unlimited power of God to do with whatever resources he provides. That's how God works. I mean you might think I am so resource starved in everything I'm doing. Good, so are the disciples.

That's the way it is. It's the way God has wired it. He desires the people who are dependent upon him. Who will recognize that it's his power, not their own. So here I, you know, he meets overwhelming needs with inadequate resources.

He takes what we have and he multiplies it. Every person in this room is a testimony to that. Normally when the people of God meet there are people who have fears about their lives. They have no need for any fear if Jesus Christ is their Lord. And then everyone had plenty, verse 20.

So they all ate and were filled. And they were full, they were fattened, filled. The term that's used has to do with being satisfied. You know, Jesus uses the same word that he used when he said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And so they took up the 12 baskets, full of the fragments.

The baskets were heavy baskets. Again, the terminology indicates a very, very large basket, Not like our little communion baskets that we use. Not that kind of basket. Don't picture that at all. They were giant baskets.

Heavy baskets. Okay. Application. Why? Okay, application.

Why? Why would God raise up a ruler and a wicked young woman and a wicked young teenage girl to dance to the little and finally behead a godly man. Why would God lead people to a remote place, give them virtually nothing to eat? And then later in the chapter, Why would God bring up a storm before faithful disciples who are following their Lord? And that is that He does all things for His glory.

Because He is a good king, he is a good shepherd, and he desires to teach his children that he will carry them as a father carries his son. He does all things for his own glory, even the beheading of John the Baptist. And he does all things out of his compassion. His Compassion shows itself in different ways. It can be shown in his wrath, and it can be shown in his healing.

But he has compassion on all, but it's his own kind of compassion. Now, here you have Herod, the self-driven, you have Herodias, the bitter and manipulative wife, You have Salome, the worldly teenager. Here you have an unconverted family. You have an evil family. But the word of conscience has not stopped in their lives.

And so we should, I just want to ask, is anyone there? Is anyone Herod and his family? And then there's Herod's court and the prison guards, the passive participants, you know, just going along the flow, observing. They're observing the love and the power of God, but it just doesn't affect them. They're just going to try to ride, they're going to ride the wave of success as best they possibly can.

Is that who you are? Or are you like John, who doesn't fear his... Who can kill the body, he only cares who kills the soul? Or are you the disciples who come and go get the body of Jesus? Now in this crowd of the Feeding the Five Thousand, I just want to suggest there were four kinds of people in that crowd.

Number one, there were the disciples who desired to follow Jesus. They left everything to follow Him. And they're a fulfillment of Isaiah 12. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And then there are, In the band of disciples, they also included Judas.

Remember, Judas is here as well. He represents those who seem to be a part, but inwardly, they're ravenous wolves. There are those who Jesus speaks of who say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, performed many wonders in your name. And he will say, I never knew you. Depart from me.

You who practice lawlessness. And then thirdly, there were the true followers of Christ in that crowd. And then fourth, there were those who were amazed that they only wanted their bellies filled. They wanted to feed themselves. They were in it for themselves.

They wanted Jesus' self-improvement program and get the success that he would promise them by obeying his laws and hanging around him. Those are the four kind of people in that crowd. So we've seen such a great contrast. We've seen a fretful, paranoid, luxurious, fearful, hateful Herod and his system of government. And we've seen the beautiful government of the King of Kings, his compassion, his abundance, his provision, and how he fills His people.

So I think it's for us just to be in awe at this King that was sent into the world, this bread from heaven that came down to satisfy mankind, to feed him. And to find the people who have stopped worrying about their needs, who've stopped trying to juxtaposition themselves for some kind of worldly success, but to follow their king, regardless of whether it ends you with your head on a platter before a wicked party, or if it lands you in a crowd of thousands of people being fed by the King of Kings. Either way, God glorifies Himself. So I think, you know, What do we say about all this? Here's one thing.

Stop worrying about your needs. You have bread from heaven. You have a Father who is able to, out of your meager resources, to perform everything that glorifies Him in this world. You're not resource starved. And so we should have peace today.

And rest in his provision. Let's pray. Oh Lord, Lord you've shown us these very dramatic contrasts. Oh how good is your kingdom. How sweet is your water.

And how delicious is your bread. Oh Lord, we thank you for showing it to us today. Amen.