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WISDOM AND WONDER | Matthew 14:1-12
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Welcome to Season 3 of Wisdom and Wonder, where we walk through the Gospel of Matthew together. Matthew was an outcast Jewish tax collector in the first century who was converted by Jesus Christ and became an apostle and eyewitness to Jesus' life and ministry. He wrote the gospel that bears his name, which was placed first in the New Testament and used for over a thousand years to establish Christian discipleship.
Today we're examining Matthew 14:1-12, a passage titled "The High Price of Truth." This text reveals the cost of standing for righteousness and the courage required to speak truth in the face of opposition.
When studying this passage, I was reminded of a powerful historical truth: there was a time when English versions of Scripture were not available to common people. The Roman Catholic Church held the Bible captive in Greek and Latin, kept in secret places, exercising monopoly and control over God's word.
The papacy used this secrecy to fill the church with heresies and man-made doctrines, exerting dominance over believers who loved Christ but were ignorant of Scripture. It was not until the 1500s that God raised up an educated man named William Tinddale, who had studied Scripture in its original languages.
When Tinddale witnessed the abuse of the papacy—their vanity and their authority contrary to Scripture—he was grieved in his heart. He recognized that the root of the church's troubles was that common people had no access to God's word. In his righteous indignation, he began to speak out against Roman Catholicism, reasoning with people in homes and streets, showing them what Scripture actually said.
As opposition grew, Tinddale moved to Germany, where he made a decision that would cost him everything: he would translate the entire Bible—Old Testament and New Testament—into English and common language so ordinary people could read and understand God's word for themselves.
History records that during his work, Tinddale lost all his documents and manuscripts in a shipwreck. Rather than surrender, he started over. He translated the entire Old Testament into English. He translated the entire New Testament into English. He even wrote introductions to every chapter of the Old Testament so common people could understand Scripture for themselves.
Why? Because the more knowledge you have of God's word, the more error you will discern. Many of us listen to eloquent heresies from the pulpit because we don't know Scripture. We can't distinguish lies from truth. This is why I constantly encourage you: don't just listen to me and believe me. Go behind me. Read and study God's word for yourself. The more you know Scripture, the easier it becomes to recognize deception. False teachings will sound like static in your soul.
When the papacy learned that Tinddale was spreading English Bibles throughout England and London, they became enraged. The powers arranged for someone to befriend him, gain his trust, and discover his location. That person led him out of hiding, and Tinddale was captured and imprisoned.
Even in prison, Tinddale's faith never wavered. History tells us he preached the gospel to his jailers with such power that the jailer and members of his family converted to Christianity.
But the enemy's fury was not satisfied. On October 6, 1536, in a small town in the Netherlands, the papacy dragged Tinddale to execution. They strapped him to a stake, choked him nearly to death, and set his body on fire. As the flames consumed him, he cried out with his last breath: "Oh Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Soon after, the King James Version—the first English Bible—came into our hands. That reformer was a hero of the faith to which you and I belong. William Tinddale was God's first vessel to translate Scripture into English.
Our church history is replete with men and women who stood ten toes down against corruption, foolishness, persecution, and rejection in the church. They spoke up against evil. They spoke out against heresy. Men like Martin Luther, who nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Church door.
Every time you pick up that English Bible, remember: William Tinddale gave his life for you to have a copy of God's word. The copy you don't read. The copy that's dusty. The copy sitting on your car's floorboard. A man died so you could read Scripture with understanding.
This is the kind of conviction the people of God should have. We should be known for our convictions about holiness, righteousness, character, integrity, and fidelity to Scripture. The only alternative is compromise—the default setting of the flesh and the life of the Christian coward who is afraid to take a stand for Jesus Christ.
What God needs in this hour more than any other time is for the people of God to rise up and be a voice for Him in the land we're living in right now.
Now let's turn to our text. Matthew writes:
"At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and said to his servants, 'This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.'" (Matthew 14:1-2)
Matthew is reflecting on a moment when King Herod realized he had done something terribly wrong. Jesus' ministry was flourishing. His fame was growing. He was speaking in parables as judgment against the Pharisees and religious elite. And Herod, troubled in his soul, concluded: this must be John the Baptist, the man I killed, raised from the dead.
Why is Herod's troubled conscience so powerful to me? Herod is not a follower of Christ. He is not filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet his conscience is troubling him because he murdered an innocent man.
This speaks volumes about every human being. God has hardwired a conscience into every person—a conscience that communicates the existence of God and His moral code. The word "conscience" comes from con (with) and science (knowledge). It is with-knowledge—an inner moral code that every human carries.
God has given every person a conscience that testifies to His existence and His moral standards. This is why even in lands without the gospel, people feel guilty for murder, lying, cheating, and wrongdoing. Where does that guilt come from? From the conscience—that moral code God has written on every human heart.
Some say, "God doesn't exist." But have you ever felt guilty for something you did? Where did that morality come from? How do ungodly people feel bad for murder if there is no higher authority? Because God has proven Himself even to the conscience. He has written His moral code on human hearts. We know intuitively what is right and what is wrong. That inner knowledge testifies that there is an authority above mankind—a Creator who wired us with conscience.
What's worse than feeling convicted? What's worse than that guilty conscience troubling your soul? The worst place you can be is feeling nothing at all. When you suppress your conscience long enough to do evil, and God says, "You love your sin so much, you love your idolatry so much—let me just give you all of what you want," that is the most terrifying place to be.
This is why I'm so thankful every time God convicts my soul. Every time God punches me in my heart, I feel grateful that I'm still in the hand of God. I'm thankful I can still feel His conviction. If you feel your conscience dealing with you, that means your heart is still sensitive enough to be convicted, challenged, and changed.
So it's powerful that Herod is dealing with a guilty conscience. It testifies of a Creator. It testifies of a moral code. It testifies of an authority above mankind.
Verse 3 tells us:
"For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had been saying to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'" (Matthew 14:3-4)
Let me draw your attention to something critical: John did not stay silent when he saw a man carrying himself in an evil way.
You might ask, "Why would John speak to a pagan king about morality?" But Herod claimed to be Jewish. He claimed to practice the laws of Israel. Since Herod wanted to hold himself to that standard, John confronted him when he fell short.
John saw King Herod commit something unlawful according to God's word. He did not remain silent. He did not turn a blind eye to sin.
I want to awaken some of you in this room. I know you feel uncomfortable about what I'm saying, but we have got to get to a point where we stop turning a blind eye to sin. We must develop a righteous indignation—first about the sin in ourselves.
You must be angry about your own sin. "I don't want to keep lusting this way. I don't want to be jealous all the time. I don't want to be judgmental and critical." You can't keep turning a blind eye to your own sin. Something in you has got to be angry about the sin in you.
And then, as the people of God, as image-bearers of God, something in us has got to have a righteous indignation about the sin we see in the church and in the world. John did not turn a blind eye to Herod's sin. He saw something antithetical to God's word and he stood ten toes down and confronted that king, saying what you're doing is not lawful. For that, he was thrown in prison.
Mark's account tells us something fascinating: Herod respected John. He actually enjoyed listening to him teach. At the same time, Herod hated him and wanted to kill him. They had this strange relationship. "I like listening to you, but I hate you. I like the doctrines, but I hate you. You tell truth, but I hate feeling convicted."
So Herod imprisoned John—attempting to silence the preaching of God's word without directly killing him.
But John sets an example for you and me. John the Baptist did not turn a blind eye to sin. He said something. If the people of God don't start saying something, if we don't speak out against evil, if we're not the heralds of truth, who is going to be the heralds of truth?
If we don't speak out against ungodliness in our nation, if we don't call out idolatry, if we don't challenge people to live in holiness—who's going to carry that?
When should you speak? When you're led by the Spirit. When you're led by the word. When a moment demands a voice to rise up, we need to speak out against hypocrisy in the church. We need to speak out against compromise. We need to speak out against fake orthodoxy. That's not Christianity. That's American religion. We need to speak out against it.
It doesn't always have to be aggressively negative. It could simply be preaching the truth so that somebody sees what is right in every circumstance.
Like John, the people of God have a moral right and obligation to speak up, speak truth, and speak truth boldly. People come and say, "Well, that's your truth and that's my truth." No. You don't have truth. I get tired of people saying, "That's your truth." No, it's not.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Definitive article. There is no "your truth" and "my truth." There is one truth, and there are lies that masquerade as truth.
If we, the people of God, are not heralds of truth and posters of truth and speakers of truth, who is going to stand for truth in our generation?
We cannot turn a blind eye to sin. We must know when times call us to step up and say something about it. There are sisters and brothers in our church whom God has given a unique burden to call out idolatry and false religion. They face persecution every single day. They can't be silenced and they won't shut up. They continue to call out the idolatry of organizations because God gave them a burden to be heralds of truth in a time when people are kneeling before other altars, setting up high places in their hearts behind the guise of brotherhood. These things need to be torn down in our nation.
Don't you know Satan is a seducing spirit? He will feed on your insecurity to lead you away from God into idolatry of things that are antichrist. He will dance in front of you and hypnotize you and lead you right to an altar away from God.
Where was John when Matthew reflected on these events? John was sitting in prison. History tells us that after his imprisonment by Herod, John sat there for about a year.
But something happened to John in that prison. Let me show you Matthew 11:
"When John heard in prison about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?'" (Matthew 11:2-3)
Stop and think about this. John the Baptist—who was raised around Jesus, who knew He was the Son of God, who preached, "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," who baptized his cousin, who said, "I must decrease so He could increase"—now sits in prison and begins to deny the identity of Christ.
Why? When God doesn't move the way you want Him to move. When some door doesn't open the way you want it to open. When some relationship fails. When some prayer He didn't answer. When some loved one He didn't spare. When something you've been believing for hasn't happened for a long time. When some thorn He won't take out of your flesh—we get agitated with our misplaced expectations of God.
We have a tendency to be angry at Him because our expectations are based on something disconnected from God's word. Perhaps you heard a sermon, a prophet, a prophetess who told you "This is the year of..." A year passes and you're still in the same situation. Now you're mad at God.
John thought God would come with a military kingdom, overthrow Rome, and free him from prison. They'd rock together. No, John. "You must decrease so that I might increase. Your ministry ends where mine begins."
Here's why I'm showing you this: You've been there. You've experienced a prayer not answered. You felt discouraged. You felt disillusioned. You felt like God is not coming through for you. You've been there.
How did Jesus encourage John? Did He say, "Everything's going to be okay"? No. "I'm coming to get you out"? No. "I'm sending angels to break you out of prison"? No.
Listen to how Jesus encouraged John. He said:
"Go and tell John what you hear and what you see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me." (Matthew 11:4-6)
Jesus was quoting the prophet Isaiah. He comforted John with the word of God. He used the preaching of Isaiah to say: "You see the things I'm doing? That's evidence that I'm the Messiah. I am the man you preached about, John."
Jesus did not comfort John with cotton candy and false platitudes. He comforted John with the Scriptures. He comforted John with the word of God.
When your heart is bruised and your soul is bruised, thank God for a tweet and a post—but you need to know how to get comfort from the word of God. You need to know how to carry your heart into the presence of God and get comfort from His word.
Some of you get false comfort from bad sermons and bad doctrines. You're saved thinking you'll never have problems. Jesus promised: "In this life you will have tribulation." You're saved thinking everybody's going to like you. Jesus said: "If they hated me, they will hate you, too."
I wish somebody would just give God praise for the word of God—not empty platitudes. Not heresies.
Jesus comforted John in his pain with the word. He did not tell John, "You're getting out." And we know He didn't, because Herod killed him. So even in a circumstance that God was not going to change, God said: "I will not change this, but I will change you in this through the word that I gave."
Sometimes you can't pray yourself out of a circumstance, but you can pray yourself into peace in the middle of the circumstance.
I'm tired of hearing fluffy Jesus songs in the middle of my hurt. I don't want anyone telling me I'm going to get out of everything all the time. David said: "It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your ways."
The Lord may not change everything the way you want. He may not heal my damaged ear, but He can comfort me in His word. Although I still struggle with a damaged left ear, I prayed for my father to be healed from cancer so he would see what became of his son. My father died three months after we started this church. But I am comforted in the word that he is in the presence of Almighty God. That he received his crown. That he is freed from his labors.
You need to start training yourself to deal with your hurts through the word of God. Your confusion through the word of God. Your expectations through the word of God. Your pain through the word of God.
You have no idea how many tears I've shed on the pages of Bibles in dark times, in the midst of betrayal, in the midst of great pain and great loss and great confusion. The word of God is my shield, my strong tower, my hiding place. It has pulled me out of so many dark nights. It has pulled me out of depression. It has pulled me out of thoughts of suicide. It has pulled me out of grief and pain. It has given me guidance. It has protected me from bad decisions. It has helped me determine what kinds of relationships I need. It has shown me the boundaries I need to set around my life. It has shown me things dangerous for my life, my marriage, my family. It has delivered me.
Some of you in the Black church context love deliverance ministry and think everything is a demon. Some things are discipline because of the word of God. You don't need deliverance. You need discipline with the word of God.
Everything is not a demon. Some things are bad character that need to be transformed by the word of God. Stop blaming everything on a demon. No, you have bad character. That's why you keep dealing with all these problems. It's not the devil's fault. It's your fault because you have bad character, and it needs to be transformed by the word of God.
Now let's continue to verse 6:
"But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.'" (Matthew 14:6-8)
Herod was afraid of the people because they held John to be a prophet. So instead of killing him, he put John in prison to try to silence him.
Now, Herodias, the woman John confronted, had a grudge against John because she was angry that he preached against her illegal marriage. Sometimes we're mad at the messenger when the messenger is bringing you truth.
Because Herodias had no direct power to kill John, watch what happened: she manipulated her 14-year-old daughter to dance before Herod. The Scripture says it pleased him. That word "pleased" speaks of something sensual, something sexual. Herod was aroused by the dance.
So this woman manipulated her own child. She used her own child as a tool to get what she wanted. And many of us do this right now.
Why does your five-year-old have bad credit? Why does your seven-year-old have bad credit? Why are we using our children and manipulating them for evil things that are in our hearts? Why are you using your child as an enemy against your spouse? Why are you filling their minds with lies?
Why do some of us manipulate our children? We use them as pawns for our evil instead of protecting them. Children need to be protected, not used. They need to be loved, not used. They need to be trained, not used.
She used a 14-year-old to beguile a king to get her wicked desire—a man's death.
Now pay attention to this: This man was so aroused by the dance that his logic got trapped by his loins. His logic got trapped by his loins.
If you see how dangerous it is for your logic to get trapped by your loins. This is why lust has to be controlled because it will lead you to make bad decisions.
This is a struggle in me. The lust of the flesh, lust after females, pornography—all these things I was bound by. And I had to train myself in the word of God so they would not control my mind so my logic doesn't get trapped by my loins.
I'm talking to women and ladies too. Your logic could get trapped by your loins. I know he's tall, dark, and handsome. His intimate game is tight. But he's no good for you. You're confused because his intimate game is tight when he's no good for you.
God did not send him. He is a son of the devil. His intimate game got you dizzy and confused.
Let me tell you something. Some of you keep asking God for clarity, but you won't let go of sin that's blocking you in confusion. You're confused because of iniquity. You'll be amazed what happens when you turn towards holiness. How you sense God's presence at another level. How you have clarity at another level. How your prayer life goes to another level. How the word opens up to you at another level.
There is a clarity that follows holiness.
So we see terrible parenting here. We see a man whose vices led him astray. Verse 9 says:
"And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given." (Matthew 14:9)
Herod did not want to kill John. But he was a people pleaser. Sometimes we make bad decisions because we're people pleasers. When you're a people pleaser, you can't live in freedom.
There's a freedom I encounter. There's a freedom that I stand here with because I got delivered from being a people pleaser. I want to be able to stand here and say, "Thus says the Lord," even if it offends you. I want to preach truth whether it fills up a room or clears out a room.
There are too many of God's people, man, who can't stand for truth because we're handcuffed by people pleasing.
So "he commanded it to be given. And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl. She brought it to her mother." (Matthew 14:9-11)
I want to read you something written by Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian who was not a Bible writer but lived during Jesus' time. He wrote about John:
"Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God as a judgment, and that very justly as a punishment of what he did against John that was called the Baptist. For Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another and piety towards God... When many others came in crowds about John, for they were greatly moved and pleased by hearing his words, Herod who feared lest the great influence of John had over the people might put it into his power an inclination to raise a rebellion, for they seemed ready to do anything he would advise, cuz he was a righteous man, so he had credibility—so he thought it best by putting him to death to prevent any mischief he might cause... Accordingly, it was sent a prisoner out of Herod's suspicious temper to the castle... and it was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod and a mark of God's displeasure against him. That Herod lost his army after he slew John."
Josephus wrote that perhaps as a judgment against Herod's murder, God destroyed his army.
Verse 12 says:
"And his disciples came and they took the body and they buried it and they went and told Jesus." (Matthew 14:12)
I want to draw your attention to two things. Herod dishonored John by taking off his head. The disciples of John honored him by burying his body.
After they buried his body, they went to see Christ. The Scriptures don't explicitly tell us why. But I know this: they had to have been hurting. They had to have been bruised. They lost their leader. They were discouraged. And in the middle of their pain and hurt, what direction did they go? They ran to the one who is called the word.
My family, listen to me. I want to say this to you before you leave this room. You can silence men, but you cannot silence the gospel.
Notice in this passage the parable of the weeds that Jesus taught. God plants sons of righteousness, and Satan plants sons of the devil. Look what happened to John: the sons of the devil rose up and worked against a holy man to have him put to death because he was challenging the kingdom of darkness. The parable of the weeds on display. The word of God preaching against the word of the devil.
I want to say to everybody in this room: We are living in the final hours of the church age. Time is running out.
Can you not see how the devil is filling our society with heresies, filling our society with bad doctrines, filling our society with lies and mockery against God? If the people of God, the sons and daughters of God, are not the voices of God—who is going to be the heralds of truth?
If we're not posting about truth and preaching truth and standing for truth, who is going to do that in our society?
Yes, there is a high cost. There is a high price to truth. It may cost you some friends to take a stand for righteousness. It may cost you some circles. It may cost you some relationships. Some people may not call you to preach or speak. It may cost you some influence. But I would rather lose favor with men than lose favor with God.
We, the people of God, have got to start taking a stand for truth in our campuses, in our schools, in the locker room, on your teams, in your job, in the gym, on social media. If we are not the heralds of truth, if we are not spreading the word of God, if we are not taking a stand—who is going to do that?
I am pleading, pleading, pleading with God that what the Lord will baptize you with is a spirit of righteous indignation—a holy anger against all that is wicked and evil and sinful and ungodly. I want you to hate sin. I want you to hate idolatry. I want you to hate mockery of Jesus. And I want you to not be afraid to take a stand for truth.
If we don't post about the word, if we don't exalt Christ, if we're not preaching sound doctrine, if we're not confronting the false prophet—the devil is going to run rampant in our nation.
You heard the old adage: Evil flourishes when good people do nothing. Lies flourish when the people of God don't proclaim and spread the truth of God's word.
Christ came, lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, rose in power, and became a proclaimer of truth to this day. And we who call ourselves followers have got to follow after Him.
What good is it going to do us if we keep crowding into this room and when you leave there is no witness, no evidence of Christianity? What good is it if it's just a service? Just two hours on a Sunday? That's so small and so bottom shelf. Is that all your Christianity is?
Is there anybody under my voice who has a righteous indignation against evil, against sin, against idolatry, against mockery of Jesus? I wish I had 800 people who would take a stand for Christ in the hour we're living in right now.
Father, in the name of Your holy one, in these last hours of the church age, I pray now, Lord, for all the sons and daughters—that something like scales would fall from their eyes. I pray You would pour out from heaven a spirit of righteous indignation against sin and idolatry and lawlessness in the earth. I pray You would burn us in our hearts like You did Isaiah with coals of fire from heaven. God, set the hearts of Your sons and daughters on fire.
God, let us hate everything that You hate. Let us love everything that You love. Let us turn from our worldliness and our iniquity and our idolatry, God. Let us be freed from our vices, Lord. Let us be filled with Your word and filled with Your Spirit, filled with Your love and filled with Your fire, God—in the name of Jesus.
Lord, I pray You would burn the sons and daughters of the kingdom so that we all would be like the sons of Issachar, who rightly discerned the times and knew what to do about it. Lord, awaken Your children in this hour. Lord, I pray a spirit of boldness would come upon us—that we would speak out and pray out and stand up for righteousness in this hour.
There are men and women in this room. You feel God working in your heart right now. You're being pulled into the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. You feel something supernatural happening on the inside. You're passing from death to life. Your eyes are being opened. Something on the inside of you feels alive. You're responding to God in a way you've never felt before. The Lord is drawing you to Himself.
You were a sinner and I was too. You've broken God's laws and so have I. Scripture says if anyone dies in their sin, they'll be separated from God for all eternity. But the Lord, not wanting anyone to perish, sent His son, the Lord Jesus, who died a sacrificial death—exchanging His perfect righteousness for your unrighteousness. He snatches you from hell. He snatches you from a kingdom of darkness. He makes you a son and daughter.
If you feel the Lord is doing that in you right now, I want to pray for you. If that's you, come down here right now. Run down here. If you're in the overflow room, leave the overflow room and run over here right now. Come on, run down here. Get close. If you felt God moving in your heart, I want you to run across here right now.
