AI Generated Sermon Study Guide

Introduction

Contrast between Herod and Jesus

I

In Ezekiel 34 there are two types of shepherds. The shepherds were rulers of the people.

Ezekiel 34:1–6 “1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; 6 they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.”

Ezekiel 34:11–16 “11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.”

The shepherds of the people, their rulers, abused the sheep for their own benefit. So God himself promised that he would shepherd his people.

N

We live in a world full of Herods—leaders, influencers, and even our own desires—that promise satisfaction but leave us enslaved, guilty, and empty. But we also long for a shepherd who will see us, heal us, feed us, and satisfy us with what no earthly ruler can give.

T

There are two feasts in Matthew 14. One for the benefit of self and the other completely selfless. The one brings life, the other death and depravity.

R

Matthew 14:1-21

O

The sheep’s slaughter (1-12) and the sheep’s sustenance (13-21)The Sheep’s SlaughterMatthew 14:1–12ESV

1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, 2 and he 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.” 3 For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 7 so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” 9 And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. 10 He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.Revelation

Remember that Scripture describes David as a man after God’s heart. Even though David is once tragically driven by his lust which cost him dearly, overall, he is described as a man after God’s own heart. Herod is a man after his own heart. He is driven by his lust and acts according to it.

At the beginning of the passage, Herod is filled with fear and guilt. Fear and guilt are marks of a man who lives for himself. The man who lives to preserve self at any cost fears any perceived threat to the extent that it becomes a paranoia.

Verse three begins the flashback of what happened to John.

Herod committed a grave sin. Like David with Bathsheba, Herod has decided to be driven by his lust. He takes his sister-in-law to be his own wife. John the Baptist confronts Herod as a prophet like Nathan confronted David. David mourned and repented of his sins. Herod doubled down by imprisoning John.

He wanted to kill him, but his great drive for self-preservation kept the prophet alive, but not for long.

His own niece, turned step daughter (an example of how messed up this whole situation is) dances sensually before Herod and the company. Herod, the pervert driven by his lusts is pleased by this girl’s inappropriate behavior and makes a rash vow. Making a rash vow is warned against in Scripture but is fully expected of man driven by his lusts. And the girl demands the beheading of the prophet. So Herod carries it out.

A good prophet dies at the hand of the wicked king—a man who is after his own heart.

It reminds me of a man who was killed just this past week. A prophet of his own sorts. Killed by a man driven by his lusts. Wicked men who are after their own heart can never stand a prophet who speaks the truth.

But I don’t want us to lose sight of the Christological focus of this story found there in the first few verses.

Herod is so deluded by his own lusts that when he hears of Jesus, his first focus is on himself. Relevance

Imagine walking into a room with a big window overlooking a breathtaking landscape. But instead of looking out, you’re staring at your own reflection in the glass. When Herod heard about Jesus, it should have been like a window into God’s kingdom breaking into the world. But instead, he only saw himself—his fears, his guilt, his paranoia.

Herod heard about Jesus, but instead of looking through that moment like a window into God’s kingdom, he turned it into a mirror. He didn’t see Christ—he saw only himself. And if we’re honest, we often do the same thing. When the gospel confronts us, we’re tempted to make it about our fears, our guilt, our reputation, our comfort. Instead of seeing Jesus as the shepherd who comes to save, we twist the glass and see only our reflection. But the good news is that Christ came not just to expose our selfish hearts in the mirror, but to open the window to God’s kingdom—to show us a shepherd who gives, not takes; who feeds, not devours; who satisfies, not enslaves.The Sheep’s Sustenance Matthew 14:13–21ESV

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.Revelation

Jesus just hears of the plight of his cousin, his forerunner, his friend. This issue is the cause of his withdrawal. Not, presumably, because of fear or retreat, but most likely so that he might spend time alone in prayer—a thing he often did.

But the crowds had other plans for Jesus. They arrived at Jesus’s retreat before he could get there.

Imagine you’re trying to go on vacation, but every hour you get a call from work asking about something. Or imagine you finally lay down for the day to go to sleep, but you forgot something important you had to take care of.

What is our normal response? Frustration. What would Herod’s response have been? Imprisonment? Murder? Fear?

But notice Jesus’s first response in v. 14, “He had compassion.” A man in the middle of turmoil desiring to be alone and seek God’s face instead has compassion. Certainly Jesus is not a man seeking his own lusts at the expense of everyone else.

It seems as though Jesus spends the good part of the day healing. The disciples bring the problem to him: they need to eat. They’ve traveled a good distance to be with Jesus and presumably in such haste that they did not bring any provisions to the desolate place.

The food the disciples have seems so minute in the face of a large crowd, but Jesus commands them to bring it to him. Their response is not one of belief in Jesus’s problem solving ability but faith in his miraculous ability.

Then you have v. 19. Jesus orders them to sit down on the grass. Why does Matthew mention this? I believe this is a purposeful allusion to Ezekiel 34:15 “15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.”

Certainly a miraculous multiplication took place. The crowd ate, not just a tiny piece of the bread as if it were a ritual meal, but they ate until they were full. The food was so much, that there were 12 baskets left over, enough to feed the whole people of God. Matthew concludes with giving the number of men.

Relevance

You may have heard this text a number of times. The focus perhaps may have been to bring what little we have to Jesus so he can use it. Or perhaps it was focused on God’s provision.

Certainly those things are in the text, but I don’t think it’s the main point. Oftentimes we can get so wowed by the miracle in the text that we forget the miracle is a sign pointing to something else.

Matthew has purposefully contrasted Herod with Jesus. Herod is a ruler who will feed himself at any cost. The people he rules are simply objects to satisfy his any whim. Herod is the shepherd of Ezekiel 34:3 “3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.” Herod is a man after his own heart.

But when Jesus sees the people, his immediate gut-response from within is not one of exploitation, but rather compassion. So much so, that Jesus would rather sacrifice his time to spend alone to be there for his people.

We live in a day and age where everyone is classified. It’s like we’ve taken high school cliques and brought them to adulthood and never matured. We often have a classification system of people in our mind. Sometimes is based upon race, sexuality, politics. Sometimes its based on morality. I heard a conservative commentator reflect on the recent assassination say, “Anyone who celebrates this is just human trash.” I agree the the celebration of murder is heinous sin, but I disagree with the gut-response to rope off such individuals in some corral.

You see, politics and the social sciences and modern psychology and therapeutics wants us to embrace a classification system of people. We have all sorts of ways we classify people. We base it on personality, appearance, behavior, intelligence, worth, and on and on the list goes. We classify ourselves then find our tribe. Then we gather our weapons and make sure to war on other tribes.

Very often, our classifications of people is simply a way to turn them into objects. Objects to avoid for my own gratification or objects to use for my own gratification. We carve up the human race without regard to what God says then keep what we want while ready and eager to make war on the rest.

Imagine Jesus arriving on the shore, he sees the large crowd, rolls his eyes and mutters “human trash.” But Jesus’s response from his heart was not annoyance, frustration, or anger, it was compassion.

Compassion is “a habitual, merciful feeling for others that leads to bearing with and forgiving them, motivating an active desire to alleviate suffering and pursue their ultimate good” (from Joe Rigney).

Compassion results in action, like it did here with Christ.

We are living in an age that is more divided than it has been in a long time. Our knee-jerk reaction can easily become frustration, anger, fear, violence. There are those who are so deluded by the devil in our society that they actively work to destroy it.

And society’s answer to such a problem is to have empathy. Empathy is a term that was nonexistent before 1950. It’s a wonder how people got along for so many thousands of years without it. Empathy encourages you to feel what others feel and indulge in their shortcomings but do nothing about it. Empathy is “the “fusion of emotions” or an overwhelming emotional connection to another’s suffering, which, unlike compassion, can become destructive because it lacks proper judgment, reason, and a grounding in truth.” (Joe Rigney)

Having empathy for a deluded person often makes us join in the delusion. How many people have deconstructed from the faith because of empathy? Empathy joins the delusion.

Picture someone thrashing in deep water. If you jump in without a rope or life preserver, their panic may pull you under too. Empathy alone jumps in and gets swallowed by the same despair. Compassion comes with the strength and truth to lift the person out.Application

What is your gut-reaction to people?

Mine, too often, anger, frustration, suspicion. I’ve invented a classification system based on my self-absorption which allows me who to avoid and who use. I watch and read the news and it forms in me an “us versus them” mentality along the lines of politics. So much of my media consumption ingrains this in me a hatred.

If I arrived in the boat with my disciples on that shore and saw that crowd, I would be so frustrated. “I just wanted to be alone!” I would complain. “Turn the boat around.” I would order the disciples.

But then I look to my savior. He arrives on that shore. And the crowd moves him to compassion. He brings healing to them.