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Matthew 14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,
Matthew 14:2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
If this sounds superstitious to you, you are right. It is superstitious, but it is not the superstition of the Bible nor of Jesus nor of His apostles, nor is it the superstition of Christianity. It is the superstition of old Herod and also of other ignorant people of that day. Somebody says, "Well, of course, in our contemporary society we are not superstitious like that." Aren't we? Notice how many people are following the horoscope and astrology charts. Also, religions of the Orient are having a tremendous influence in our modern culture. The human race is basically superstitious, my friend, and the minute you get away from the Word of God, you become superstitious. Even those who call themselves atheistic are turning to cults and "isms" and pagan religions, and we marvel that intelligent people could become involved in them.
The Person and the ministry of Jesus could not escape the notice of the king on the throne. Herod was a member of the family that you ought to look up in a good Bible dictionary. The whole family was a bunch of rascals and of the very darkest hue. They were the Mafia of the first century, and the Herod of this chapter was no exception.
The first several verses of this chapter are a flashback of what had already taken place.
When Herod heard about the preaching of Jesus, he was immediately filled with fear and superstition. Herod had put John the Baptist to death, and he associated John with the Lord Jesus. Herod believed John had risen from the dead, and his fear changed to frenzy because he wanted to eliminate John altogether. Herod was a drunken, depraved, debased, weak man, and he was a killer. He had already murdered John, the forerunner of Christ, and he was prepared to murder the Lord Jesus Himself.
Matthew 14:3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.
Notice that it says that Herod had laid hold on John—it was a past action. Herod had imprisoned John "for Herodias' sake." Notice how Herod was influenced by others. Here it is by Herodias, and later on it will be by others. He was motivated like a politician. Everything he did was to gain the approval of others.
Matthew 14:4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.John the Baptist had spoken out against Herod's immorality—John wasn't a very good politician!
Matthew 14:5 And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. Here we see that Herod was afraid of the crowd.
Matthew 14:6 But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Herod was a lascivious, lustful old creature, living with his brother's wife at the time, and John the Baptist had condemned him.
Matthew 14:7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.
He expected her to ask for some material thing, I suppose, and certainly something within reason.
Matthew 14:8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.The mother, Herodias, lived up to the Herod name. Hers was a cruel and sadistic request, prompted by a brutal desire for revenge because of John's condemnation of her.
Matthew 14:9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.
Imagine a man being motivated like that! He was afraid of what his guests might think of him for having made a promise and not making it good.
Matthew 14:10 And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.
Matthew 14:11 And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.
The sadistic, sad, and sordid account of what took place in that day reveals the type of society that existed then. John the Baptist was beheaded, and his head was given to the dancing girl on a platter! Human nature has not changed much. Lust and murder are part of contemporary society today.
Matthew 14:29-30
… Peter … walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid."
The wind really was boisterous and the waves really were high, but Peter didn't see them at first. He didn't consider them at all; he simply recognized his Lord, stepped out in recognition of Him, and "walked on the water." Then he began to take those things around him into account, and instantly, down he went. Why couldn't our Lord have enabled him to walk at the bottom of the waves, as well as on top of them? He could have, yet neither could be done without Peter's continuing recognition of the Lord Jesus.
We step right out with recognition of God in some things, then self-consideration enters our lives and down we go. If you are truly recognizing your Lord, you have no business being concerned about how and where He engineers your circumstances. The things surrounding you are real, but when you look at them you are immediately overwhelmed, and even unable to recognize Jesus. Then comes His rebuke, "… why did you doubt?" (14:31). Let your actual circumstances be what they may, but keep recognizing Jesus, maintaining complete reliance upon Him.
If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately—totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything—by casting your all upon Him. You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him. You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness—being willing to risk your all.
Genesis 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
"In process of time" "at the end of days," on the day that God had rested. Sabbath
"Cain brought"—the idea of "brought" means to an appointed place. They are bringing an offering to God to an appointed place to worship. All this would indicate that they are doing it by revelation. I know that they are, for when we turn to Hebrews 11:4, we read: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh." How could Abel offer it "by faith"? "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). God had to have given His Word about this, or this boy Abel could never have come by faith, and that is the way he came. The other boy did not come that way. "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground." There is nothing wrong with the fruit. Don't think that he brought the leftovers—his attitude is not that of giving old clothes to the mission. I think that the fruit he brought would have won the blue ribbon in any county or state fair in the country. He brought the best of his beautiful, delicious fruit, and he brought it as an offering to the Lord.
Genesis 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Genesis 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Someone may say, "I don't see anything wrong in the thing Cain did." In the eleventh verse of his epistle, speaking of apostates in the last days, Jude says, "… They have gone in the way of Cain …" What is the way of Cain? When Cain brought an offering to God, he did not come by faith—he came on his own. And the offering that he brought denied that human nature is evil. God said, "Bring that little blood sacrifice which will point to the Redeemer who is coming into the world. Come on that basis, and don't come by bringing the works of your own hands."
Cain's offering also denied that man was separated from God. He acted like everything was all right. This is what liberalism does today in talking about the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man. My friend, things are not all right with us today. We are not born children of God. We have to be born again to be children of God. Man is separated from God. Cain refused to recognize that, and multitudes today refuse to do so.
The third thing that Cain's offering denied was that man cannot offer works to God—Cain felt he could. Scripture says: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5). The difference between Cain and Abel was not a character difference at all, but the difference was in the offerings which they brought. These two boys had the same background. They had the same heredity. They had the same environment. There was not that difference between them. Don't tell me that Cain got his bad disposition from an alcoholic grandfather on his father's side—he didn't have a grandfather. And don't say that Abel got his good disposition from a very fine grandmother on his mother's side.
They just didn't have grandparents. They had the same heredity and the same environment. The difference was in the offerings.
That offering makes a difference in men today. No Christian takes the position that he is better than anyone else. The thing that makes him a Christian is that he recognizes that he is a sinner like everyone else and that he needs an offering, he needs a sacrifice, and he needs Someone to take his place and to die for him. Paul says of Christ: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood …" (Rom. 3:25). Therefore Paul could further write: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:3). That is the picture of multitudes of people today. They are attempting through religion, through joining a church and doing something, to make themselves acceptable to God. God's righteousness can only come to you—because it must be a perfect righteousness—through Christ's providing it for you. "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). That is, He was raised for our righteousness. He was the One who took our place. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Paul says in Philippians 3:8–9, "… That I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ…." The righteousness of Cain was his own righteousness. The righteousness of Abel was faith in a sacrifice that looked forward to Christ's sacrifice.
We have seen that Cain and Abel had come together to worship God. These two boys were identical. Some expositors actually believe they were twins. But I believe they were even closer than twins because of the fact they had no blood stream which reached way back on both sides that might cause a difference. They were the sons of Adam and Eve. However, there is a great divergence between Cain and Abel which is not necessarily a character divergence. One was accepted because of the sacrifice which he brought by faith; the other, Cain, brought his offering without any recognition from God at all.
Genesis 4:6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Why is Cain angry? He is angry enough that he is going to slay his brother. Back of premeditated murder there always is anger. Our Lord said that, if you are angry with your brother without a cause, you are guilty of murder. Back of anger is jealousy, and back of jealousy is pride. There is no sense of sin whatsoever in spiritual pride. James put it in language like this: "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15). Cain's anger led to murder, but back of that was his jealousy and also his pride.
And that is how God deals with him. He says to Cain, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" Actually, the meaning is better translated as, "Shalt thou not have excellency?" The eldest son always occupied a place of preeminence, and this boy thinks that now he will lose that. God tells him there is no reason for him to lose it if he does well.
To do well would be to bring that which God had accepted from Abel, a sacrifice and the acknowledgment that he was a sinner. But not this boy—he's just angry.
"Sin lieth at the door." There are those who have interpreted this as meaning that a sin offering lies at the door; that is, that there is the little lamb lying at the door. That makes sense because that was true, but I do not think it means the sin offering here. Up to this time and beyond this time, in fact, up until Moses, as far as I can tell from the Word of God, there was no sin offering. You find the instructions given for the sin offering in the Book of Leviticus. In the first part of that book, five offerings are given, and one is the sin offering. The sin offering did not come into existence until the law was given. That is the thing that Paul is saying in Romans 3:20: "… For by the law is the knowledge of sin." The offerings that were brought up to that time were burnt offerings. Job in his day, which obviously was before Moses, brought a burnt offering. It was not in any way a sin offering. I think if you will examine the Scriptures, you will find that that is true.
It is obvious that Cain did not realize how vulnerable to sin he was. When God said to him that "sin lieth at the door," I believe He was saying that sin, like a wild beast, was crouching at the door waiting to pounce on him the moment he stepped out. For that reason Cain needed a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God for sin, a sacrifice that pointed to Christ. "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" (1 John 3:12). "If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." To do well would have been to bring the kind of offering that Abel had brought, a burnt offering. You find that Abraham also offered a burnt offering, for there could be no transgression until the law was given; that is, sin would not become a trespass against law until then. Therefore, you find that God actually protected this man Cain.
Genesis 4:9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?.
This is practically an impudent answer. He frankly had little regard for either his brother or for his God. He is trying to cover his action, but the Scriptures say, "… there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known" (Matt. 10:26). That is something to think over if you have any secret sins. You had better deal with them down here because they are all going to come out in God's presence someday anyway. He already knows about them—you might just as well tell Him about them. This fellow Cain tries to say that he is not guilty. "Am I my brother's keeper?"—what an impudent answer!
Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
Luke 1:2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
Luke 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Two words are important in this passage and should not be passed over. "Eyewitness" meaning "that which is of itself," "To see for yourself" would be an eyewitness. It is a medical term which means to make an autopsy. In fact, what Dr. Luke is trying to say is, "We are eyewitnesses who made an autopsy, and I am writing to you about what we found."
The second important word Dr. Luke uses is ministers, which is, Greek meaning "an under-rower on a boat." In a hospital the "under-rower" is the intern. Dr. Luke is saying that all of them were just interns under the Great Physician. What Dr. Luke is telling us is that as a physician and a scholar, he made an autopsy of the records of those who had been eyewitnesses.
The first four verses of this chapter form a tremendous beginning. Luke wrote his Gospel to give people certainty and assurance about the Lord Jesus Christ.
My friend, how much assurance do you have? Do you know that you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ? Do you know that the Bible is the Word of God? I feel sorry for the person who is not sure about these things. Do you wobble back and forth and say, "I am not sure about my salvation or the Bible. I guess I do not have enough faith." Not having enough faith may not be your problem. Your problem may be that you do not know enough. You see, "… faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). If you really knew the Word of God, you would believe it. Those who are ignorant of the Bible have the problems. The problem is not with the Bible or with the Lord Jesus Christ; the problem lies with us.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Gospel of John introduces the Lord Jesus Christ with three tremendous statements: "In the beginning was the Word,"
"And the Word was with God,"
"And the Word was God."
"The Word" is one of the highest and most profound titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. To determine the exact meaning is not easy. Obviously the Lord Jesus Christ is not the logos of Greek philosophy; rather He is the memra of the Hebrew Scriptures. Notice how important the Word is in the Old Testament. For instance, the name for Jehovah was never pronounced. It was such a holy word that they never used it at all.
But this is the One who is the Word and, gathering up everything that was said of Him in the Old Testament, He is now presented as the One "In the beginning." This beginning antedates the very first words in the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That beginning can be dated, although I do not believe that anyone can date it accurately—it is nonsense to say that it is 4004 b.c., as Ussher's dating has it. It probably goes back billions and billions of years. You see, you and I are dealing with the God of eternity. When you go back to creation, He is already there, and that is exactly the way this is used—"in the beginning was the Word." Notice it is not is the Word; it was not in the beginning that the Word started out or was begotten.
Word was in the beginning. What beginning? Just as far back as you want to go. The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Does that begin God? No, just keep on going back billions and trillions and "squillions" of years. I can think back to billions of years back of creation—maybe you can go beyond that—but let's put down a point there, billions of years back of creation. He already was; He comes out of eternity to meet us. He did not begin. "In the beginning was the Word"—He was already there when the beginning was. "Well," somebody says, "there has to be a beginning somewhere." All right, wherever you begin, He is there to meet you, He is already past tense. "In the beginning was the Word"—five words in the original language, and there is not a man on topside of this earth who can put a date on it or understand it or fathom it. This first tremendous statement starts us off in space, you see.
The second statement is this, "and the Word was with God." This makes it abundantly clear that He is separate and distinct from God the Father. You cannot identify Him as God the Father because He is with God. "But," someone says, "if He is with God, He is not God." The third statement sets us straight, "and the Word was God." This is a clear, emphatic declaration that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. In fact, the Greek is more specific than this, because in the Greek language the important word is placed at the beginning of the sentence and it reads, "God was the Word." That is emphatic; you cannot get it more emphatic than that. Do you want to get rid of the deity of Christ? My friend, you cannot get rid of it. The first three statements in John's Gospel tie the thing down. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
"And the Word was made flesh,"
"And the Word dwelt among us,"
"He was full of grace and truth."
The Greek philosopher probably would have stayed with us through verse one, but he leaves us here. He would never agree that the Word was made flesh. The Greek language allows us to put it more specifically and, I think, more accurately: "The Word was born flesh." Turn this over in your mind for a moment. Here comes God out of eternity, already the Ancient of Days; but He also came to Bethlehem, a little baby thing that made a woman cry. And notice that John's Gospel does not even mention His birth in Bethlehem. Do you know why? He is talking about One who is too big for Bethlehem. Out of eternity, the Word became flesh.
"And [the Word] dwelt among us" is the second statement in verse 14. "Dwelt" is from skenoo; it means "He pitched His tent among us." Our human bodies are merely little tents in which we live. The apostle Paul used the same imagery: "… we know that if … this tabernacle were dissolved …" (2 Cor. 5:1). This house in which we live is a tabernacle, a tent, that can be blown over in a night; it can be snuffed out in an instant. Because you and I live in these little tents, the God of eternity took upon Himself a human body and thus pitched His tent down here among us. Such is the second tremendous statement.
Notice the third, "(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Now John is saying something else. The question I would naturally ask at this point is, "If He was made flesh, He certainly limited himself."
John says, "Wait a minute—He was full of grace and truth." The word "full" means that you just could not have any more. He brought all the deity with Him, and He was full of grace and full of truth when He came down here.
